Comparison Of The Characters In

“A Doll’s House” And “The Stranger” Essay, Research Paper

Comparison of the Characters in “A Doll’s House” and “The Stranger”

In the real world there exist many different people, of different races

and ages, each one unique. Some live secluded lives with few friends and others

live very rich and complex lives surrounded by friends and acquaintances. No

matter what type of life is led it is human nature to adjust one’s external

personality to suit the specific situation, much like putting on and removing

different masks. People tend to be polite and respectful to others in public

even though they may not know the person well or not care for them, yet behind

closed doors that mask may disappear and their true feelings may come to the

surface. People may adjust their external behaviour and attitudes when around

others because they may not like their true selves and either want to change

themselves or just merely fit in with society and be liked by others. Another

mask that is often worn is the powerful and superior one and so to feel

superior when among others pushes them around and becomes a bully. This same

person could be gentle, nice and kind when around family but may feel the need

to appear superior around other people. This form of adjusting one’s

personality or mask to suit a situation in life, is also common among characters

in novels, dramas, and other forms of literature. In certain characters it is

evident in the novel The Stranger and the play A Doll’s House . In some

instances it is quite easy to notice but other times it may be difficult to

identify the changes in character’s masks as the changes slowly develop

throughout the plot.

A form of mask wearing was found at the beginning of the novel The

Stranger, where Meursault goes to the beach to go swimming and meets Marie

Cardona. She was lying on a float when Meursault was swimming towards it. “She

turned toward [him]. Her hair was in her eyes and she was laughing.”(20) Later

on when both Meursault and Marie go swimming together “She laughed the whole

time,”(20) and then on the dock while they were drying themselves off Marie

playfully says “I’m darker than you.”(20) She puts on a type of giggly, flirty

mask when around Meursault, probably because she likes him and wants to be

friendly with him. It did not seem like a serious interest at first because it

appears that Marie is a very friendly and joyous person who seems like she only

wants to have fun, giggle a lot and behave like a .bubble head’. But later on

in the novel it is found that Marie is not so stupid and .bubble headed’ after

all and that her giggly attitude was simply to get more acquainted with

Meursault. It was the mask she used to get Meursault interested and did not

reflect her true intentions. When Marie goes over to Meursault’s house, and

after an exchange of kisses, Marie puts on a more serious tone and asks

Meursault the question “…if I (Meursault) loved her (Marie)”(35). Meursault

then replies “…that [he] didn’t think so…”(36) which leaves Marie quite sad

and somewhat broken hearted because it seemed as if both Meursault and Marie

knew that their relationship wouldn’t last but in fact Marie did want to make

something out of it. Evidence for this is that she constantly asks Meursault if

he loves her and also if they should get married.

The beginning of the play A Doll’s House is similar to the beginning of

the novel The Stranger in that both Nora and Marie appear playful and childlike

but we later discover that again this is merely a mask. In The Stranger, as

stated before, Marie is very childish and giggly when she meets Meursault. The

same goes for Nora. She appears very childish in the opening scene when Helmer

calls her “my little skylark”(148) and “little squirrel”(148). She hides her

macaroons like a child hiding something that she should not have, before going

to see Torvald her husband. This seemed to be an act or a mask because it is

unusual to see a normal woman act like a child. It is not totally obvious at

first that Nora is hiding anything from others or even that she is wearing a

mask. Not until later in the story when Mrs. Linde comes does Nora drop the

mask and reveal her true self when Mrs. Linde and Nora start talking about how

Nora got the money in order to send her husband Torvald to Italy. Together they

play a type of guessing game or cat and mouse.. “There are all sorts of ways I

might have got it [money]“(160) says Nora during this guessing game. A short

while later, Nora reveals herself by telling Mrs. Linde that she “earned”(162)

the money. “[She was] sitting there working and earning money. It was almost

like being a man.”(162) This finally revealed Nora’s true self. Behind closed

doors she was working as a business woman to earn money. This is quite shocking

because in the 1800’s women were only supposed to

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