BIS 3043 CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF DRAMA

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS

NAME

: AIN SHAKINAH BINTI AZMI

MATRIC NO. : D20101038224 GROUP LECTURER FACULTY SEMESTER :A : DR. LAJIMAN BIN JANOORY : LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION :3

Dilemma of Wives

In every play, the writer would surely put in some conflict to spice up the story line. Without a conflict a play would be a plain and boring play as there is no sense of tension building in the play. In the play entitled A Dolls House by Henrik Ibsen and The Taming of The Shrew by Shakespeare, these elements is a no exception. Both of these writers use conflict as a catalyst of the climax of their story. What I find most interesting about these plays is both of the writers use women as their main character in the play and both of the main characters roles in the plays is as someones wife. In The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare, the main character is named as Katherine Minola, the eldest daughter of Baptista Minola, a Lord in Padua and an elder sister of Bianca Minola. She has sharp-tongue, a quick-temper, and prone to violence, particularly against anyone who tries to marry her. Therefore no one wants to do anything against her. This situation upsets her father as her sister, Bianca has already two suitors who cannot wait to be married to her. Believing in traditions, Baptista state that Bianca shall not be married until her elder sister is married first. The Katherine marriage problem is solved when Biancas suitor, Hortensios friend Petruchio, a young man from Verona, arrives in Padua to find a wife. He intends to marry a rich woman, and does not care what she is like as long as she will bring him a fortune therefore he agrees to marry Katherine. The whole play is about the process of Petruchio taming Katherine and his success in taming her.

Katherine on the outside is seen as a very outspoken person. She faces conflicts with her father regarding her violent attitude towards anyone who wants to marry her. This causes her father to love Bianca more than her and distant himself from her. He even called Katherine a shrew. As a daughter, no matter how violent Katherine acts towards her father, deep inside she is facing a conflict, she never hate her father but instead she is craving for her fathers attention. In my opinion, her violent behaviour is done as an act to get her fathers attention as all this while, her father prefers Bianca more than her, thus placing her second in her father's affections. Her violent behaviour is also an act of jealousy towards Bianca because Bianca is always a candy in her fathers eyes.

She also faced a conflict with the society herself. Her outspoken behaviour and sharptongue nature that refuse to obey her father and continually insults men had cause an uproar in the society that are mainly controlled by men. This situation can be seen when Katherines father announces that Katherine is free to be courted by two of Biancas suitors, but that he will not allow Bianca to marry before Katherine does, they respond that no one would ever marry a devil like her. Katherines sharp-tongue behaviour had cause men to avoid her. As a reader, I believe that her actions may be raised from her own feelings about her own undesirability, the fear that she may never win a husband or her loathing of the way men treat her. She had been alienated by the society due to her intelligence and independence that cause her unwillingness to play the role of the maiden daughter. In short, Katherine feels out of place in her society. She clearly disobeys societys expectations that she will obey her father and show grace and courtesy toward her suitors. At the same time, however, Katherine must see that given the rigidity of her social situation, her only hope to find a secure and happy place in the world lies in finding a husband. These internal conflicts that arouse inside her may lead to her misery and poor temper.

The next play is written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879. It is a play about a wife named Nora Helmer who borrowed a large amount of money to save her husbands life, Torvald Helmer by forging her fathers signature. Back then in those days, a women can only borrow money with a mens guarantee either it is their husband or their father. But in Noras case, she is caught forging her fathers signature when she mistakenly put the date wrong. She accidently put the date three days after her fathers death. By doing that, Nora as a wife had disobeyed her husband and commits a crime by forging someones signature. Nora is treated like a child by Torvald but that is just an outer appearance of Nora. The truth is Nora is capable of lying and thinking by herself to save the lives of people she cares. She had showed a great sense of independence to survive but yet Torvald still treats her like a child and incompetent woman. She leaves Torvald in the end because of it.

In the beginning of the play, Nora is seen as having a childish personality, speaks with excitement about the extra money Torvalds new job will provide, and takes pleasure in the company of her children and friends. The audience first sees her when she returns from a seemingly extravagant Christmas shopping excursion. She is most child-like when she interacts

with her husband. She behaves playfully yet obediently in his presence, always coaxing favors from him instead of communicating as equals. But in spite that appearance, she is actually entangled in a big complicated conflict of lies that can destroy her marriage life if it is exposed. She is facing conflict with herself in order to keep the truth as a secret so that it would not cause Torvald to be ashamed, or the authorities would even take her away from her children. Whenever she spends the money, she did not spend it thoughtlessly. Rather, she has been scrimping and saving to pay off that secret debt. Therefore she is facing a conflict inside for having to lie to her own husband. Beside her internal conflicts, Nora also faces conflicts with Nils Krogstad, a man who processes the loan that Nora made by forging her fathers signature. Nils Krogstad is a colleague of Torvald at the bank. When he realises his going to lose his job when Torvald fire him due to his own doings, he begs Nora to talk to Torvald to save his position in the bank. Nora did talk to Torvald about Krogstad matter, but Torvald refuse to listen and state that it is not Noras position to talk about business matter. This shows how Torvald degrades Noras rights to voice out her opinions and her status as a human being. When Nora failed to convince Torvald to help Krogstad save his job in the bank, Krogstad tries to blackmail Nora over the fact that she had forged the signature to get a loan. When the disgruntled Krogstad threatens to reveal the truth about her forgery, Nora realizes that she has potentially scandalized Torvald Helmer's good name. She begins to question her own morality, something she has never done before thus creating another conflict within herself.

In addition, Nora as a wife faces conflicts with her own husband as well. This is due to Torvalds behaviour and attitudes that treat Nora like a child. He believe his role as a husband is to protect his wife, thus making his relationship with Nora is more like a father and daughter as compared to husband and wife. The way he keeps calling Nora my little squirrel, my little skylark proves how she sees Nora as a child that can be teased anyway he like. The use of my in his words also show some sort of possession towards Nora. The conflict between them can clearly be seen when Torvald refuse to hear Noras plead to help Krogstad to save his work at the bank. According to Torvald, Nora is not a suitable person to talk about the matters. The conflict between them rises when Torvald receives a letter from Krogstad saying that Nora had borrowed some money without his permission by forging her fathers signature, he accuses Nora for

ruining his life and refuse to her Noras reason for doing that. He refers to Nora as a person with no religion, no morality, and no sense of duty as a wife. He even called her a hypocrite and a liar. The treatment Torvald gave her had triggers another conflict in her which is the desire to be heard and treats equally, thus awaken her deep desire to rebel against Torvald. When Torvald receives another letter from Krogstad saying that he gave the bond back and that he had regret and repent, Torvalds attitude towards Nora changes dramatically. He is not mad at Nora anymore, instead he keeps saying that everything is over and he forgave Nora. This situation makes Nora realises that Torvald only cares for his reputation and failed to see the sacrifices that Nora had done and the sufferings she had to endure to save his life. She finally decides to leave Torvald and her children to find independence.