earticle

영어

This study examines the networks of power in a patriarchal capitalist society and resistance to it in Stef Smith’s Nora: A Doll’s House. The drama follows a tripartite structure in which the audience follows the trajectories of three different Noras from three eras: 1918, 1968, and 2018. The main focus of this paper is to contextualize the Noras’ suppression and resistance in the domestic and public spheres whilst exploring the psychiatric effects of resisting and the potential to overcome them. Nora: The Doll’s House shines a light on the absurdity of the hypocritical and impossible expectations and standards forced upon objectified women in a patriarchal society. This is refracted through the three waves of women’s emancipation in the last century: the suffragist movement in 1918, the peak of second wave feminism in 1968, and the #MeToo movement of 2018. The perennially objectified Nora struggles to act independently and find ways to resist the patriarchy. As a result of their resistance, the three Noras suffer from depression to various degrees. Their depression has different sources and manifestations, but the Noras are united in cause: familial conflict and societal inequalities. In order to reclaim their identities and overcome the trauma of resistance, the Noras require empathy from their families and those around them, not sympathy. Nora: A Doll’s House hammers home the point that- if women are to live fully, they must be liberated through radical reforms of law and legal institutions with the full support of a recalibrated familial sphere.