Nora Helmer versus Hedda Gabler in Male Dominated Society...

There has been a long history of women’s oppression by men in many traditional societies throughout the world. Society gave women an ideal image to follow: getting married, having a family and taking care of the family. Some women submit to the image, but certain individual stands against it. In Henrik Ibsen’s stories of Hedda Gabler and A Doll House, we witness examples of a single individual against the overwhelming society. Nora left her family and marriage behind to become an independent individual without the control of men; whereas, Hedda Gabler choose death as her ultimate solution when she was threatened to be control by man. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was written in 1879 in a style of realism, which depicted life more truthfully†¦show more content†¦Hedda Gabler only married her husband, Tesman because the society would look down upon her if she did not do so. She claimed â€Å"my time was up† (Ibsen 1484). She didn’t love her husband at all only married because she was at the age to marry. She married Tesman because in the eyes of the society, he is a worthy husband to a woman of her status. Hedda’s marriage was full of boredom. When Judge Barack asked her if she have any natural talents, she replied that her only natural talent was â€Å"boring to death† (Ibsen 1488). In fact, that was probably true. When she was single, she was under the control of her father. She was not allowed to go out and discover the world. Her only source of information about the world came from Mr. Loevborg. Now that she is married, she stays home and does nothing all day. In A Doll’s House, Nora Helmer discovered the truth about her life at the end of the story. Nora had never done anything for herself. When she was with her father, she took in her father’s opinion as her opinion. Her father called her a â€Å"doll child† (Ibsen 66). When she got married, the power only transferred from her father’s hand to her husband’s. For all those years she had lived, she was merely a puppet controlled by the strings in the hands of men. Even though the characters from both stories had been controlled by higher forces, they were not willing to conform to it. When Hedda was pregnant, she was not willing to accept it. She denied her responsibility as