Doll\'s House by Henrik Ibsen, and Trifles

¶ … Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen, and "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell. Specifically, it will compare and contrast Torvald and his attitude toward Nora in the play, to the men's attitudes toward women in the play "Trifles." Both these pieces show women treated simply as idiotic "things" by the men in the pieces, but the women are clearly smarter than the men are, and it is the men who end up looking idiotic in the end.

MEN'S ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN

Trifles" tells the tale of a woman driven to the "end of her rope" by a spiteful, mean-spirited man, but it is also a story for all women, celebrating how they can band together in a crisis. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters sense immediately what Mrs. Wright was dealing with, and they attempt to protect her when the men begin to criticize her housekeeping skills. They astutely note, "MRS. HALE. No, I don't mean anything. But I don't think a place'd be any cheerfuller for John Wright's being in it" (Glaspell). While the men are still fumbling around looking at things and speculating, (and appearing increasingly idiotic), the more introspective and sensitive women have solved the crime, and are on the way to saving Mrs. Wright from paying for the murder. "A Doll's House" relates the story of Nora, a woman far ahead of her time in the Victorian era, who cannot live under her husband's thumb any longer, and must strike out on her own, even if it was not the thing to do in Victorian society.

Trifles" revolves around the difference in understanding between men and women, as does "A Doll's House." Both pieces emphasize the gap between men and women, and show it mainly through the characters. The women tend to be more sympathetic than the men are, and they are more developed than the men are, so the reader understands their motivations and feelings better than those of the men. In "Trifles," the gap shows up early in the piece, with one of the idle comments made by the first man to find the dead man. "...though I said to Harry that I didn't know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John -- " (Glaspell). It is clear the women do not matter to the men in this story. The men are condescending, laugh at their thoughts, and obviously feel much more important than mere women, as this line clearly indicates. "SHERIFF. They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it. (The men laugh, the women look abashed)" (Glaspell). In "A Doll's House," the gap also shows up early in the play. Nora's husband calls her a "silly girl," and one of her favorite occupations is eating macaroons to spite him. By the end of this play, she does what is unthinkable in Victorian society; she stands up to her husband, and leaves him to find herself.

In both these works, the women understand the men much better than the men understand the women, because the men really do not take enough time to learn about the women as people, whether it is the two women who are their "helping" them in "Trifles," or Torvald in "A Doll's House." The men do not really know these women, and so they cannot understand why Mrs. Wright would kill her cruel and abusive husband. "COUNTY ATTORNEY. No, Peters, it's all perfectly clear except a reason for doing it. But you know juries when it comes to women. If there was some definite thing. Something to show -- something to make a story about -- a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it" (Glaspell). The same is true for Torvald, he has never taken the time to really understand his wife, or he would recognize her unhappiness. Early in the play, we see how Torvald sees Nora - as a "lark," a "squirrel," and "the little sweet-tooth." Theirs is the typical Victorian relationship, he takes her for granted or even less, sees her as less that a human, and she is dependent on him for everything, from companionship to all the expenses of the household. "H'm! If you only knew, Torvald, what expenses we larks and squirrels have" (Ibsen).

The women of the times when Ibsen and Glaspell wrote these plays felt they needed to live for those around them, and their own thoughts and wishes did not matter. Nora shows this in the opening of the play when she has bought presents for everyone but herself, and her friend Christine shows it when she says her life is empty. "No, indeed; I only feel my life unspeakably empty. No one to live for anymore" (Ibsen). In "Trifles," the two women also intimate that they are not any happier in their own situations, and face their own forms of abuse or alienation from their husbands. They act as if it is some type of cross that women must bear. "MRS. HALE. I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be -- for women. I tell you, it's queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things -- it's all just a different kind of the same thing" (Glaspell).