Research Methodology

“IS A Doll’s House a Feminist Play or Humanist Play”

Sohail Nawaz

Registration No: 1784-FLL/MAENG/F14

Department of English
Faculty of Language & Literature
International Islamic University
Islamabad.
 ABSTRACT

Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is often used to study in the context of feminism. Feminism is about
the women’s rights related to social, economic and political perspective. In this paper, we
will study A Doll’s House in a larger structure i.e. humanism. Humanism is about the dignity
and identity of a person regardless of gender. In the beginning of the play, Nora is in crisis
while identifying her identity and searching for her dignity in Act I and Act II. She is devoid
of her identity and dignity. She has no authority and right to be aware of her rights. On the
other hand, In Act III, we find quite another Nora who has recognized her place in the
society. She claims a new identity. She realizes her rights. She decides not to continue to be
Helmer’s doll any more. In this paper, the different aspects of this play will be generalized in
the larger context of society. In this way, we will be able to highlight the real problems in the
society.
 INTRODUCTION

A Doll’s House is written by Henrik Ibsen in Norwegian language in 1879. It has also
established a new genre of modern drama. In the past, plays are most about historical
romances but this play has built a new genre which talks about the social problems. It is also
often considered as the first feminist play although Ibsen has denied it himself. Feminism is
the movement, raised in 1960s in the favor of women’s rights in the society. When the
behavior of woman has been analyzed through the man’s perspective in the play then it can
be considered as a feminist play. But it can be observed in the play that reader has also many
other perspectives to analyze the woman’s behavior. One of them is humanism. Humanism is
about the value of human being in the society. It includes the identity and dignity of the
person. Identity and dignity are the basic things, needed to be placed at a valued scale in the
society. Ibsen discusses these values in the play which are displaced from the society. He also
identifies the reasons behind the displacement of these social values. In other words, he talks
about those values of humanism, he does not find in the society.
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value

and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical
thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or social
traditions.

Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse. It

aims to understand the nature of gender inequality.

In this paper researcher will analyze the text of A Doll’s House with the perspective of
humanism and feminism and will try to find the following questions:

o Either the play is “Humanist” or “Feminist?”

o Should we read the play through feministic perspective of

humanistic perspective?
 LITERATURE REVIEW

A Doll’s House is about every individual to find out its real identity. Ibsen has denied this
feminist perspective in his play by himself. He shared his views about the play when he made
a speech at a seventeenth-birthday given by the Norwegian Women’s Rights League in his
honor on May 26, 1898,
“I thank you for the toast, but must disclaim the honor of having consciously worked for the
rights movement. True enough, it is desirable to solve the women problem, along with all the
others; but that has been the whole purpose. My task has been the description of whole
humanity.” (Ibsen, Letters 337)

Ibsen never thought writing a play about the highly subjective topic i.e. feminism. In the
Oxford Ibsen, James McFarlane argued, “Nora’s conflict represents something other than, or
something more than, woman’s.” (Adams, p. 416). In 1960s, when feminism had re-coined
again, Einar Haugen, the doyen of American Scandinavian studies, argued, “Nora is not just
a woman arguing for female liberation; she is much more. She embodies the comedy as well
as the tragedy of modern life.” (Haugen, p. vii).

The editor of Modern Language Association’s Approaches to Teaching A Doll’s House

argued, “the need for a broad view of the play and a condemnation of a static approach”.
Further she says that feminist theme will be only in the discussion if we link it to the
women’s subjective approach. (Shafer, p. 32)

The author of Norwegian Ibsen life, HalvdanKhoth, while discussing A Doll’s House in the
context of feminism, argues, “Little by little the tropical controversy died away; what
remained was the work of art, with its demand for truth in every human relation.”
HalvdanKoht talks about the feminist approach that how it joins the discussion in the
beginning and how it goes far away at the end. (Koht, p. 323) According to Maurice Valency,
Nora is subject study of female who has uncontrollable emotions. She is devoid of her
woman character. She is a kind of hysteric woman. (Valency, p. 151-152)
 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The significances of this analysis, they are as follow:

✓ Through this research we will come to know that A Doll’s House is a humanist play if

we analyze this in a larger context.

✓ Through this play/drama one’s mind would change and he would see in larger context

instead of analyzing the on perspective of a literary context.

✓ This research will pave a path for the future researchers to look into literary works

through the window of humanism.

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Methodology is a way to find out the result of a given problem on a specific matter
or problem that is also referred as research problem. In Methodology, researcher uses
different criteria for solving/searching the given research problem. Different sources use
different type of methods for solving the problem. If we think about the word
“Methodology”, it is the way of searching or solving the research problem.

Generally, there are two types of research methodology that are qualitative and
quantitative methods. Qualitative research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain
an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into
the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.
Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper
into the problem. While on the other hand, Quantitative research is used to quantify the
problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into useable
statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables and
generalize results from a larger sample population. Quantitative Research uses measurable
data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research.

In this research, researcher has used qualitative method to analyze the data and to find
problem statement. The research is helpful through content analysis. After collecting data, the
researcher has used Waiting for Godot as a primary source to comprehend and analyze the
data. Furthermore, researcher has used other articles and books as a secondary source in
relation to Absurdity.

CONTENT ANALSYSIS
The title of the play A Doll’s House comments on itself. The story is about a woman who
lives in a house like a doll of her husband, the house is named a doll’s house. Nora is the wife
of Torvald who becomes the victim of her husband’s patronized behavior. She has no
authority in her house. She does not play any role but a role of doll in the first acts. She has
played in the hands of her husband, Torvald. There are many restrictions imposed on her by
society. Those restrictions stop her to find her own place in the society. Perhaps she is already
at some place but that place is defined by her husband. In fact, the defined place is Nora’s
place which is defined by society. Moreover, it can also be said that this defined place is
Nora’s own thinking and belief till she considers herself as a part of society. In Act 3, the
development in the character of Nora can be observed. She succeeds in defining her place in
the society. She finds that she does not belong to the society. In the end, her defined identity
does not match with values of the society. She also leaves the society when she gets aware of
her social position where she stands in the beginning and abuses in the society. She denies the
patronizing attitude of Torvald at the end. Because she was able to recognize her real identity.
Later on, she also claims her identity. The following lines have been taken from the end of
the paly which give us the objective approach to understand the text of the play. It helps us to
understand the play in the larger structure i.e. humanism.

“NORA: I have other duties just as sacred. Duties to myself.

TORVALD: Before all else you are a wife and mother.

NORA: I don't believe that any longer, I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human
being just as you are — or, at all events, which I must try and become one. I know quite well,
Torvald, that most people would think you right and that views of that kind are to be found in
books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say or with what is found in
books. I must think over things for myself and get to understand them.” (Ibsen, Act 3)

The behavior of Nora varies from her personal characteristics, not gender characteristics.
Nora always considers Torvald and Mrs. Linde better than herself because of their social
positions, not because of their gender differences. Torvald is better and strong in the social
status as compared to Mrs. Linde. He is Bank Manager and lives a socially strong life. On the
other hand, Mrs. Linde is also living a satisfied life. Torvald accepts her proposal to get the
job in the bank. She sacrifices her true love to save her family values. There are two aspects
of society can be observed that social values are very respected in the society and everyone is
sacrificing something valuable in order to save social relations. Nora also sacrifices her own
dignity by doing forged signature of her father to get money to save her husband’s life. At the
end of the play, Mrs. Linde gives Nora the realization of her true marriage through Krogstad.
We also observe that Mrs. Linde plays her role in identifying Nora her accurate place where
Nora could feel herself a respectable member of the society. In other words, we can say that
all these sacrifices are trying to find the worth of their sacrifices they have offered in order to
scale their dignities and identities. All this goes to humanity.

CONCLUSION

The opinion of the critic is a subjective approach and other critics may differ disagree with it.
So there is a need to analyze it through objective approach. There is a need to mold the
interpretation of text in order to give new meaning to life. It can be possible only when this
play will be analyzed in the larger context of the society. It may be concluded as it can be
argued hardly that this play is about one-sided favor for the promotion of the values of
feminism. In fact, this play has been written in order to define humanism accurately.
REFERENCES

1. Ibsen, Henrik. Letters and Speeches. Trans. Evert Sprinchorn. New York: Hill, 1964.
337. Print.
2. Adams, R.M. “The Fifty-First Anniversary” Hudson Review 10(1957): 416.
3. Haugen, Einar. Ibsen’s Drama: Author to Audience. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P,
1979.
4. Shafer, Yvonne, ed. Approaches to Teaching Ibsen’s A Doll house. New York: MLA,
1985. 31-34.
5. Koht, Halvdan. Life of Ibsen. Trans. And ed. Einar Haugen and A. E. Santaniello.
New York: Blom, 1971. 323
6. Valency, Maurice. The Flower and the Castle: An Introduction to Modern Drama.
New York: Schocken, 1963. 151-152
7. Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House. India: Pearson Longman, 2006.