Independent and self-sufficient vs. dominated and handled

Shouldn’t women be strong, independent and self-sufficient beings? Why should any woman have to depend on a man so vigorously? Why is it that Nora depends so greatly on her husband Helmer for money?

As we were reading in class today, it bothered me how Nora kept pleading to Helmer for money. Personally,I believe that women are more powerful and dominant than men in most cases. Generally, women can handle emotional, stressful and more difficult situations better than men. I’ve read in the past that women tend to deal better with these situations because unconsciously we want to relate on a personal level. So my question is, although Nora was living during the 19th century, a time where women were diminished and unvalued, why did she let herself be put down in that way by her husband, the one person who was supposed to love and respect her unconditionally? Why doesn’t she stand up for herself as Beneatha did in A Raisin in the Sun? Does she simply not care/mind settling for where society places her, labels her as and restricts her from doing?

Henrik Ibsen

Born as the second son of a six-children family, the author of the play "A Doll's House" is a Norwegian writer named Henrik Ibsen. Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828 in the small town of Skien, Norway. Most of his plays were viewed as controversial pieces and his style of writing was the step stone of modern drama in plays. During his 19th century lifetime, Ibsen’s writings went against the European Victorian family values and censorship. As a child, Ibsen aspired to in becoming an artist. His mother, an avid painter fell in love with the idea of the theater.
During his mid-teenaged years, Ibsen’s education was brought to a sudden halt do to his families financial difficulties. Once he was out of school, Ibsen was apprenticed to a pharmacist in Grimstad for seven years. During those seven years, Ibsen discovered his passion for writing. In addition, in the course of those seven years, Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen, the stepchild of the novelist Magdalene Thoresen and had their only child, Sigurd. Together the Ibsen’s worked in the theater until it went bankrupt in 1862. This misfortune forced them to leave Norway and they spent the next twenty-seven years living in various cities throughout Europe.
During his life, after publishing several of is most famously known works, Ibsen received an award for foreign travel from the government, and was also aided with financial help from Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. He even lived in Germany and Italy until he suffered a horrible stroke in the year of 1900 that disabled him to write, work in the theater, and even continue his routine lifestyle for its remainder. During the year of 1906, Ibsen died due to a series of strokes.
The title of the play, A Doll’s House, may relate to Ibsen directly. It was said, that as a child Ibsen commonly experienced social isolation and was on his own to self-discovery. This work of his, A Doll’s House, was famous for strongly illustrating women imprisoned by the rules of society, “trapped in a doll’s house”, and unable to truly find their own voices. It has been said that Ibsen is known in the literary and theatrical worlds for his contribution to the study of social isolationism and the study of individualism. Although his works have been published over a century ago, Ibsen’s legacy has gained international acknowledgment and respect over the years.
Society took the role of the woman and greatly diminished it. It restricted women to the roles of a housekeeper, chefs and even a baby sitter. Society promoted women as the weak, dependant, and…. Gender. All that Ibsen was trying to do was educate the people of his time period. He was trying to tell them that their way of thinking and viewing women was wrong. Although his modern mentality didn’t quite fit his time era, Ibsen set a great example for revolutionary outcasts and inspired many women to take control of the situation which later instigated women’s rights and lead our country to what it is today. People such as Ibsen led the women of our country to be outspoken, unrestrained and dollhouse free figures in society.

I gathered my research from these sites:

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/dh/BIO.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ibsen.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280962/Henrik-Ibsen