Nora, in A Doll’s House, and Tom, in The Glass Menagerie, are similar protagonists yet have very different characteristics. Both of them left their family that destroyed the family in some way in turn acting very selfishly, yet Tom has done worse in his circumstances because Amanda and Laura were dependant on him. Nora was a doll wife. She was coddled by her husband Torvald and realised she was really a doll at the end. She showed signs of really wanting to rebel by doing small acts of eating macaroons when they were forbidden, to a big act of breaking the law to get a loan to save her husband’s life. She also bargains with him a little when she says, “Your squirrel would run about and do all her tricks if you would be nice, and do what she wants(Ibsen 34).” So when she put the puzzle pieces together that she was a doll, she decided to go adventure and really experience life. That very important experience everyone should make so they can make decisions of their own, but at the price of leaving her husband without a wife and children without a mother even though Torvald was willing to change. Tom had a different yet similar experience. He had to provide financial support to his mother and sister because their father left them. Tom hates his job and wants to go find himself like young men at his age do but can’t due to his sister not able to provide for herself and no suitor coming her way. After an argument with his mother about the gentleman caller he brought to his
When Torvald finds her hairpin stuck in the keyhole of the letter box, Nora tells him it must have been their children trying to get into it, not willing to admit that she had tried to break into his things. Although the truth about her is about to be discovered, Nora wants to preserve the last bits of dignity that she has left, finally worrying about herself before anyone else. This last lie however, leads up to her finally speaking the truth and expressing that she no longer feels that she loves Torvald. Her husband is furious at her, insulting her, and fails to see that every lie that she told was for his sake. Realizing that Torvald can’t see her side of things and will only find fault in what she did, she comes to her decision to leave her family. Nora states that she is not happy and never really was, her marriage to Torvald was as fakes as a doll house according to her. Rather than lie, she is completely honest now and states that she wants to become her own person and learn that which she doesn’t know despite what society might think.
Nora and her husband have just found money through her husband’s raise at the bank, but Noar is unhappy with her relationship with Herman. “I mean that I was just passed from Papa’s hands to yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I had all the same taste’s” (Isben 1606). Nora is not happy with where she is in the relationship. She is just being led like cattle, but she is now leaving so she will not have to deal with it anymore. “I’m leaving right now” (Ibsen 1606). There are similarities and differences in these aspects between the two plays. Tom in The Glass Menagerie is also sympathized for, but he is not the center of attention until the end of the play. Laura and Jim are the center of attention. This is until the audience finds out Jim and his girlfriend Betty are “going to be married the second of June” (Williams 1656). The tone in this play can be seen as gloomy. Not one character in this play has found what they want in life. Tom wants happiness, his mother wants a good man, and Laura wants a husband to love her. Tom in The Glass Menagerie wants to better his career and life, and Nora in A Doll’s house wants to better herself and pay back the debt she owes to Krogstad. In the end they both achieve their goal.In The Glass Menagerie Tom leaves to find a better life for himself, but he is then left with thinking about his sister and how he did her wrong. “Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you
Nora is trapped in her own house, in her own society as being a woman and the role they have. "I shall not allow you to bring up the children; I dare not trust them to you" (line 242). Torvald says to be own wife, taking away her most prized possession and the ones she loves the most and since she's a woman and Torvald is the man of the house, he is allowed to do it. One of Nora's friends, Mrs. Linden just married a man who recently passed away just for the money because women in that time aren't allowed to own the money that the family brings in, thinking Mrs. Linden would get all the money she got nothing. Then she meets Mr. Krogstad again and she's willing to sell her body once again for money and a way of living. "What a difference! Someone to work for and live for--a home to bring comfort into" (line 84). The book is complete brilliance, it shows that women are imprisoned inside their homes how Mrs. Linden has willing played a large part in this role towards the end of the
In Henrik Ibesen's play A Doll House, Nora Helmer struggles with telling her husband, Torvald Helmer, the truth about a loan she receives for them to go to Italy when he was sick. Consequently, when Torvald learns of the news he instantly insults Nora and declares that she has "ruined [his] happiness" (Ibesen 93). However, when Torvald tries to dismiss his insults after receiving a note that her contract was revoked, she does not accept his apologizes and decides to leave Torvald and her children to "make sense of [her]self and everything around [her]" (Ibesen 100). Her selfish decision to leave makes her a bad wife and mother, but she there are a few more characteristics that makes her a bad wife. The characteristics that Nora shows in
In A Dolls House, Torvald has a very narrow definition of women 's roles. He believes that it’s a woman duty to be a mother and a good wife, however he thinks women are helpless and childlike. Nora’s understanding of freedom changes during the play. In the first act, she believes that she will be “free” as soon as she repays her debt, because she will be able to devote herself to her domestic responsibilities. However after she gets blackmailed by Krogstad she reconsiders her understanding of freedom and questions whether she is happy in her house. By the end of the play, Nora seeks a new kind of freedom. She wishes to be relieved of her family obligations to pursue her own ambitions, beliefs, and identity.
Throughout A Doll’s House, Torvald views Nora’s actions as being deceiving not only towards him but also towards her family. However, Nora gain her perspective on her own actions and begins observing it differently than Torvald’s. The play states, “ It was me they told that his life was in danger...well, well, I thought, you’ve got to be saved somehow. And then I thought of a way-,” (Ibsen 35-36). Within Nora’s and Mrs. Linde’s private conversation, Nora conveys that her manipulation of money revealed how she deceives her husband even though it was in good intent to save his life. In addition, this demonstrates Nora’s willingness to think about others, such as her husband, before realizing for herself that there were going to be consequences for her later on. Within the play, Nora states, “ You have never understood me. A
While Mrs. Wright lashes out against her perceived cage, her gender role, by killing Mr. Wright, Nora’s character ultimately decides to trip the latch, to fly free from the bars. Nora’s complex personality proves to be difficult to predict to the very end, when she decides to shirk her duties to her husband and children to focus on herself, to serve her own needs for individuality, a decision that was not entirely popular with readers and audiences alike. Indeed, Nora quite easily refuses to be the “doll” in Torvald’s house, and abandons her loving, though misguided husband, and her children. She feels driven to do this once she realizes that she and Torvald had never exchanged a serious word in
The central theme of A Doll’s House is Nora’s rebellion against society and everything that was expected of her. Nora shows this by breaking away from all the standards and expectations her husband and society had set up for her. In her time women weren’t supposed to be independent. They were to support their husbands, take care of the children, cook, clean, and make everything perfect around the house.
In A Doll House, Nora finds herself subordinate to her husband as well as the rules of society. Torvald forbids her from the consumption of macarons, bestows on her an allowance as if she were a child, persuades her to do as he wishes, dance like this, not like that, and she like a “good little lark” obeys his most every will. Her act of courage and independence, illegally taking out a loan to save his life, is seen as wrong in the eyes of society, while she sees it as necessary and forgivable; it is what a good wife should do for her husband.
There is a common struggle between the call of duty and the desire to live one’s life in the two plays “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen and “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams. Nora, from “A Doll’s House” didn’t realize her desire to live her own life until the end of the play and she dealt with the struggle by convincing herself that she was unfit to be a mother and a wife. Tom, from “The Glass Menagerie” always struggled between his responsibility to his family and his desire to be a merchant marine. Both Nora and Tom were trapped by the circumstances of life and needed to get out. Other characters struggled as well, and we can see this through character traits and flaws, abandonment, and character transformations.
Nora's second, and strongest, break from society's rules was shown by her decision to leave Torvald and her children. Society demanded that she take a place under her husband. This is shown in the way Torvald spoke down to her saying things like "worries that you couldn't possibly help me with" (Ibsen Page #), and "Nora, Nora, just like a woman" (Ibsen page #). She is almost considered to be property of his: "Mayn't I look at my dearest treasure? At all the beauty that belongs to no one but me - that's all my very own" (Ibsen page #)? By walking out she takes a position equal to her husband and destroys the very foundation of society's expectations of a wife and mother. Nora also breaks society's expectations of staying in a marriage since divorce was frowned upon during that era. Her decision represented a break from all expectations placed upon a woman by society. Throughout the play Nora is looked down upon and treated as a possession by her husband. She is
There are many points in a person's life where, they make a bad decision, or wish they were able to go back, and change something that they had once done. As for Nora's decision in the play “A Doll House”, by Henrik Ibsen, Nora's decision to leave Torvald was the wrong idea. From the details, and lines in the play,there are many reasons why it was a bad decision to leave . Not only does it affect torvald, it also affects her children, and herself. As the play starts it is brought to mind that Nora lives in a society that has men superior over women.
In A Doll's house, there are many characters with a wide variety of different personalities and objectives. Even though there are many similarities between characters, there are just as many differences. Out of all the characters Torvald and Nora are the ones with the biggest differences in personality and opinions. Even though they are married and most of the time seem to have the perfect home life, it becomes easier to deduce throughout the drama that they are two completely different people that want different things out of their lives. Some main differences that Nora and Torvald have are the way that they perceive their self-image, what they want out of life, and the actions that they will take to overcome problems. (1)
While both characters ultimately end up declaring their independence from their families, the consequences they face in the aftermath are uniquely a result of the specific dynamic they suffer from in their respective works. In Nora’s case, the tight grip of her husband Torvald as well as her dubious under-the-table deal with Krogstad highlights her capricious and shady nature, while Tom eagerly fits the mold of a petulant,
Here, Nora pulls together the tragic circumstances. She sees that she was never truly happy in the house, just content. Her father kept her as a child would a doll, and Torvald continued this when they were married. They formed her opinions for her, set expectations to which she was supposed to adhere, and wrote a vague script of how she was supposed to act. She was like a puppet, with no thoughts or actions of her own. When she finally realizes the injustice being done to her, she decides to free herself.