⚖️ Gender, Law & The “Woman Question”

• Ibsen’s 1879 note: “Two kinds of moral laws…one for men and one…for women.”

• Married women in Norway could not borrow money without husbands’ consent.

• Women only allowed to attend university in 1882.

• Divorce laws existed but social attitudes limited female autonomy.

• Industrialisation increased middle-class expectations but social change lagged.

• Socialist feminists like Eleanor Marx debated the “Woman Question.”

• Sarah Grand coined “New Woman” in 1894 — associated with Ibsenism.

• Conservative backlash described “unwomanly women…unsexed females.”

• Stutfield criticised the “Ibsenite neuropathic school.”

• Middle-class women were major theatre audiences (12:1 ratio).

Nora is a nickname for Eleonore

• her name is diminutive

Skylark

• Owning pets was popular during the 1800s, particularly skylarks

  • They were joyous, lively, and cheap

  • They were ornaments in sitting rooms and parlours - inconsequential, but entertaining

Coverture

• Legal status of a married woman: wife was legally bound under husband’s protection and authority

• Nora = ‘femme covert’

• Christine = ‘femme sole’

Hedda Gabler 1890:

• Strong, manipulative female character

• Ibsen explores the social confinements women experiences in the 19th century

• Gabler -> her maiden name, keep identity before marriage

• Implied that Hedda Gabler is pregnant - her pregnancy is a curse rather than a gift

  • trapped in her pregnancy: pregnancy symbolises her restrictive future as an individual

  • confined to the domestic sphere

  • Hedda commits suicide in act 4 -> final act to regain control