"I am not even quite sure what women's rights really are. To me it has been a question of human rights" –Henrik Ibsen
I found this quote
while doing my project for A Doll House,
and I found it extremely interesting. I have never really thought of different people’s
rights as simply just human rights, and I know I am not alone in that. Henrik
Ibsen was ahead of his time when he made this remark. My discussion this month comes from the Socratic
seminar for A Doll House. Question 18
asked, “Consider the following statement made by Ibsen in the understanding of
the drama and its relevance in today’s society: ‘I am not a member of the Women’s
Rights League. Whatever I have written has been without any conscious though of
making propaganda. I have been more the poet and less the social philosopher
than people generally seem inclined to believe… To me it has seemed a problem
of mankind in general. And if you read my books carefully you will understand this…My
task has been the description of humanity.’” Ibsen was ahead of his time, like I
said earlier. When A Doll House was first published, it was a very controversial
play. I mean, the thought of a women having rights back then was just
outrageous. That is why productions in Germany made Ibsen rewrite a different
ending for them. They couldn’t let women know they have the potential to be
independent! Because the ending with Nora leaving her husband, Ibsen was often
called a feminist, which I think is understandable. Nora was different than
most other women. She took matters into her own hands to save her husband. Yes,
she could have done a better job, but she was so sheltered from the world that
she didn’t know. Nora shows a lot of self-respect when she leaves Torvald at
the end of the play. And I think it’s good that she did. He just got finished yelling
at her and saying horrible things to her. He acted as if everything was going
to go back to normal when they find out Krogstad is no longer blackmailing
them. But Nora realized her potential. Having an independent woman in a play
was not heard of when this play was first published. So saying that women do
have this potential to be independent, I think it is understandable for people
to think he was a feminist. But, after reading the quote I found, I realized
Ibsen’s true person. He was not fighting women’s rights, but human rights. He
saw women as they are: human. And by showing Nora as independent, he showed
that all humans have this potential. Men too.
I think a lot of people in today’s society could learn something
from Henrik Ibsen. Today, there are all these issues with women not being
treated equal in every way, gay rights, racial discrimination, etc. A lot of
people have different opinions on every issue. And a problem in society is that
if you say “women should be paid equally as well as men in the workforce” you
can easily be labeled a feminist. But you might not consider yourself a
feminist. You just think that it is fair, and what’s the big difference between
men and women? They’re both human. When you strip away gender, skin color, love
preference, religion, etc.; we are all just human. So, why should anyone be
treated differently than anyone else? Why should some humans have to fight for
rights or privileges that other humans already have? I think that is what Ibsen
was trying to say and what he was trying to show to humanity through A Doll
House.
