The Roles Of Women Essay Research Paper — страница 2

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fortunate. Nora in the end, decided she needed to live a freer life, and let go of her lifetime of refinement and guidance. She did not have the opportunity that Miss Julie had to test her boundaries. As Miss Julie digresses to a woman of no power, Nora progresses to strong self-empowerment. Miss Julie plays with Jean, mentally and physically, and appears to lure him in through her higher social status. She uses similar pet talk to what Torvald uses with Nora. In the end though, Jean is the powerful one, having lured her in through his supposed admiration for her. She was attracted to his physical appearance and intrigue, and the curiosity of the forbidden fruit, which was exactly what Jean was fueled by as well. After their affair in the bedroom, he turns on her, using his lower

status to manipulate her. Thus, the roles have been reversed. He holds the affair over her head, threatening her social position by the possibility of everyone else finding out about them. She begins to follow what he tells her to do, and generally does so all the way to her suicidal deathbed. Miss Julie too is convinced that she must commit suicide in order to save herself and those effected by her. Only with Miss Julie, it seems to be more of a hysterical delusion, and not her own idea. Jean puts pressure on her to do it, saying that if he were a woman, he would take that course of action. She needs an outlet, and this is her painful relief. She is in a trance-like state as she faces her last moments alive, just as Nora is when Torvald is off reading the letter. At those

moments, both feel a calm, having concluded that suicide is the answer. Miss Julie’s suicidal conclusion is similar to a temporary conclusion that Nora comes to. Before Torvald has read the letter from Krogstad, Nora is determined to kill herself. By committing suicide, she will prevent Torvald from taking the blame on himself. Instead of having to suffer guilt and self-hate for having ruined Torvald, she will save his career as she had earlier saved his life. Her idea is that she will be enshrined forever in his memory and will not have to fear the loss of his love when she is no longer so attractive. When he does not react the way she predicts, and is preoccupied with his own feeling’s of inadequacy, Nora is heartbroken. He neither praises her for having earned the money to

save his life, nor offers to take the blame for her forgery. Instead he calls her a hypocrite, a liar, and a criminal and tells her that she “won’t be allowed to bring up the children” (Act 3). Her dream has been shattered, and she feels a total injustice, since she has been ready to die for him, and he is thinking only of himself. Enraged and devoid of faith, she feels now that she does not love Torvald and that he has never loved her. Nora’s anger then leads to the desire for more freedom and she begins her self-empowerment. She impulsively decides she is leaving to go find herself the woman that has been hidden behind the doll for so long. Miss Julie and Nora behave in similar ways at the end of the plays. Nora is at a realization that she feels is positive, while Miss

Julie is at her dreadful end. Nora’s end can result in her death, although it most likely would not be a physical death. Both women have had a lifelong fear of being poor and losing their status. Yet at the end Nora is confident, like a person in the early stage of therapy that only cares about clinging to their new perceptions. She is a bit cold-blooded, not allowing herself to feel a sense of loss or to feel one of her notorious extreme emotions. Miss Julie is also somewhat detached, but she holds very little self-empowerment, even asking Jean to order her to do it. She is still confident that she is making the right choice. It is her way out, just as Nora’s way out is the door to her house. Miss Julie is not experiencing one of her stronger emotions, as Nora was not. She

is said to walk out strongly, with the idea that “the first shall be the last” (Act 3) haunting her.