A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, were both published in the 19th century, when the campaign for women's rights was beginning to take hold and make its appearance. In 1755, Corsica allowed women's suffrage, until 1769, when it passed to France. This kicked off the drive towards universal suffrage for women. This play and this story represent the last remnants of an era in the Western world when women had very few, if any, rights. Edvard Beyer, a Norwegian literary critic, commented on the 'new nobility' under the government which may have resulted in part from works such as A Doll's House: 'I don't think of course of a nobility of birth... I think of one of character, of a nobility of mind and will1'. He predicted that this would come from the working class but, above all, from women. In A Doll's House, which "opened the door to a whole new world for women2", Nora Helmer, wife of Torvald Helmer, is treated insignificantly by her husband. This is related to the title of the work. A doll is not a human being; it becomes what its owner makes of it. It has no role to play in public life. In the final act of the play, Nora certainly disputes this, saying in the final act that "before all else I am a human being." At the time this work was written, women had very few rights in public society. Ibsen reflects this by portraying Nora as having very few rights in the family. Torvald runs everything and Nora has no say in how the house is run. Unlike Wuthering Heights, which was written by a woman, Emily Brontë, it was actually written under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. Ellis is a gender-neutral name and Charlotte, one of his sisters, wrote "...we didn't like him... middle of paper... it represents his ultimate downfall." At the end of the novel, Nelly, the narrator, is well-read, even commenting that she "couldn't open a book in the library that [she] hadn't looked at." (chap. 7). She also manages the finances of the house, which, when this book was written, would have been strictly a men's affair. Having previously only taken up the narrative from chapter four onwards from Lockwood, who is condescending towards the local population, once again showing great defiance of male dominance by telling almost the entire story. Works Cited1 Ibsen: The Man and His Work, by Edvard Beyer, 1978, p.1462 Literary Analysis: A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen by Andrew Ravenscroft, p. 1http://www.helium.com/items/1121047-henrik-ibsen-dolls-house3 Concerning Emily and Anne Brontë, by Charlotte Brontë, 1850, p. xxvii (27)4 Oxford English Dictionary ©2010