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Blindness In The Merchant's Tale

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`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

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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

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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.

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Nora tells Helmer, " . . . I'm a human being, no less than you-or anyway, I ought to try to become

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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.”

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