Similarities Between Antigone And A Doll's House

In the plays Antigone and A Doll's House, Sophocles and Henrik Ibsen respectively create Nora and Antigone, who both challenge the expectations of a woman. Both plays focus on a small amount of characters and are very similar in concept. Antigone not only fights for her family, but also courageously challenges her uncle and King of Thebes, Creon. Likewise to Antigone, Nora challenges the common role of a woman by loaning money without her husband’s consent and then leaving her husband Torvald. Although Nora and Antigone share some comparable personality traits, they both deceive the men who challenge them in different ways. Throughout both stories, Nora and Antigone challenge the stereotypes that are correlated with being a woman. In many

In each play, men are unwilling to listen or rationalize with women. In A Dolls House, Nora tries to talk Torvald in letting Krogstad keep his job because she believes he has done nothing wrong to be fired. When Nora tries to engage in a conversation with Torvald to let Krogstad keep his job, although she assertively says, “You must let Krogstad keep his job at the bank”, Torvald nearly laughs at his wife’s idea (Isben 222). This shows how Torvald belittles Nora and does not consider her input even when she is trying to have a serious conversation. Similar to Torvald, Creon immediately is in question of Antigone’s innocence, even though she happens to come from royalty and is related to Creon himself. When talking about Antigone, Creon states, “Her minds a traitor: crimes kept in the dark" (Sophocles 998). In both instances, this shows how Torvald and Creon correspondingly underestimate the intelligence and have an underwhelming amount of trust in women. Both men share an arrogant and narcissistic attitude that will eventually lead to their

Creon and Torvald exemplify the fact that it was acceptable to deprecate the value of women. In A Dolls House, it seems as if Torvald treats Nora similar to a house pet. Throughout the play, Torvald constantly demeans Nora by calling her names such as a ‘little squirrel’ and a ‘spendthrift’. By calling Nora such names, it proves that Torvald does not take her seriously. This is also apparent when Nora asks for money. Torvald not only diminishes Nora, but proving he undervalues all women when saying, “Nora, Nora! Just like a woman! Seriously though, Nora, you know what I think about these things” (Ibsen 200). This shows how intolerable Torvald is of women, and adds justification to why Nora leaves Torvald. Similar to Torvald, Creon’s blindness towards Antigone leads his own son, Haimon, to betray him. When speaking to Haimon about Antigone’s trial, Creon states, “Let’s lose to a man, at least! Is a woman stronger than we?” (Spohocles 1002). This shows how Creon considers Antigone weak because of her gender; consequently, Creon overlooks Antigone. As a result of this, his own wife dies and his son betrays him for Antigone. At the end of each play, both men are left for