Henrik Ibsen Marrital Relationships Essay - 1453 Words

Henrik Ibsen Marrital Relationships In Henrik Ibsen’s plays, A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler he develops marital relationships between characters along with the plays plot. Having unique characteristics the different actors respond differently to the situations given to them. I will be analyzing these marital relationships between characters while comparing and contrasting these results between the three plays. The areas that I will be examining include gender roles, social influences and expectations, interpersonal dynamics and the context of motherhood. In A Doll’s House Ibsen focuses on the way women are seen, especially in the context of marriage and motherhood. This can be seen clearly by Torvalds narrow views of a†¦show more content†¦The big lie that Nora has been living is her entire marriage with Torvald and who she really is deep inside. Nora is bursting with independency and tward the end of the play this becomes evident. The knowledge of this could corrupt the home and kids and destroy everything she ever had. This unique aspect of this situation is that this environment that she is living in the present is the exact same as the life she lived as a child with her father. In the second play Hedda Gabler portrays a character that is different from that of Nora. Hedda speaks clearly and tells it how it really is. She has absolutely no respect for her husband and this is clear to everyone except him. Hedda has no joy in life and condemns anything that puts happiness in everyone else. There is a clear example of this characteristic from the very moment Hedda is introduced to us. The first comment is directed to the person that had left the door open and allowed all of the sunlight to enter into the room. Other examples are her lack of joy for her pregnancy, the fact she has no real meaningful relationships with anyone and finally her lack of respect and love for her own husband. In these two play the role of the husbands is also are highly contrasted. Torvald is the â€Å"man† of the house and whatever he says is what goes. He tells Nora her place in the house and as long as she respects that