How literature can shape the way society thinks
...such as Wordsworth and Blake, Emily Dickenson’s poetry is often hard to understand. With her bizarre style of writing her piece has affected society. In the first stanza of her poem, Dickenson discuses how a woman would have to leave everything that made her happy, “To take the honorable Work Of Woman, and of Wife.” What Dickenson means is that society has a certain expectation of marriage. A woman not accepting that role was considered wrong in society at the time. The second stanza of her poem describes after taking the role of wife, the woman’s inner-self starts to wear away. “Or the Gold In using, wear away.” The person who she used to be before marriage is slowly being lost. The word gold was used to symbolize the woman’s inner-self, her identity as a person. Dickenson used the word mainly because gold has a precious value, and a woman’s inner-self or identity was valued just the same as one would value gold. Like Dickenson, Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House has the same effect on society. Nora, the main character is the wife to Torvald Helmer, a lawyer. Throughout the play Torvald treats Nora as a possession to him; however he does so kindly with respect. Nora seems happy to live up to his expectations, but later the reader learns the love Nora once had for her husband is not there anymore. That love between Nora and her husband does not exist. The reader sees this happen by the names Helmer calls Nora throughout the entire play. These names show how Nora acts as this possession to him and how she is inferior to him. He calls her my little squirrel, my darling wife, my little singing bird, a heedless child, and even blind, foolish woman. It seems that Helmer has forgotten what Nora is to him. All these names he calls her has an effect on Nora. He may think that they are just names and she does not mind, but the reader knows it does affect Nora. Later on in the play Nora mentions to her old school friend Mrs. Linde that she is playing the role for her husband. Nora has been preparing a dress for the ball that she will be attending. Her old school friend says, “I see you are going to keep up the c...