In the two stories of A doll’s house and Trifles, everything is nearly the same. Only a bit of difference can be seen. The characters play the roles in the stories to represent our society today. After reading the two stories, one can see that it reflects the current situation in the society we are living in. The two stories have similarities and differences regarding how the themes are handled in each story. In A doll’s house, the main female character is being belittled by her husband, and in the story Trifles, the main female character is being abused by her husband. In both stories, the women are the victims of circumstances (Doni, 28). In both texts, the relationship between men and women is prominent and ale superiority is evident where women are belittled and seen as unreasonable the Same way the current society treats women.
The main theme of male domination is seen in both texts with some illustrations to reflect on the current society. In both texts’ men belittle their female counterparts in everything they do. Society supports that by saying that there are some things that women cannot do in the absence of their husbands. Women are not granted any authority to decide on anything that concerns the family; instead, the man is always permitted to decide on everything in the family (Pequeño, 1200). Males view their female counterparts as very little that they even call them demeaning names to show how men see women. When women take a wise move, society judges them without including that they benefit their families. When women are abused and taken for granted, they are expected to live with that and be submissive to their husbands and do as desired by their husbands only. They are not allowed to initiate the next move for themselves and their families.
In both texts, men are seen as only being concerned with what will affect their work and reputations without considering the feelings of the wives’ other women. They abuse their wives and other women and expect them to be submissive and follow their orders. No decision made by women is respected and upheld by any man but instead, when women decide, they are seen as unreasonable and their decisions considered nonsensical (Vandaele, 115). The males in the texts are toxic and abusive, and they expect their women to cooperate with everything decided by their husbands and other male. Men always look for a thing or two to use to fight against women without considering how the female will feel when manipulated and abused by their husbands. They are seen as dolls to play around with and are not allowed to interact with the outside world but only to entertain their husbands.
In both texts, men dominate women by seeing them as materialistic and naive in everything they do. Men unfairly treat women by blackmailing them, and because women have no other option, they are supposed to give in to what their male counterparts want. When women use resources to benefit the family, the men always consider them wasteful and irresponsible, even when women only think of the rest of the family without including themselves (Saima, 84). Men demean women that they think that when women are sad, they can use the money to entice them instead of settling issues in the family. The love women give for their children and husbands is not appreciated, instead it is seen as an obligation towards the family. Men do not see the fact that women are selfless. All men consider is how they use the resources in the house and if the ‘obligation ‘they are bound to perform is well done. Men judge women a lot without trying to put themselves in the woman’s shoes to feel how it feels to work hard and not be appreciated.
In the two stories, men have demeaned women to the extent that they feel like only they are allowed to cater to the family needs and provide for the family financially. Women are violated by men by not being given equal chances to prove their ability to support the family financially. Women are expected to do the domestic duties and look after the children. In cases where women tried to prove their ability to cater to the family, they were criticized and manipulated by men for trying to take up the manhood duties. Men do not believe that women can do best what men do (Vandaele, 115). Men have dominated to the extent that women cannot express what they feel about how they are being treated and are defenseless in the presence of men. Women are disrespected by their male counterparts, and because there is nothing, they can do about it, they have to tolerate the behaviors of the men.
In both stories, women were despised by men and looked down on. Major decisions involving families were commonly presided upon by men while women were left alone. The women were not useful in other matters apart from cooking and taking care of their families. Furthermore, men treated women as their property to use at their disposal. Common duties of women in both stories included cooking and being seen as sex objects (Pequeño, 1195). Other work-related duties were seen to belong to men entirely since they were viewed as the better gender than women. Both stories talk of women being fed up with the treatment they received from their husbands, thus giving up and deciding to leave their marriages first. Both women. Also had inferior social standing as compared to their husbands. They could not be easily recognized during social gatherings or events where they were supposed to be acknowledged as a family. Therefore, both stories talk of how different the life of women was from their male counterparts.
Both stories have men who think that their women cannot think or make informed decisions. They treat them as objects that they should be at their Beck and call always. They also think that their women have younger brains that cannot think of complex situations and identify ways of solving problems. In so doing, men eventually make women feel irritated and want to change the way they have been treated for some time (Saima, 82). They make up their minds to stand up for themselves and what they believe in, which makes them leave their arrogant husbands in search of peace and equality for men and women. Standing up for their right made it possible for other women to come out and identify those men who treated them unfairly and strive to change the way they were recognized in the community. It also became evident that women could decide to do some things and go ahead with their plans without caring what the men would say or do.
In the doll’s house story, men’s perspective about women is personal, whereas Torvalds has a sexist view of his wife. In the trifles story, men’s view of women is seen more on the social level. Here, all women are classified as incapable of making any decisions that affect their families and the community (Akter, 30). Also, in A doll’s house, Nora, with time, gets fed up with her husband’s behavior and decides to leave him and go away in search of a better life. In Trifles, Mrs. Wright realizes that there would be no need to leave her husband since she may never find the peace she is looking for. Instead, she identifies the strength that exists when women come together and help each other. If women decide to watch out for each other’s interests, they achieve great things compared to depending on men for their wellbeing. In looking out for each other, the women would be strong and manage to achieve great things without depending on men for anything.
There is a difference in how women stand for each other in the two books’ male-dominated societies. In the story trifles, women defend each other and hide the truth from the men because they understand how it feels like to be in a male-dominated society where men’s opinion only is what matters. They defended their fellow woman by hiding the evidence that could be used to charge her with murder. On the other hand, in the doll’s house, women betray each other by allowing their fellow women highly guarded secrets to be known to their husbands in the most awkward manner (Vandaele, 115). Women who trusted each other betrayed themselves under the influence of love from the blackmailer, which led to the destruction of the marriage of the fellow woman. When women fail to stand up for each other in this patriarchal society, they will face the consequences of betraying each other. The two women lived different lives after the female main character in the doll’s house’s secret was revealed to her husband; her friend found life and started a family, while the other woman’s marriage was destroyed.
Suppressing women and denying them their rights is a common thing in today’s society. Men feel like they are superior to women, as is displayed in these two stories. The male-female relationships in the stories are both strained where men want to be recognized as powerful while women want the same rights as men. In the current society, such happenings have led to more conflicts between men and women, where each strives to get a chance of recognition (Akter, 30). The plays show the inequalities between men and women today and how one gender is treated as lesser than the other. Therefore, it makes the female gender want to be recognized for their abilities and how they can execute some duties and the males. When the inequality goes on, the women give up while others pull together to help each other rise more than their male counterparts.
Works Cited
Akter, Md Sharon, et al. “A Feministic Approach to Nora of Henric Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.” Br. J. Arts Humanit 1.5 (2019): 28-34.
Akter, Saima. “Re-reading Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House: A Modern Feminist Perspective.” International Journal of English and Comparative Literary Studies 2.3 (2021): 79-87.
Guswanto, Doni, and Lailatul Husna. “Psychological Conflict Between Men and Women in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles.” Jurnal Ilmiah Langue and Parole 2.2 (2019): 26-35.
Pequeño, Javier Rodríguez. “Analogía y feminismo en” Trifles” de Susan Glaspell.” Tropelías: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada 7 (2020): 1189-1207.
Vandaele, Jeroen. “Ibsen and the Doll’s House Dictator: How Francoism Curbed Nora.” Perspectives 29.1 (2021): 103-123.
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