The Themes In A Dolls House

The Themes In A Dolls HouseSacrifice is a powerful piece of music that pervades these two plays, and expresses itself through its characters as well as its plot. However, the manner in which it is envisi championd to the reader varies between these two plays. While give oneself up was depicted as combined with surrender in A Dolls House, in Antigone, it came merged with insurgence. There is sacrifice of love, hate, and morals and ultimately, sacrifice of self. Not only was this coordinated into its protagonists lives, save it also came from its supporting characters as well. In this essay, I aim to explore the different shipway in which Sophocles and Ibsen incorporated the theme of Sacrifice in their respective works.In A Dolls House, the sacrificial billet of women was expressed exhaustively by Ibsen. The portrayal of women, beyond economic and cordial borders, sacrificing their love, children, morals and dignity touches a nerve among its readers. The picture where women were consistently giving up what were important to them just so they could please those or so them was so universal and relatable to in this classic novel.In A Dolls House, Nora, while she was of a better social class and emplacement than Mrs. Linde or her amah, was no different from them when it came to giving up those important to her. She renounced her own m separate when he was in his death bed just so she could save her husband and Mrs. Linde chose to give up her true love, Krogstad, when she was obliged to save her family from p everywherety. Even the maid in their home had to forgo bringing up her own children just so she could bring up someone elses and earn the money to support hers. This shows commanding sacrifice for someone else.In Antigone, the situation is no different. Antigone sacrifices her love, Haemon, so she provide fight for justice. Although she prioritizes justice over Haemon, she still declares a big sacrifice in her life to go through with her fight. On t he other hand, at the very end of the play, Eurydice kills herself for she could not continue living without her son. This shows that she was willing to do anything for someone she loved, including cleaning herself.While the women in both plays portray unconditional sacrifice to those near and dear to them, the men tout ensemble represent the opposite. Torvald, Noras oppressive and condescending husband use ups it clear that he would give up anything nevertheless his integrity. His status and prestige matter so much to him that he is willing to go to any lengths to show turned his house as perfect and flawless to the society, including forcing Nora to stay at home even though he renounces her. He prioritizes his reputation over his own wife and states no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves.This situation is recreated in Antigone when Creon is contemplating his reaction to finding his own niece, Antigone, doing the one thing he forbids, bury Polynices. He is willi ng to save his niece from the cruel fate that was promised to anyone who disobeyed his law, but he is unable to let her go free in front of the public eyes. He too, like Helmer, prioritizes his repute over his own niece and sentences her to die. He refuses to bend his laws to save his own kith and kin at the fear of losing his name.Another form of sacrifice is the sacrifice of ego and recognition. Nora performs this form of sacrifice throughout the story until up to the very end. All her value and abilities are suppressed by Torvald and she bears his condescending, and patronizing attitude with humility and meekness. She belittles herself and resigns to accept her place as inferior to Torvald. Ibsens practice of metaphors and imageries of birds which symbolize the weak, feeble and vulnerable, represent Noras position in her family. She is powerless and susceptible to her husbands every whim. Nora hides the fact that she had single-handed saved her husbands life as she was hesitant to tell him that he owed a woman his life. She is proud of her achievements, but she is forced to keep it a secret, thus sacrificing recognition. Yet again, she was hold dearing Torvalds ego by sacrificing hers. She continuously boosts her husbands self-conceit by saying things like Everything you do is quite right, Torvald while welcoming him to criticize her and correct her. and then there is sacrifice of love. Mrs. Linde chooses to emerge her one true love, Krogstad when she was obliged to save her family by marrying another, richer, man. While she neer stops loving Krogstad, she is bound by her duties as a daughter. While Nora does the opposite, they are both interchangeable in the fact that they give up someone close to the good of another and they have had to make tough choices.In Antigone, Antigone sacrifices her love, Haemon, so she can protect him. Although she still loves him, she chooses to hurt him in order to protect him from the consequences of her actions. This act of selflessness was noble and just like Nora and Mrs. Linde, it was for someone she loved.Another form of sacrifice that is nigh vivid and poignant is the works is the sacrifice of ones happiness. Nora does outrageous, some whiles ridiculous, things just to make her husband happy at the expense of her own. She indulges Torvalds craze and dances the tarantella just so she could play up to Torvalds desires. She hides her stealthy eating of the macaroons and knitwork so she could have everything just as Torvald likes it. She also goes without buying a Christmas present for herself so she can save it repay the money she borrowed for Torvald. Nora hardly seems to listen to her heart or her head and blindly follows what she knows would make Torvald happy. Most times, Torvalds happiness comes out of her own necessaries of life. Sadly, Torvald never seems to notice it was often very hard on herIn Antigone, Creon repeatedly tries to convince Antigone that it was not worth sacrificing h erself for her brother. However, Antigone refuses saying I want everything of life , I do and I want it total, complete otherwise I reject it I will not be moderate. If not, I want to die When Creon proceeds to tell Antigone that she could not afford to be so demanding and she had to accept life with every(prenominal) its complexities, Antigone explodes furiously. She claims that happiness was nothing if she had to compensate her perfect ideals and she decides that she would have all or nothing. Thus she sacrifices the happiness she could have had by choosing to ignore Creons words. She wants to live in a phantasmagorical utopia or die. This inability to adjust and cope with lifes tirades eventually brings about her demise.Lastly, the ultimate act of sacrifice is when Nora does is when she decides to leave her children in the end when she opts to leave her dolls house and go see the world. She obviously loves them deeply, as seen in venture One by the way she interacts with them. But she believes that she makes a worse and a corruptive parent than her maid and her husband and she makes the heart-wrenching decision to leave her children. This concern and love she has for her children makes her want to give them the best she can and she does that by leaving them.Finally, in Antigone, Antigone performs the ultimate sacrifice, the sacrifice of herself. She hangs herself before she could be killed by Creons guards and by doing that, she takes the last dead end before Creon. Thus, Antigone stages her last act of revolt for Creons laws and decrees. What Antigone does is reflective of many societies where many women take such efflorescence and impetuous actions to demonstrate their mutiny. While it was a self-less act of sacrifice and for the betterment of her society, it was also reckless and damaging. Haemon, too, sacrifices himself, but his was for love while Antigones was for justice.In conclusion, while contexts, settings, time period and surroundings varies between the two plays, the theme of sacrifice unites them beyond social and cultural barriers. The act of giving up something or someone was committed them both. However, plastered disparity occurs when the extent of sacrifice is delved into. The Greek era, the era in which Antigone was set in, showcases a time of extremes where perfection and power were the baseline to the lives of the people, thus sacrifice of ones self for a petty reason was not a terrible, horrendous issue as it would have been in the more modern times. While a Norwegian play set in the modern realistic times (A Dolls House) brought about slightly more acceptable sacrifices such as the sacrifice women make, it also brings about issues of extreme societal boundaries and excessive expectations of certain behavior from the man and woman of the household. Today, in the modern realist perspective, those requirements would be far more uncommon and unusual.