Adversity In A Doll's House

Eveline, Daisy, and Nora all grew up in time periods where there were stringent social expectations for women that they could not have adhered to without being untrue to themselves. A common theme in each story was their individual struggle to find happiness and a way to express themselves in the societies they lived. This essay will discuss their lives and some of the adversity they faced and whether or not they had the strength to ultimately overcome them. I will first talk about Eveline, who was torn between keeping the promise she made her dying mother, to stay home with her abusive father and help with the house, or running away with her love Frank to Buenos Aires to start her life anew. Next I will discuss Daisy, from “Daisy Miller.”
Lastly I will talk about Nora from “A Doll’s House.” Nora lived with her husband Helmer, who had recently gotten a respectable job working at a bank. Throughout the story, Nora maintains a cheerful façade, repeating that everything is great and fantastic when speaking with Mrs. Linde and others in the story, all the while carrying a secret that would have hurt their reputations. Although these women were from different eras and backgrounds in history, they each felt a similar societal pressure to align themselves to the expectations placed on them, which I believe is a theme that not only captures the times these stories were written, but the struggle many women have faced throughout
She grew up with a belligerent, abusive, greedy father. “Her father used often to hunt them in out of the field with his blackhorn stick; but usually little Keogh used to keep nix and call out when he saw her father coming.” (Joyce, Eveline, James, 407) “She always gave her entire wages- seven shillings- and Harry always sent up what he could but the trouble was to get any money from her father.” (Joyce, Eveline, James,408) Her mother, when she was alive, would do what she could to control her father’s temper, sheltering her and her siblings from his wrath, but died and left Eveline with the burden of taking care of the house and her father who had threatened her, telling her she had her mother to protect her when she was alive, but now that her mother was gone, nobody was around to protect her. “Her promise to keep the home together as long as she could. She remembered the last night of her mother illness; she was again in the close dark room at the other side of the hall and outside she heard a melancholy air of Italy.” (Joyce, Eveline, James, 409) Eveline accepted the fact that her father could lash out at her at any time and hurt her, and did her duty to cook for her father and the young children she