A Doll's House and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: Can the Human Spirit Be Imprisoned?
World Literature #1: Comparative Essay
Can the human spirit be imprisoned? A Doll’s House and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
NAME: Shelley Lima
IB CANDIDATE NUMBER: 000091-032
TEACHER : Kate Goldberg
DISCIPLINE OF ESSAY: English
WORD COUNT: 1 492
Both Ivan, the protagonist from the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Nora, the character from the play A Doll’s House written by Ibsen, are two characters whose lives are imprisoned, either physically or mentally. The character Ivan is physically imprisoned in a gulag camp in Russia where he has to find escape routes from his imprisoned life to find pleasure in his everyday life. The character of Nora is figuratively imprisoned in her marriage and she has to find aspects of her life that let her escape and find her own self somewhere in her caged situation. In the novel by Solzhenitsyn, Ivan uses many physical escape routes, such as food, tobacco, work, and human relationships to take a step away from his imprisoned life. In the play by Ibsen, Nora’s primary escape route to her imprisoned life is her secret work life where she can earn money on her own for her family and for herself. Both of these imprisoned lives, in two different pieces of world literature, pose the question--can the human spirit be imprisoned? Alexander Solzhenitsyn 's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a short novel centering on one prisoner 's experiences during a single day in a Soviet labor camp. The four walls of the camp physically imprison Ivan and the only way his mind can be free from this confinement is if he finds mental escape routes in his everyday life. Food, tobacco, work, and his relationships with his friends inside the camp are the principle mental escape routes that are prominent in this novel. When Ivan is put in a situation
Can the human spirit be imprisoned? A Doll’s House and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
NAME: Shelley Lima
IB CANDIDATE NUMBER: 000091-032
TEACHER : Kate Goldberg
DISCIPLINE OF ESSAY: English
WORD COUNT: 1 492
Both Ivan, the protagonist from the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Nora, the character from the play A Doll’s House written by Ibsen, are two characters whose lives are imprisoned, either physically or mentally. The character Ivan is physically imprisoned in a gulag camp in Russia where he has to find escape routes from his imprisoned life to find pleasure in his everyday life. The character of Nora is figuratively imprisoned in her marriage and she has to find aspects of her life that let her escape and find her own self somewhere in her caged situation. In the novel by Solzhenitsyn, Ivan uses many physical escape routes, such as food, tobacco, work, and human relationships to take a step away from his imprisoned life. In the play by Ibsen, Nora’s primary escape route to her imprisoned life is her secret work life where she can earn money on her own for her family and for herself. Both of these imprisoned lives, in two different pieces of world literature, pose the question--can the human spirit be imprisoned? Alexander Solzhenitsyn 's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a short novel centering on one prisoner 's experiences during a single day in a Soviet labor camp. The four walls of the camp physically imprison Ivan and the only way his mind can be free from this confinement is if he finds mental escape routes in his everyday life. Food, tobacco, work, and his relationships with his friends inside the camp are the principle mental escape routes that are prominent in this novel. When Ivan is put in a situation
Bibliography: Solzhenit︠s︡yn, Aleksander. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. [1st ed. New York: Dutton & Co. Inc., 1963. Print. Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll 's House. Dover ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print. [8] Ibsen, Henrik. A doll 's house. Dover ed. New ࠀࠁࠂYork: Dover Publications, 1992. Print, p.44 [9] ibid, p.93