This paper discusses the role of women in literature. By the Modernist period, the roles of women, in works of literature, as well as in life, were changing. Whereas in Romantic or Victorian literature the female characters had mainly served as background players or love interests, they were now being portrayed as complete human beings with thoughts and agendas beyond those of the dutiful wife or fair maiden. As a result of this female empowerment, the men in modernist literature found their roles changing as well. This metamorphosis is played out in Henrik Ibsen's, "A Doll's House", in which the character of Nora Helmer spends the first two acts doing her best to keep up appearances as the ever respectful wife, but by the end of the play, has had her modernist "moment of epiphany" and claims her independence, while her husband is left with the children and his head in his hands.
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