Women were not treated equal. Women could not conduct business or control their own money, for which they needed the authorization of the man who 'owned' them - husband, brother or father. In A Doll's House, Nora at first appears to be a silly, selfish girl, but then we learn that she has made great sacrifices to save her husband's life and pay back her secret loan. When a woman loves as Nora does, nothing else matters. She will sacrifice herself for the family.
For example, in act 1 of the play, statements such as, “That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing,” lead us to believe that Torvald is not willing to do anything that will hurt his image. Eventually his pompous persona and “narrow minded” view of life inevitably cause him to suffer a very embarrassing and unusual fate. At the end of the play, it is ultimately Torvald’s pride in his job, Nora, and his own image that eventually cause his wife to leave him.
Nora Helmer, in Henrick Ibsen’s A Doll House seems like a naïve character that doesn’t have knowledge of the outside world and the importance of life. She sounds like a happy person that hasn’t gone through hardship, and doesn’t know how to make the right choices for herself. When she starts to realize that life shouldn’t be like this, we see that she isn’t as happy as she seems. Ibsen uses her husband Torvald Helmer to criticize Nora Helmer’s choices. Ibsen has an intelligent way of criticizing the choices Nora makes by using Torvald to insult her decisions.
Think of it as a candle, once you melt that candle there is no way to put it back together. This is true for both of the stories. In “The Rocking Horse Winner” the mother’s greed for money forces her son Paul to find ways to get more money in order to try to win over her love and attention. In the very beginning of the story it described a mother who “had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her; and she could not love them (Lawrence, 162).” The mother was always good at showing a respectable image to her friends about how she felt about her children though. It states that her friends say “She is such a good mother: She adores her children (Lawrence, 162).” Paul is determined to win his mother’s love by gambling and goes on a “mad little journey (Lawrence, 165)” in order to try to prove to his mother that he is lucky and she could love him.
November 2, 2011 Forbidden Love in Wendy Wasserstein’s The Man in a Case In the play The Man in a Case by Wendy Wasserstein there are two people that are meant to be but are blinded and, although Byelinkov and Varinka are two completely different people they share one very important thing, love. Varinka is a carefree soul, while Byelinkov is a successful and worrisome. Their love is and would be great. They are the perfect match for each other they over take each other’s personalities so it allows them to see nothing but love. All the love they have for each other, only one can see past all the imperfections while the other is still scared; this is love forbidden.
Gatsby, trying his best to attain her love, fails as fate becomes a problem as Wilson murders Gatsby. After Gatsby’s death, Daisy pretends like nothing happened between them moving on with her life. As long as she still had her money she did not care what happened to him. Gatsby truly loved her but she never realized it because of her desire for lavish living and constant happiness. She does whatever she can to forget Gatsby so she can live rich and happy.
They also have different attitudes toward borrowing money. Torvald had an illness and was on the edge of death but being the way that he is Nora turns to Krogstad for help. Turning to someone else without approval by her husband is strictly forbidden. This is the start of Nora’s independence, the sacrifice she is willing to take knowing that borrowing money is forbidden. She starts the process to help her husband get better.
Kristine Linde has had a lot of rough times in her life, and now that her family no longer relies on her, she is happier. Because of this, Nora realizes that her marriage is all pretend, and that she needs to live her own life and be herself. Nora and Kristine Linde chose to marry their husbands for intellectual reasons rather than for love. Mrs. Linde married her husband to provide economic security for her mother and her two brothers. Nora chose to marry her husband at the time when her father was getting into trouble for illegal transactions in his business.
By the end of this play, we see how Nora’s secret changes the relationship between the couple, as she violates the stereotypical role-play as a wife and mother in her era, which generates her inspirational growth. Nora, the main character, was first introduced as a very sheltered, immature, and optimistic woman. Helmer we see as proud of his male role in society and in the household, father-like towards his wife, and greatly cares for his appearance in others eyes. When speaking to each other, Helmer communicates to Nora as if she was his child instead of his wife. He does this by things such as calling her nicknames with negative characteristics, such as his little lark, spendthrift and featherhead.
He thinks that the Senior House is a better choice for the both of them as his mother would be happier there. Despite in actuality, Meursault’s mother did enjoy a blissful before her death, the fact that Meursault shows no emotion towards both his mother and her demise is incongruent to the social trend. His lack of sensitivity is severely chastised by the society in which he lives. The other citizens cannot understand his insensitivity, and more importantly, will not bother. They are merely concerned with the inconsistency that Meursault’s actions pose to the social norm.