A Dolls House' and 'The Glass Menagerie

In the end, they both understood where their marriage really stood. They both had their faults, but their intentions were good in order to keep their marriage and family together. Others would argue that Nora is the hero in this play, only because she is the protagonist. However, Nora was in the wrong for borrowing money and lying to Torvald about it in the course of their marriage. But she did it for her husband, who was on the verge of the death and saving them from a big debt. As for Torvald, he should have treated Nora more as a wife than a child or a doll. But he was a provider and was there for his family. When Nora left, he had their children in the end, and that takes true strength and

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

Though Torvald seems to truly love Nora in the beginning, he actually values the reputation he has with his peers. For example, even at the end of the novel, Nora confesses that she would like to leave the family for the sake of her well-being. However, Torvald's reaction turned to insult Nora even more by asking her to stay in the house like brother and sister; he wanted her to stay so that it would appear that Nora and Torvald are still a married couple. "But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves"(Act III, 78), this is what Torvald told Nora which gives another idea of how he finds his appearance more important than his love for Nora. Also, Nora suggests that the love Torvald thinks he has for her is only an infatuation of the fact that he has someone to love. Why

Previous to the opening of the play, Nora makes the decision to get a loan without Torvald's knowledge so that he can go to Italy and improve his health, showing compassion and love for her husband. Nora's aquiring the loan with her father as a guarantor, shows that she cared enough not to worry her husband with money problems at a time that he needed to heal. Forging her

Torvald treats his wife irrationally, as he places himself above her. He calls her names that make her seem small, such as “helpless little creature” (Isben 589) and “child.” (590). Nora is submissive to his dominant commands, and obeys him, possibly because she is fearful of losing him or her life. Krogstad, though, has the upper hand due to the financial loan and debt that Nora has withheld from her husband. Krogstad blackmails Nora with a letter that he threatens to give her husband if she does not fix his problems with Torvald. Nora feels obligated to both men, for the welfare of herself and her family to do as they say. Of course, with an excessive amount of power comes conflict.

Nora proceeds to apologize and plays the role of the obedient wife. Nora has the right to spend extra money after what she has been through for the first few years of marriage. Nora and Torvald were very poor. Torvald also became sick and had to travel to Italy to recover. Nora secretly and illegally got a loan to pay for the trip to Italy. During the time setting of the play, women weren’t allowed to do certain things without their husband’s permission such as take out loans. Nora has been working extra hard to pay back her debt and the promotion that Torvald will receive will help Nora become debt free.

As Mrs. Linde and Nora continue with their conversation, Nora begins to question whether Torvald does love her. Nora begins to tell her story of how she was the one to raise the money for the trip to Italy and not Torvald. She reveals how she went to Krogstad and asked for a loan to help pay for the trip. When Mrs. Linde asked if Torvald knew any of this information Nora replied, "He's so strict on that subject ... with all his masculine pride how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me" (1194). Nora did not feel comfortable telling Torvald about the predicament because she did not want to offend him. Torvald is set on complying by his morals and the fact that Nora disobeyed them would dishonor her

In “The Glass Menagerie,” Laura’s mother is very uptight and is always pushing Laura to find a husband. Since, Laura has been very shy, she was unable to put herself out there to attract male suitors. Her mother also puts Laura in typing school, so that if she can’t find a husband, than at least she can work. However, Laura quits because she got sick in front of the whole class and was extremely embarrassed, so she stopped going. This is what pushed her mother to find a husband even more. Her mother asked her brother, Tom, to ask around his co-workers to see if there are any young bachelors. Tom brought home a man named Jim, and before Jim’s arrival, the apartment was renovated by their mother in order to make Jim feel more comfortable in their home. Laura and her mother prepared all day for Jim’s arrival, Laura was given an extra padding to her bra, “Because, to be painfully honest, your chest is flat” (Amanda 53), as her mother said. When Jim arrives, Laura has been too shy to even be in the same room as him, so she stayed in another room for the first couple minutes. When she finally came out and talked to Jim, she started breaking out of her shell and had a full conversation with him. They talked about high school and how Jim barely knew about Laura’s disformity, she shared her most favorite glass figurine (a unicorn), and danced. However, when they were dancing, since the

However, Torvald was equally guilty of neglecting his duty to understand his wife in any meaningful way. He failed to establish any real communication with his wife and their marriage suffered for it. Even still, Torvald wasn’t completely without reason in his initial reaction. While his reaction was a bit rash, Nora’s action hadn’t just compromised Torvald’s reputation, the threat extended to the entire family. Her poor judgement had threatened to undo everything he had dedicated his life to working towards, and even in his rage he doesn’t wish to send her away. We see when he’s calmed down that he does in fact love Nora and intends to address the problems that have been illuminated through this situation. He forgives her for her recklessness and pledges to educate her (837). He is attempting to be reasonable and understanding in but Nora cannot see past her

Had Torvald not been so restrictive toward his wife she more than likely would not have left the house at the end. Also had Torvald not try to enforce his gender role ideology upon Nora and allowed her to have more rights she would not have developed the mental instabilities that she did. In a way Torvald was somewhat of a hypocrite throughout the play as he tasked his wife to be the housewife with no freedoms but does something progressive when he gives Linde a job at the bank and fires a man to open up the position. That goes to show that even Torvald wasn’t fully dedicated to his Masculine Identity rather he used it whenever convenient to him. The fact that Nora was also a compulsive liar cannot be overlooked. It would go further to factor in why she left him as it happens to people who develop that symptom through the restrictiveness of their family

He would rather be nonexistent then to have his name in ruins among all the other failures of the world. Not knowing the certain circumstances, he automatically blames Nora for her “act of love” in the final scenes of this show. However, if Nora had explained the debt to Torvald in the first place, Torvald would have possibly had more sympathy for the deed Nora turned to. Without taking the loan, Torvalds’s sickness would’ve worsened, ending with his death. Yes, “A wife can’t borrow without her husband’s consent,” but not every wife follows every instruction given to her by her husband. But of course, once he knows that his reputation is still in tact, he acts as though it never even happened - just like before, when Nora chose to hide the debt scandal from

The story would be different if told from first person point of view. “The Doll’s House” is told from the 3rd person omniscient narrator. The story would be different if it was told from the rich children’s point of view. It would also be different if told from the poor children's point of view. No matter what point of view the story is told from something no matter big or small will be different.

Later in the play things start getting complicated for Nora. Her husband Torvald had become Mr. Krogstad boss at work, and Torvald wanted to fire Mr. Krogstad. This is when Mr. Krogstad starts to blackmail Nora. He wants Nora to stop Torvald from firing him. If she does not, Mr. Krogstad was going to tell Torvald her secret. This should have been the perfect time for Nora to tell the truth to her husband, but she believed that telling Torvald the truth will ruin their relationship. Nora says to her friend Mrs. Linde “Torvald, with all his masculine pride – how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me. That would ruin our relationship. Our beautiful, happy home would never be the same” (Iben 802)

According to “The doll’s house” by Henry Ibsen and the “Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, women are portrayed as very resilient characters capable of overcoming adversity, both plays tell strong stories about feminism. Literally, Feminism is the advocacy of women’s right on the ground of social, political and economic equality to men. Henry Ibsen sets up the female main character, Nora, as a wife. However, unlike Henry Ibsen, Tennessee Williams features Tom, a male character as his main character. Yet, Tom’s character serves the purpose of highlighting the life of his mother, Amanda, and his older sister, Laura, as the real lead characters of the story. Although Tennessee Williams and Henry Ibsen are both male writers, they seem to be aware of the social issues about a woman’s suffering for the sake of her family. Both of them express their perception of women by making their female characters appear as the leading characters. All of the female characters that have appeared in both plays have lived under an environment full of repression and dominated by masculinity. Despite the fact that they live in a world of gender inequality they emancipate themselves in their own ways.

She has to find her own identity and to do this she must leave her husband and children. She loves he children but she must leave because now she has nothing to offer them. She can not teach them anything because she doesn't know anything her self. Nora doesn't love her husband because she doesn't know him all these years she been acting putting up a façade without even knowing it. And Torvald was happy with the masks and fake marriage. In the start she didn't realize she had a self because of all the male dominance in her life. If she stays in this atmosphere then she wont be able to break our of the mold and find out who she is and become an independent woman. She decides to leave even though the consequences are harsh. She will become a social outcast but this is all for her own good and her kids well being as well.