How does the social setting affect the husband-wife relationship in A Dolls House and Death And The Maiden?

Gerardo: Paulina, Paulina. That’s enough. Paulina.

He takes her in his arms. She slowly calms down.

Silly. Silly girl, my baby.

Similarly, in A Doll’s House, Torvald would call Nora by pet names like “Squirrel” and “little lark”

Hel.: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?

Thus it can be seen that whatever the social setting, let it be late 20th century Chile or 19th century Norway, the woman has been given a subordinate position in society. The husband has always been the dominating figure. These actions also show that the power roles and gender conflicts existed in both the societies.

No matter what the century, the views of society are always taken into account before a decision is taken. Gerardo had just got a prestigious job as the head of the Truth Commission. When Paulina kidnapped Roberto Miranda, Gerardo did not care about how much trouble Paulina would get into if people found out but instead he was more worried about how it would affect his status and that he would be fired.

Gerardo: My Commission? What Commission? Thanks to you, we may not be able to investigate all the other crimes that- And I’m going to have to resign.

Similarly in A Doll’s House, Torvald had just got a new job as a bank manager. When he found out that Nora had taken a loan a few years ago, he did not care about how he would have to repay the loan or what would happen to Nora. He was more worried about what would society think of him and how he would be able to keep his job if Krogstad came out in public about the loan. He felt that if Nora’s wrong deeds were released then all the respect he had gained would disappear. Society came first for him and then his marriage.

Hel.: Very likely people will think I was behind it all-that it was I who prompted you! And I have to thank you for all this- you whom I have cherished during the whole of our married life. Do you understand now what it is you have done for me?

In Death and the Maiden the secret was shared between the husband and the wife while in A Doll’s House, the wife kept the secret from the husband. Death and The Maiden is set in a country that is moving from dictatorship into a democracy. During the dictatorship, Paulina had been taken by the government and jailed unfairly. While detained, Paulina had been raped by a “doctor”. When she was finally let free she went back to Gerardo and told him everything. Since she was afraid of the repercussions for both of them if society came to know, they kept it a secret between themselves. But later on when she kidnapped Roberto Miranda, the “doctor”, we see fissures opening in the Gerardo and Paulina’s relationship. The country that the play is set in has just transformed from a dictatorship to a democracy and Ariel Dorfman is trying to show that Paulina cannot trust anyone except Gerardo because she is still afraid that she would be incarcerated again.

Contrastingly, in A Doll’s House Nora kept the secret from Torvald and this led to their marriage faltering. Nora did not tell Torvald about the loan and her forging of her father’s signature because she knew that Torvald did not like being in debt and that he was afraid of what society would think of him. Therefore she kept the loan she took from Krogstad a secret.  Since the setting of the play is the 19th century women were not supposed to be business minded and were supposed to be at home tending to the housework. Since Nora did not want to ruin Torvald’s image in society through what people would think of her, she did not reveal that she took the loan to him.

While Nora and Torvald’s relationship was based on convenience and not love, Gerardo and Paulina’s relationship was based on love with a certain degree of convenience. Paulina truly loved Gerardo, the proof being that she did not once give his name to her tortures while she was incarcerated. She withstood all the torture just for Gerardo. Therefore, their marriage was truly out of love for each other. It was the setting of the play: the turbulent dictatorship that was made a democracy, that made Paulina and Gerardo’s marriage one out of true love. On the other hand, Nora and Torvald’s marriage was based on convenience. Nora thought she loved Torvald but when Torvald implied that he cared more about society than he cared about her, she realized that the marriage was a sham. They had just got married because it looked like a perfect marriage in society. In the 19th century the people were much more conscious of what society though of them than in the 20th century and many marriages were based on convenience. Ibsen has perfectly portrayed this in Torvald and Nora’s marriage.

Both the playwrights use symbols to show the power roles in the relationship in different centuries. In Doll’s House the symbolism is used to show that men have a more dominant and controlling position in society while in Death and the Maiden the symbolism is used to show the equality women have achieved in terms of status with men. In Death and the Maiden, the gun is used as a symbol to show Paulina’s control over her husband. This reflects the social setting of the late 20th century where women are on an equal footing with men and may even have control over them. In A Doll’s House the author uses the letterbox as a symbol for man’s control over his wife in 19th century Norway. The letterbox shows us how Torvald has control over Nora. Nora does not want Torvald to reach the letterbox in the same way that she does not want him to control over her.

Both Ariel Dorfman and Henrik Ibsen have used the relationship between the husband and wife to show the position of society at the time of the play. The little mistrust in Paulina and Gerardo’s relationship reflects the tension and distrust that the people in the country have for each other since the country has just become a democracy from a turbulent a violent dictatorship. People were also unsure how long the democracy would last. In A Doll’s House however, the author uses Nora and Torvald’s relationship to show the dominance of men and how society was more important than love in 19th century Europe. Thus we can see how both the playwrights use social setting to influence the husband wife relationship and use the husband wife relationship to reflect their views of the social setting of their plays.

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