Women of Dramas

Ibsen's A Doll House, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, and Strindberg's The Father are three plays whose conflict revolves around women within the household. In A Doll's House, Nora's machinations to help her husband result in revelations that, for her, expose the lack of love she has for her husband and he for her. In The Cherry Orchard, Madame Ranevsky's selfish behavior involving her lover and the mounting of enormous debt causes the loss of the family estate. In The Father, the Laura's unwillingness to view her husband as useful in any way except for procreation results in the destruction of the Captain's sanity and their household. In all three of these plays, it is evident that these women's efforts to play an active and assertive role in their own lives causes conflict due to their living in an era of male dominance and patriarchy, one where roles for women were rigidly defined. By going outside of these "norms" and refusing to be submissive to men, all three of the women create conflict that resolves itself through destruction of the household.

The destruction of the Helmer household is brought about by Nora's unwillingness to remain a "doll" to the men in her life. Her life consists of pleasing men, first her father and now her husband, Torvald. She knows that stepping outside this role will create conflict. However, her growing sense of injustice over being confined to the role of a pleasing "doll" for the men in her life is a

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steers her toward an artistic life. Her governess encourages her to become a Methodist, while the Nurse insists she become a Baptist. Servants want her to become a member of the Salvation Army. The Captain believes she should be brought up with a healthy worldview, seeing the teaching profession as offering her the most options. Laura's machinations result in the eventual declaration of insanity of the Captain. Laura's manipulations of him go so far as to make him doubt he is actually Bertha's biological father. As the Captain tells Laura of her attempts to make him doubt Bertha as his own, "You dropped them like henbane in my ear, and circumstances encouraged them to go" (Strindberg 1955, 38-39). Marriage is a battle-ground to Laura, one in which male and female continually battle for supremacy. The more she fears the Captain might influence Bertha, the more she attempts to get rid of him. She is not hidden in her efforts or actions, like Nora. Instead, she tells the Captain outright that he is no longer necessary and must go: "Now you have fulfilled the unfortunately necessary functions of father and bread-winner. You are no longer needed, and you must go" (Strindberg 1955, 43-44). At the end of the play Bertha runs i

Category: Literature - W