Role+of+Woman

Role of Woman

In Doll's House, Nora is a stay at home wife and mother that has no knowledge of the outside world. Mostly due to the fact that she is treated like a doll or child by Torvald. Torvald wants Nora to dress and act like a doll. He wanted her to take care of the house and children like it was expected of woman in the 19th century.

Woman were taught from their early childhood that their roles would be cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children. Nora is an excellent example of the 19th century woman. In the beginning of the play we see Nora coming in with groceries(pg 43). Woman were expected to take care of everything concerning the household. From cleaning, to cooking, and sewing and taking care of the kids. We also see Nora having a friend over to help her fix her Tarantella dress(pg 88).

[|Click here for a woman's weekly schedule]



Some richer households had a maid available to help the woman run the household. All of the stress wasn't put on the lady of the house as they were also expected to look their best and not be tired out by daily household tasks. In Dolll's House, we see the Nora has a maid that takes the kids out and takes care of them. We also see her doing some of the household chores like bringing the light in when it gets dark. The family could probably afford to hire a maid because of Torvald's new job in the bank. Some maids specialized in a specific field like laundry or taking care of the kids. But we see that the maid in A Doll's House does everything which was common at the time.

[|click here to see what a laundry maids life was like]