`There are none so blind as will not see. ´ Discuss with reference to `A Doll´s House´ and `The Merchant´s Tale´. Ibsen and chaucer exlore the metaphorical and physical blindness of thier charcaters. Physical blindness is exhibited in "the Merchant's Tale", January is made physically blind we can we see this from "biraft hym bothe his yen", which means he deprieved from both his eyes. This is signifcant becuase not inly is January physically blind he is also metaphorically visually impaired. Blind to his wife's promiscuity with his January's servant- Damyan. Even when January regains physical sight, which is given to him from Pluto "To January he gaf agayn his sighte" he is still blind because he does not see May is in love with Damyan. Despite …show more content…
His wife Nora helps him realise when she declare she is "leaving now" her decison to leave was sparked by neglect she expreiened from Helmer. Disregarding any indapendance and respect for her, depriving her basic human treatent. This is approved when Helmer says: `First and foremost you are a wife and mother.´ Nora resonds with the obvious "First and foremost I´m a human being" but the fact she needed to state it empathises Helmer does not recognize her demands for equality and respect. Helmer initally believes Nora has no other purose other thana service to him and his chilren. Nora finally seeks indaendance from Helmer "you're not the man to help me with that, I ust do that alone". Nora experiences somewhat of an enlightenment reflecting on how she has been treated in life: "he called me his doll-child... I went rom Daddy's hands to yours". Helmer is blind to how his controlling behaviour has had the oppiste effect and has forced Nora from him. However it is important to condier the context of the 19th centuary society and its social norms. Men were expected to be the breadwinners of the family, but women had role to maintain the household and to raise the children so not responsiblity was restricted. However as highlighted in Ibsen's "A Doll's House" even the law prohibited women's freedom finicialy. Social standards also demnad Helmer to dominant both in work and within marriage, so it is not unusual for him to assume dominace and power, so the audience might be pitty his pressured position to conform and judge him less on how he treats
Sometimes they were led by seeing- eye dogs” (137). The husband built his idea of blindness from movies and he based it to reality. We call the husband blind because, he didn’t know anything about blind people. Also, the thought the blind people are different from the people who can see. In addition, what explain that the husband was blind, when he asked the blind man foolish question
In the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the seemingly judgmental narrator is faced with meeting a blind man named Robert. The narrator sees himself as superior to others and, in this instance, especially to the blind. Due to the narrator’s pretentious attitude, tension between the blind and himself is revealed when he says, “[m]y idea of blindness came from the movies” (279). In Carver’s short story “Cathedral”, the tension between literal and metaphorical blindness is most evident through the narrator’s insensitivity and bitterness towards the blind man. The character of the narrator progresses from a closed minded individual to someone who can look outside of his own perspective.
It's great ignorance to have physical sight when you are ultimately blinded by the truth that you cannot see as in the case of Oedipus. The king makes ironical statement to Teiresias of how he cannot be hurt by Teiresias (Calame, 1996). This later turn to Oedipus equating physical blinded to ignorance as he removes his eyes so as not to see his terrible actions. The play displays Oedipus two encounters of blindness.
In the story of "Cathedral" the narrator is not happy that the blind man is visiting his home and has listened to rumors and unofficial sources to form a conclusion about the blind man before he even meets him. He feels both sorry for the blind man because of the fact that he is blind and feels like the blind man is limited to learning and truly experiencing life as a whole. He learns afterwards that him and the man get along quite well and even become friends because he was not like what he expected a blind person to be at all. This theory of having heard one story and believing it is true has plagued many of our minds and I think we should be more open minded when we form opinions on something or someone . Throughout this paper I would like
Nora on the surface seems to be the epitome of a 19th-century wife, but the audience quickly realizes that she defies gender expectations with the forged loan and eventually with her separation from Helmer. Helmer not only fits perfectly into his masculine role but blindly
“His being blind bothered me” (Carver 1). In Raymond Carver’s short story Cathedral, Carver establishes an ignorant narrator, who is dependent on alcohol and fixated upon physical appearance; he juxtaposes the narrator to a blind man who sees with his heart rather than his eyes. Through indirect characterization, Carver contrasts the narcissistic narrator to the intuitive blind man while utilizing sight as a symbol of emotional understanding. He establishes the difference between looking and seeing to prove that sight is more than physical.
Nora tells Helmer, " . . . I'm a human being, no less than you-or anyway, I ought to try to become
However both woman had endured abuse and are victims of a male dominated society. Nora the wife of a banker and a mother of three children seem to have it all. Her family lives in a fancy well-furnished home and they seems to well of financially, and her husband loved her very much. However the reader soon find out that he is an egotistical controlling man that sees Nora as an absent minds child.
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.
Nora is a married woman and has children to take care of. She really has little freedom because of the way Torvald treats her. She is not even I feel as if deep down she knows she is not free and wants something more in her life then to be a entertaining puppet for Torvald. She realizes at the end of the story that Torvald is not good to her because of the way he acted when she told him about forging the signature. When Torvald called her a criminal and other harsh words she realized that she had no true love from Torvald and wanted to be free from him.
During act III, Nora asked to speak to Torvald after her performance of the tarantella dance. The following conversation demonstrated her quest for autonomy and freedom, as well as Torvald’s inadequate responses to her arguments and demands; it also showed how deeply connected her unhappy situation is with society’s regulation of the relationship between the sexes. She asserts that she is “...first and foremost a human being”, and her strong conviction that her womanhood, and the expectations associated with it, are secondary, strengthens her resolve to make a radical choice: A break with both husband and, with necessity due to her legal position, her children (Ibsen, 184). During her conversation with Torvald, she proclaims, “I have other sacred duties... The duties to myself (Ibsen, 184).”
In Fitzek’s novel “The Eye Collector”, there is a classic line which Zorbach utters nearing the end of the novel that will stick with most readers: “How could I have been so blind?” This revelation is especially striking considering the numerous warnings from the Eye Collector to Zorbach to relinquish the case. The juxtaposition of Gregoriev’s physical disability to her visions of the future complicates the plot in which the theme of metaphorical blindness is prevalent. This is further strengthened by the backward chaptering of the book and third person narration in retrospect by the unnamed narrator. This essay will discuss how the theme of metaphorical blindness is brought out through the plot devices, structure and diction used.
Initially, Nora appears to be a dependent, naïve girl, yet as the play unfolds, we see her as strong, independent woman, willing to make sacrifices for those who she cares about as well as herself. Henrik Ibsen uses symbolism in order to portray Nora’s sovereignty from the strict social guidelines of morality and appearances in 19th century Norway. The Helmer household is portrayed as the ideal and typical family in 19th century Norway. The Helmer’s home represents the standard middle class home, which is described in the stage directions as a “comfortable and tastefully, but not expensively furnished home.”
Though Nora is the protagonist of the play, there are also other female characters that are present. Anne Marie is shown as the Helmers’ caretaker, she is a woman who deeply cares for Nora’s family. Her character plays as a foreshadowing of the events that happen in the end of the play. Anne Marie’s story about giving up on her daughter to take care of Nora as a child had triggered Nora to an extent. In this scene, Nora might have seen it as an event that leads her to find self identity.
She was keen to become a mother but failed; still she did not leave her husband in his old age as she understood the responsibilities of a wife. She decided to go away with the tramp only when Dan compelled her to do so because of his own doubts. She understood the value of family-system and the safety a woman feels in her house, but was unhappy because she could not have any kids with Dan. 42 Nora, also rejects Michael and