The Feminist Approach to Antigone and A Dolls House Essay example --

An expression commonly used by high school students around the age of fourteen to seventeen is â€Å"JESSICA! I AM HUNGRY, MAKE ME A SANDWICH.† This can be related to other countries in the present day as well as in the past. The play Antigone written by Sophocles, a young girl decides to follow the rules of the Gods rather than the rules of man, especially when it came to the proper burial of her brother Polynices. Antigone decides to bury her brother even though it was against the civil laws to even mourn him. This action is pertinent to the feminists of the day because Creon treats Antigone with absolutely no respect and acts as if she is ignorant. Likewise in the play A Dolls House written by Ibsen, Nora, the main character, takes out a loan in defiance of laws that denied women the right to borrow money or even the right to work outside of the home. Nora shows her true strengths when her husband is dying and she needs the money, but as the play progresses one can see more and more of her strengths as far as her willingness to work like men. Nora and Antigone show great strength and are active in the sense that they work hard to get what they want. Lastly, both Nora and Antigone appear to change through the plots. Nora and Antigone show so many different amazing strengths for women of their day. In Antigone when Antigone is presenting the idea to bury Polynices to Ismene she says â€Å"I’ll bury him myself and even if I die in the act that death will be a glory†(Sophocles 18) . This means that she will go to any length to make sure Polynices has a proper burial. The reason this is so important is that she knows that Creon has already made a decree that no one should even mourn Polynices let alone bury him. It shows great strength to ... ...a and Antigone in this doltish way to show the members of their society and our society today that a woman can be smart. Ibsen and Sophocles were way ahead of their time. Most women even back in the 1800’s went from the hand of one man to the next. They listened and obeyed everything that their fathers said then when they were old enough to get married they listened and obeyed to everything their husband said, and that was how there life was. Antigone and Nora show women, in particular, in 440 B.C. and in the 1800’s that it was a good thing to be independent and stand up for what you believe in. They show the whole audience and the world even today that they are strong and courageous and have great motivation that helps them get through their life whether that means they end their own life or they move away from the men holding them back from their full potential.