to have. (Ibsen 1570) Helmer is a certainly a man that lives up to what is expected of him, inside and outside the home.Nora, as a woman, also has many expectations she must try to live up to. By natural design, women are not good with money, with planning, or with complicated thinking. They are certainly the underclass of the sexes. This condition was caused by the fact that women were forced to mold themselves into a model themselves that men deem desirable and best. The wants and desires of women were put aside so that they may better perform the role of pleasing the men in their lives. They were there to support their husbands and help carry on the tasks of keeping the house in order, or theyre to care for their fathers and clean his house of generally care for him. This entire social condition became an inescapable cycle, since men chose what men should and would be like and they chose as suits them. A woman did not have the opportunity to go out and find herself or to further her own talents and abilities. They were instead molded into a shape that would further enhance the mens talents and abilities. Yet even though the weakest characteristics were attributed to women, great responsibility was put on them as regarding the raising of their children. It was commonly assumed that fatal flaws in the characters of men were adopted from some defect in the mothers own character. Helmer comments on this fact and notes that every lawyer is quite familiar with it (Ibsen 1587). In this viscous cycle having anything close to resembling equality of the sexes is impossible. Yet through it all Nora is contented with things as they are. She is contented with herself and how she is, because she realizes that she is just what society wants from her (Boyesen 199-206). Boyesen writes that Nora is the perfect wife, such as the poets and the masculine ideal of all ages have figured her; she is soft, sweet, impulsive, gentle, pouts wh...
