In Tennessee Williams’s Glass Menagerie and Henrik Ibsen’s Doll’s House, various comparisons and contrasts are drawn between the characters Tom Wingfield and Nora Helmer. Being writers who originated from similar backgrounds, Williams’ and Ibsen’s similarities and parallels can be identified in their writing and their characters. Both were exceptionally well off during their early childhood until their lives became twisted as their formerly prosperous and successful parents had experienced financial or marital problems. The Williams family left Columbus, Mississippi to their new urban home in Missouri, causing Williams’s stress due to the lack of a father figure and new responsibilities is his life. Similarly, Ibsen’s father, previously a
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The problematic, late childhoods of these men caused them to turn inwardly to discover themselves as writers, in which both expressed their childhood struggles. Nora and Tom both exemplify the struggles of each of the writers’ childhoods and showcase the dramatic consequences of the inhibiting environments on each of the characters’ well being, but contrast each other’s roles in society and relationships. With the passage of time, the historic “Greats” of writing have often experienced various tragedies early on in their lives that influenced their work. Tom shares William’s absence of a father as his father abandoned him, Amanda, and Laura. In Glass Menagerie, the portrait of Tom’s father is used as a constant reminder that as children he and Laura were raised practically their whole lives by Amanda. Amanda constantly glances and stares at the …show more content…
As Tom “descend[s] the steps of [the] fire escape for the last time and followed, from then on, in [his] father’s footsteps”(Williams vii.323) and Nora “stand[s] quite alone”(Ibsen III.63) and “tr[ies] [to] become one”(III.64), they free themselves from their upbringings to become who they were unable to be previously. Tom, with the abandonment of the Wingfield family by their father they became dependent on the only man in the household, soon follows suit in their father’s “footsteps.” Longing to become a writer and his own individual and free of the responsibilities of family, Tom sets out into the world. Equally, Nora abandons her husband and children because of the manipulative and controlling nature of Torvald, as well as her epiphany and realization that she no longer loved him. She leaves in search of herself as an individual, to “think over things for herself and get to understand”(III.64) the world in which she was oblivious of in her own home. This dichotomy between the characters displays how crippling relationships and inhibiting environments cause discontent and results in even more unhappiness. The characters constantly struggle with their living conditions and seek to purge from their lives the aspects in which holds them
The problematic, late childhoods of these men caused them to turn inwardly to discover themselves as writers, in which both expressed their childhood struggles. Nora and Tom both exemplify the struggles of each of the writers’ childhoods and showcase the dramatic consequences of the inhibiting environments on each of the characters’ well being, but contrast each other’s roles in society and relationships. With the passage of time, the historic “Greats” of writing have often experienced various tragedies early on in their lives that influenced their work. Tom shares William’s absence of a father as his father abandoned him, Amanda, and Laura. In Glass Menagerie, the portrait of Tom’s father is used as a constant reminder that as children he and Laura were raised practically their whole lives by Amanda. Amanda constantly glances and stares at the …show more content…
As Tom “descend[s] the steps of [the] fire escape for the last time and followed, from then on, in [his] father’s footsteps”(Williams vii.323) and Nora “stand[s] quite alone”(Ibsen III.63) and “tr[ies] [to] become one”(III.64), they free themselves from their upbringings to become who they were unable to be previously. Tom, with the abandonment of the Wingfield family by their father they became dependent on the only man in the household, soon follows suit in their father’s “footsteps.” Longing to become a writer and his own individual and free of the responsibilities of family, Tom sets out into the world. Equally, Nora abandons her husband and children because of the manipulative and controlling nature of Torvald, as well as her epiphany and realization that she no longer loved him. She leaves in search of herself as an individual, to “think over things for herself and get to understand”(III.64) the world in which she was oblivious of in her own home. This dichotomy between the characters displays how crippling relationships and inhibiting environments cause discontent and results in even more unhappiness. The characters constantly struggle with their living conditions and seek to purge from their lives the aspects in which holds them