Female Identity Crises and Resolutions in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and The Lady from the Sea

Abstract

This paper examines female identity crises and their comparative resolutions as dramatized in Henrik Ibsen’s two stage plays, A Doll’s House (1879) and The Lady from the Sea (1888), focusing on the female protagonists’ self-realization and subsequent crisis resolution strategies. Ibsen’s stage realism anticipates a notion of contemporary feminist perspectives with its emphasis on consciousness-raising and change in women’s role in society. Nora’s identity crisis in A Doll’s House stems from her economic dependence on her domineering husband Torvald Helmer, together with her anxiety over secretive financial transactions undertaken to save his life. Helmer’s reactions when her secret is revealed prompts Nora to forsake him in order to explore her identity as human being. However, this dramatic self-awakening raises questions regarding her responsibility as a mother and a wife. Ellida’s identity crisis in The Lady from the Sea also emerges from inner conflicts, in this case between her attachment to a past love and her responsibility as Dr. Wangel’s wife and stepmother to his children. Unlike Nora, Ellida chooses to remain at her family home, even after her husband acknowledges her right and freedom to choose. Her choice of resolution affirms that freedom is subjective and that a true marriage is sustainable through mutual trust. This analysis of female identity crises and their consequences illustrates the journey of the female protagonists from marginalized objects under patriarchal dominance to self-conscious, independent subjects. Accordingly, it is noteworthy that Ibsen’s dramatic insights foreground the economic and/or sexual pressures that still exist for middle-class women in many societies today.