Comparative Essay on A doll'd house and Ghost by Ibsen

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Comparative Essay on A doll'd house and Ghost by Ibsen

During the Victorian time period, there was very unequal treatment between women and men with the expectation being that women should simply stay in the house and let the men support them. For example, in A Doll’s House, Torvald calls Nora his “sweet little spendthrift” because she always ask for money to spend on housekeeping. On the other hand, in Ghosts, when Mrs. Alving ran away once from her husband, to Pastor Manders, he made her return and endure with her husband’s dissipation. Both of Ibsen’s plays, A Doll’s House and Ghosts show how both of the main characters were repressed by the unequal expectations of the Victorian society as shown through their marital relationships, the upbringing of their children and the sacrifice of their own beliefs. During the Victorian era the inequality between men and women can be most clearly seen in the way that husbands treat their wives in their marital relationships. In A Doll’s House, it seems that Nora is a doll that is controlled by her husband, Torvald. “all this evening I have longed nothing but you. When I watched the seductive figures of the tarantella my blood was on fire; I could endure it no longer, and that was why I brought you down so early--”.(A Doll’s House 58) Nora cuts him off and told him to let her go. His response to her “What’s that? You’re joking, my little Nora! You won’t--you won’t? Am i not your husband?”.(A Doll’s House 58) This shows that Torvald is more interested in Nora’s physical attributes than her emotions. He feels that Nora has the obligation to satisfy his physical urges. Also, Nora acts and think according to what he wants and does everything just to please him. A clear example of this, is Nora’s conversation with Mrs. Linde, “to be able to keep the house beautifully and have everything just as Torvald likes it!” (A Doll’s House 13). On the other hand, in Ghosts, when Mrs. Alving once left Captain Alving for Pastor Manders, he immediately turned her down and sent her back to him

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