Between a Rock and a Hard Place

In The Doll House Isben presents every possible aspect of a housewives life. In doing so his novel takes on an element of female empowerment as it demonstrates the countless unexpected hardships that three different one-time housewives and must encounter as they each struggle create an identity and respectable life for themselves and the many people who rely on them. Through the characters Nora, Mrs. Linde, the nanny Isben characterizes three distinctly different socio-economic situation in which women of the time period each encountered equal but distinct difficulties in providing for themselves and those that they found a maternal obligation to support. Mrs. Linde’s sacrifice of her own happiness in order to fulfill her obligation is an example of the often contradicting forces that call upon women to attempt the impossible. For Mrs. Linde her decision to care for her dieing mother and younger brothers demonstrates a problem that characterizes the strife of a middle class women who finds that herself effectively out of luck and left with the responsibilities of a man without the status or legal equality of a man burdened with the same responsibilities. This is a situation that Nora also faces in a different respect when she is forced to take a loan to save Torvald’s life but society once again interferes, deeming her far inferior to men thus not allowing her to take a loan without her husband’s approval.

The way that Isben outlines and portrays the lives of these women gives me the impression that he likely sympathized with the unfair predicaments that women of his time period found themselves subject to. This plight is only further emphasized by Nora’s final decision to leave her husband as she comes to terms with the reality of her inferiority even in the eyes of someone she believed to be her greatest admirer, Torvald. With this eventual realization Isben shows that even the most well off, Nora finds herself in the same dark place that Mrs. Linde and the Nanny characterized earlier.
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Hamlet's Emotional Detach

Throughout the first four acts of the play Hamlet is presented by Shakespeare as a composed, intellectually aware individual, who is very aware of the emotions that drive him to seek revenge against his uncle. However at the start of act V when Hamlet is presented with the death Ophelia, a death he is completely liable for, he seems to be numb to the event. While I admit that he obviously is filled with rage and temporarily loses his better senses when he attacks Laertes. In general though, I noticed that Hamlet was really unable to sincerely embrace the fact that Ophelia was dead. To me it seemed like the his heart has become numb and detached from the realities of the life he is living. In his quest to avenge his father he has sacrificed his sole, his feelings, and his life. I believe that Shakespeare uses the scene with Ophelia's death to present a theme of the unexpected draw backs of a revenge driven mind. I also believe that Hamlet has spent such a long period of time pretending to be mad that this has also contributed to his detachment from reality. His inability to sincerely interact with family members and most friends created a gap between Hamlet and many of the stabilizing forces in his life. With his mother thinking he is crazy and his lover thinking he the same, I believe that it would be very difficult for someone to stay the same person. Living a lie thus proves to be the other contributing factor in the deterioration of hamlet's emotional capacities.

Hamlet's Emotional Detach

Throughout the first four acts of the play Hamlet is presented by Shakespeare as a composed, intellectually aware individual, who is very aware of the emotions that drive him to seek revenge against his uncle. However at the start of act V when Hamlet is presented with the death Ophelia, a death he is completely liable for, he seems to be numb to the event. While I admit that he obviously is filled with rage and temporarily loses his better senses when he attacks Laertes. In general though, I noticed that Hamlet was really unable to sincerely embrace the fact that Ophelia was dead. To me it seemed like the his heart has become numb and detached from the realities of the life he is living. In his quest to avenge his father he has sacrificed his sole, his feelings, and his life. I believe that Shakespeare uses the scene with Ophelia's death to present a theme of the unexpected draw backs of a revenge driven mind. I also believe that Hamlet has spent such a long period of time pretending to be mad that this has also contributed to his detachment from reality. His inability to sincerely interact with family members and most friends created a gap between Hamlet and many of the stabilizing forces in his life. With his mother thinking he is crazy and his lover thinking he the same, I believe that it would be very difficult for someone to stay the same person. Living a lie thus proves to be the other contributing factor in the deterioration of hamlet's emotional capacities.