Gender Roles in Antigone and A Doll’s House Essay Example

In both Antigone and A Doll’s House there are manyy gender roles. In Antigone, one of the main gender roles is that women are supposed to be submissive to the men who are masculine and dominant. For instance, in Antigone, Creon believes that both Antigone and Ismene were trying to gain his throne, although they were not; Antigone just wanted to give her brother a proper burial. The idea that women were supposed to be submissive to men were challenged in Antigone when Creon and HÆmon were fighting over Antigone. From HÆmon’s perspective, what Antigone did was the right thing to do. During their argument Creon believes that he is disobeying his father by fighting with him, and trying to show him where his logic is flawed. In A Doll’s House, it is also thought that women should be submissive to the male characters and rely on them completely. Nora tells Mrs. Linde that she was able to get a loan to help her husband. The reader then learns that she forged her fathers signature. When Torvald finds out, he reacts greatly by telling her that she is going to stay in the house and solely watch the kids. This thinking is important as it shows that that was expected from women at the time. 

Three main characters are the ones who rebel: Nora, Antigone, and HÆmon. Nora, because she needed the money to help her husband. Antigone, to bury her brother. Finally HÆmon, to show his father that he shouldn’t kill his wife-to-be. Something that all of them have in common is love; all of them were justified to rebel the same, as they were trying to protect the people they love. 

There are still many gender roles today. Men should be the tough ones, men are the ones who have to provide for their family. Women should stay at home and watch the children, women have to be kind and forgiving for any wrongdoing of people in the past. These gender roles have been very detrimental to our society. People are starting to break these gender roles. Men's mental health has become a big movement, along with the breaking of toxic masculinity. Men are starting to realize, not everything has to fall on them, they can be sad, happy, mad, feel and express emotions, wear makeup, nail polish, and even dresses! Some men are actually becoming stay at home husbands, or working as much as their significant other. Women are starting to become CEO’s and making good money. They are also realizing, they don’t have to be nice and forgiving to be noticed. Women are at the front lines. Women are nurses who are helping during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were the ones who were helping the men with AIDS when it was incredibly tough to get any help from doctors. They are the ones at the front lines of abortion and Black Lives Matter protests. All in all, we have come a long way from older gender roles. Although people will still uphold different gender roles, there will always be someone to break them.