Culminating Writing Task II

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Recommended: Show how ibsen develops the dual nature of nora's character in a doll's house

Plato once said: “Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.” People are taught from a very young age never to lie or keep secrets. It would be easy for anyone to stand behind the argument: “Honesty is the best policy,” but in times of personal anguish, that decree is quickly disdained. What this argument fails to consider is that keeping a secret or lying is the justifiable in times of crisis.

In the Doll’s House, Nora dutifully lies to save Torvald from dying of illness. The readers are told that Nora’s husband, Torvald, fell sick. Nora lied to him about why she needed to borrow money. Though she told him she want to travel to shop (Ibsen 11), the doctors told her in order to save the ill-fallen Torvald, he needed to go to the South (Ibsen 10). Since she cannot borrow the money, Nora forges her father’s signature to save her husband’s life. It might seem as if Nora’s lying is wrong, but in reality, it was justified because Torvald would not have gone to Italy if he had known he was sick. He thought of her as a child, not capable of making adult decisions (Ibsen 69). Would not it make sense for Nora borrow money to help Torvald, even if it meant forging a signature and keeping it a secret? Krogstad also would not have lent Nora the money if he had known she was the actual borrower, not her father. Nora lies for reasons pertaining to life and death. She is not being deceptive to keep herself out of trouble. For these reasons, her deceit is defendable.

In Lamb to the Slaughter, Mary Maloney, doting housewife pregnant with her first child, commits a heinous crime against her husband. After he tells her that he is leaving, she become distraught and strikes him in the head with a leg of lamb. Afterwards, Mary...

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... had not been for that, Mary would have been very complacent to join her husband in the afterlife (Dahl 382). This is why Mary and Nora were right for their actions.

In these stories, lying has been crucial to not only the storyline, but to saving the lives of others. If Mary would not have been pregnant, then her deceit would not have been right. If Nora only wanted to go to the South to shop, she would have been wrong to lie under her dying father name on the bond. In actuality, these were not the cases. As a result, lying is, in fact, justified under the right circumstances.

Bibliography

Dahl, Robert. "Lamb to the Slaughter." 1961. Elements of Literature. Vol. 4. N.p.: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2007. 379-86. Print.

"Plato Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 030 Mar. 2014.

Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. Green ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print.

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