I Once Had a Doll House...

I had a dollhouse once. It looked pretty big, but that was probably because I was pretty small. Inside of my dollhouse lived what I played out to be the perfect family: a husband, a wife, and two young children and a newborn baby. It was fun playing with my dollhouse. Everyone played along nicely. The mother took care of the children like she was supposed to, and the father worked and held his family together, like he was supposed to. Perfect little world with a perfect little family in a perfect little house…literally. However, now that I look back on my childhood and my dollhouse playing days, I realized that the mother had no responsibilities except for maintaining the household and looking after her children. She did not work. She did not have a job. Kind of like the main character in the short story A Doll’s House.
What was the role of a middle class woman during the nineteenth century? A woman cannot be herself in a modern society…but why? What is it with the masculine dominance that causes women to be homebound and dependent on her husband’s income? The social status in society during the 19th century required women to play more of a motherly role than a financial stability and independent one. Women are depicted as adjuncts, completely dependent on their husbands for a comfortable home and family. Even Mrs. Linden, who loved Krogstad but could not marry him because of his financial situation, ended up marrying another man who could evidently support her, because women were not allowed to work. After her husband died, however, she was only allowed to work because she was a widow and needed to support herself. Under specific conditions, women were allowed to work, but only because it was necessary to make a living.
Since Nora was already living in a comfortable home with a surplus of money just recently added to her husband’s bank account, there was absolutely no reason for her to work. Still, she made money in secret, in fear of being caught for she had to pay back Krogstad. She even had to forge her father’s signature on a loan because it was illegal for women to ask for loans without her husband’s or father’s permission. What is the point I am trying to get at here? That it is completely unfair that women should have to depend on the money of their husband and live at home for the rest of their lives. Too bad I can’t go back in time and fix it…