Literature is replete with moments of failed communication. Paying close attention to the causes and consequences of this failure, discuss this notion using two works of literature

Résumé du document

Henrik Ibsen in A Doll's House, first performed in 1879, created an unforgettable figure of our literary heritage, presenting to the contemporary audience of his day a shockingly modern and innovative drama in which his heroine, Nora, one of the most powerful depictions of nineteenth century women, radically redefines the established relationship between husband and wife. Nora evolves from her status quo of a happy superficial wife to an independent, forceful thinker, abandoning her husband, Torvald Helmer, by slamming the front door on her quest of her full emancipation, brutally putting an end to the romantic masquerade that had been her marriage. Tennessee Williams offered to the audiences of 1947 one of the tragic masterpieces of the twentieth century, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Extraits

[...] Indeed she lies about her age stating that Stella is her “little sister”, but lying also about Belle Reve, lying also most importantly to herself by entrapping herself in a world of illusion and deceit, where for example she received an invitation from Shep Huntleigh for “cruise[s] on the Caribbean”. Therefore lying is a major issue for Blanche which tragically conflicts with her confrontation with reality and thus on her acceptance of her age and thus of herself. Through the example of Ibsen and William's unforgettable heroines, it is evident that their works are replete with moments of failed communication and that this impossibility to communicate with their peers radically organise their lives, for the good in the case of Nora's emancipation, tragically in bringing Blanche's mental demise. [...]

[...] Literature is replete with moments of failed communication. Paying close attention to the causes and consequences of this failure, discuss this notion using two works of literature Henrik Ibsen in A Doll's House, first performed in 1879, created an unforgettable figure of our literary heritage, presenting to the contemporary audience of his day a shockingly modern and innovative drama in which his heroine, Nora, one of the most powerful depictions of nineteenth century women, radically redefines the established relationship between husband and wife. [...]

[...] To crystallise this most significant failure of communication Williams organises the tragedy with the rising, mounting and fading away of the Varsouviana, a Polish music reminiscent of the night of Allan's suicide, always present at varying degrees of intensity in Blanche's mind. But Williams' tragic heroine's failure to communicate is embodied in almost all of her relations with other characters present at Elysian Fields, and is almost ironical considering her profession of an English teacher in whom communication is normally a great strength. [...]

[...] Indeed the deepest source of her ongoing panic, nervousness and persistent desire to seduce young men lies in a particular moment of failed communication with Allan Gray, her childhood sweetheart and very young husband. The most blatant example of her impossibility to communicate her feelings lies in the moment when, whilst dancing with Allan she had whispered to his ear know, I know, you disgust a few words which ensued his subsequent suicide. She had indeed discovered the source of the special sensitivity she had discovered in this boy who wrote poetry when she encountered him in a man's embrace. [...]

[...] The following analysis will explore the extent to which moments of failed communication deeply organise the lives of Nora and Blanche, and what causes and consequences can be attributed to these failures. Nora's crisis and inner torment is caused by the consequences of her illegal borrowing of money from Krogstad, an act done in the name of love to save her husband's health. Indeed it is the revelation of her forgery to Helmer that will cause her to endure the most intense crisis yet encountered in her life, but that will also bring her to the painful realisation that her marriage has been nothing more than a superficial romantic game. [...]