VICTORIAN DOCILITY NORMS SUBVERTED IN IBSEN’S A DOLL’S HOUSE AND SHAW’S CANDIDA

Abstract

In the 19th century femininity was constructed upon docility norms and on the role played by a woman in the family either as wife to her husband or mother to her children. A docile woman is a woman who is submissive, devoid of freedom to decide on her body and self, and conforms to the de-fleshed image of femininity created by patriarchy. Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Candida in Bernard Shaw’s Candida are female characters who reject or subvert the docility norms of the 19th century by trying to build an independent identity for themselves and refusing the roles imposed on them by the traditional patriarchal society. Employing Luce Irigaray’s term ‘disruptive excess,’ they represent ‘disruptive excess’ who do not conform to the image of femininity created by the 19th patriarchal ideology. This paper studies A Doll’s House and Candida in terms of how Nora and Candida question patriarchal codes of thinking and subvert with their behavior, ideas, or personal change the docility norms they are expected to conform in the marriage institution of the late Victorian era.

Keywords

• docility
• subversion
• patriarchal
• social role

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