Women Breaking Free.
The role of women in society today has changed from the past; we are respected and do the same jobs as men. Women have become independent in that they can support themselves and their family. The plays that deal with the issue of woman in society and the way they are seen in society are Antigone by Sophocles and A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. We are introduced to the character Nora in Ibsen's play. Nora's character undergoes a change from first being a doll to becoming an individual who wants to find her own independence. Another feminine character is Antigone in Sophocles's play. Here you see a woman who goes against the laws of man to do what she believes is right even though she knows she will die. Antigone is a strong individual that stands by what she believes. Antigone and Nora step into the spotlight as the female hero who has been put in a compromising situation and is forced to decide whether it is more important to follow what society dictates, or go with what they feel is moral and just.
Nora is caught in a situation where in order to save her husbands life she has to borrow money and throughout the play you see her evolve as a character and a woman. Like Nora, Antigone is in a situation where she is left with the choice to bury her brother Polyneices who is denied burial or leave him to rot. Nora commits her crime with the belief that since it is saving a life, her situation is an exception to the rules. Nora says, "I don't believe it. Isn't a daughter entitled to try and save her father from worry and anxiety on his death bed? Isn't a wife entitled to save her husband's life? I might not know much about law, but I feel sure of one thing: it must say somewhere that things like this are allowed" (933). Antigone does so under the basis that the Gods dictated that all men deserved a proper burial. Antigone claims that, "It was not Zeus, not in the least, who made this proclamation-not to me.