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Comparing Reputation In A Doll's House And Cyrano De Bergerac

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The most that characters can hope for are two things: their reputations stay intact and the reader has a higher respect for said reputation by the end of the story. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House revolves a housewife’s secret in nineteenth century Norway and Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano De Bergerac tells a tale about the love of a man with a physical flaw. In the two stories, reputation is either given up for love or put first. But in what order the characters rank honor is when the fates of each character will truly be decided. The similarities of upholding honor in A Doll’s House and Cyrano De Bergerac are there so that the seriousness of reputation in life itself is emphasized. The emphasis is justified when characters in both stories are forced to choose between keeping and losing their reputation. Reputation sometimes is all …show more content…

Nora is not concern about keeping her honor but selflessly more concerned with her husband’s honor. While taking into consideration Torvald’s reputation, Nora informs Kristine the negative effect sharing her secret would have on Torvald when she remarks, “besides Torvald, with all his masculine pride-how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me” (Ibsen 1030). Nora’s genuine care and prior knowledge to how important reputation is to her husband displays how important protecting honor is. Nora is not the only one concerned with protecting her husband’s honor so is Torvald himself. Torvald answer contradicts what Nora believes to be important in maintaining honor in their relationship: “I’d gladly work for you day and night - and take on pain and deprivation. But there’s no one who gives up honor for love” (1077) Torvald’s words describe how he truly believes reputation trumps the love he has for Nora. The importance of honor is a running theme in A Doll’s House and placing it first is the most important to each

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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.

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Nora expected Torvald to take the blame for her mistakes “When he’d done that, I was so utterly sure that you’d step forward, take the blame on yourself and say: I am the guilty one” (592). While Nora does say that she would defend her husband if he were to do so, Nora wanted Torvald to attempt to take the blame for her illegally borrowing money. She was so used to Torvald consistently taking care of her, Nora expected him to swoop in and take save her in her time of need. A husband and wife should be able to defend each other and ensure the other’s safety but even more importantly, Nora should have been able to be honest with Torvald from the

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Torvald tells her that Nora has a duty as a mother and a wife but Nora tells him that “she is an individual”, showing that she is finally putting herself on par with Torvald, and no longer allowing Torvald to control her, but instead she is trying to gain independence and liberation from social norms in order to break free from the “Doll’s House.” She tells him that she must leave him, because “for eight years [she’d] been living with a stranger”, emphasising how there was never any proper communication and mutual understanding between them, and hence no proper marriage, as she didn’t actually know what his true character was like up until that night, as she was convinced all along that Torvald would be the man to take everything upon

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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).”

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