Relationship Analysis in Henrik Ibsen´s A Doll´s House and the TV Program "The Sopranos"

And here Pygmalion, old sculptor of heathen times now passed, flames of frosted fires that cast the black light upon the shadows of a starless night. For in his scalding pit where once was heart, burns the curded kindling of perverse pleasures and impious passions. He toils at his foul forge, and there in the blistering bowels of Earth's volcanic throats, in the snarling jaws of his flaming furnace, there stands the lustful sculptor Pygmalion's greatest labour: there stands a woman. Though a sculpture, she effortlessly bleeds sensuality in every carved tendon, the polished pinnacle of a chiseled beauty. She poses with her fixed yearning gaze, her unmoving sinuous locks of hair and inert firmed breasts. And perhaps most remarkable of all, breath is drawn from those delicately crafted lips. For to Pygmalion's iniquitous delight, he has brought life upon his beloved ivory sculpted woman. Imprisoned in that hellish chasm of warm swelling nightmares and streams of wet lunar lust, she stands, to be admired and to be perpetually loved by her master. And neither shall confess the love is not real. For does that gentle rapping of her crimson ruby heart serve her to live, or for her to live to serve? Though Pygmalion's supposed love for his living sculpted woman may be purely the stuff of antiquity lore, its enlightening commentary of love itself is not. Many partners have constructed relationships around a cruel imbalance of power. Indeed, just as Pygmalion believed he loved his perfected, though enslaved ivory lady, so too has myriads of men mistaken an intricate misconception of love for what in actuality is no more than a sculptor admiring his sculpture. This somber reality of love was perhaps most astutely realized in Henrik's Ibsen N...

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In conclusion both A Doll's House and The Sopranos expose the self-destructive nature of romantic engagements where significant imbalances of power between partners exist as seen through their characters: in A Doll's House Nora's and Torvald's marriage tears due to Torvald overbearing control; similarly, in The Sopranos, Carmella leaves Tony due to his excessive and abusive use of power in their collapsed, loveless marriage. Indeed, love need not be loving; often, the pursuit of love leads to more hate than true affection. And yet it is pursued nonetheless. It is this universal pursuit of love that joins the loving Romeo and Juliet to the ranks of the loveless Torvald and Nora, the adoring Hero and Leander to the despising Carmella and Tony. For nothing is more joyful, and yet so potentially horrible, as love. And that, perhaps, is the greatest wonder of it all.