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Similarities Between The Awakening And A Doll's House

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In the stories, The Awakening by Kate Chopin and A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen Edna Pontellier and Nora Helmer face personal responsibility issues, and disregard their roles as mothers, wives, and a beloved friend. These stories portray two female characters who are similar in many ways and are finding themselves in a troubled time in their lives. In the 1800’s one's role as a women was to nurture the kids, cook and clean as they were also providing for their husband. In the The Awakening the main female protagonists Edna Pontellier was an ordinary wife but it all changed when she started seeing Robert Lebrun, another man who was not her husband. This was a huge personal issue that many did not know about, and eventually caused her to disregard …show more content…

“One day I might, yes. Many years from now, when I’ve lost my looks a little. Don’t laugh. I mean, of course, a time will come when Torvald is not as devoted to me, not quite so happy when I dance for him, and dress for him, and play with him.” ( Ibsen 4 ). This quote is said when Nora tells Mrs Linde that she will tell Torvald about the loan when he loses interest in her after her looks flow away because she knows that Torvald loves her souly based on her looks and eventually he will fade away and not love her like she used to, so she puts her marriage first but the qualities of a marriage last. She should have trusted him and told him about the loan instead of lying or keeping away the truth. “From now on, forget happiness. Now it’s just about saving the remains, the wreckage, the appearance” ( Ibsen 2). This is Torvalds reaction to the “crime”, instead of caring about the relationship he wants to save their appearance in society. “ I have been performing tricks for you, Torvald. That’s how I’ve survived. You wanted it like that. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. It’s because of you I’ve made nothing of my life” ( Ibsen 4). After countless times of evaluating her marriage Nora speaks out and claims she has been living a lie. Her life has been nothing and it is all Torvalds fault. She finally understands it's time for her to be independant and find her own

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1360 Words | 6 Pages

Nora tends to believe this stereotype and this inferiority, and as a result tends to ignore who she really is and how she feels. Furthermore, Ibsen manipulates the language throughout the play to show Torvalds’s superiority “Helmer. So my little Nora has come to that conclusion, has she?” comparing the quotations above, we can see that Ibsen tries to portray controversy of genders making Torvald superior to Nora. Both quotations make Nora mediocre.

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666 Words | 3 Pages

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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998 Words | 4 Pages

Oh, thank you, Torvald; I can manage no end on this” (Ibsen 786). This quote helps prove Torvald loves his wife by giving her money or considering giving it to her. This was a big sign of love even if it’s not viewed that way today. During the nineteenth century, it was not considered normal for a woman to be in control of finances. I think Torvald knew his wife was capable and that he trusted her.

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

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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1115 Words | 5 Pages

Instead of coming clean and telling Torvald the truth and asking for help, she tries her hardest to help and save Krogstad’s job but Torvald is set on firing him. Nora shows how strong and determined of a woman she truly is by never asking for help from anyone to pay back Krogstad. She pays him back for the loan by herself by working little side jobs to make any money she can to pay him back. All the money that Nora gets for herself goes to paying back Krogstad for the loan that she used to save Torvalds’s life.

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409 Words | 2 Pages

In this light, it became quite clear as to why Nora stayed with Torvald for as long as she did. Nora was not aware of the world of opportunities to live a different life and to set a course for her future, independent of men. Throughout her life, she had always been a chattel, first her father’s and then Torvald’s. It wasn’t until she rekindled her friendship with Kristina Linde, that she realized that there was a different way to live, igniting the spark that finally allowed her to leave Torvald.

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1289 Words | 6 Pages

Nora’s marriage to her husband Torvald makes her so restricted that she is more of an object to play with to Torvald, not a real wife. Lastly, Nora lets in why she was never a strong, independent women in the first place. She is the subject of dismissive behavior because her father raised her to be

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588 Words | 3 Pages

While this is true, the article “Recasting "A Doll House": Narcissism As Character Motivation in Ibsen's Play” suggests that Victorian standards have caused Torvald to have a need for Nora to inflate his masculinity and narcissism while Nora needs a miracle due to what the perfect Victorian marriage makes them believe. Both characters have similar aspirations within their marriage both of which are disappointed making it so that the two are victims of the ideas given to them through their society. While Torvald may be sexist, they too are victims as he lives in a society that confines his view so that he is incapable of understanding women’s

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578 Words | 3 Pages

From their age and the time period this play takes place in, Nora and Torvald have been married for at least ten years. Their relationship between each other looks well on the outside. IN reality their relationship is very shady, because their personality are the complete opposite of each other. Torvald is a lawyer who is very carefully with his money and stingy. From what I

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802 Words | 4 Pages

Analyzing Nora’s both enriching and alienating experience with exile further reveals the ideas Ibsen intended to convey. From a broad perspective, Torvald represents the traditional, patriarchal structure that makes men the head of the household and women subservient to men. His character also signifies such a society’s insecurity toward the threats of woman empowerment. Having the antagonist symbolize society at the time the play was written was Ibsen’s way of challenging such established social values including but not limited to the confining gender roles, evident in Nora and Torvald’s relationship. Moreover, the latter also portrays the importance of reputation, which was the last straw in Nora’s abandonment of her marriage.

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741 Words | 3 Pages

The relationship Torvald has with his wife Nora was by no means a perfect one, as no relationship is. The way he talked to her was in such a belittling manner. He spoke this way towards her because he wanted to prove to everyone and himself that he is the man and he is in control of his relationship. During the late 19th century, it was normal to have a man speaking down to his wife. When he and his wife would get into a scuffle or even full blown arguments he was always worried about himself and how the outcome of her actions were going to affect him.

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380 Words | 2 Pages

This quotation proves that Ibsen has not created a feminist play, because had Ibsen been a feminist, the play would close with Nora reaching a state of self-discovery, rather than simply escaping her problems. Nora's brain boggling personality proves to be hard to anticipate to the very end, when she decides to relinquish her duties to her husband and youngsters to focus on herself, to serve her own particular needs for individuality. Certainly, Nora easily refuses to be the "doll" in Torvald's house anymore, once she realizes that they have never exchanged a serious word in their relationship despite their discussion days earlier about Krogstad or about matters of cash. Regardless, as Marvin Rosenberg writes in "Ibsen's Nora," it is the "humanizing faults that make her so empowering;" such as how she munches on macaroons illegal by Torvald, and when he discovers the sweets, she lies: her companion brought them, or how, in response to her husband's request about the scratches on the mailbox, she absolves herself by blaming the scratches on her

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1129 Words | 5 Pages

Ugh!” (Ibsen, p. 39) Nora was ready to come out with everything in order to feel free from a burden that she has carry away for too long. But Torvald, was just concern on how to keep the secret, this can be appreciate when he established: “I must try to pacify him in one way or another- the matter must be hushed up, cost what it may-. As for you and me, we must make no outward change in our way or life-

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759 Words | 4 Pages

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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958 Words | 4 Pages

This unhappy secret must be disclosed; they must have a couple understanding between them, which is impossible with all this concealment and falsehood going on,” (Ibsen 52). Mrs. Linde is well aware of Nora’s secret and the consequences that would follow if Torvald found out. When Torvald finds out about the letter, he is only worried about his reputation and his appearance. Torvald says, “From this moment happiness is not the question; all that concerns us it to save the remains, the

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