The Cherry Orchard and A Doll’s House.

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People bring their downfalls upon themselves. Do certain habitually practice leave them wondering what wrong they did? Torvald from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Madame Ranevsky from Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard are left to start afresh at the end of the plays after they neglected a key element in their lives. Torvald toys with Nora, his wife, fulfilling only his wants and only his needs and abases her; never considering her his equal. The fallacious choice Madame Ranevsky makes concerning her home and family leads them to destitution and separation. Ibsen shows Torvald as being an egotistical man who decides to mend his ways after his neglected wife leaves him while Chekhov shows Madame Ranevsky neglect as never effecting her at all. Ibsen, a modern realistic, represents Torvald as a condescending spouse who makes a social statement that husbands are portrayed as figures who protect their families, but in reality they are only there to serve themselves. Throughout the play Torvald constantly calls Nora “my little skylark” and “my little squirrel” and even “my little spendthrift” (Ibsen 2-4) Each one of the nicknames he gives her contains the word “little” in it; abasing her and making her inferior to him. He uses these frequently, especially when he wishes to make her happy. On page 4 he says “It's a sweet little spendthrift, but she uses up a deal of money...expensive such little persons are!” and then proceeds to give her the money she asked for. In this he is using the condescending names as well as showing his superiority. He does this by making Nora confront him for her basic needs; she does not even own a house key. Torvald's study is also a sign of superiority over Nora, a private room that she is prevent... ... middle of paper ... ... Nora. At the end of act three on page 77 he says, “Can I never be anything more then a stranger...the most wonderful thing of all-?” From this excerpt we comprehend that he wants to change but doesn’t know how, but he will find a way. Madame Ranevsky in The Cherry Orchard doesn’t show any sign of change. She remains a flat character, and is constant throughout the play. She ran from her problems when Grisha died, she is running from them after she lost the orchard. In the end, both these characters have fallen back down from their current positions. Torvald in the eyes of society and Nora since she, the female of the relationship, left him, the male. Madame Ranevsky went from being a wealthy aristocrat down down to being a well dressed peasant. They both lost something very important to them, but they both treated the outcome in completely different ways.

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