Gender (Ibsen & Rossetti) Flashcards
Ibsen on women & oppression
‘A women cannot be herself in contemporary society’
Ibsen on feminism
‘I am not even quite clear what the women’s rights movement really is’
Ibsen on mothers
‘certain insects go away and die when she has done her duty in the propagation of the race’
Ibsen on alternative ending
‘barbaric outrage’
Nora: I should not know who they were.
Torvald: That is like a woman! [Act 1]
Torvald reinforces the patriarchal views of society in the 19th century in which women were considered to be less intelligent than men.
HELMER: my obstinate little woman is obliged to get someone to come to her rescue?
NORA: Yes, Torvald, I can’t get along a bit without your help. [Act 1]
Torvald assumes, because of the preconception that women are weak and feeble and therefore dependent on men cor support (similar to the ‘knight in shining armor’ & ‘damsel in distress’ which were generic, romantic tropes featured in fairytales and Victorian poetry). Nora defeatedly agrees that she needs help from her husband because of her internalisation of this preconception and expectations that she would be subservient to Torvald.
Nora: when I am no longer as nice-looking as I am now…when Torvald is no longer as devoted to me as he is now; when my dancing and dressing-up and reciting have palled on him [Act 1]
Nora: it was a tremendous pleasure…it was like being a man
From the Antique: ‘I wish and I wish I were a man’
Both female speakers acknowledge the privilege that comes with being a man in the victorian period (Nora by stating it was ‘a tremendous pleasure’ and FTA repeatedly saying ‘I wish’ which expresses the extensive desire she has and therefore the severity in difference between the male and female experience) e. g. men could always have complete control over their property, unlike women who only obtained this with the 1882 Married Women’s Property Act
1845 ‘The Daughters of England’ by Sarah Stickney Ellis (conduct book)
women must be ‘content to be inferior to men’
1858 ‘The Angel of the House’ by Coventry Patmore (Poem)
promoted domestic-centred ideal of women
