The Impact of Marriage in "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel and "The House of Bernarda Alba" by Federico Garcia Lorca

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Marriage is an important theme in the plays, ‘A Doll’s House’ written by Henrik Ibsen, and ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ written by Federico Garcia Lorca. Though the concept of marriage is two people living together through love and companionship, it revolves around the duties and principals put up by the society. Both of these books share anachronistic views of marriage where marriage is not an emotional attachment between two entities but a social engagement between two entities of similar wealth and power.

In the play “A Doll’s House”, marriage is merely a social formality. Torvald and Nora, husband and wife, share merely a few intimate moments throughout the entire novel and their relationship is devoid of any affection at all. The setting of the play “A Doll’s House” is 19th century Norway and the norms and beliefs of this era play a huge role in defining the role of Torvald as a husband, and Nora as a wife. The husband in this era is supposed to be the sole guardian of the house, responsible for taking care of the families financial requirements and ensuring a high standing for the family in society. Torvald believes that Nora is confined to looking after their children and basically taking care of the physical aspects of their household, and Nora feels so oppressed by her husband that she helps him in a time of dire need without even telling him. This incident occurs in the scene where Torvald falls dangerously sick and is too foolish to spend money on foreign treatment that could save his life, Nora sensing the grave danger goes behind Torvald’s back and collects money to save Torvalds life by committing the crime of forgery.

When Torvald finds out about the crime that Nora commits, he completely disregards the fact tha...

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...e. Frederico was later caught by rebels and executed for his homosexual orientation that the rebels found “nonconforming”.

All in all, from this vivid analysis of the role of marriage in “A Doll’s House” and “The House of Bernarda Alba”, one can see that marriage did not have much value and was completely devoid of emotion. In these two tragedies the idea of marriage is influenced by the cruel society and its orthodox views and beliefs in general that mould a “model” citizen. Ultimately, in both of these works of literature, marriage is a key theme that forms a substantial amount of the plot of the story and marriage is also an element that repressed individuals in the dramas who finally took extreme measures to free themselves from the unrelenting grasp of societies vortex.

Works Cited

Published texts: "Like Water for Chocolate" and "The House of Bernarda Alba"

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