The Role Of Women Throughout History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Role Of Women Throughout History - Essay ExampleHenrik Ibsen, in his sport A Dolls House, explores the private world of oppression within a womans world and the ways in which she must wire her thinking in order to gain freedom. As he explores individual self development, his characters must undergo great changes and sacrifices, many of which are still considered disputable in nature. The play A Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen came at time when great awakenings closely freedom were beginning to create discussions about who was entitled to freedom and in what ways that freedom could be expressed. One of the colloquialisms about women is that they are the weaker sex. sequence this comment is primarily intended to call physical strength, it also denotes a social attitude that women are also emotionally and intellectually weaker than men. As biological creatures, women are plagued with shifting hormones that effect their emotions, honourable as men are filled with testosterone that impacts on their anger. This has been used as an excuse to place women in a subservient role throughout history. Helmer in Ibsens play makes this point of imposing a subservience on women which has an implied sense that they lack intellectual capacity as he minimizes Nora through condescension. He calls her The same little feather head. and makes statements like That is like a woman, making diminishing commentaries and generalizations about the state of be a woman (Ibsen 6). While women have been considered the weaker sex, during the time that Ibsen wrote his play women were gathering and making great demonstrations of strength towards accomplishing goals. Most of these goals were based upon securing freedom from the oppressed. Many of the great social movements of history, particularly in the late 19th century when Ibsens play was written, were started and run by women. Suffrage, as it was experienced in England, was accomplished through hunger strikes that lasted for large per iods of time with attacks made by guards to force tubes down their throats in order to force feed those who had starved themselves to make a point about womens rights. The abolitionists in the United States were primarily women who worked to keep the underground railroad open in order to smuggle slaves out of the south and into freedom. Women participated in openly and hazardously protesting slavery until it was abolished. When motivated, women have shown great strength of conviction against a patriarchal system that through most of history has kept them as chattel. However, oppressions within the domestic help sphere have worked against many women as they have tried to free themselves from the social pressures of gender identity as it is interpreted as weakness. In Ibsens play, A Dolls House, he explores the differences between the domestic sphere and the public sphere as his female character, Nora, searches for emancipation from being subjected to infantilism which has led to he r being treated as a child within her marriage. In an exchange about sweets, Helmer treats her like a naughty child, tempting her to admit to having gone to the confectionary to coddle in candy. He says that she looks uneasy and commands her to look straight at him to judge her honesty. The text states Helmer (wagging his finger at her) Hasnt Miss Sweet-Tooth been breaking rules in townsfolk today?