Departure from the Traditional Role of Woman In Medea and A Doll’s House
...ng with worse wrong. Then the great question: will the man we get be bad or good? For women, divorce is not respectable; to repel the man, not possible (24). Medea is not a daydreamer, but an executor. She does not rely on the gods to punish man like chorus wishes. She mentions the weak position of women, and this helps to make people sympathize with the wretchedness of her as a woman. Medea aims to trigger the resonance of the chorus and win the support of women. This makes her plan softer and more righteous in people’s mind. This is her logical mind, which helps her set up and step on the road to her terminal goal. This is her nature and, essentially, the cause leads to the consequence of the play. Euripides explores Medea’s characteristics throughout the entire play. The Nurse, who stays close to Medea and understands her deeply says: “[Medea] is a frightening woman; no one who makes an enemy of her will carry off an easy victory” (59). This highly conveys Medea’s type. She is insensible to conduct revenge on everybody who she considers as an enemy at any cost. The intensity of Medea’s hate is proportional to her dedication to love. She loves Jason and gives up everything for him, but he abandons her. Therefore, her love turns into equal amount of rage; Jason is destined would not walk away easily. Finally despite of any social moral value, Medea’s cruelty and determination motivates her to kill her two sons to make Jason suffer. Traditional women dare not to commit infanticide for they could not imagine suffering from the self-guilt for the rest of their lives. Medea is the only one that is brave enough to endure the guilt. She has previously thought about this thoroughly and makes up a perfect plan at the very beginning. She is very emotional, for she could not or does not want to control her rage. Simultaneously, she is also very logical, for her action would never be motivated by the temporary impulse. At the sum of every bit of her nature, comes the consequence-total departure of Medea from the orbit of traditional women. And again, by the strong contrast between Medea and traditional women, the playwright emphasizes the connection between the personality of Medea and the consequence on the audience’s mind. Similarly, the playwright of A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen, also employs contrast to emphasize the characteristic of the protagonist, Nora Helmer. Throughout the entire play, Ibsen splits Nora into two parts, which are doll-Nora before and free-Nora after. These two parts share the same body, which means they share the same nature. However, they play totally different roles. Through the contrast between doll-Nora and free-Nora, the audience will be able to gain insight into the relation of Nora’s nature with the house. Throughout much of the play, Nora acts exactly as a traditional woman in Medea. She lives for her husband, Torvald Helmer, and follows his instruction. She sacrifices every bit of her personality to be the stranger who Torvald’s prefers, and she thinks it is the way she is supposed to be. As the society requires and praises, she does anything for her husband, but ask nothing for return. The audience could notice this through the following dialogue: HELMER. Very well. But now tell me, you extravagant little person, what would you like for yourself? NORA. For myself? Oh, I am sure I don’t want anything (Ibsen 5). Nora admires her ability to sacrifice for her family. She does not notice how much she gives up, as a traditional woman. However, Nora totally differs from them. Her nature, essentially, is dream-pursuing. Before the humiliation reveals, she thinks Torvald’s love is her pursuit. Ibsen portrays this as Nora talks to Mrs. Linde: (Meditatively, and with a half smile). Yes-some day, perhaps, after many years, when I am no longer as nice-looking as I am now. Don’t laugh at me! I mean, of course, when Trovald is no longer as devoted to me as he is now; when my dancing and dressing-up and reciting have palled on him; then it may be a good thing to have something in reserve-(Breaking off.) What nonsense! The time will never come. (13) She is with a “half-smiling”. She suspects the love between them, but she does not want to lose her way to her dream. In order to stay in this dream, she even never seriously thinks about who she is being; because of the loyalty to her dream, she loses her personality; although, unfortunately, her dream is a daydream. Her daydream gives her the power to live in the house, especially in those days when Krogstad frightens her. “After all, it is splendid to be waiting for...