A Dolls House" and "The Glass Menagerie

There is a common struggle between the call of duty and the desire to live one’s life in the two plays “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen and “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams. Nora, from “A Doll’s House” didn’t realize her desire to live her own life until the end of the play and she dealt with the struggle by convincing herself that she was unfit to be a mother and a wife. Tom, from “The Glass Menagerie” always struggled between his responsibility to his family and his desire to be a merchant marine. Both Nora and Tom were trapped by the circumstances of life and needed to get out. Other characters struggled as well, and we can see this through character traits and flaws, abandonment, and character transformations. Throughout both of the plays, many of the characters have flaws. In “A Doll’s House”, Nora’s main flaw is that she is very dependent on others. When she was a little girl, she was always spoiled by her father. Now that she has gotten older and has married, nothing has really changed. She married someone who spoils her just like her father had. Nora has never had a job or been able to support herself and this is one of the reasons that she abandons her family later on in the play. Nora’s husband Torvald also has a character flaw; he is very bossy and controlling. He always treats Nora like some sort of a pet rather than his wife. He always tries to keep her on the shortest leash possible and tries to control everything that she does. He only gives her a certain allowance each week and doesn’t let her eat her favorite things, macaroons. Along with the character flaws in “A Doll’s House”, there are also some character flaws in “The Glass Menagerie”. One of the characters that has a flaw is Amanda. Her biggest flaw is that she is dependent on her son. She doesn’t really have a good, steady job so she depends on Tom to work and pay the bills. The problem with this is that Tom can’t move out and carry on with his dream of