From silenced portrait to liberated self: A feminist-existentialist reading of female agency in “My Last Duchess” and A Doll’s House

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative feminist-existentialist reading of female agency in Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, through the theoretical frameworks of Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of woman as the “Other” and Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of mauvaise foi (bad faith). The study examines how both the Duchess and Nora Helmer are subjected to patriarchal power structures that deny them autonomy, identity, and freedom. Drawing on de Beauvoir, the analysis explores how these women are positioned as subordinate “Others,” defined entirely in relation to male authority and denied full subjecthood. Sartre’s existentialist lens reveals how both characters inhabit roles constructed by social expectations: the Duchess remains entrapped in a static, aestheticized identity curated by her husband, while Nora initially performs the role of the obedient wife, suppressing her authentic self in the process. The paper reveals a spectrum of female resistance within these texts. While the Duchess remains silenced, both literally and symbolically, within the male gaze, Nora undergoes a profound existential transformation. Her final decision to abandon her domestic role and pursue self-realization signifies a rupture from mauvaise foi and the pursuit of authentic existence. In this context, the paper identifies Nora as a literary alter ego of the Duchess: a counterpoint whose rebellion and self-liberation illuminate what the Duchess was denied. This juxtaposition not only deepens the understanding of gendered oppression and existential denial but also offers a continuum of female subjectivity from passive objectification to radical self-assertion. Ultimately, the study underscores how these canonical works continue to speak powerfully to contemporary debates on gender, autonomy, and the existential pursuit of freedom.