A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams are two well-known plays that give rise to discussions over male-female relationships in old society. The female protagonists in the plays are women who are dependent on males. However, the female protagonist in A Doll House is able to transcend her status by try to be dependent on herself at the end of the play, whereas the one in A Streetcar Named Desire still continues to depend on men. In this essay, I am going to discuss the relationships with men of the two female protagonists, Nora Helmer and Blanche Dubois.
In A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora Helmer is the female protagonist of the play. She is a housewife in the Helmer’s family. She has undergone a transformation throughout the play that she reacts differently to her husband. Nora’s relationship with her husband, Torvald, is important in the development of the plot. In the first scene, Nora appears to be happy and have an affectionate family. Although she tries to defy her husband in some unimportant ways, for example, she lies to her husband about eating macaroons, she still maintains a good relationship with her husband. However, minor incident actually foreshadows the confrontation between her husband and her later when the play continues. As the plot develops, Nora is actually not as simple as other wives that she does not totally obey her husband. The contradiction between Nora’s independent nature and the tyrannical authority of Torvald arouses a climax in the play when Torvald discovered a lie of Nora. The lie shows a big contrast of their relationship before and after the disclosure.
Before Torvald discovers the truth behind the deception, the relationship