Correspondingly, in Woman at Point Zero Firdaus is treated immorally throughout the novel, due to societal expectations in Egypt during the 1900s. Similar to women of the Victorian era, Nora is not her own person, but the person that Torvald and other members of society expect her to be her true self is hidden underneath the façade she constructs to adhere to societal expectations. Although Woman at Point Zero and A Doll’s house are different genres, and take place in two different cultures one hundred years apart, they share the theme of mistreatment of women in society and women having to conceal their authentic identities to survive. The novel portrays Firdaus, who is subjected to patriarchal oppression as the victim of financial, mental and physical abuse and is forced to live by conforming to a controlling masculine society. Influenced by her own experiences in the Qanatir prison as a psychiatrist El-Saadawi questions age-old traditions in Egypt during the 1900s that dehumanise women. A married woman’s primary role in Norway during the 1800s was being subservient to her husband. Nora and Torvald’s relationship was typical in a Norwegian upper-middle class home in the late 19th Century.
Henrik Ibsen and Nawal El-Saadawi hide the individualities of Nora and Firdaus in their play and novel respectively from the other characters, however, the audience are able to see the characters fulfilling the expected gender stereotype of the societies they lived in through lies and deceit to keep their identities concealed. In both A Doll’s House and Woman at Point Zero, the female protagonists are forced to suppress their identities.
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