One major aspect of Naturalism is to view events objectively. Objectivity cannot be pure in a concept provided by male minds and is in conflict with certain aspects of feminism. Laura Mulvey argues in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” that point-of-view is always male, and women are objectified in the male lens. The term “lens” is cinematic, but it can easily be transferred to the theatrical realm from the point of view of the audience. Helene Cixous asserts in “The Laugh of Medusa” that “woman must write woman. And man, man.” Thus, objectivity cannot be present because written art is presented through a gendered lens. Using specific examples that include Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, and the previously mentioned essays by Laura Mulvey and Helene Cixous, I will discuss the problems of Naturalism’s objectivity in its conflict with Feminism.
     Ibsen’s categorization of himself as a Naturalist and a Feminist is conflicting both with the concept of Naturalism and with Feminism, ironically. Part of Naturalist theory is to observe events unfolding, well, naturally. A play cannot be viewed as Naturalistic because the end is already written; there are no events that unfold objectively. The lines are pre-determined as well as the characters, and thus Naturalism cannot definitively be a conceptual part of a play. In addition to categorizing himself as a Naturalist, Ibsen also categorized himself as a Feminist. Hedda Gabler certainly makes a statement about the role of women but does not promote equal rights and thus cannot necessarily be claimed as a Feminist work. The title character, Hedda, is unsubmissive, expressive, and forward – all characteristics not expected in women at that time. She marries simply because she felt she was getting too old in the eyes of society to remain unmarried. Hedda, in a conversation with Judge Brack, comments,
     HEDDA: I really had danced myself out, Judge. My time was up. [With a slight shudder] Ugh! No, I don’t want to say

     that. Or think it, either. 
     BRACK: You certainly have no reason to.
     HEDDA: Oh—reasons— [Watching him carefully] And George Tesman—he is, after all, a thoroughly dependable

     and acceptable choice.
     BRACK: Acceptable and dependable, beyond a doubt.
Hedda is not in love with Tesman. In fact, she hardly admires or respects him at all. Hence, she has married out of a felt necessity, and when she does not fit into her expected roles of wife and potential mother, she views suicide as her only option. Ergo, the moral of the story: independent and assertive women have no place in society. As a male playwright, Henrik Ibsen reestablishes his role as a male through the sacrifice of his female character, Hedda. Naturalism and Feminism both conflict with Ibsen’s choice of art and his particular work, Hedda Gabbler.
     Not only do Naturalism and Feminism both conflict with aspects of Ibsen’s work, but they also conflict with each other. In Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” the author discusses the male gaze – how in Hollywood cinema the camera is not an objective lens, but is in fact a masculine lens. Mulvey asserts,
     In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and

     passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly.

     In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance

     coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. Woman

     displayed as sexual object is the leitmotif of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to strip-tease, from Ziegfeld to Busby

     Berkeley, she holds the look, and plays to and signifies male desire.
Mulvey’s theory can be easily transferred to the theatrical environment. Part of the definition of Naturalism is viewing things through objective observation. Objectivity is difficult to accomplish in art, since one of the purposes of art is to make a statement. Also, art is created through a gendered lens. As Helene Cixous writes in “The Laugh of Medusa,” “I write woman: woman must write woman. And man, man. So only an oblique consideration will be found here of man; it’s up to him to say where his masculinity and femininity are at: this will concern us once men have opened their eyes and seen themselves clearly.” Writing has been dominated by men for centuries, and therefore the voice of women has been spoken through men. This inaccurate representation is a subjugation of women in that women’s right to speak as themselves is being held instead in the hands of men. Cixous insists that “woman must write woman” because only a woman can provide a woman’s voice in literature and other arts. Thus, plays and literary works cannot be written objectively, naturalistically, because gender is a prominent influence on writing.
     Susan Glaspell’s Trifles presents objectivity between genders by having the women take a dialectical approach to the case of Mr. Wright’s murder, as opposed to the men who conclude that Mrs. Wright committed the murder and search for evidence to support their claim. This play is an example of Cixous’ insistence of women writing women; Glaspell, as a woman, provides a voice for women. Contrastingly, Glaspell can be seen as a more Naturalistic playwright than Ibsen. In Trifles, Glaspell includes female characters that unfold pieces of the narrative being investigated, and does not include a concrete conclusion. The men in the play, George Henderson, the county attorney, Henry Peters, the sheriff, and Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer, are all convinced that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband and proceed to look for evidence. They brush over what they view as unimportant:
     COUNTY ATTORNEY [looking around]   I guess we’ll go upstairs first—and then out to the barn and around there.

     [To the SHERIFF] You’re convinced that there was nothing important here—nothing that would point to any motive.
     SHERIFF   Nothing here but kitchen things.
     …
     HALE   Well, women are used to worrying over trifles. These men in their misogyny are also quite ignorant. The

     women, who remain in the kitchen while the men do their investigating, end up finding quite a bit of evidential

     information, piecing together a narrative:
     MRS. HALE   Mrs. Peters, looks at this one. Here, this is the one she was working on, and look at the sewing! All the

     rest of it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what

     she was about!
This discovery is one example of evidence the women manage to find amongst the “trifles,” categorized as such by the men in the play. Though the women are objective in the beginning in their opinion of Mrs. Wright’s innocence, by sorting through evidence they side with Mrs. Wright and believe Mr. Wright to have been guilty of Mrs. Wright’s metaphoric murder. Objectivity is difficult to accomplish, especially with gender difference. Hence, naturalism and feminism clash again in Trifles.
     Viewing events objectively is a difficult task; influence by feelings, previous experiences and gender is hard to ignore. The problems of Naturalism’s objectivity—the male gaze, gender influence, male origin—are prevalent and conflict with Feminist ideals. Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler is not Naturalistic because of its preconceived conclusion and conflicts with Feminism because of said conclusion; Ibsen kills Hedda to save the male position. Glaspell’s Trifles presents gendered differences in objectivity, and a voice for women provided by a woman. Conclusively, the Naturalistic ideal of objectivity is nearly impossible and conflicts with Feminism.

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Works Cited

Cixous, Helene. “The Laugh of Medusa.” The Critical Tradition: Classical Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. 1454-1466. Print.

Ibsen, Henrik. “Hedda Gabler.” The Norton Anthology of Drama. Ed. J. Ellen Gainor, Stanton B. Garner, Jr., and Martin Puchiner. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. 200-254. Print.

Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles.” The Norton Anthology of Drama. Ed. J. Ellen Gainor, Stanton B. Garner, Jr., and Martin Puchiner. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. 475-486. Print.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” The Critical Tradition: Classical Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. 1445-1453. Print.