Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House ends on either a very negative note, or a very positive note depending upon how one views such situations. At the end of the story, Nora Helmer leaves her oppressive, belittling husband, and children - who are hardly her children - behind to rediscover and educate herself. Ibsen states, “The wife in the play ends by having no idea of what is right or wrong; natural feeling on one hand and belief in authority on the other have altogether bewildered her.” (Ibsen. 409) Nora’s situation was a very unique one with many tunnels and slides to be trekked. Her exit was a fully rational, completely acceptable action.
Romeo and Juliet are failed by their parental figures; discuss. One theme that is represented throughout the entirety of the Shakespearian play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is the idea of parents and children. Not only is this shown through Juliet’s relationship with her parents and Romeo’s with his, but also through their relationships with other characters who act as parental figures to them despite not being blood relations. These surrogate parent relationships are predominantly the Nurse to Juliet, and Friar Lawrence to Romeo. Different events throughout the play lead these relationships to change, and lead both Romeo and Juliet to distrust their parental figures.
However, love in the two stories did not result to happiness for the unknown woman in “A Sorrowful Woman” as in “From A Secret Sorrow” Faye ends up in a happy marriage and a great family. In "A Secret Sorrow" Faye feels that the only for her to achieve fulfillment and true happiness is to get married and have children unfortunately, her fate dictates otherwise. This resulted to a critical point in her relationship with her fiancé. Faye was expecting that her man would leave her once he knew of her disability. On the other hand the lady in "A Sorrowful Woman” has a husband and child but finds she sick and tired of what she had.
In the story, “A Doll’s House”, we have Nora living with a secret and trying not to let her husband, Torvald Helmer know. She is so distraught, that she tells a friend, the same friend who hired her in place of another employee. That same employee is hurt and blackmails Nora about what she did. Nora does everything she can to plead with Krogstad not to tell Torvald, but in the end, he finds out. In the story, “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband’s death from her sister Josephine.
The prenatal Cash was a part of her, someone inside of her from whom she could never isolate herself. In the reluctant mother’s mind, Anse Bundren was to blame for corrupting her sense of privacy and would be forever dead to her. In this way, she severed what was supposed to be the most sovereign relationship in a woman’s life and created a rift through what was to come of the Bundren family. As the family grows, Addie develops misconceptions about her relationship to her children. Cash had violated her aloneness, while Darl was deprived of the love that Addie poured so strongly into the void that was her third son.
In the poem “Medusa” gender conflict through control is also illustrated when she says: “a suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy”. This depicts that she feels ownership over her husband and wants him to “be terrified” if he does not obey her commands. However, in “Les Grands Seigneurs” the narrator conveys that after she was “wedded, bedded … a toy, a plaything … wife” she is nostalgic for the first three stanzas to how men were towards her before she was married as she is now powerless. We can depict that there was less gender conflict before she was married. Moreover, in “Medusa” powerlessness is also portrayed when she rhetorically questions herself “Wasn’t I beautiful?
Typically, a husband who can’t consummate a marriage should be abandoned without hesitation. When Bertrande is “urged by her relatives to separate from Martin, she firmly refuse[s]” (28). This decision reveals Bertrande’s “certain character traits…a concern for her reputation as a woman, a stubborn independence” (28). Bertrande cleverly calculates the advantages she possesses as a result of Martin’s incompetence. “Her refusal to have her marriage dissolved…freed her temporarily from certain wifely duties…gave her a chance to have a girlhood” (28).
She always seemed to want the best for Juliet and do good things for her but she also seemed confused throughout the story. One thing she did in the story that shows this was when she conspired with Friar Laurence about a plan to give the new made bridegroom their honeymoon night. She wanted Juliet to still have her honeymoon although Romeo had been banished. She saw this as a way for her to show how much she cared and it truly worked. On the other hand, when Juliet was in desperate need for help, the Nurse didn’t do her very much good.
Similarly, as a doll can’t talk or hold opinions, Nora is not allowed to show her true feelings and must pretend everything is perfect to make “Torvald darling” happy. Interestingly enough, there is a notice at the beginning of the play to not use the possessive “A Doll’s House” because “the house is not Nora’s, as the possessive implies.” She lives in a man’s world, with man’s law. She is trapped in that house, and in that false sense of reality. But the foundation of the house does have some cracks. Some ideas of what the universal dramatic action of the play might be include: the discovery of the truth, the destruction, and ultimately, the transformation.
She is first perceived as a weak character who Iago says keeps many thoughts to herself: "She puts her tongue a little in her heart," meaning that many of her most critical thoughts remain unsaid. Even Desdemona has to encourage her to speak. This silence throughout much of the play may be one cause of her drastically changing at the end. Initially Emilia sets out to please Iago without question, as this was her role as an Elizabethan wife, however at the end she speaks against him when she realizes his true intentions. Her change at the end of the play could show that she’s isn’t an outsider, as she now has her own opinion and her own voice like many of the other characters within the play.