EMaciolek's blog

Introduction to Critical Feminist Studies Final Project:
The Final Dinner Party

Emily Maciolek










CHARACTERS:
•    NORA – A woman of the late 19th Century.  She craves independence, which cannot be attained because she is a woman.  During her life, she has always been treated like a doll.
•    CLAIR – A dissatisfied woman who also happens to be married to a gay, socially elite, man.  She married him because it was what was expected, but now she longs to escape and travel Europe.

A Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen (1879)
The play’s main critique is the fact that in the era’s culture, men treat women as doll’s that are there only to play a role. Women are not seen as autonomous beings, rather they are seen as one part of a general stereotype to which they are forced to adhere. The world of the play is one in which feminism as a movement has not quite started – it is on an individual basis. For certain women, there is a great dissatisfaction they feel with their roles in life, and they have decided to stop putting up with it. The protagonist, Nora, gives up her entire family in order to escape “doll status” and become independent.

 

Proposal for Critical Feminist Studies Project

Although I already had a pretty shaky definition of what a feminist is when I began this course, my definition has become even more opaque and indefinable. However, I feel as if something even more important has happened – I have a definite feeling toward the word. Whereas, before I started taking this course I was (dare I say it?) indifferent to feminism. Now I know its importance and the word has become internalized. Maybe by December I’ll be able to give a definition using words, which, of course, will serve me better in the long run.