In our world today: The importance of conducting a gender analysis
In our world today, an essential first step for ensuring gender equality in any project is to conduct a gender analysis of the issue being addressed by the project. The analysis may be described as an analysis of gender relations which provides information on the different conditions of women and men, and the different effects that policies and programs may have on them. Every day, gender roles continue to evolve and change. Since time immemorial, a woman has been considered as a lesser being than the man. Most of history’s pages were written from a patriarchal perspective which opened the way for female protagonists to challenge those gender roles. It has only been a short time that women have broken through their defined roles to be seen on the same level as men on a wide scale basis. This analysis focusses on women as they exist within the confines of a man-dominated society, and how they respond to the extenuating circumstances in their marriages. Using ideas contained in the gender handout “The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood”, we may say that the female protagonists in both plays begin by conforming to their society’s gender norms before they awaken and resist them. Women tend to conform to a society’s gender norms. They only resist the gender norms when they realize they are suffering in the hands of men and to some extent other women.
The significance of gender in the nineteenth century
The gender handout “The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood”, provides an insight into the definition of gender in the nineteenth century. In the nineteenth century family, men were supposed to be the main providers or supporters of the family. Men would go to work in jobs that produced goods and services and the women and children would stay at home. Women were considered to be weak and delicate creatures whose place was in the private sphere, in the home, where she oversaw all that went on (Lavender). A new ideal of womanhood and a new ideology about the home arose out of the new attitudes about work and family. This new ideal had four characteristics that any good woman was supposed to cultivate. The four essential traits that a woman was supposed to cultivate included piety, purity, domesticity and submissiveness (Lavender).
Characteristics of an ideal woman in the nineteenth century
Nineteenth century Americans believed that women had a particular propensity for religion. Religion was seen as a good thing in a woman (Glaspell). Purity was also highly revered in a woman. A woman who was sexually impure was considered to be an unworthy woman. A woman’s virginity was considered to be the greatest treasure that she could bestow on a man. The most feminine of virtues was most likely submissiveness. Women were the innocent bystanders who did whatever they were asked by men who were viewed as the actors in life. Men were never to be submissive while women were expected to always submit. The fourth characteristic of an ideal woman was domesticity. A woman’s place was considered to be in the home. She was to focus on tasks that would maintain and fulfill her piety and purity.
The notion of true manhood and womanhood
“The characteristics of true manhood and womanhood and the separate spheres of male and female activity were believed to have a biological basis. Female nurturance, intuitive morality, domesticity, passivity, and delicacy, and male rationality, aggressiveness, independence, and toughness were all due to their physical makeup.” (Glaspell)
A Doll’s House: Nora's resistance to gender norms
In A Doll’s House, Nora, the main character resists the gender norms of the society when she decided to be the provider of the family. She provides for her family committing herself to a large loan from a usurer named Krogstad. The money is used to pay for the sojourn in Italy that enabled Torvald to recover from a serious illness. She goes on to secretly repay the loan out of the small sums she earns by copying documents or saving from her household budget. Torvald treats Nora like a favorite child than a wife and as expected Nora is perfectly willing to pretend to be Torvald’s ‘skylark’ or ‘little squirrel’ so as to please her husband (Guides, and House). As expected, the female protagonist in this play is content with living in a doll house. Nora, in the end manages to resist the gender norms of the society when she realizes the gender norms are aimed at destroying the lives of women. This happens when she witnesses her husband’s explosive reaction to Krogstad’s letter (Guides, and House). She is accused of being a hypocrite, a liar and a criminal. She is also accused of having no religion and a sense of morality as opposed to the ideal characteristics of a woman. She realizes that the man is self-centered, petty and unfeeling. In addition to that, she becomes a rebel so that she can challenge his outmode ideas about marriage (Ibsen). Nora emphasizes on the inequality in their marriage as the reason why she will not stay at his household anymore. The play begins with Nora conforming to the Society’s gender norms and ends with her resisting the society’s gender norms.
Trifles: Conformity and resistance to gender norms
In Trifles,
the female protagonist conforms to their society’s gender norms when she tries to keep up the appearance of a good wife. This is seen when she is found immediately after the murder with her apron in hand. The two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale cover up the evidence to the murder so that they can keep the marriage problems a secret. This can also be seen as a move to show how women have been pushed to stand together by their male counterparts since they are thought of as weaklings. Both Trifles and A Doll’s House examine the fragile necessity of reputation and appearances within the nineteenth-century marriages (Miller). Both of the plays are centered around married couples, and the plot is presented to us from the points of view of female characters. Trifles in the end proves to be a play about a woman who murders her husband and two women who lash out against their gender roles by withholding evidence from their husbands. Similarly, in A Doll’s House, Nora, a woman who seems to conform to her society’s gender roles turns out to be a rebel as she resists her husband’s ideology of marriage.
Conclusion: The awakening and resistance of women
In conclusion, it can be said that in both plays, the female protagonists tend to conform to the societies gender norms until a time that the women realize they are suffering and do not need to conform to their roles and thus resist. The major difference in the two plays is the fact that in Trifles, it is the two other women who lash out against their gender roles and not the main character Mrs. Wright who struggles to maintain her ideal characteristics while in A Doll’s House, Nora, the main character lashes out against her society’s gender norms as she decides to leave her husband so as to better herself. Women have been slowly realizing their worth to the point where we have almost achieved equality in our world today.
Works Cited
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. 1916.
Guides, Study. "Trifles Summary - Enotes.Com". Enotes, 2018, https://www.enotes.com/topics/trifles. Accessed 24 Nov 2018.
Guides, Study, and A House. "A Doll's House Summary - Enotes.Com". Enotes, 2018, https://www.enotes.com/topics/dolls-house. Accessed 24 Nov 2018.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Pennsylvania State University, 2001, Accessed 24 Nov 2018.
Lavender, Catherine J. Notes on The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood Prepared for Students in HST 386: Women in The City. Department of History, The College of Staten Island, 1998, https://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/386/truewoman.pdf tps://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/386/truewoman.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2018.
Miller, Molly. "Exploring Feminism in Ibsen's A Doll's House and Glaspell's Trifles". Writing Samples, 2009, http://writingsamplesofmolly.blogspot.com/2010/05/exploring-feminism-in-ibsens- dolls.html. Accessed 24 Nov 2018.
