Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Trifles Essay

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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.

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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….....

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