Through the eyes of society in the late 1800s, women were seen only as incompetent pretty little nothings. Keeping an eyeful watch on the house, starting their pre-destined act of motherhood, and becoming followers on the narrow path behind their husbands were the duties of a woman. In Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, he criticizes the sexist ways women were exploited in 1879, during a time known as The Victorian Era.Nora’s character, in A Doll’s House, represents the treatment that every woman was subjected to during The Victorian Era. As pure little play dolls for their husbands, women were treated in extremely childish ways. Such as the scene demonstrated in A Doll’s House when Nora is caught in a lie, telling her husband no one was present at the house when indeed Helmer saw that Krogstad was there. Helmer wags his finger at Nora and says, “ Never must my little songbird do a thing like that! Little songbirds must keep their pretty little beaks out of mischief; no chirruping out of tune!” (Ibsen 949). In the public eye, by men, women were essentially looked at as one man’s honoring trophy. By other women they were looked at as one man’s wife, who would never be able to be independent or survive without her husband leading the way.Nora starts out in the play as the typical woman of her time, flowing through the house with hums of sweetness. However, she is sneaky by hiding such things as the macaroons, the Christmas tree, and presents. She also hides riskier subjects such as the forged unpaid loan she took out for her husband’s life, and the blackmail presented by Krogstad, leaving her with the challenge of finding herself. A challenge that the majority of women back in this era would not think twice of attempting. Nora becomes very much aware of all the damage that can happen with her family concerning the blackmail. For the time Nora was present in, it would be logica...
