Ways of Looking: Male Gaze in Henrik Ibsen’s When We Dead Awaken

Abstract

This article is an attempt to study Henrik Ibsen’s drama ‘When We Dead Awaken’ from the point of view of male gaze theory. It reveals that exposition of women’s body in nudity as an art is another form of male exploitation of female. In this environment, a woman becomes source of pleasure for males who gaze women to fulfill their erotic desires. In doing so, this article explores how a woman loses her identity and individuality in male dominated society that evaluates and defines woman as a sexual object.