The Duties Of The Individual To Oneself And The State, As Shown In Antigone And A Doll S House. Essay, Research Paper

The duties of the individual to oneself and the state, as shown in Antigone and A Doll s House.

The main theme that can be seen in both plays is the duty to oneself, and the individual instead the of state or society. Should the two women, Nora in A Doll s House, and Antigone in Antigone, do what the state and society tells them to do or if they should do what they would like to do?

In Antigone there is the contrasting view of the state law against the divine law. The state law may have some similarities to the divine law but they are not the same. For example the divine law would be the burial of Antigone s brother, but the state law was that her brother was not to be buried. The divine law is a law that is the same for everyone and does not change, whereas the state law is what the king or ruler would want, and can change. Another view in Antigone would be the state against the people. For the state and state laws to exist there have to be the people too. The state depends on the people and not just the ruler. (As shown on p.146 in the argument between Haemon and his father).

Haemon: A one-man state? What sort of a state is that?

Creon: Why, does not every state belong to its ruler?

Haemon: You d be an excellent king on a desert island.

In Antigone there is the state and its laws, but in A Doll s House we see more of the society, and the laws it enforces on the individual. The society s rules prevent the characters from seeing and expressing their true nature. When Krogstad tells Nora that the law takes no account of good motives, she cries,

Then they must be very bad laws! .

This causes a problem for the main female characters, in deciding if what they are doing is right or wrong. Haemon questions whether Creon s judgements are correct or not (above). For Antigone the divine law is what should be used instead of the state law, which is defined only by what the king wants. Therefore should Haemon and Antigone oppose the state law? The king makes up the main part of the state, and decides whether the laws he makes are fair, and do not object to these laws otherwise he wouldn t be king. Some may think that it is wrong that people should oppose the state s laws, and should just follow them, but then they will never get to have their own beliefs and never have a better understanding of themselves in the end.

At the end of A Doll s House Nora realises that she has lived as a doll , as her father s doll and then as her husband s doll, and has accepted the church and society without ever asking any questions about them. Then she questions herself whether the society she lives in is correct in its beliefs, or if what she thinks is correct and requires that she oppose society itself.

But now I intend to learn. I must try to satisfy myself which is right, society or I.

In the end she goes with her beliefs and opposes society, but at a great personal cost, because she had to leave her children behind.

Some people will think that opposing the society is right and some will think that it is wrong. In the two plays there are the images of obedience and disobedience, to the state. For example Nora was thought she was doing the right thing in forging her father s signature to save her husband s life, but in doing so she broke the law, and would have received a severe punishment. She couldn t see what is wrong, because she didn t understand why the state would stop her from actually saving her husbands life. There are also examples in Antigone of obedience and disobedience to the state,

Creon- There is no more deadly peril than disobedience; states are devoured by it, homes laid in ruins, armies defeated, victory turned to rout. While simple obedience saves the lives of hundreds of honest folk.

Creon is the obvious one to say this, because people, who are obedient to him, make it easier for him, whereas the people who aren t cause many problems. But Antigone would not think this way, because for her to be obedient she would have to agree with the state laws and not bury her brother.

Another theme that can be strongly found in both books is the duty to oneself. In both plays, the authors seem to be saying that the greatest duty is to understand yourself. Nora doesn t realise she has a self because she has been living in a society of men and doing what their laws tell her to do. She was a lot like a child at the beginning of the play. She had gone straight from her father s house to her husband s, bringing along her nursemaid. And she always accepted her fathers and her husband s opinion, therefore not having any opinion of her own, until she finally realised this in the end. Then she discovers that her most sacred duty is to herself, and leaves to find out more about who she is and what she wants from life. Antigone, follows her beliefs from the beginning, instead of joining the other people who follow what the state tells them to do. As a result she has a better understanding of the individual.

The two women can get a better understanding of themselves, also by noticing what happens around them. We can see this by the recurring images of honour and self-appearance in both plays. For example how women should not help men. If this would actually happen, that image the men would have in society would be destroyed.

Nora- And besides he s so proud of being a man it d be so painful and humiliating for him to know that he owed anything to me. This image is very important in A Doll s House, and there are many other examples of this. Honour is considered to be one of the most important features for a man. Helmer says,

No man can be expected to sacrifice his honour, even for the person he loves.

We notice this image in Antigone too,

Creon Better be beaten, if need be, by a man, that let a woman get the better of us.

The rules from society in A Doll s House have come from the men. Or is it that the men have been changed by society and then since they find no problems with the rules, have little trouble following them and expect the women to do the same. From seeing how the men behave in society, the women can see what role they have, but it is duty to oneself that they should discover to see if they will follow this role society has for them or if they should have their own.

From the two plays, though, the greatest duty was to understand oneself. The two women did this in different ways. It took Nora until the end to finally understand what she should do, and what her role was, instead of the role she was playing as a doll for her father and husband. Antigone opposed the state laws from the beginning and therefore could get a better understanding of herself. But what must be said is that when the state laws or the laws of society are opposed, the people become social outcasts, because they do not follow the rules anymore. Seemed that for both Nora and Antigone that it did not bother them, because they wanted to finally understand themselves.