Modern Women in Dilemma: A Study of Sham Marriages in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and Ghosts and Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession and Candida

Abstract

This article entitled "Sham Marriages in Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' and 'Ghosts' and Bernard Shaw's 'Mrs. Warren's Profession' and Candida'" examines the hypocritical marriages in the authors' plays investigates the failure or collapse of 19th-century marriages in Europe. The article assumes that Ibsen's "A Doll's House" and "Ghosts" and Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession" and "Candida" are pulpits for the exposition of fake marriages in the Norwegian and Victorian societies. Seen from the perspective of Marxist feminism, this article postulates that the plays of Ibsen and Shaw are profound social commentaries designed to expose the faults in the family and marriage in the nineteenth century. In the plays of both authors, one of the most difficult conflicts in the average family revolves around the issue of finance. The authors use this common source of domestic dispute as a major theme in portraying the imperfections of the typical home. The paper argues that, unlike many studies that have read Nora, Mrs. Alving, Candida, and Vivie as different characters, they can be considered as the same New Woman represented only from different perspectives in how they react to their marital dilemmas in the four plays. While the present study considers Candida and Mrs. Alving as philistines who choose to stay at home to protect marriage conventions, Nora is seen as a rebel who chooses to abandon the conventional matrimonial life to find her true identity. Be it Candida and Mrs. Alving who stay or Nora who leaves. This work holds that the decisions of all female characters, although in different forms, thwart Victorian standards and make their husbands and societies reflect deeply on the institution of marriage. Instead of seeing Candida as one who conspires against her gender and Nora as one who conspires against patriarchy in favour of her gender, the article concludes that the different decisions of the two heroines are all geared towards achieving meaningful change for their gender.