In the books A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the main characters have similar circumstances they experienced in their story. Nora Helmer, the main character in A Doll’s House, is the well-known wife of Torvald Helmer. Nora is protected from living her life and guided by her husband making decisions for her as if she was a doll. She often overlooks the reality of her life with the wealth and materialistic things her husband provides. She is highly intelligent, but rarely thinks for herself. Gregor Samsa, the main character in The Metamorphosis, is a miserable traveling salesman who is forced to provide for his family. Gregor took on the duty of paying off his entire father’s debt from the downfall of his business. As a result from his hard work, he provides a roof over his mother, father, and sister. He is considered to be the sole provider and caretaker of everyone with his limited finances. Throughout their separate novels, Nora Helmer and Gregor Samsa experienced similar circumstances that include their physical changes, unpaid debt, and isolation from their families.
To begin with, Nora and Gregor suffered similar circumstances that include their physical change. When talking about a physical change, personality, appearance and attitude is considered. The title “A Doll’s House” describes the character of Nora Helmer. Nora is known to be Torvald’s doll. He controls her every move and lifestyle. As a doll, she takes orders from everyone and never considers her inner feelings. At the beginning of the novel, she does not mind her doll-like personality in which she is babied, spoiled, and demeaned. Towards the middle of the novel, Nora realizes that she is looked at as Torvald’s “silly girl” an...
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... Nora Helmer and Gregor Samsa practiced similar circumstances that include their physical changes, unpaid debt, and isolation from their families. Nora and Gregor were trying to escape the controlled society in which they lived in. Nora was controlled by her “flawless” husband and Gregor was attached to the responsibilities he had to fulfill in his household. Eventually, they both escape their controlling society towards the end of their novels. Gregor escaped his controlling society by separating himself from his human qualities so that he was unable to fulfill his duties. This forced his family to take control of the situation and stop depending on Gregor. Nora escaped her controlling society by taking a stand for what she believes in. She was tired of being played as if she couldn’t live life for herself. She leaves Torvald finding her inner woman spirituality.
There are many factors that lead to the development of an individual’s identity. Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” illustrates an extreme change in Gregor Samsa’s external identity and the overall outward effect it has on the development of his family. While James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” illustrates a young man struggling to find his identity while being pushed around by what society and his family wants him to be. Both of these characters exhibit an underlying struggle of alienation but both also demonstrate a craving for belongingness. This conflict of trying to belong to something as well as satisfying the needs of society, has directly impacted their own individuality and the lives of the people around them.
Throughout The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka shuns Gregor. At first glance, Gregor’s transformation creates the only isolation. As the story evolves, the Samsa family’s segregation begins to play a larger role. Through intuitive actions, each family member isolates themselves. The Samsa’s accommodate the renters generously, in order to win communal approval. Failing the renters positions the Samsa’s lower in society than they previously were. Not only do the Samsa’s isolate themselves, they are also secluded from society. Many instances allow the Samsa’s severance from society to shine through Gregor’s isolation.
Gregor Samsa’s mother, whose name is never revealed, is a physically and constitutionally weak woman. She cares dearly for Gregor which is first shown by her distress as Gregor does not wake up at his usual time. It is evident that Gregor’s mother has the hardest time coping with his transformation. She can not bear to lay eyes upon Gregor. Though she has trouble adjusting, she doesn’t stop loving her only son. As Gregor’s mother and sister begin to move furniture out of his room, his mother stops to contemplate whether this is the right course of action. As Sheldon Goldfarb states in his critical essay, “When his mother and sister start removing his furniture, his mother's second thoughts provoke him to resist: he does not want to give up his human past and the possibility of returning to it” (Goldfarb). On the outside, Gregor’s mother reacts with repulsion at the sight of the bug, but on the inside still cares deeply about her son underneath. Gregor is able to see this and it gives him new hope.
Throughout her life Nora had spent her time pleasing the men around her, first her father and then Torvald. As the reality erupted that her marriage to Torvald was loveless and not salvageable, she ignored Torvald's demand that she not leave him. He even made attempts to sway her decision by insinuating they could go on in the house as brother and sister. Her need to be a valued human in society had prevailed over the dependent, frail, creature that once belonged to Torvald. She set out to find her independence in spite of the limitations that society had placed on women. Her displeasure had burned a path beyond her little, secure world and the burden of being a plaything was lifted.
So Nora throughout the story her personality and how she handles certain things through the story changes a lot. From being a happy person and having a very loving family with her husband Torvald, but as the story escalates the small lies during the story starts the beginning of a very tough road. From the lies from Torvald and doing things behind his back like breaking the law, and the blackmail threats. All the drama escalates to her ending up wanting to kill herself, but in the end she needed to be on her
Nora Helmer was a delicate character and she relied on Torvald for her identity. This dependence that she had kept her from having her own personality. Yet when it is discovered that Nora only plays the part of the good typical housewife who stays at home to please her husband, it is then understandable that she is living not for herself but to please others. From early childhood Nora has always held the opinions of either her father or Torvald, hoping to please them. This mentality makes her act infantile, showing that she has no ambitions of her own. Because she had been pampered all of her life, first by her father and now by Torvald, Nora would only have to make a cute animal sound to get what she wanted from Torvald, “If your little squirrel were to ask you for something very, very, prettily” (Ibsen 34) she said.
Many views of existentialism are exposed in Kafka's Metamorphosis. One of these main views is alienation or estrangement which is demonstrated by Gregor's relationship with his family, his social life, and the way he lives his life after the metamorphosis. Namely, it suggests that man is reduced to an insect by the modern world and his family; human nature is completely self absorbed. Kafka reflects a belief that the more generous and selfless one is, the worse one is treated. This view is in direct conflict with the way things should be; man, specifically Gregor should be treated in accordance to his actions. Gregor should be greatly beloved by his family regardless of his state. This idea is displayed in three separate themes. First, Gregor's family is only concerned with the effect Gregor's change will have on them, specifically the effect it will have on their finances and reputation. They are more than willing to take completely gratuitous advantage of Gregor; he works to pay their debt and they are happy to indulge themselves with luxury. Gregor is the soul employed member of his family and this is their primary interest when Gregor is transformed. Secondly, Gregor is penalized for his efforts to be a good son, and a good worker; his toils are completely taken for granted by his family. The Samsa family is not interested in Gregor beyond their own needs, outsiders are reverentially treated. Thirdly, it is displayed by the positive changes that occur in the Samsa family as Gregor descends into tragedy and insignificance. As Gregor's life becomes more painful, isolated, and worthless the Samsa family becomes more functional and self-reliant.
Nora is perceived as a helpless women, who goes out and wastes money that was earned by her husband. To Torvald, Nora is merely a plaything, which could be what the title of the play, "A Doll House", was hinting at. He found her helplessness to be attractive, because he was the one that was in control. For instance, when they received the Bond from Krogstad, Torvolld said, "I wouldn't be a man if this feminine helplessness didn't make you twice as attractive to me" followed by "It's as if she belongs to him in two ways now: in a sense he's given her fresh ...
In “A Doll’s House”, when Torvald learns of her secret affairs concerning Nora forging her father’s signature to get a loan to save Torvald’s life, he began to treat her horribly, insulting her in every way that is possible. In that moment, Nora realized that she could no longer live a life as Torvald’s wife anymore. He wanted to live a life in which no one in the society would know what had happened. They would act like they were a happily married couple in public, but in private they would act as though they were brother and sisters. Torvald cared about his image rather than
Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt,” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” are prime example of how Americans take advantage of the little things in life. In today’s society people do not realize how easy they have it and will never fully understand the meaning of hard work. The children in “The Veldt” are disrespectful towards their family due to their disconnection to reality, and abandonment from their parents. “Metamorphosis” displays how the parents take advantage of their son and all the work he does for them. Both short stories display the lack of respect and abandonment towards their family members whether it’s taking advantage of them or under appreciating them due to being oblivious to their surroundings.
Henrik Ibsen was the first to introduce a new realistic mode in theater when he wrote the play A Doll’s House. The ending of the third act of this play was not accepted due to the controversy that it caused during the nineteenth century, because in this era women were not allowed to act the way Nora did, but through women’s movements society slowly started to accept it.
Nora is the main doll in the house, but she also refers to the children as dolls. Nora states that Torvald treats her as her own father did. Caring for her but never taking her serious. They treat her as a doll kept for her looks. Although the children aren’t the main idea of the doll in “A Doll House,” Nora sees them as dolls herself.
After the metamorphosis, Gregor becomes useless to the family, he is alienated in his room where he could not be seen by anyone, and the only person who was able to go in and out of his room was his sister Grete, where she used to go in to bring food and clean the room. The family realized that their work horse does not exist anymore, so they all begin working, and therefore their interactions with each other decre...
In "A Doll's House", Ibsen portrays the bleak picture of a role held by women of all economic classes that is sacrificial. The female characters in the play back-up Nora's assertion that even though men are unable to sacrifice their integrity, "hundreds of thousands of woman have." Mrs. Linde found it necessary to abandon Krogstad, her true but poor love, and marry a richer man in order to support her mother and two brothers. The nanny has to abandon her children to support herself by working for Nora. Though Nora is economically advantaged, in comparison to the other female characters, she leads a hard life because society dictates that Torvald be the marriages dominant member. Torvald condescends Nora and inadvertently forces Nora to hide the loan from him. Nora knows that Torvald could never accept the idea that his wife, or any other woman, could aid in saving his life.
I believe Torvald is an insecure man who cares only about appearances. Nora is nothing more than a possession and an object of beauty to him. I also think he is very controlling and shows it in the way he restricts Nora from eating sweets and even how she should dance. In the beginning I believed Nora was just a careless women who cared too much about expensive things but she is also lost. She has grown up being molded by her father and then married off to Torvald who molded her into something he wanted as well. She has never known independence and has no identity.