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In What Ways Can You Compare Blanche Dubois and Nora Helmer

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In What Ways Can you Compare and Contrast Blanche DuBois and Nora Helmer? Both Blanche DuBois and Nora Helmer are main characters in the two plays A Streetcar Named Desire and A Dolls House. You can compare and contrast the two characters because they do have a lot in common, however, they do appear extremely different at first. A major difference which can be seen straight away is that the two women are living in two different eras; Nora in 1879 and Blanche in 1947. Both characters are introduced immediately to their respective audiences. Williams introduces Blanche in a long piece of stage directions, describing her appearance to every last detail, whereas with Nora, we find out about her appearance throughout the play. The characters …show more content…

She wants Mitch because he offers her security and “rest”, which she has not had in her life for a long time. She wants Mitch more for what her offers her, than the fact that she likes him. Nora has had totally security from Torvald for many years, she has a comfortable home with two children, however, she is not happy with this, she feels as if she is trapped and has no life of her own wants to be on her own, to be away from Torvald so that she can experience the world for herself. The opposites are clear between the two. Nora is throwing away her security and seeking self-sufficiency; on the other hand, Blanche seeks some kind of security and wants someone to rely on. Although the era’s in which these two plays are set, both women still live in a male dominated society. This was a problem in both era’s and a problem which both writers wanted to highlight to the audience. This is truer in A Dolls House, and is influential in many of ideas of the play. The problem which causes the split between Nora and Torvald is because of Nora taking out a loan without his consent, this shows how women were sexually discriminated against in the time in which the play was set, as they were not allowed to do certain things which men could, for example it was nearly impossible for them to have a well paid job, resulting in Nora having to go behind Torvald’s back to make some money. Similarly in A Streetcar Named Desire there is clearly a

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