The world is constantly morphing and evolving each and every day. Much like the world, our society is changing as well. In A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, the idea of social transformation or change was not a prominent concept within their 18th century society especially when it came to their attitude towards women. Torvald, the father and husband of the play, pushes and tosses Nora around like a "doll" because he thinks of her more as an item of pleasure and usage than anything else. He lacks respect for his wife, who is the mother of his children, which leaves Nora in a pit of despair in which she covers with fake, over-exaggerated emotions. After years of feeling hopeless, Nora finally builds up enough valor against the man she once used to love in order to create and live a better life for herself. This not only represents change especially in that time period, but it also shows the strength in which women have.
Nora is displayed as an emotional wreck and is like a terrible actress, who over-acts every single line. She seems fake and is supposed to represent the traditional "housewife" of that particular time period, in order to show how difficult it was to change her position in life. Ibsen wants the audience to develop a bias or an unbreakable way of thought in order to destroy it later on. Ibsen's goal is to shatter the glass house in which society has build in order to allow freedom to come through. By Nora finally leaving her husband, she breaks the mold of woman within her society and represents a new way of life almost like a butterfly finally busting through its cocoon. Despite the struggles and lack of opportunities for women at that time period, Nora still leaves in hopes to find happiness rather than money, status, or prestige.
The role of women in the 18th century was that women were supposed to be helpful, caring, and kind-hearted individuals, who served their husband and their children. The play, A Doll's House, fractures this social reputation by showing that women have courage, strength, and determination through one of the main characters named Nora. Nora is the average household woman, but she completely demolishes that reputation by leaving her husband for her own benefit, which is completely unacceptable during that era of history. This represents a transformation in both society and women by showing an absolute pure form of fearlessness.
This essay was well written and addressed the prompt clearly. Using the way women were treated in the 18th century was definitely a good topic to choose. You had good ideas and I think if you would have expanded on them a tiny bit more your essay would have been much stronger. The introduction paragraph contained mostly a summary and the body paragraphs did as well so a little more analysis would have been better. You did a good job of explaining how Nora's character changed the social expectations of women but I think you could have circled back to how the author wanted these social changes to occur. This essay was concise and answered the prompt well so I would give it a 4 or a 5.
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