Nora and Oedipus

Austin Price
Mrs. Zell
AP English IV 7
5 November 2013
Rise and Fall While one eventually overcomes the obstacles that she faces, the other’s result in his demise. By adding major personal flaws each author illustrates their character as a tragic hero. By exemplifying the flaws of each character Sophocles and Isben create characters that seem detached, yet somehow relatable. In each play, “A Doll’s House” and “Oedipus the King”, the authors detach the characters by time or situation. Another way the authors do this is by adding a point where the readers begin to feel pity for the characters due to their personal dilemmas. Although separated by time, the plays share many similarities; both characters possess a flaw that creates a discouraging obstacle and at some point the audience began to pity them. Nora, a subservient house wife breaks free from her oppression by standing up to her dominating husband once and for all. Due to her major flaw, or harmatia, Nora sees nothing wrong with simply living as slave to Torvald. She does not have enough self-respect to acknowledge the fact that her own husband treats her like a doll and “little by little the doll dies” (Durbach 63). Nora must overcome her husband or she will be doomed to die like a little doll. Even Nora believes that once she has “lost her looks” she will have to find other ways to please her controlling husband (Isben 1722). This realization shows that Nora has some level of self-awareness which ultimately grows into revolt against her controlling husband. Isben utilizes catharsis by illustrating Nora’s disparity while her life begins to unravel. Nora believes that “something glorious” will happen once Torvald read the letter (Isben 1753). She hopes that he will be so infuriated with Krogstad’s dishonesty he will underplay the severity of the crime she committed. Nora shares the same disparity as Oedipus, yet his major flaw causes a more tragic outcome. The once great King of Thebes fell from his mighty throne due to his pride and arrogance. Oedipus’ pride clouds his judgment and prevent him from accepting his own fate. He continuously disregards the warning that others stress assuming he cannot be mistaken. Oedipus believes that he is god-like saying his people should “pray to [him]” (Sophocles 1433). This excessive pride, an example of harmatia in “Oedipus the King”, ultimately leads to his downfall. Jocasta pleads with her husband to prevent him from looking into the past, but Oedipus disregards his wife and the prophet and continues looking for the truth. The audience feels Oedipus’ pain and anguish when he discovers the blinding truth. This example of catharsis illustrates to the reader Oedipus’ immense suffering. Oedipus’ life begins to break apart similar to Nora’s, but his down fall is much more tragic. He pleads with Creon, begging him to not “take his [daughters] away”, but Creon continues almost mocking the once great kings as he has fallen too far to ever climb back up (Sophocles 1467). At this point the audience reflects on all the Oedipus has suffered through and begins to feel pity toward the shattered king. Both Isben and Sophocles succeed in portraying their characters as tragic heroes. Oedipus may seem like more of a tragic hero when compared to Nora, but each play contains the necessary elements that classify it as a tragedy. Nora and Oedipus posse major flaws which skew their judgment. Nora has no pride at all, while Oedipus has excessive pride. The harmatia in both instances cause the characters to react to the confrontations rashly, classifying them as tragic heroes. Each play contains examples of catharsis; a moment when the audience begin to pity the characters. Both stem from the characters sorrowful situations that each character faces. Nora eventually confronts the issues preventing her from being free and moves past the obstacles, while Oedipus cannot recover from the hard fall he experienced due to his pride and ignorance.