How Do Both Playwright’s Present Women and Their Attitudes Towards Marriage in the Two Plays?
How do both playwright’s present women and their attitudes towards marriage in the two plays?
Both playwrights present women and their attitudes towards marriage differently due to their contextual constraints. Both Ibsen and Shakespeare present two very different women in each of their plays. As Ibsen’s play was written in the nineteenth century compared to Shakespeare’s in the seventeenth century, you could see the developments in the women in A Doll’s House. Also, as Shakespeare was English and Ibsen Norwegian, they have different views on love and marriage, which they present in the plays.
In Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, love is a key theme. Various types of love are shown and developed in the play. The audience are presented with courtly love, true love and fraternal love. The various attitudes of love portrayed in Much Ado About Nothing make it easier for the audience to relate to. It also shows that you don’t need to have high status to be able to feel true love. This is shown between Beatrice and Benedick’s absolute and true love for each other as Beatrice doesn’t have a high status in society. This is different to modern time as people of any status and any class can have true love and it isn’t thought of as indifferent by others in society, whereas at the time of the play in the 16th century, it was only known for people of a high class and a high society status to fall in love truly and absolute.
The irony of this is that although the high characters experience love, it is not true love as they only met through the rules of courtship, a very staged and stagnant form of romance. The staged and insincere love is evidenced through the characters of Claudio and Hero. Importance of status is also shown in A Doll’s House when Nora flirts with Doctor Rank; “and you can imagine I am doing it all for you”. This shows her power over him as he is a dying man and she knows that he loves her, therefore this shows her higher status and
Both playwrights present women and their attitudes towards marriage differently due to their contextual constraints. Both Ibsen and Shakespeare present two very different women in each of their plays. As Ibsen’s play was written in the nineteenth century compared to Shakespeare’s in the seventeenth century, you could see the developments in the women in A Doll’s House. Also, as Shakespeare was English and Ibsen Norwegian, they have different views on love and marriage, which they present in the plays.
In Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, love is a key theme. Various types of love are shown and developed in the play. The audience are presented with courtly love, true love and fraternal love. The various attitudes of love portrayed in Much Ado About Nothing make it easier for the audience to relate to. It also shows that you don’t need to have high status to be able to feel true love. This is shown between Beatrice and Benedick’s absolute and true love for each other as Beatrice doesn’t have a high status in society. This is different to modern time as people of any status and any class can have true love and it isn’t thought of as indifferent by others in society, whereas at the time of the play in the 16th century, it was only known for people of a high class and a high society status to fall in love truly and absolute.
The irony of this is that although the high characters experience love, it is not true love as they only met through the rules of courtship, a very staged and stagnant form of romance. The staged and insincere love is evidenced through the characters of Claudio and Hero. Importance of status is also shown in A Doll’s House when Nora flirts with Doctor Rank; “and you can imagine I am doing it all for you”. This shows her power over him as he is a dying man and she knows that he loves her, therefore this shows her higher status and