Karla Hernandez
Period 4A
Reputation in Society
When trying to maintain your reputation can others be affected by it?
In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and The House Of Bernarda Alba by
Federico Garcia Lorca, the authors demonstrate how others are affected
by some characters actions. In A Dolls House Torvald represents the way
society is suppose to be, as well as Bernarda from the play The House of
Bernarda Alba, but at the end someone is affected in a negative way
because they were trying to maintain their reputation, in order to fit with the
social standards of society.
Torvald does what the society’s standards say; therefore he
believes that woman should do what she is told by the man because he is
in charge of what needs to be done. Torvald is having an argument with
Nora and says “Nora, Nora! Just like a woman! I am serious. Nora, you
know how I feel about all that. NO DEBTS. Never Borrow!” (Ibsen 12).
What Torvald is claming is that Nora should never borrow money because
then that is just showing society that Torvald can’t maintain his family, and
that is a mans job. Due to the fact that he can’t maintain his family it means
that he wont be middle class anymore, but he might be lower class. So
Torvald is maintaining his reputation by not borrowing to show he’s
wealthy. This quote also shows how Torvald is controlling Nora and her
actions so the rest of society wont look down on them.
In the play, House of Bernarda Alba all her daughters and maids do
what she says because she is a widow and once the husband dies the wife
is in charge of her home and keeping her reputation. In the play her 60year-old maid named Poncia says, “Thirty years washing her sheets, Thirty
years eating her leftovers. Nights watching over her when she
coughs”(195). Bernarda’s maid is complaing that she is tiered because
she has done everything Bernarda has said and yet she treats her maid
like dirt because maids were low class and usually upper class owned
them. Just like Bernarda says to the maids “Less screaming and more
work!”(199). She is saying this because the maids are scrubbing the floor
and weeping because they hate their lives due to Bernarda. Her daughters
also complain about her, just like Magdanela says, “I’m not going to get
married I’d rather carry sacks of mill”(205). When Magdanela was younger
she fell in love with a guy but Bernarda didn’t let her get married to him
because he was under their class. If Bernarda allowed her daughters to
marry someone under their class everyone in her society would look down
at Bernarda and her daughters because she let her daughters marry poor
men.
Due to the fact that Torvald and Bernarda are trying to keep their
reputation, it leans them to have problems with Krogstad and Adela. In A
Dolls House, Nora borrowed money from Krogstad to save her husbands
life; therefore he is blackmailing Nora so he can maintain his job at the
bank. Krogstad says, “If necessary I am ready to fight for my little job at the
bank as if I were fighting for my life.”(41). The reader can assume that
Krogstad life is his reputation according to this society because if he
doesn’t have a job everyone will look at him as lower class. But Krogstads
reputation is already ruined because Torvald fired him from the bank and
left him without a job. In The House of Bernarda Alba Angustia, which is,
the oldest daughter is engaged to Pepe el Romano, and Bernarda knows
that her youngest daughter is in love with Pepe el Romano, but he wont
marry Adela because sense Bernardas husband died he gave Angustia
most of the money, so now Pepe el Romano will be seen as a high lever
class then he already is. What causes problems in this family is that
Bernarda pretends that Pepe el Romano is in love with Angustia so she
can now be seen as a high class due to him. This also causes problems
between Adela and Bernarda, because Adela if forced to help Angustia
prepare for her weeding, this is also a way that Bernarda tortures Adela’s
feelings because her first love is marring her oldest sister.
In both plays, Krogstad and Adela are affected due to the actions of
Torvald and Bernarda. In A Dolls House Krogstad worked in the bank until
Torvald fired him, yet Torvald didn’t care that he had lowed someone
else’s reputation. All Torvald care about was his own reputation not even
someone that was close to him and his family. As well in the play The
House of Bernarda Alba, Bernarda didn’t really care about her daughter’s
death. Bernarda says, “The youngest daughter of Bernarda Alba has died
a virgin. Did you hear me? Silence, I said! Silence!”(288). This quote is
what ended this famous play and is very significant because Bernarda
didn’t care about her daughter’s death but she cares about what society is
going to say about her. For example if they would of found out that her
daughter didn’t die a virgin her family would be known as dishonored
people. But again she doesn’t know the truth that Adela and Pepe el
Romano had sexual relations while he was engaged with Angustia.
In conclusion, in the plays A Dolls House and The House of
Bernard Alba Torvald and Bernarda maintain their reputation thought the
plays by following the rules that their society has, but due to their negative
actions they affect someone close to them. Their actions were strong that it
led Krogstad and Adela to their death. Krogstad died because he was sick
and he died as everyone recognizing him as a low class person. Also
Adela died loving a man who was engaged to her sister, but she died as a
middle class person. In society reputation reflects a lot on the person and
how they should be treated, and if they don’t maintain this high standard of
themselves their whole life can be ruined.