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Is Ibsen's A Doll's House patterned after Medea?

            Inequality between men and women has always existed in society. Examples of this are expressed through literature. Henrik Ibsen's play entitled A Doll's House is very similar to Euripides play Medea. Both plays portray these factors and how women are forced to cope with such positions in society. Each play exhibits a separation of family due to its controversial characters, leading one to believe Ibsen modeled his play after Medea.
             The main character in Euripides" play is Medea. Some of her very important qualities are also seen in Ibsen's main character Nora. Medea is known for her cleverness. She convinces King Creon to allow her to stay in Corinth for one more day. Medea pleads:.
             Allow me to remain here just this one day, .
             So I may consider where to live in my exile, .
             And look for support for my children, since their father .
             Chooses to make no kind of provision for them. .
             Have pity on them! You have children of your own. .
             It is natural for you to look kindly on them. .
             For myself I do not mind if I go into exile. .
             It is the children being in trouble that I mind." (Euripides p. 12) .
             She plays upon Creon's weakness for children. Medea uses the time he allows her to plot revenge against Jason and his new royal family. The heroin puts her plan into action killing both the king and the princess.
             Her cleverness is also displayed when she encounters Aegeus, the king of Athens. She is aware of the difficulty he has with conceiving and she uses that to persuade him to allow her to stay in Athens, and protect her from anyone who may come to find her. She states, .
             " But receive me in your land and at your very hearth.
             So may your love, with God's help, lead to the bearing.
             Of children, and so may you yourself die happy. .
             You do not know what a chance you have come on here. .
             I will end your childlessness, and I will make you able to beget children. .
             The drugs I know can do this." (Euripides p.23) .
             These are just a few examples of how Medea uses her cleverness to get what she wants.


Essays Related to Is Ibsen's A Doll's House patterned after Medea?

1. Heroines in a Doll's House

"Ibsen's ars dramatis centres on the way his heroines find that their doll's houses are turning, or have turned, into prisons."" ... In order to discuss the morphing of doll house' into prison' in A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler one must first examine what makes their domestic situations doll houses' in the first instance. In A Doll's House Ibsen is quick to present Nora as a playful and almost hysterical child' by having her character move around the stage like much like the "squirrel- or "sky-lark- of Torvald's affectionate flirting. ... Th...

  • Word Count: 1734
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

2. A doll's house

A DOLL"S HOUSE written by, Henrik Ibsen is recognized as a landmark contribution to modern theater. ... In Ibsen's play, A DOLL"S HOUSE, he says what can I not say. ... The purpose of the play was to provoke thought and incite revolution which is exactly what Ibsen did. ... Being on of the most controversial part of the play, the end comes, and with it the doll's house tumbles down, and Nora discards her doll's dress, she shed her skin, as it were. ... When Nora closes behind her the door of her doll's house, she opens wide the gate of life for women, and proclaims the...

  • Word Count: 328
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3. Victorian Women and A Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen, a strong feminist supporter and well known author of several feminist stories, created the play "A Doll's House" to represent women in the Victorian Era. ... As the play progresses, Nora finds herself trapped in the "doll house" of her own home created by Torvald. ... Symbolism in A Doll's House comes from the language Ibsen uses to portray gender inequalities in the Victorian Era. ... Nora states "I've been your wife-doll here, just at home I was papa's doll child" (Ibsen, 817). ... The play A Doll's House shows a perfect ex...

  • Word Count: 1128
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

4. Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House and Hedda Gabbler both were written with an internal motive to explore personalities within a social context. ... (Zeineddine 10) In a Doll's House, Ibsen lets you know from the title that Nora is a doll, not a person living in a house. ... Nora says to Torvald, "Our house has been nothing but a playroom, I was Papa's doll and here the children have been my dolls. . . ... Ibsen feels that if his role of master of the doll house is taken away, this will encourage man's own self-development. ... She is abl to leave her situation without worries or cares ...

  • Word Count: 1783
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Clothing Symbolksm in A Doll's House

This can be seen through the play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. ... Within Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, Ibsen uses the symbolism of clothing to illustrate freedom. ... This can be shown within Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, that shows a husband restricting the wife's freedoms which is gained through exchanging rings back and leaving for forever. ... This can be seen through Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, when Nora is forced to wear what her husband wants her too which covers up her identity causing her to discover who she is when she leav...

  • Word Count: 1443
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Analysis of A Doll's House

I do not regard, "A Doll's House," as a well made play. ... The ending to Ibsen's play, is pretty far from happy. ... It is these, "essential structural features," that not only reflect human morality, presented by Ibsen, but reflect Ibsen's realist style of writing. ... His art had a goal, and using the genre of realism, "A Doll's House," was his first of many steps trying to reach that goal. ... "A Doll's House," not only threw open the door on real life, and exposed humanity's sordid secrets, but slammed the door on archetypes, melodrama, and expectations....

  • Word Count: 820
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Analysis of A Doll House

It was during this time that he wrote A Doll House in 1879, which would eventually earn him the title of "father of modern drama,"" (Cassady 257) A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen was published on December 4, 1879, and was first performed in Copenhagen on December 21, 1879. ... Ibsen consistently asserted that A Doll House examined issues facing humanity rather than women in particular. ... A Doll House has brought controversy to the conclusion in which Nora leaves her family. ... The Women's Rights League was founded within the same year, following the controversy that would result fr...

  • Word Count: 1518
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

8. A Doll House: An Analysis

A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen is a play about women's roles in society in the 19th century. ... In A Dolls House, Nora's character is child-like and carefree. ... The setting of A Doll House takes place at Christmas time in a nicely implemented house. ... The title of the play "A Doll House" symbolizes the level of maturity in the house. Nora symbolizes the "doll" in the house and the house itself is her playground. ...

  • Word Count: 720
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

9. A Doll's House - Oppression of Women

In A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen presents the concept of seeking self-actualization in a society that was rigidly conformist, as shown through the characters of Nora and Kristine, in order to prove that society prevented women from becoming the self-fulfilled people that they could be. ... Torvald's actions were much like how a child would play with a doll in a dollhouse, and Nora was the doll. This was no doll's house though; this was life or death. ... In order to see what Nora's life would be like after leaving Torvald, one only needs to look at her childhood friend Kris...

  • Word Count: 1148
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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