Selflessness In The Awakening And A Doll's House

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Recommended: Importance of selflessness

In the book Confess by Colleen Hoover, Hoover states, “Selflessness. It should be the basis of every relationship. If a person truly cares about you, they'll get more pleasure from the way they make you feel, rather than the way you make them feel”. Selflessness, the idea of putting someone else's needs above your own, is a moral trait that is exalted among humans. It shows compassion and concern for others that is attributed to a high maturity level and complex thought. In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna, a wife and mother, displays her selfishness through personal desire; In contrast, throughout the drama A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, also a wife and mother, shows her selfless attitude. Nora Helmer is a stronger woman than …show more content…

Nora finally shares the secret that she borrowed money, which is taboo in that society, with her friend Kristine. She begins with, ¨The doctors came to me and told me his life was in danger, that nothing could save him but a stay in the south¨(Ibsen 1098). Kristine then rebukes her for going behind her husbands back and calls her foolish for doing so. Nora then rhetorically asks, ¨Is it foolish to save your husband's life?¨(1098). This remark proves that Nora takes great care in her husband's well being. Nora strongly and selflessly decided to put her husband's life ahead of her own societal reputation. This selfless action shows strength because it require one to have strong, mature morals of what is right. Strength can also be seen when Nora chooses to resist the societal ideas of money being laid upon her and instead chooses her own moral decision. On the other hand, Edna takes little to no interest in her husband's daily affairs and well being. To Edna, her husband now seemed to her ¨like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse¨(Chopin 104). Without love Edna believes she cannot put any thought into her husband's needs because she does not love him. One night, Edna harshly exclaims to her husband, ¨… go to bed...I mean to stay out here. I don't wish to go in and I don't intend to. Don't speak to me like that again; I shall …show more content…

While Nora is again talking with Kristine she claims, ¨I've done it all myself, the whole thing. Just remember that¨(Ibsen 1128). Noras actions are meant to protect her family from any trouble she may have caused them by committing a taboo. Instead of sharing blame and receiving less harsh punishment, Nora chooses to keep all the blame to herself in order to protect the people she truly cares about. Her selfless action shows strength because it is not easy to consciously choose to punish yourself in order to save others. Also, even when confronted with a chance to change her choice Nora asserts, ¨Let me go. You are not to sacrifice yourself for me. You are not to take the blame¨(1141). By sticking to her selfless choice even when presented with a loop hole, Nora shows pure strength that would not be possible without truly loving the people she was doing it for. While Nora takes complete blame for her actions, turning herself into a tragic hero, Enda chooses the opposite. Edna takes no blame for how her life has turned out, how her marriage has failed, and where she has ended up. One excerpt from The Awakening Show how little blame Edna puts upon herself; Chopin writes, ¨The exuberance which had sustained and exalted her spirit left her helpless and yielding to the conditions which

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