A Dolls House & War Horse - Essay Example

The character of Nora who is a distraught ordinary homemaker is especially responsible for making this play emotionally charged. She is in every scene of the play until the last act and her dialogues are laden with the misery which haunts her. She is emotionally distressed from the fact that she is treated merely like a mute doll by her husband Torvald and longs to seek her real self. The raw and explicit way in which Nora contemplates her disturbed emotions leaves no choice for the readers to remain oblivious to the emotional complexity of the character but imbibe it ever so intensely.

Though not principally written from a feminist point of view, the play still largely attempts to expose the sufferings of an ordinary housewife criticizing the 19th century marriage norms and ideas. It seeks to emotionally move the audience by at length scrutinizing the agony and anxiety which can be experienced by a woman despite apparent domestic comfort. There are many people around us who do not get to live the life once envisaged by them or who are not let by others to be themselves. Disregarding their true self and independence, they are expected to depend on others forever and be someone else.

It is easy for all such people to emotionally connect with the play by evaluating Nora’s character. It is possible to connect emotionally as well as mentally with Ibsen’s play because it is also found fraught with myriad practical and philosophical ideas. This is evident from the manner in which Nora’s largely childish and carefree character transforms into a more sensible and practical one as she musters up enough courage to finally ask her husband to sit down and discuss important things which they have never discussed before.

She loathes the identity ascribed to her by her husband and the chauvinistic society in which she lives. Initially lost in the domestic comfort which encapsulates her, she is finally forced by the twisted circumstances of her life to visualize it as a giant net entrapping her. This is because she is not allowed to be herself, rather she is expected by the bigoted people around her to play the role of a submissive role which she is not. Her philosophy of life sets in contrast with the established norms and ideas of the society in which she lives and this contrast deeply agonizes her.

It is very interesting how Nora changes from a girl who is just happy to be treated like a doll and given homekeeping money by her husband to a more practical minded person who is not blind to the tough realities and is dealing with many internal conflicts because the people surrounding her live their lives according to a different set of values. She is entirely unhappy with Trovald’s narrow definition of her role. War Horse is the name of a play written by acclaimed writer Michael Morpurgo.

The play tells the magnificent story of the First World War through the eyes of a horse named Joey (Spencer). As the play is written with an aim to target young children, it really does not contain many practical, serious, or philosophical ideas and does not tamper with society either in a challenging way. It is however emotionally very charged as is evident from the character of Joey who is a colt and narrates the entire story. Joey explains how he was sold to a drunken farmer whose son Albert promised to care for him until old enough to be sold again.

In the meantime, Joey and Albert develop a mutually strong emotional association which is only strengthened over time. Albert is thrilled and over the moons about Joey and his ever doting and affectionate behavior manages to win over Joey also who narrates how emotionally overwhelmed he is because