Standing Up to the Status Quo

1200 Words3 Pages

Considering that traditional society looked down on women as inferior to men, the female roles in each work challenge the status quo and make their audiences’ eyes wearier to the society they might have previously backed without question. The book We, and the plays Antigone and A Doll’s House provide rich support for individual reasoning and ardent opposition to mindless devotion to establishment. Zamyatin’s story opens with a perspective in support of the fanatical institution, but on deeper levels of commentary contradictions are already starting to propagate. A potential allusion to Zamyatin’s own ideological confusion early on in his life, the hidden meaning of We’s early lines reveal the trap of an ideal society. While Zamyatin felt that trust in society led to the decline of personal willpower, Sophocles argued that personal willpower provided a better alternative to trust in society. Antigone sticks to her morals, even in direct violation of laws established by the “Ship of State”. Sophocles paints a picture of human beings as the play toys of malevolent gods and goddesses; in the end sticking to morals is the only way to escape the malicious cycle that plagues Thebes. Ibsen provides middle ground between the others as Nora’s awareness of the pitfalls of an ideal society prompt her to seek new beginnings as an aware and thinking individual. In the final scene of A Doll’s House, Nora articulates to Torvald her motives for leaving him and abandoning their family: “I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are--or, at all events, that I must try and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in books; but I ca... ... middle of paper ... ...e considered masters of their style of writing (not to say that Zamyatin was not) and their pieces accounted for above became some of the most well received in their repertoire, maintaining prominence even through today. Each author constructed a story based around society and its quarks; a central pillar being that of erroneous trust in a misguided society. Moreover, this system discourages the atypical freethinker which it would do well to cultivate. Each author in their own right stands apart from the crowd in terms of the insightfulness of their works. The messages found inside, revered and studied today, encourage the scrutiny of an ideal society by demonstrating that trusting in such a notion weakens the strong minded citizen necessary for true social harmony. Presented against the backdrop of wonderful story crafting, they proficiently convey their theses.

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