Patriarchy of Victorian Marital Institutions: An Argument for Nora’s Departure in “A Doll House”

Excerpts from the Paper

The Patriarchy of Victorian Marital Institutions: An Argument for Nora’s Departure in A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen
This dramatic study will make an argument supporting Nora’s departure from Torvald and her family at the end of Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House. By observing the patriarchal domination of the Victorian institution of marriage, Nora is often neglected and abused by her husband, Torvald. In this regard, Nora begins to understand that women have no rights under this institution, which allows Ibsen to set a dramatic departure for his main heroine. Through the patriarchal institution of marriage in the 1800s, Ibsen is supporting the right for women to leave their husband in this play even when it was illegal and left them...

.....een analyzed through the sexist institution of Victorian marriage in patriarchal England. In Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora is a character that stands up to the tyranny of Torvald’s sexist rule over the house, which provides insight into the sexism of male domination in British marriages in the 1800s. After some bitter encounters with Torvald (as he continually degrades her authority in the home), Nora finally leaves him even though she has lost her money and domestic safety. Ibsen makes a commentary on the lack of rights women have in the Victorian institution of marriage, which defines why Nora was justified in leaving her family and Torvald at the end of the play.
Works Cited:
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House. New York: Prestwick House, 2005.