Economic Dependence and Patriarchal Marriage in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Ghosts

Abstract

Henrik Ibsen’s domestic dramas critically expose the structural oppression embedded within nineteenth-century patriarchal marriage. This article examines the relationship between economic dependence and female subordination in A Doll’s House and Ghosts, arguing that Ibsen presents marriage not merely as an emotional institution but as an economic and ideological structure that limits women’s autonomy and individuality. Through the characters of Nora Helmer and Mrs. Alving, Ibsen dramatises two distinct responses to patriarchal oppression: rebellion and endurance. Drawing upon Marxist feminism, Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of “the Other,” and Michel Foucault’s concept of disciplinary social structures, this paper analyses how women’s financial dependence reinforces patriarchal authority while simultaneously shaping female identity, morality, and motherhood. The article further situates the plays within the socio-economic and legal conditions of nineteenth-century Norway, where women’s legal and financial rights remained severely restricted. By comparing Nora’s decision to leave domestic confinement with Mrs. Alving’s prolonged sacrifice within marriage, the paper demonstrates how patriarchal society transforms women into symbolic and economic dependents whose individuality is subordinated to social respectability and masculine authority.