Alyanna Maliksi
Period 4B
December 18, 2010
Title
The women’s true feelings in the play are bottled up and are revealed through actions.
In the play A Doll’s House, the wife Nora has been living the life of a “doll” and she stands up for
herself by leaving the family. In Blood Wedding, the bride is still in love with her previous fiancé,
Leonardo, on the day of the wedding they both runaway and the bridegroom and Leonardo end
up getting killed. Even though both Ibsen and Lorca use symbols to foreshadow the marriages
coming to an end, the characters leave their families for different reasons.
In A Doll’s House, the dress foreshadows Nora leaving the family. Before the party, the
nurse found the box where Nora’s dress was and it appears to be all torn up. The dress in need
for repair represents Nora and Torvald’s marriage, as it is slowly tearing apart so is their
marriage and it is also in need for a repair. For instance, Ms.Linde says, “Well, we can easily fix
that. Some of the trimming has come loose here and there, that’s all…”(56) which is ironic
because their marriage still came to an end. During the party Nora and Torvald danced the
tarantella, which also foreshadows the result of the marriage. The tarantella was a dance,
which cured a spider bite, which represented a solution to the problem. Torvald said, "She
danced the tarantella. She was an enormous success, and she deserved it. Although perhaps
the performance was somewhat too realistic - a little more..."(94) which shows how Nora
danced her heart out to solve her problem of wanting a miracle. When Nora removes her
costume after the party it represents Nora removing the “doll costume”. After she removes her
costume, she puts on everyday clothes, which symbolize her decision of becoming a new
woman, and it illustrates a free woman. She has had enough of being a “doll” and she confesses
to Torvald about how she really feels.
Just like Ibsen, Lorca uses the bride’s dress to foreshadow the marriage coming to an
end but he also uses the orange blossoms. The color of the bride’s dress is black which usually
means death though in this case it represents the marriage not going to last very long. The
orange blossoms also foreshadow the end result of the marriage, “It’s all made of wax. It lasts
forever. I would have liked you to wear them all over your dress.”(64) In the bridegroom’s
point of view, he thinks that since they will last forever so will their marriage. Which is ironic
because the bride’s fake love for the bridegroom is represented by the fake blossoms. To
support this fact, the bride is still wearing her bridal crown even after she has deserted her
husband and run off with Leonardo, which shows their lack of authenticity.
Unlike Blood Wedding, Nora leaves the family because she is tired of living the life of a
“doll”. She believes leaving the family is the best way for her to reclaim her identity and
humanity. She was a “doll” by possession, because when she was a child she was her father’s
doll and she has been passed on to Torvald. She explains how she is a doll to everyone in the
family, “...our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at
home I was Papa's doll-child; and in this house the children have been my dolls. I thought it was
great fun when you played with me, and they thought it was great fun when I played with
them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.”(111). Torvald also calls her pet names
which make her seem more of a toy to him than a wife. She also wants to leave the family
because she wants to become human. She tries to please everyone by making them happy or
making herself seem perfect. For instance, she says, "You’re like everyone else. You all think I’m
incapable of doing anything serious... But let me tell you something Kristine. I have something
to be proud of too."(25). She also says, "Hide the tree carefully, Helene. The children mustn’t
catch a glimpse of it until this evening. Not until we've decorated it."(11) Which reveals that
Nora wants everything perfect. Nora tries to please Torvald by decorating everything and she
makes herself seem more attractive for him by “dolling” herself up.
On the other hand, in Blood Wedding the bride leaves the bridegroom because she is still
in love with her previous fiancée. The bride seems to be forced to marry the bridegroom, her
father may have just wanted her to marry him because he is rich and he had just bought a
vineyard. The quote, (Smiling) “You are richer than I am. Your vineyards are worth a fortune.
Each young vine a silver coin! I’m only sorry that our lands – you understand? – are separated. I
like everything together. There’s one thorn in my heart, and it’s that little orchard stuck right in
the middle of my property. They won’t sell it to me for all the gold in the world.”(30) Reveals
that the father only cares about the money. The bride is also not so happy when the marriage
comes up in any conversations. For example, Maid: “And the best part is when you wake up
and you feel him beside you and his breath caresses your shoulder, like a nightingale’s feather!”
Bride: (Fiercely)”will you be quiet!”
In conclusion, even though in both A Doll’s House and Blood Wedding the authors use
symbols to foreshadow the marriages coming to an end, the women leave for different reasons.
Ibsen uses a dress and the tarantella dance in A Doll’s House and the wife leaves the family
because she wants to reclaim her identity and humanity. Lorca uses a dress and the orange
blossoms in Blood Wedding and the bride leaves the bridegroom because she is still madly in
love with her previous fiancé, Leonardo.
Name ________________________________________________________ Period ____
_____ (20) Word Choice
Comments: (An X indicates
need for improvement.)
___ Lively Verbs
___ Expanded Vocabulary
___ Academic Voice
___ Avoids Cliché
___ Absence of Redundancy
_X__ Precise Words/Phrases
__affect/effect
__accept/except
__real/really
__a lot
__its/it’s
__can/may
__fewer/less
__further/farther
__good/well
__lose/loose
__have/of
__than/then
__if/whether
__their/they’re/there
__use/used
__that/which/who
__imply/infer
_____ (20) Organization
___ Indented Paragraphs
__to/too/two
__whose/who
__your/you’re
Intro: Introduce plays before
talking about the women in
the plays.
_X__ Hook
___ Intro author/title/brief summary
___ Focus
Review P4 for coherence—the
order doesn’t seem logical.
_X__ Coherence
_X__ Balance
P5-never end a paragraph
__X_ Unity (Strong Closer)
with CD…follow up with CM.
_____ (20) Sentence Fluency
Review sentences for
correctness—no run
ons/fragments (see
highlighted material)
___ Sentence Combining
___ Sentence Variety/Openers
___ Parallel Structure
___ Transitions
_X__ No run-ons/fragments
_X__ Agreement -- Tense, S/V
_____ (20) Idea Development
Make second part of thesis
more specific.
___ Evidence of Prewriting
_X_ Clear, effective thesis
_X__ Sufficient supporting details/evidence
___ Demonstrates critical thinking skills
___ Length
_____ (20) Process and Presentation
___ Evidence of Revision
___ Format
___ Correctness/Conventions
__colons
__apostrophes
_X_commas
__capitalization
_X_quotations
__citations
P5-Perhaps the bride, like
Nora, leaves because she
doesn’t know what she wants.
After all, if she really loved
Leonardo, why didn’t she
marry him when she had a
chance? And why does she
tell him to leave once they
run off together. Doesn’t she
seem conflicted? Kind of like
Nora?
__semicolons
__end marks