Due to their categorizations as a social tragedy and a comedy of manners, respectively, A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest are immediately identified with many differences. However, as a result of the plays’ intertwining themes that suggest the journey to contentment through the determination of a person to appease to pressures given by society will ultimately lead to that person’s downfall according to societal standards, a common ground is found. Ironically, it is the differences in the plays that reveal the connections, through the riddling of lies, a continued man versus society conflict, as well as the idea of self denial.
In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, the protagonist is the driving force of the dramatic experience. …show more content…
The contraction between Jack is that Nora’s focus was on the embellishment of her reputation, material things, and wealth, specifically “heaps and heaps of money”(Ibsen 5). By creating Earnest, as a brother, Jack was more concerned with the worth of his name. Jack was even unable to tell his lover, Gwendolyn, of his real name, because she claimed to have always wanted to marry a man named Earnest. This is where the satirist nature of The Importance of Being Earnest contrasts the social tragedy aspect of A Doll’s House. Ultimately with Jack’s lies being brought out and cleared up, he was still able to maintain his relationship with society. However, in A Doll’s House, with Nora’s revelation, she loses her relationship with Torvald. In these two plays, it is the lies that construct a wall between each protagonist and the society they live in. The web of lies created prevents the achievement of each individuals initially definition of success. Though neither protagonist is able to uphold their initial goal, a state of happiness is still reached, because Jack is able to stay with Gwendolyn and Nora dismisses her relationship on her own terms. Nora is also eventually freed from her web, because she initiates her separation from Torvald. She does this by telling Torvald “I give you back your ring. Give me mine” (Ibsen
In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, the protagonist is the driving force of the dramatic experience. …show more content…
The contraction between Jack is that Nora’s focus was on the embellishment of her reputation, material things, and wealth, specifically “heaps and heaps of money”(Ibsen 5). By creating Earnest, as a brother, Jack was more concerned with the worth of his name. Jack was even unable to tell his lover, Gwendolyn, of his real name, because she claimed to have always wanted to marry a man named Earnest. This is where the satirist nature of The Importance of Being Earnest contrasts the social tragedy aspect of A Doll’s House. Ultimately with Jack’s lies being brought out and cleared up, he was still able to maintain his relationship with society. However, in A Doll’s House, with Nora’s revelation, she loses her relationship with Torvald. In these two plays, it is the lies that construct a wall between each protagonist and the society they live in. The web of lies created prevents the achievement of each individuals initially definition of success. Though neither protagonist is able to uphold their initial goal, a state of happiness is still reached, because Jack is able to stay with Gwendolyn and Nora dismisses her relationship on her own terms. Nora is also eventually freed from her web, because she initiates her separation from Torvald. She does this by telling Torvald “I give you back your ring. Give me mine” (Ibsen