Human Relationships In 'Othello And A Doll's House'

One of the most common subjects to write about is human relationships, and most commonly that of marriage between a man and woman. In a relationship the partners will always have something to struggle against whether they know what it is or not. I will be comparing two plays, the first is “Othello” by William Shakespeare, and the second is “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen. In both plays the main characters undergo a dissolution of a marriage, with the instigating factor being the antagonist of the play. In “Othello” the married couple are Othello and Desdemona, they have just been married, with Othello being named the general in charge of defending Cyprus and Desdemona the Daughter of a Venetian senator. The antagonist of Othello is Iago the “ancient” or standard bearer to Othello. In “A Doll’s House” the couple is Torvald Helmer, a lawyer and newly selected manager for a high profile bank. His wife is Nora, who has born them three children in the eight years they have been married. The antagonist is Nils Krogstad, an employee at the bank and the lien holder for a debt that Nora has taken out in order for them to take a

This leads to Othello trusting the word of Iago, and ultimately leads to misconstrued meanings about the handkerchief falling into Cassio’s hands and the complete mistrust of Desdemona by Othello. In “A Doll’s House” Krogstad ends up writing a letter to Torvald about How his wife forged her father’s signature on a loan agreement and how if he didn’t rehire him with a promotion he was going to come forward with that information and ruin both Torvald and Nora’s reputations. It is during Torvald’s rant to Nora, that he blames her for her previous actions that will cause his ruin that Nora realizes that she is nothing more to him than a bird in a cage to be looked at or a doll to play