Atwood and A Doll's House

Habitation
1. Challenges of marriage
  1. Idea that marriage is primitive and unnatural to humans
  2. "a marriage is not a house or even a tent"
    1. marriage does not always create happiness and a comfortable life
    2. requires solid foundation; needs to be built up; is not found or made
  3. "we are learning to make fire"
    1. separate line; importance; highlights extended metaphor of poem
    2. we are learning to build marriage based on love
      1. strong marriage
    3. unstable and requires maintaince
2. Social expectations
  1. repetition of the word "edge" - of a forest, desert, glacier
    1. feeling trapped and enclosed
    2. societies expectation for men and women to get married
      1. nature becomes more remote and cold
        dangerous for marriage to be built upon pressure from society
Tricks with Mirrors
1. Women's role in society
  1. Oppression of female identity
    1. "there's a nail in the back to hang [the mirror] with" these are "important too"
      1. important role; but unseen from the front
  2. background role in society
2. Declaration of female independence
  1. "mirrors are crafty"
  2. "don't assume it is passive or easy"
  3. Wanted to "stop" and "open the wall"
3. Societies expectations
  1. "instead you stand in front of me combing your hair"
    1. appearance put males in the light; male-dominanted society
      1. women's role made to look pretty but reality -> unhappiness
        trophy wife
  2. "perhaps I am a pool"
    1. imagine unclear; covered with layer of expectations
  3. Mirror: deceiving truth; see what we want
A Doll's House - Torvald and Nora's final conversation in Act 3 before she exits
1. Importance of reputation
  1. no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves"
2. Oppression of women's identity
  1. "heedless child"
  2. Nora is a "doll-child" trained to "perform tricks"
  3. bounded by societies norm "holiest duties"
3. Challenges of marriage
  1. Nora "does not love" Torvald
    1. marriage not based on love
  2. "never understood each other"
    1. disconnected; unhappiness; pressured by society
4. Sacrificial role of women
  1. Nora abandons her children for fear of corrupting them
    1. Nora give up comfortable middle-class life

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Atwood and A Doll's House

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	Created by Annie Hong over 9 years ago