A comparison between the characters: Nora vs. Antigone In the novels A Doll's House and Antigone, Ibsen and Sophocles create two main female characters, Nora and Antigone, respectively, who deal with society's expectations of women in fundamentally different ways. Nora goes against the grain of middle-class society by first forging her father's signature and then deceiving her husband, Torvald, during their marriage; Antigone, on the other hand, openly challenges the rule of men, including her uncle and king of Thebes, Creon. Although Nora and Antigone share some comparable personality traits, such as being strong-willed and driven, they approach the men in their lives and their comparable societies in two distinct ways, which, as a result, leads to two different denouements. Almost every society, Nora's and Antigone's being no exception, imposes a specific place or purpose for women, and although Nora's and Antigone's respective societies possess some similarities regarding the place and purpose of women, they contain many important differences. In Antigone, for example, the relative value and status of women in Theban society seems clear; women must submit to man's domination. Ismene suggests this submissive attribute of women in Theban society when she implores Antigone not to defy Creon's commands: "Remember that we are women and as such are not made to fight with men." (193) Evidently the male-controlled Theban society has kept female individuality in check, so much so that even a member of the royal family, Ismene, speaks of the futility of attempting to clash with male domination. Furthermore, Creon asks Antigone if she is "ashamed to differ from such men [the Chorus]?" (212) This suggests that in Theban society w...... half of the card ......igone respectively. Both works focus on the place of women in society and the struggle of two women to uncover the repression of women latent in society and to free themselves from that repression. Surprisingly enough, the two societies maintain similar expectations of women, but Nora and Antigone break those expectations through different methods unique to their situations. Nora is repressed by her husband and society, while Antigone is repressed by Creon and Theban society, and while Nora deceives her husband for most of their marriage, Antigone's strong will allows her to openly confront Creon's superiority. Therefore, the conclusions or epilogues of the plays are to some extent different; while Nora survives in the theoretical 'perfect freedom' in her society, Antigone is given up to death, and in a certain sense 'frees' herself from the repressive society in which she has been subjected..