Individuality In A Doll's House

Most critics around the world believe the play led to increase awareness on the need for women’s rights in all continents, on the other hand some critics opine that the play depicted women as inferior creatures and dolls who have no personality of their own. Nora Helmer the main character strives to achieve the perfect concepts of life set by the society and her husband. Nora is trapped in her home where her Torvald has built a wonderful life for his ‘doll wife’. Nora’s transformation comes when she discovers the role in doll house imposed on her by the society and her husband and she is desperate to free herself in order to discover her identity.

The play ensues with Loureen raising her voice to her beloved abusive husband, when she challenges his authority he vanishes. This is where the plots play takes flight as Loureen is left awestruck by his disappearance. She is left confused on the way forward; she does not know how to carry on with life without her husband while feelings of despair and resentment reside within her. She questions whether she is murderer or victim and is left puzzled while trying to piece together the fragments of her life now that she is rid of the monster and freed from his gripping claws. We see the typical symptoms of battered woman syndrome, being displayed by Loureen, as she goes back and forth between memories of her husband and trying to figure her way

When I had reached the heart wrenching moment, I could not help but cry for Avery’s loss. Closing in on the last few chapters, I could feel fresh tears streaming down my face. Avery Roe suffered the loss of her first love, the rejection and death of her grandmother, and finally realized why her mother had locked her away in their grand mansion. For her mother, instead of getting heartbroken, she felt failure every time she made spells, and it was her own daughter that broke her heart.

Nanny who has been Janie’s caretaker has several hopes and dreams for her granddaughter. Nanny is not entirely perfect at her job of raising Janie, since her dreams for her are clouded by her own scarring experiences. Nanny attempts to insure a better life for Janie by forcing her to marry Logan Killicks, an old and wealthy man. Blinded by her own dreams, hopes, and desires, Nanny makes many impositions on Janie, “Have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate” (Hurston 20).

After she barges into Crook’s room, she complains in self-deprecation that she is “‘[s]tandin’ here talkin’ to a bundle of bindle stiffs -- a n***er an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep --and likin’ it because they ain’t nobody else’” (78). She is cruel to Crooks, Lennie, and Candy instead of feeling empathetic because she is ashamed to acknowledge that once her makeup is wiped away she too is just as pathetic. Like them, she is powerless and shunned by society. However, while the men are are conversing about their dreams without aversion, Curley’s wife is snubbed for her reputation as a seductress, so as “she looked from one face to another, they were all closed against her” (79).

The 1920s is a time of technological, economical, and social exploration. Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan display the full image of what it is like to be a women in New York during the 1920s. They each have a personal struggle with society and the fight between what they want and what is expected of them. Each of these women wants to experience the glamor of the 1920s but has to maintain some of the traditional elegance of a woman. If the neglect to do so, they are treated harshly by society.

Vivie, the daughter of Mrs Warren, is an unconventional woman by Victorian standards: she is cold, calculative, and driven by education and money. However, her personality is complex: she is also capable of displaying an empathetic and understanding side. The audience sees the latter when Vivie discovers that her mother was previously a prostitute in order to survive. Vivie’s vulnerable and sensible side is shown briefly; it disappears when Croft states that he and Mrs Warren continue to run a series of brothels across Europe. This event is pivotal to Vivie’s character; from then on, she loses the developing warmth she had for her mother, and completely blocks all romantic feelings from her life.

For example, the affair between Abigail Williams and John Proctor. Abigail used to serve under the Proctor household as a servant, but ever since the affair, Abigail has long lusted for John Proctor. She is jealous of Elizabeth Proctor for having John Proctor as a husband, and therefore hates her, especially after Elizabeth had found out about the adultery and kicked Abigail out of the house. Later during the crisis, Abigail meets with John Proctor and she talks about their affair. John Proctor constantly refuses to accept their past affair, and Abigail becomes heartbroken.

Jane hated that Mr. Rochester bought pretty jewelleries and dresses for her;” the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation” (Brontë, 321). One can interpret this as Jane worries that the marriage would lessen her independence and put her at an inferior position. The fact that Mr. Rochester buys her all these things makes Jane feel objectified, and she could not tolerate it. Once again, this signals the feministic opinions that the character of Jane is associated with. Jane and Mr. Rochester does not get married during this section of the book, due to the fact that he is already in a marriage.

Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a play set in 19th century Norway, when women’s rights were restricted and social appearance was more important than equality and true identity. In A Doll’s House, Nora represents 19th century women entrapped by society to fulfill wifely and motherly obligations, unable to articulate or express their own feelings and desires. Ibsen uses Nora’s characterization, developed through her interactions with others as well as her personal deliberations and independent actions, language and structure in order to portray Nora’s movement from dependence to independence, gaining sovereignty from the control of her selfish husband, deceitful marriage and the strict social guidelines of morality in 19th century Norway. Initially, Nora appears to be a dependent, naïve, and childlike character; yet, as the play unfolds, she appears to be a strong, independent woman who is willing to make sacrifices for those she cares about as well as herself.

Rosemary Almond was a housewife that was abused by her husband, Derek Almond. Throughout the book we saw that she really loved her husband, but because of the stress that her husband was going through with the terrorist on the loose and the pressure from the leader he was mean and abusive towards her. She played one of the damsels in distress in the book because she was in situations where she needed to be rescued. First by her husband who abused her and almost shot her, but decided not to because the gun was not loaded. We can see that he hurt her badly in panel 6, page 65 where there was a red spot on her clothes because he slapped her and hit her for asking for them to be intimate.

John Proctor fears his name’s identity, which is evident near the end of the play when he resists Deputy Danforth and Reverend Hale’s posting his name on the church door, accusing him of witchcraft (IV.712-717). John Proctor is Elizabeth Proctor’s husband, who involved in an affair with Abigail Williams when she was still working as the Proctor’s maid. Elizabeth fires Abigail, once she realizes her maid and her husband’s covert relationship. Elizabeth’s dismissal causes Abigail to become very angry, for women had little power at the time, let alone unmarried women like herself. By playing her Mafia-like wailing and doll piercing games and forcing the other Salem girl to participate, Abigail determines to terminate Elizabeth and keep John for herself (460-473).

Even though both Romeo and Friar hoped for a happy ending with the Montagues and Capulets, it did not end up that way. Despite their good intentions, both characters contributed to the deaths in this tragic play. All of the mistakes made prove enemies can never be

‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!’” (Fitzgerald 130). Gatsby continues to use words that convey possession. He expresses that Daisy “never loved” her husband Tom as if Gatsby knows this for certain.

The other men in her life [being Kelso and Hyde] either abandoned her, cheated on her, or were incapable of committing to her. It is easy enough to imagine Jackie decades later, broken hearted and alone. Why wouldn’t she pine for the admirer who was never really there? Fez is her attempt to turn a tragedy into a fairy tale, but even she knows that her wish can never come true. This is why she can never give him a real identity.