In describing the most important qualities of an ideal marriage, one would likely place an abundance of love, mutual support, trust, and honesty somewhere near the top of the list. Even in the best of unions, successfully cultivating these qualities requires mindfulness, yet malicious meddling by outside parties can erode these foundations. In “Othello,” William Shakespeare conjures up the destruction of a blissful marriage at the whims of the diabolical Iago. Similarly, in Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” a picture-perfect couple is torn apart by the ill-intentioned revelations of a desperate man, Nils Krogstad. Though both detail lives and love unravelling at the hands of disgruntled employees, the similarities end there. The relationships between the husbands and wives are vastly different, as are the motivations and actions of the two saboteurs.
Superficially, the two antagonist’s situations and goals seem similar. Both are angry with their bosses, both seek to move up their respective ladders, and both are willing to ruin the other men to do so. However, most of Iago’s given motivations turn out to be inadequate or even outright false, whereas Krogstad seems genuine in his reasoning.
A perfect sociopath before the word was likely even conceived, Iago is more hurricane than human: though lives are falling apart all around him, he charges on, pitiless and gleefully driven. He is full of excuses for his scheming, yet the remedies he seeks (and his means of bringing them about) are highly disproportionate to the exaggerated or imagined offences. In the opening, Roderigo recalls “Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate,” (Shakespeare 1291) informing the reader that Iago’s abhorrence for Othello is nothing new. Hi...
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...order to commit senseless, hateful crimes, while Krogstad must assume a villainous role in order to save his family – an act of love. In summation, the antagonists and the affected relationships are nearly diametrically opposed, as are the respective means of marital destruction.
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children, her husband and what life she had behind, as she slams the door to the family home. A significant transition of power has occurred and this is one of the major themes that Ibsen raises in his dramatic text ‘A Doll’s House.’ However, in examining the underlying. issue of power presented by the text, one cannot simply look at the plight of Nora’s character, three major aspects of this theme need. also to be considered for.
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“Is it always a betrayal to talk about your husband with another man? What about girlfriends or astrologists?” (Dormen). In modern society, people’s feelings and desires are limited by rules of law and morality, especially when they relate to marriage and conjugal relationships. In The Storm, Kate Chopin raised a moral issue of adultery between characters of the short novel-Calixta and Alcee. She discussed the questions based on the metaphor of storm and the lack of passion in Calixta and Bobinot’s marriage. Similarly, in A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen scrutinized an issue of a marriage lacking love. He depicted relationships between Nora and Torvald and showed how imperious attitude and misunderstandings ruined conjugal relationships eventually. Both stories are connected by a common problem of secrets that arose from misunderstandings between the spouses. They solved the problem of misunderstanding in different ways, depending on cultural and personal distinctions of the characters. Therefore, the stories ended differently. Chopin concluded that the adulterous act made positive short-term changes in the marriage depicted in The Storm. In contrast, Ibsen ended his play A Doll’s House by stating that lack of understanding and communication led to the marriage collapse.
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- - -. Othello. 1968. Ed. Kenneth Muir. The New Penguin Shakespeare. London: Penguin Books, 1996.
Henrik Ibsen’s, A Doll’s House, took a very different outlook on society in not showing
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. In Four Major Plays. Trans. James McFarlane and Jens Arup. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
“A Doll’s House” is a play written by a Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen. The play was published in 1879, and is a literary piece that triggered almost vigorous reactions from the audience. Moreover, the play was considered Ibsen’s masterpiece and he was determined to provoke a reaction from the public. His intention was to bring awareness to the problem of gender roles in the 19th century society: the role of women who were used as decorations of the household. The title this play, “A Doll’s House”, foreshadows the play’s protagonist, Nora Helmer, and her role in the household. The title of the play suggests that Nora is a doll in her own home.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." Ibsen : Four Major Plays - Volume 1. Trans. Rolf Fjelde. New York: Signet Classics, 1992. 43-114. Print.