Christmas time – a time of happiness and family and joy – ironically
juxtaposed to Nora leaving her family. Norway – a country full of snow and cold
– threatens Torvald with a fatal disease, requiring Nora to secretly borrow
money so that Torvald may travel to the warmer streets of Italy, where he can
recover. The Victorian Era – a society that expects men to be the head of house
and women to be gentle, naïve, and subservient.
Plot plays an essential role in Ibsen’s play, no doubt. At
the time, it was socially acceptable for men to treat their wives as nothing
more than children, people to guide and to be responsible for and ultimately, to
control. Looking back on it now, society has progressed closer to equality.
Women, on average, are still paid less and there are many severe cases of sexism
in the world today, but no doubt, there has been improvements. Looking back on
it, the Victorian Era’s expectations of women were unjust and discriminatory.
At the time, society accepted the way that Torvald had
treated Nora. At the time, slave owners were not cruel nor unjust; the world
was simply different then. At the time, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were taken
without consent but the procedure seemed perfectly logical – which raises the
question: what are we doing now that will seem illogical and inhumane in the (possibly
very near) future?
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