Analyze Henrik Ibsen's(1879) and Susan Glaspell's(1916) treatment of Essay

Analyze Henrik Ibsen's(1879) and Susan Glaspell's(1916) treatment of relationships and roles in the time period plays were written - Essay Example When the play "A Doll's House" was performed for the first time in Copenhagen in 1879, it revoked severe criticism from the society as it was against the society's values and attacked men's dominance over women (Templeton 142). Similarly, the play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell was written, at the time when, like other educated women at this time, Glaspell "grew restless with the numerous restrictions on women and became inspired by the avant-garde social, political, and cultural movements happening in the United States and Europe" (McMichael, et al. 1108). At the time when "A Doll's House" was written by Henrick Ibsen, the role of women was limited to bringing up children, supporting their husbands and keeping their house clean and comfortable. Society disliked women who wanted to step out for their authority and freedom. Politics, decision making and work was left for men and they had authority over women because women had little role in business, politics or social activities. In this setup; freedom, liberty and equality of women were regarded as a bad thing which the society frowned upon. Ibsen's portrayal of the society emphasizes how middle-class life is limiting, brutal, and unforgiving. He cleverly exposed these hypocritical norms and faults of society and suggested the outcomes of this suppression of womenfolk which compelled Nora to secede from the society's values and decided to leave her husband and children just to live a life of her own: "There is another task I must undertake first. I must try and educate myself--you are not the man to help me in that. I must do that for myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now (Act III). This clearly indicates the relationship between husband and wife. In this play, the relationship and role of characters are characterized by the desire of dominance and authority. In the first act, we see Torvald trying to dominate over Nora by dictating her not to be extravagant and spendthrift. Then we come across ill fate of Nora when her husband is nearly on death bed and needs to be taken to Italy for treatment. Nora's compulsion is exploited by Nils Krogstad who extracts a bond from her, which later in the play, he uses for threatening her and ultimately ruins her whole life. The role of Nils Krogstad demonstrates hypostatical values of society and a lust for power with mala fide intention. His relationship with Nora exposes faults of society and the law which have nothing to do with humanistic aspect of Nora's sufferings and to save her husband's life. The best presentation of the relationships and roles is given by Henrick in the last act of "A Doll's House" when we find Nora in dejected situation with Torvald. Nora tells her husband that h er husband and father were alike in that both of them used her to amuse and play with her and never thought of herself in context of her own imaginations and desires. In "Trifles" we find women struggling for their identification being unduly treated by their husbands. Minnie is sick of her husband and comes up to the point to strangle him just because he had strangled the Canary. This story begins with Martha leaving her home and accompanying Mrs. Peters to the Wright farm. There they find Minnie strangled her husband. The sympathetic women tried to discover the reason