Consider and evaluate the different ways in which the writers of A Doll's House and All My Sons depict the role of women in family life.

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Consider and evaluate the different ways in which the writers of A Doll's House and All My Sons depict the role of women in family life.

In All My Sons, Kate Keller, appears at first as a typical housewife and mother, but at a closer glance it’s obvious that she holds things, including Joe, together. This power and strength contradicts the weak almost crazy state that she’s in at the beginning of the play in thinking that Larry is alive. As seen in An Act 1, Kate is stuck in the past in hope that her son, Larry is alive. ‘Everything that happened seems to be coming back. I was just down the cellar, and what do I stumble over? His baseball glove. I haven’t seen it in a century.’ ‘If he’s not coming back, then I’ll kill myself.’ (Act 1) shows the audience how emotionally unstable she is.

However, even this early in the play Miller suggests her power in the family as this line was used to manipulate Joe and Chris to support her belief that Larry is alive, that he has to be. Later on in the play Miller shows the audience that she is the matriarch, she holds everything together. The stage direction at the end of Act 1 ‘sits stiffly in a chair’ shows her control over Joe Keller and that she is the rock in the family that he relies on and always turns to for help.

Miller then shows us in Act 2 how calculated she is in trying to plead with Chris to help protect them, this reflects her position of power in the family and how much she (as well as Joe) relies on herself as she understands how precarious their situation is. ‘We’re dumb, Chris. Dad and I are stupid people. We don’t know anything. You’ve got to protect us.’

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Similarly to Miller’s depiction of Kate as the family’s rock- contrary to the idea of women’s role in the family of the time as dependent on the husband- Ibsen also depicts Nora as the strength and power in the family. However, it is not so obvious as Kate in All My Sons as it is mainly through manipulation and game-playing that Nora can use her power over Helmer. In the beginning of the play Nora is reliant on Helmer which pleases him as he likes the idea of having someone who is so dependent on him. However, this allows ...

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