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English Final Paper

William Shakespeare and Henrik Ibsen are two great authors of their time and are still read by many today. William Shakespeare wrote many plays; one that is more well known is Hamlet. Henrik Ibsen is a not so well known author but wrote a great rival play named A Doll's House. These two plays were extraordinary for their time and there has been much controversy and debates on which play made the greatest impact to culture and society. These two plays, written in very different time periods, show alternative views on society and how it should be.

Hamlet was written in the early 1600's right before Shakespeare died. This play portrays society in such a way by showing how easily the public is fooled by people of authority. Shakespeare was writing this play as a form of entertainment but it is now seen as how society used to be. All of the deaths and the general setting of the play describes how society was back then and in essence, Shakespeare was just writing it to entertain and not to show how society was. When Hamlet ends up dying in the end of the play, it wasn't there to show how society was but to merely entertain. Shakespeare showed how Europe was in the late 1500's to early 1600's, but in that time it was for pure entertainment. This so called entertainment showed society the possible uncertainties their lives were based upon.

Henrik Ibsen's, A Doll's House, took a very different outlook on society in not showing

how it was but rather how it should be. Ibsen has set up an environment where women cannot decide on their own, but presents two female characters in the bok that go beyond this thinking

and do things themselves. One of the women gets her own job and the other leaves her daughter for adoption. Thus showing they are making their own decisions in life. This is unheard of in the 1800's and shows Ibsen trying to have a society in which women do have an identity in society and can be heard. Throughout the play, a women is shown doing her own thinking and not listening to what men have to say even though that is not how it used to be. Ibsen creates this new society in which anyone, no matter the gender, should be able to make their own decisions about life and how to live it.

Anton Chekhov's "A Marriage Proposal" and Susan Glaspell's "Trifles" are two plays that deal with somewhat similar issues that Shakespeare and Ibsen wrote about. "A Marriage Proposal" is a play that seems to match Shalespeare's "Hamlet" more that Ibsen. There is a female and two males in the story and there is an argument over whose land is whose and whose dog is surely better. This play does not show any hint towards women rights or gender equality and what not. This play deals more with entertainment purposes rather then proving a point and trying to show gender indifference.