Literary Criticism

Last week in class we learned about the different literary criticism techniques.  An example of one of these literary criticisms is a gender role criticism.  The play "A Doll House" can be viewed in a gender role lens very easily.  Some of the characters in "A Doll House" have gender roles that are opposite those accepted by the society at the time that the play was written.  During the time period that this play was written the society was very male dominant and the man of the house was also supposed to be the breadwinner.  In this family however the gender roles are reversed and when Torvold cant bring in enough money to support his family Nora has to take out that loan to keep the family going.  The fact that she does this in secret and doesn't even tell her husband about it shows the extent to which he would be shamed if he or anyone else found out about the loan.  She could also be seen as the controlling presence in the house.  This is completely contrasting to the gender roles accepted by the society of the time.  The wife is supposed to be obedient and do what the husband says.  Their view of women is a very stereotypical view where the woman stays home and cooks and cleans and is obedient.  This is not the case in this family however.  Nora gets what she wants every time.  She manipulates Torvald into doing whatever it she wants or getting whatever she wants.  She then uses this power, which going by society she shouldn't have, to help cover up the loan that she took out that would be severely frowned upon by the entire society.

Gender role criticism doesn't always have to be contradicting the social norms of the time however.  A book can have all of the gender roles fit right in where they are supposed to fit and then they aren't really criticizing anything.  In "A Doll House"  the author is criticizing the male dominance of society and the lack of freedom that women have to make decisions for themselves in the time period that this play takes place.  Another example of a book I read this year that can be viewed under the gender role lens is The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.  In this book the female characters are very powerful and seem to have dominance over the male characters in a society where men have all of the power.