Dollhouse and Medea Assessment Answer

Medea and Doll House

How and why was this work created in its original socio-historical context? Why is this work still performed today?

Euripides’ Medea is a play that was first performed in Dyonisia city in 431 BC(da Silva, 2019, 1). In this play the protagonist was female. She led the play and ended with the female protagonist. And similarly, in 'Doll House’ (Ibsen, 2007) the play is milling around a female protagonist. “Doll House” was written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879 (Ibsen, 2007).

The depiction of ‘Doll House’ is set in the scenario of Norway, where patriarchy was high at that time (da Silva, 2019, 1). It was time that no women were allowed to borrow from the bank. The gender role was also working at its peak. It was the reason that marriage ended. Similarly in the play Medea, the women are just the object for the men. It is also about feminism. Gendered roles also prevailed. Therefore, both plays reflect the scenario of contemporary society. Both plays have shown the real scenario of the society that also needs the current era as somewhere we are still stuck in the same thought process.

In the play Medea, Medea is the wife of Jason, who cheated her on with Glauce. This play has involved the situation of women in that era. Hence most of the scene has a chorus who are women only. There is one scene where Medea kills her children to take revenge on Jason, then the women chorus wanted to stop medea but they did not stop Medea. This play reflects emotion, love, and vengeance. Medea has done a lot of things for Jason, and Jason cheated her in the will of getting the luxury. He underestimated the value of Medea and what present-day societies do, and hence Medea showed her power and how she had the power to make Jason lament his deeds. Medea was loving Jason with a full heart, and Jason had a great love for his children. Hence, Medea showed him how it feels when someone you love, and you lost that person. The same feelings Medea gave Jason by killing children.

Similarly in “Doll House” (Ibsen, 2007), Nora was doing all things to make her husband happy.

In both plays, the family dynamics have been portrayed. That shows the family-related things such as emotions, betrayal, feud, love, compassion, and other aspects of family. There Nora and her husband, her husband's friends, and other people who are connected with that family and played their role to affect the life of Nora. However, this play has an extremely patriarchal system. Nora is getting instructions for everything, and when she is spending more, getting daunted by her husband. Nora is not free to make decisions and if she makes something she is scared to unveil it, as her husband used to give her lecture on responsibility and all. Here one can observe the gender role as Nora is taking care of the home, while Torvald Helmer, her husband, is earning the livelihood. Here in this play, the gendered role is obvious as there is a situation where Nora surreptitiously took the money from the loan by forging the signature of her father. She took the money for paying the bills of doctors as Torvald was having a serious medical issue, and there was no other person who could support them. And after doing all that, when Torvald gets to know about it, instead of showing gratification he screams at Nora. Therefore, we can see that a man's ego is getting hurt like a female trying to show her capability that she could manage an odd situation without the help of a man. As Tong (2012) gender roles decide the role of the person according to sex; if it is female then she needs to look after the home and all. Even in the 21st century, gender role is prevalent, however, since 1970 feminists have tried to distinguish between sex and gender (Tong, 2012). Therefore, ‘Doll House’ (Ibsen, 2007) still fits our society to show the mirror.

Similarly, the play Euripides' Medea fits in today's scenario as well. This play shows the culture, religion, gender roles, and aspects of family. In our current world, there are many examples where people are doing anything to get power. The representation of women is also subordinated in many sections of the work. Sultana (2011) says that patriarchy has obstructed the growth of many women across the world. Still in Greek society, Medea stood up against the norm and maintained her dignity of herself. It shows the power of a woman and how a woman in a patriarchal society can stand for her dignity (The School for Excellence, 2017). It depicts the belief in ancient Greek that women cannot be heard, and cannot have the ability to show power. However, in the play, Medea falsified the beliefs by taking terrific revenge on Jason by killing the children. And most importantly Jason could not do anything to her and she flew off. In the current world sometimes, women have to suffer, and men skip a lot of things. Medea got cheated on by her husband and still has to face exile. On other hand, Jason was having a good life with Glauce.

Vellacott (2017) has illustrated that Medea resonates with the current society such as feminism, gender, and another perspective of family dynamics. In this play, it has been portrayed who owns the resources and holds the power (Vellacott, 2017). And Jason hankers after it only to live a luxurious life, and to serve this purpose he cheated on his wife Medea who has helped him to get the Golden Fleece. And when she tried to stand up, she got exiled.

Plotting

Doll House

‘Doll House’ is a play that was written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879, and it was set in Norway. In Norway during that time, the condition of women was not so good in terms of power and participation. They were not allowed to do things that are not assigned to them according to their gender.

Mr. Torvald Helmer is the husband of Nora Helmer. Nora's husband is working in a bank and also got a promotion. However, Torvald is dominating in the family, he was taking all the onus on finance and instructs Nora on what to do and what not to do. Altogether she is getting humiliated, and bearing the patriarchal system. Torvald shows only false love for Nora.

Dr. Rank is a family friend of Torvald. He is allowed to come home anytime. Another character is Kristine Linde who is her school friend of Nora. Her husband expired 3 years ago, and he did not leave an asset for Mrs. Linde. Mrs. Linde was supposed to be judgmental, judging Nora that she had not borne many odd situations that she had to bear. While Nora has faced much bigger problems to save her life.

Nils Krogstad portrayed the villain in this play. Krogstad once proposed to Mrs. Linde but she turned down his proposal now she wants to give him a chance to Krogstad for marrying. There is huge drama in this play. The husband of Nora Torvald wants to terminate the job of Krogstad, therefore, he approached Nora and asked her to beseech Torvald for not taking the job of Krogstad. At first, Nora refuses to do so, then Krogstad threatens her that if she does not convince her husband then he would unveil her secret of Nora that was about taking a loan from the bank by forging the signature of her father. Then Nora gets uneasy and tries to convince Torvald to not terminate their job with Krogstad, however, Torvald says that Krogstad is not a good man and he has to leave the job. And after knowing it, Krogstad wrote a letter to Torvald that mentioned the truths about Nora.

Nora tells the whole story to Mrs. Linde, and Mrs. Linde assured her that she would talk to Krogstad not to do so. Mrs. Linde approaches Krogstad and also tells him that she would marry him and her money will be his money. However, Krogstad got transformed, but it was too late as he had sent the letter to Torvald already. Once the letter reaches Torvald, he starts yelling at Nora and humiliates her to a great extent.

After these incidents, Nora recalls her past and consolidates her memories, and finds out that she has been a doll for all the members. When she was at her home, her father was directing her, and when it came to Torvald then he was controlling her. Altogether, she was not being treated as a normal human being instead she was confined under the social norms that were dominating the patriarchal society.

Medea

It was all set in Greek culture, and it was created by Euripides, and it first played in 431 BC (da Silva, 2019). The background - there is a state name Iolcus, where Jason is the prince. Recently his father dies, and his uncle Pelias took the throne and asks Jason that to get the throne he needs to bring the 'Golden Fleece', it was a tough task for Jason. However, Jason starts his persuasion to get the golden fleece. Hence, Jason goes to Colchis, a place he can find golden fleece along with Argonauts.

The kind of Colchis is a Sorcerer whose name is Aeetes; Medea is the daughter of Aeetes. She fell in love with Jason, and Jason took the benefits of this feeling of Medea and asked for help to get the Golden Fleece. And to get Jason, Medea plays the trick with her father and kills even her brother. Thereafter she married Jason and they came back to the Iolcus. Here Medea also kills the Pelias and his daughter to get the throne back. To kill Pelias, Medea tricks the daughter of the Pelias.

After all of these, they get banished from their country and they go to Corinth. Here Creon is the king of Corinth, and he has a daughter Glauce. Jason gets married to Glauce and does not tell about it. When Medea knows about it, she vows to take revenge. When Creon gets to know that Medea is a sorcerer then he banishes her from the state. And then Medea asked for one more day from the king, and on the same day, she killed the children of her and Jason in a closed room. Jason tries to enter the room however, it was too late for him because Medea has killed the children and on a chariot, she flew away from there by saying that she took the revenge. And this play ends at this point where medea reflects her satisfaction as if she got what she wanted.

Playwrights and Content

Both plays keep the sociological aspects of the playwrights. These reflect the contemporary situation of society and not only does this play still resonate with the modern world. We still hear about feminism, masculinity, patriarchy, gender role, and many sociological aspects that affect our societies in some way. We listen about these all because there is an issue regarding these that hampers the growth of the communities.

In the case of ‘Doll House,' it is obvious that we are seeing masculinity and gender roles as they are portraying the same. The writer Henrik Isben faced the situation where his father used to torture her mother after drinking. He saw how a woman is being crushed under the patriarchal system. Thus his story reflects a similar scenario. Nora is trying hard to please her husband, but still, she could not make it. And at the end of the story, she gets separated from her husband as she has understood that she has no existence in the family. She was just like a doll in the house.

In Medea, the power of having resources has been reflected. People are getting banished by powerful people. Women are being treated as objects.

However, the settings of the play are very appropriate, these are not shallow plays, and both have a mirror that reflects the image of the society. Somewhere, women are being underestimated, and somewhere women are being the puppet of the head of the family. Still, they are showing their love for their husbands. Medea could kill her husband but she did not, she only let them suffer and lament the grief.

If we talk about the genre then ‘DollHouse’ can be considered a sociological movie. While Medea incorporates many genres as it has killing, revenge, love, compassion, and the power of having control over the resources.

The core part of these both plays is the power of a woman that has been portrayed in different contexts. It has kept the people engaged in how protagonists are going to tackle the incessantly odd situation. The family dynamics have also kept the people engaged as many relationships are playing their part in the lives of each other. There are the people who are the kin still they are betraying each other, here the power of love has been shown, how a woman took the life of her brother.

Overall both plays are very similar to each other, and both have a strong message that correlates with the current scenario of society too.

References

da Silva, A. C. H. M. (2019). Medea and A Doll's House: an Aristotelian perspective. Academia.edu. Retrieved June 16, 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/44990737/Medea_and_A_Dolls_House_an_Aristotelian_perspective

Ibsen, H. (2007). A Doll's House: A Play in Three Acts. Harvard University.

Priya, K. (2017, October 10). A Comparative Study of Euripides' Medea and Ibsen's A Doll's House. Language in India. Retrieved June 17, 2022, from http://www.languageinindia.com/oct2017/kanagapriyamedeadollshouse1.pdf

The School for Excellence. (2017). How does Medea explore the positive and negative power of human passion? Many individuals within society are impelled by their p. TSFX. Retrieved June, 2022, from https://www.tsfx.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Year-12-English-Medea-Dene-Morris-A_.pdf

Sultana, A. (2011). Patriarchy and Women's Subordination: A theoretical analysis. Bangladesh Journals Online. Retrieved June 17, 2022, from https://www.banglajol.info/index.php/AFJ/article/view/12929/9293

Templeton, J. (2020). The Doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/doll-house-backlash-criticism-feminism-and-ibsen/D52610214BF7FA0DA2B6C7AC674B18B5

Tong, R. (2012). Gender Role. Science Direct. Retrieved June, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123739322003070

Vellacott, P. (2017). Euripides' Medea and Jason: a study in the Social Power of Love. Euripides' Medea and Jason: a study in the Social Power of Love. Retrieved June, 2022, from http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1561-40182017000100003

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