Ibsen's "A Doll's House- and Sophocles' "Antigone- are both significant in that they avoid the social temptation of using a man as a protagonist. Looking deeper into the stories, one can see that in even more contradiction with the society, the female characters go against men. Both 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 that society dictates, or go with what they feel is moral and just.
In "A Doll's House-, Nora must decide where the line between right and wrong is drawn. In order to save her husband's life, Nora forges her father's name on a promissory note. When a woman loves as Nora does, nothing else matters, least of all, social, legal, or moral considerations. Therefore, when her husband's life is threatened, it is joy for Nora to forge her father's name in order to take her sick husband to Italy. In her eagerness to serve her husband, and in perfect innocence of the legal aspect of her act, she does not give the matter much thought, except for her anxiety to shield him from any emergency that may call upon him to perform the miracle in her behalf. She works hard, and saves every penny of her pin-money to pay back the amount she borrowed on the forge check. .
Antigone is faced with the death of both brothers, one who is to be buried with full military rites, while the other, under dictate of the king, is to be cast aside and allowed to rot in the sun. She places family before the law, and ventures out to give her brother a proper burial. Antigone breaks the law under the premise that the Gods dictated that all men deserved a proper burial. Likewise, Nora commits her crime with the belief that since it is saving a life, her situation is an exception to the rules. .
The leading men in both works also have similar characterizations. Both Creon and Helmer are egotistical men, who put too much value on their position of authority, Creon so much so that he is willing to put a decree that defies the laws of the Gods.
