Social Status In Othello And A Doll's House

In both Othello by Shakespeare and A Dolls House by Ibsen, reputation is valued more then anything else. The characters need a good reputation in order to secure social status. They also fear that they will be seen in a negative image without a good reputation and they use reputation to appear as something that they are not. In both plays, reputation does not reflect one’s true self.

To begin with, Cassio in Shakespeare’s Othello and Torvald in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House both display that reputation plays a major role in their social status. The reader can see that Cassio cares what social status he falls into, and how his reputation has changed after the stabbing of Montano while he was drinking on watch duty. One sees this when Cassio

Throughout the play Othello, one sees that Iago’s character has two types of reputation; one with his friend Roderigo, and one with Othello. This is called appearance vs reality. Iago expresses his two faced behaviour within this first quote”…The native act and figure if my heart in compliant extern, ‘tis no long after but I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at. I am not what I am.”(1.1.57-65). In this quote Iago discusses what he plans on doing to Othello with Roderigo, he explains that he stands beside Othello not because of his love for him or because of duty, but that he can take advantage of or that he can fool him. Iago believes that Othello may have slpet with his wife so I ago plans on getting revenge. This displays one side of Iagos’ two faced attitude. The next quote that supports Iagos two faced behaviour is how Othello believes that Iago is a friends and how Iago appears to praise Othello. “’Tis he, oh, brave Iago, honest and just, that host such noble sense of thy friends wrong.”(5.1.32-33). The event that occurred before the quote was that Othello had requested that his good friend Iago go and murder Cassio for him. Of course Iago acting though he cared for Othello agreed to follow through with these actions. Because of this, Othello believed that Iago was honest and trustworthy, so much so

It plays an important role in character development. Nora who at the beginning of the play appears to be spoiled and submissive. But throughout the play she realizes that she is an intelligent, strong and independent woman and that she is willing to sacrifice anything for her family. “He’ll start work at the bank right after New Year’s, and he’ll get a huge salary and lots of commissions.”(Ibsen 21). This quote reflects that Nora is spoiled because it seems that she likes to brag about her life and family with all the money Torvald will bring in. One may believe that this is all an act that Nora is displaying because she wants people to think that life is all happy and wonderful. It also shows how Nora is dependant where she relies on her husband to work and bring home money, while she watches the children. Near the end of the play the audience begins to see how Nora finally starts to understand herself. She states “ I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being just as you are…I must think over things for myself and get to understand them.”(Ibsen ). Nora now becomes an independent woman and is now, separating herself away from woman stereotypes. She then leaves her family to become a better person, by finding herself and using her own