Nora and Medea Essay

Medea, in Medea, and Nora, in A Dolls House, argon both women who seem to suffer bad at the hands of their preserves in twain male-dominated societies the former in ancient Greece, the latter(prenominal) in nineteenth century Norway. for each wiz does something important for her economize involving personal sacrifice, for which she expects veritable sermon in return, alone when this is non forthcoming, how do they react? Do they turn out the roles of stuffy wives, demure and weak? Or do they rebel and be wipe out unconventionally?Medeas destination dictated that women had near no rights, and were regarded as little to a majusculeer extent than possessions we wipe out to buy a economise and what we buy is someone to lord it all over our body. Although Noras culture allowed women more(prenominal) rights, they were serene forbidden authorized privileges for example, a wife cant borrow without her husbands consent. This shows the male dominated societies the deuce w omen lived in, and the inferior role the wife was anticipate to happen.Medea was non, however, quite the conventional female of her culture for she is described as, a lioness, not human, unquiet than Tyrrhenian Scylla. Her use of masculine language I would rather fight three times, suggests she is approximately male despite being a model wife of her time I consume borne you sons. Nora as well acts unconventionally for her era, borrowing without her husbands consent, but is still a stereotypical wife in a feel, playing with her children and being her husbands inferior, a featherbrain and lark.The sacrifices do by Medea for her husband Jason atomic number 18 considered evil humanities in her caller, and cause her banishment. It is interesting to posting that Medea do those sacrifices because her lovingness was, smitten with hump for Jason. She crimson lists them to Jason it was I who killed the sleepless snake in the grass . . . . I betrayed my father and my home. . . . I killed poof Pelias. The severity of her sacrifice would be great in any culture, but to be stateless represented a oddment sentence in the Ancient classic world. It is discernable from the above that Medeas sacrifices were to nurture Jasons life and destroy his enemies, which mirrors the society they lived in, as it revolved around state of war and violence.Noras sacrifices seem mediocre in comparison to Medeas, since they do not require murder. It was I who saved Torvalds life, is a simple statement, which gives the hearing Noras author for borrowing the capital. end-to-end the play, it is obvious that Nora loves Torvald, as she says, if anything as horrid as that were to happen, when Torvald jests nigh his demise. Nora borrowed the money to enable Torvald to go to Italy to acquire his health, but she obviously did not lack to worry him she told him how nice it would be to have a holiday. Nora accepted the roll of the skylark, even though it was demeaning, to h ide the law from Torvald. This reflects her society too, because keeping up snapper class appearances was essential.After all the sacrifices made by Medea, and when she has get down to live . . . with her husband, Jason refuses to include anything she has done for him, and claims, that his lone(prenominal) guardian on his travels . . . was Aphrodite, she alone. In this sense, Jason expects Medea to be a sacrificial dearest in their marriage, and to do his offer without a thought of decent treatment or appreciation from him. He also becomes, the traitor who has betrayed her bed, by his marriage to the princess. He twists the items of their lives to create the illusion that Medea is unjust in her expectations of him, and even goes so far as to say that it is for her have got severe I did it to safeguard you.Furthermore, after Medeas heart is broken, she is dealt a cruel blow when Creon tells her, make for your dickens sons and go, into exile. Because of her love for Jason , and the sacrifices she has made for him, she is detest and feared by men as she says, I am alone and stateless. Medeas course of action seems to make her a sacrificial lamb for Jason, since her situation is so hopeless steal from a barbarian land, I have no mother, brother In Noras case, when Torvald finds out a round of drinks the borrowed money, he does not appreciate what she has done for him either, and does not insure her as she anticipated. He overwhelms her with his answer, not even allowing her to speak you wretched woman what have you done? He insults her by adage she has, no religion, no morality, no sense of employment. This is ironicbecause it is her love and sense of duty that compelled her to peril the law and borrow money in order to save his life. He rages at her, forcing her to see the reality that he only cares about him self you wrecked my enjoymentmy future. He even asks her, do you pass what you have done to me?When Krogstad returns the bond, Torvald displays his selfishness further, and shocks Nora by declaring, Im saved But he then insults her and demeans her position by assert that Noras feminine helplessness made her, twice as attractive to him. through and throughout this whole event Torvald exhibits his true self to Nora, astounding her by being a manifestation of selfishness and cowardice. Nora had expect him to be unbidden to sacrifice himself for her, as she had been willing to do for him. The harsh reality, however, was that Torvald was fully intending to sacrifice her to save himself.Therefore, Medea and Nora both expect a certain treatment from their husbands, which they do not get. In Medeas case, Jason knew of her sacrifices, and refused to ac make doledge them. Torvald did not know what Nora had done for him, but when the time came, he failed her in his reaction.In this, it is obvious that Torvald and Jason are very similar. twain wish to proceeds from their wives sacrifices and refuse to commend them for thei r evident love. Their selfishness reflects the fact that in their respective societies the men expected their wives to do their bidding. Jason is typically male in his reaction, accusing Medea of being sex-crazed. Torvald, likewise, is the typically mall class husband concerned only with his own position, not his wifes.Both Nora and Medea, after realizing the true characters of their husbands, seem blatantly to refuse to accept their roles as conventional victims of male dominance, and react in their own ways. They acquit over against what was expected of them. Medeas reaction is not as astounding for an audience as Noras in my opinion, because Medea has a degree of blood lust and vengefulness about her, whereas Nora had been behaving like a good wifethroughout the whole play, so her reaction is more powerful.Because of Medeas character, she is, in my opinion, expected to take revenge on her husband let no one think me weak I am made of different stuff. Nora does the exact opposi te. She does not leave Torvald as an act of revenge, but does this for herself, as an act of self-discovery. This may again be linked to the societies the two women lived in. Medeas culture was very violent and warlike, more or less primitive, whereas Noras culture was not at all violent, and offered more opportunity for her to break free.Medea declares that she will, triumph over her enemies, and murders Creon and his daughter. The use of the haggling triumph and enemies is rather sinister imagery, which reinforces her vengeful spirit and masculine language. The two murders come as no surprise as that has been Medeas method of treating her enemies. Her second bout of revenge truly shocks readers, for infanticide is completely against maternal(p) principles. She is willing to sacrifice her own sons to twisting Jason, as she coldly decides that, Jason will never see alive again the sons he had by me.Noras reaction is more new-made and feminist, as she resolves that her most sain tly duty is the, duty to herself. She simply informs Torvald that she is exit him and her children. Though this may not be so controversial today (at least in the West), in Noras culture, the familys paper would suffer greatly, and her own reputation would be almost certainly lost.Through the sacrifices the two characters willingly make for their husbands, whom they love, the two women act conventionally. After they see their husbands in their true lights, they each react in their own unconventional ways, and refuse to play the role of victim often condition to women. In this, at least, they revolt totally against the stereotypes enforced by their respective olden societies two thousand years apart, and behave similarly to women in more modern egalitarian societies.