The Underlying Truth Behind Secrets

Oedipus’ foolish decisions ultimately lead to his downfall in the play. Oedipus chooses to kill Laios. He chooses to marry Iocaste. He chooses to forcefully, and publicly, assume the mission of discovering the identity of Laios’ murderer saying ironically, “I say I take the son’s part, just as though I were his son, to press the fight for him and see it won,” (633). He proceeds on this mission and chooses to ignore the warnings of Creon, Iocaste, Teiresias, the messenger, the shepherd, and anyone who attempts to stand between him and the truth; and, he chooses to blind himself. In the end, Oedipus’ most foolish choice prevails throughout the play; the choice of illusion over reality ultimately costs him his life.

Oedipus, on the other hand, is not so content with the events unfolding in his life. He is persistent in finding the truth surrounding King Laius’s death. “To protest Apollo is necessarily dialectical, since the pride and agility of the intellect of Oedipus, remorselessly searching out the truth, in some sense is also against the nature of truth. In this vision of reality, you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you mad” (Bloom 10). His investigation leads him to discover the truth surrounding the prophecy in which he kills his father and sleeps with his mother. During this whole play, Oedipus is never really content with anything.

Most secrets start with self preservation. Most are started out of telling ourselves we are being kind to the other party or parties involved, but in reality we are avoiding repercussion of our own thoughts or actions. Keeping secrets can cause guilt, anger, sorrow etc. These emotions can and normally will manifest in an assortment of physical ailments. Depression, headaches, ulcers etc or over time can be the root of many major health crisis such as cancer, heart attacks etc. Keeping a secret overtime will change your core values of life and how you react to others and life choices. Sometimes you will make choices on the fact that you are trying not to divulge your secrets and this can alter your life and

Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is a play about a young wife and her husband. Nora and Helmer seem to be madly in love with one another and very happy with their lives together. Yet the conflict comes into this show when Nora brags to her friend Ms. Linde about how she had forged her father’s name to borrow money to save her husband’s life and how she had been secretly paying off this debt. Helmer finds out about this crime and is furious, until he finds that no one will ever know about it. This entire conflict is written to bring to light the ridiculous social expectations demanded of both women and men. Ibsen expertly leads the audience into accepting that these social expectations are foolish and wrong. The audience

Oedipus’ intense amount of self confidence is so great that Oedipus actually curses whoever the killer is, this is an example of irony, because Oedipus later finds out that he was the killer all along, and that he ended up cursing himself. Another clue of this is a quote from Oedipus while he was talking to the prophet Teiresias, “Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words, But speak my whole mind. Thou methinks thou art he, Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too, All save the assassination; and if thou Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot That thou alone didst do the bloody deed.” (Sophocles 345-350). In this quote, Oedipus’ ego is once again affecting him, as he refuses to even consider what the prophet Teiresias is saying about not looking into who the murderer is, but Oedipus ironically does accuse him of being the killer. These quote help the reader realize that the mystery of Oedipus Rex for Oedipus is to discover who Laius’ killer

In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, pointedly captures the reality of the Victorian Era within the play. Nora Helmer, the protagonist of the story, represents the typical women in society during that era. The audience’s first impression of Nora is a money obsessed, childish, obedient house wife to her husband, Torvald Helmer. However, as the play progresses one can see that Nora is far from being that typical ideal trophy wife, she is an impulsive liar who goes against society’s norm to be whom and what she wants. Her husband is illustrated as the stereotypical man during the 19th century, as he is the dominate breadwinner of the family, who too deserts his position as the play reaches its end. A key theme that is brought to light in A

In “A Doll’s House,” Ibsen presents us with the drama of Torvald and Nora Helmer, a husband and wife who have been married for eight years and whose lives are controlled by the society in which they live. Their relationship, although seemingly happy, is marred by the constraints of social attitudes around them and their perceived gender roles. Creating even more conflict is the thin veil of deceit between them, which inevitably breaks them apart.

Written in the late 19th century, Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House addresses flaws within Norwegian society. Ibsen specifically highlights the symbiotic relationship between social oppression and deception. Many groups within the 19th century Norwegian culture felt social oppression, but women were among the most heavily judged. In this time period, it was illegal for a married woman to be employed, so she was forced to the monotony of home making and child bearing. This law has a central role in the play as Nora struggles to break free from her stagnant lifestyle of following social expectations. Like Nora, many people felt obliged to lie and deceive people to seem as though they were following the rules of society. Ibsen’s negative depiction of social oppression and deception throughout different scenarios within the play contribute to the play’s major themes. Ibsen utilizes Torvald’s study, the masquerade ball, and Nora’s dress change to symbolize and develop the overarching themes of social oppression and deception in A Doll’s House.

Marriage is a lot of work for two individuals who do not have the qualifications mastered. A marriage must be full of steady communication and cannot contain a spouse to be selfish. The attitudes portrayed among the couple determines a lot in their relationship. Throughout A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, readers can see how the lack of communication and honesty tore a marriage apart. Throughout the entire play, Torvald is treating Nora as if she is a child. He viewed her as nothing more than a beautiful yet fragile women. Torvald saw himself as the “king leader” of the household resulting in him not having much communication with his dear wife. The story gradually shows the fate in their marriage as Nora begins to

A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, portrays a young married woman, Nora, who plays a dramatic role of deception and self-indulgence. The author creates a good understanding of a woman’s role by assuming Nora is an average housewife who does not work; her only job is to maintain the house and raise the children like a stereotypical woman that cannot work or help society. In reality, she is not an average housewife in that she has a hired maid who deals with the house and children. Although Ibsen focuses on these “housewife” attributes, Nora’s character is ambitious, naive, and somewhat cunning. She hides a dark secret from her husband that not only includes borrowing money, but also forgery. Nora’s choices were irrational; she handled the

Henrik Ibsen wrote the play A Doll’s House in 1879. In the play Ibsen describes how the society trapped women in marriages and how they carry no value to the family. Just like Stasz Clarice writes “Society, particularly through social class, structures men and women alike to be insensitive and inhumane.” Nora Helmer is apparently happily married to Torvald, he is a lawyer who is about to be promoted to a management position. They have three small children. Early in their marriage Torvald became seriously ill, and the doctors advised a stay in a more southerly climate. Nora had to get hold of the money for the journey in secrecy and so borrowed it from Krogstad, a lawyer who had been a coworker of Torvald. As security for the loan she forged her dying father’s signature. Ever since then she has saved some of the housekeeping money in order to pay back the loan with interest, and she has taken on small jobs to earn some money herself. When the play opens, an old friend of Nora’s, Mrs. Linde, has arrived in town to look for work, and Nora sees to it that Torvald gives her a post at the bank. But this means that Krogstad is dismissed from his post at the bank, and in desperation he goes to Nora and threatens to tell Torvald about the loan and the forgery unless he is allowed to keep his post. Nora considers asking Dr. Rank, an old friend of the family, for the money, but when he declares his love for her, she finds it impossible

The theme of power is expressed through the title of A Doll’s House, as when one plays with dolls he or she has complete control of what occurs. The relationship between a person and their doll is a direct act of subjugation, only the doll is not alive and has no choice in the matter. With the binary opposition of phylogeny versus misogyny present in the stage production, a question of the work is who is the one controlling the household. Ibsen had the character of Torvald believe he was in command of what occurred in the house; however he (Ibsen) provided more evidence that Nora was really the one who kept everything together. For example, Nora was speaking with Mrs. Linde that she obtained much needed money without consulting with Torvald first, as she lied to him saying it was given to them by her father. Mrs. Linde replied saying “a wife should not borrow without her husband’s consent” (Ibsen 88), meaning she had fallen into the belief that women are below men, which Ibsen is proved to be false in this play.

In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House play things was not what it seemed. It also teaches us a lesson on the consequences of having a marriage lacking trust and poor communication. The marriage of Torvald and Nora seemed normal like any other marriage in that time period. Torvald was the bread winner Nora was a house wife and she took care of their two children. Nora thought that the only thing she was missing to be the happiest person on earth was money, and all her problems were going to disappear. Since her husband was going to start a new job she believed that soon her dream was going to come true. All Nora wanted was to have a good life with her family, but what she did not know was that her secret was going to destroy her marriage with

Throughout the play Oedipus is driven by many factors to find the killer of King Laius, and while on that mission, he inquires much about his past and himself. One of his main strives is to find out his true identity. The city of Thebes is struck by a plague due to the death of King Laius. The Oracle of Delphi states that in order to rid of the plague, Oedipus has to commit himself to finding the murderer of the dead King Laius. Oedipus shows allegiance by going on a

Oedipus is victim from his own innocence because of his mistake about leaving his adoptive family, thinking he can no longer make the prophecy come true, he think he can do what he want to do like marrying and ruling a kingdom. He don’t realize what he did.