Nora has been treated like a child all her life by her father and by her husband. Both male superiority figures not only denied her the right to think and act the way she wished but, also placed a limit on her happiness. When Torvald enters the act he calls Nora pet names like ‘skylark’ and ‘little squirrel’. Nora is being treated like a little girl and this also presents Torvald’s dominance over his wife. Nora describes her feelings as ‘always merry, never happy’.
One thing that could be argued, as I have already touched on, is Catherine’s childhood. Massie constantly refers back to Catherine’s life before royalty with her mother. Catherine’s mother, Johanna, never felt any maternal feelings towards Catherine. She had wanted a son, and when a daughter was born, she was not satisfied. She would give her child to servants to hold and never cared for her.
Ibsen further hints towards secrecy within the household when Nora plays hide and seek with her children just before Krogstad, the truthbearer of the play, pays a visit. In All My Sons, Miller employs the theme of denial with Kate being intent on Chris not marrying Anne as this will thwart her hopes of Larry still being alive. According to Anne, Kate's guilt tripping in order to sustain her belief that her family is fine has "crippled" Chris and as a result, Anne has not been able to build a life with him. Joe similarly attempts to guilt trip Chris, warning him about "what's going to happen to mother" if he marries Anne in order to stave off their relationship. Joe's reasoning for attempting to make Chris feel guilty boil down to the fact that it will ultimately sustain Kate's support for him.
[She] and each parent had been separate individuals before Lily came. Now all four melted together like gumdrops left on a windowsill” (5). At first one would think that Lily is the sufferer for her sister dislikes her and there is nothing she can do about it, but when one rereads the story again and again, Sophie is depicted as the victim. Sophie is unable to express her true feelings about her sister to her parents making them unable to help her. Sophie is kept in silence by her parent’s image of her, so she can't really express any of her thoughts that differ from theirs.
Throughout this short story Granny holds grudges and feels like she needs to get revenge. George abandons her at the alter was hell for her. She mentions in the story, “what does a woman do when she has put on the white veil and set out the white cake for a man and he doesn’t come?” (Porter) She also hallucinates about her dead daughter, Hapsy, holding a baby in her arms. Hapsy dies giving birth and this is just another grudge that Granny holds. Granny reminisces on all these occasions while lying in bed at her daughter’s house.
As it is, Mrs Reed provided Jane with a very tiresome and unmindful childhood, continuously reminding her of the fact that she is a ‘dependant’, either through herself by stating that ‘she must exclude (Jane) from privileges intended only for contented, happy little children’, or through her Roman-emperor-like son, John Reed. In fact, book that Jane would read for interest and stimulation, John Reed uses it as a weapon against her, never really intending to read it himself. The Reeds never seemed to think of Jane as family. The famous saying: ‘Blood is thicker than water’ does not seem to apply to them at all. More than not Mrs Reed proved to abuse Jane physically and mentally.
• ‘You aint ruined’ – sense that she is envious that the other farm girl can be no naive (could remind herself of her). Now she is seen as a second class citizen and cannot marry or have a family because she is married • ‘You blue and bleak face could’ - unhealthy because she is unhappy because she has no life or status DIDNT TAKE WHAT THEY WERE DOING SERIOUSLY • Although the reader is like to feel sorry for the poet, ‘we played’ tells us that she saw her loves as a game. Could suggest that she liked all the attention. • She saw them as toys too, ‘my hurdy gurdy monkey men’ • Now she realises what she has done wrong and is has set in she still shows now sign of sorrow, ‘o you didn’t know I’d been ruined’ the breezy tone is heavily ironic. • ‘You aint ruined’ – suggesting she was like her and wanted all these clothes and privileges
This is portrayed clearly in all three of the novels. In Harriet the Spy, In Matilda, neglect from her parents stems from pure greed, allowing them to overlook the briliance of their young daughter. This is a clear point made in the story, emphasized by the author's introduction of the parents when he says "Occasionally one comes across parents... who show no interest at all in their children... the parents looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab" (6). He also mentions how parents who neglect their kids in such a way are "far worse than the doting ones" (6). As the author mentions, the parent's neglect for their daughter stems from pure greed.
I mean, my head in your lap" (112, 115) thereby, lowering her status in the eyes of the court. However, Ophelia's sanity does not deteriorate until Hamlet kills her father in Gertrude's bedchamber. No wonder that Ophelia, with no family, no support, and no position, becomes mad. She is nothing to the Elizabethan world. Who could not pity her for she is a pawn of her father, a pawn in Hamlet's game, and in
Her mother is no longer there, but there is a black girl calling her white cockroach, and after that society, and finally a husband who rejects who she is at such a point that he decides even to change who she is. He decides to rename her as Bertha. Isolation or I’d prefer to call it desolation becomes her inner state. Her soul is a place of constant questioning Who am I? It is supposed that when you are a child your parents are in charge of telling you how wonderful you are and how great is to be just as you are.