The theme of betrayal can be found at the heart of both Milton's Paradise Lost and Ibsen's A Doll's House , but, interestingly, the answer to whether these betrayals deserve to be forgiven has changed over time. Where contemporary audiences of Milton and Ibsen have been shown to avoid and reject female abandonment by their families, perhaps a more modern audience can recognize the importance of gender equality and consequently forgive the female characters in these texts. The betrayal that male characters predominantly display in their relationships is their prioritization of honor and pride over love for their wives. However, while in A Doll's House Nora is unable to forgive her husband this, in Paradise Lost, Adam ultimately provides the "miracle of miracles" and his union with Eve is rectified. It could be argued, however, that Adam's greatest sin is not the betrayal of his relationship with Eve, but of his relationship with God, a betrayal that is ultimately unforgivable and fraught with consequence in Milton's text. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIn both texts, the female protagonists betray trust in their relationships by leaving their husbands in search of independence, knowledge, and equality. In A Doll's House, Nora leaves her husband and children for probably selfish reasons as she seeks independence and knowledge in the outside world: “I have to try to educate myself. I have to be completely alone." As in Milton's context, in the 19th century, there were rigid patriarchal expectations for female behavior and consequently Ibsen's presentation of a woman rejecting her "duty" as mother and wife sparked great outrage among his audience. Indeed, Niemann, the actress in an 1880 German production of the play, refused to recite the ending stating, "I would never leave my children" and forced Ibsen to change the ending, an act she later called a "barbaric outrage against the world". play.' Arguably, however, while Ibsen's contemporary audiences took issue with Nora's decision to leave her home, more modern audiences have been sympathetic to her struggle and forgiven her actions. Bravard argued that "the cause of Eva's downfall lies in her husband who sanctioned her" and arguably, this also rings true with A Doll's House, where modern audiences struggle to blame Nora for what she is driven to do by the behavior of her husband and the patriarchal structures that limit her life. Nowadays, there is a greater emphasis on individualism over the family unit and perhaps as a result of this, women today can identify with Nora's struggle ("I have another duty that is equally sacred, my duty to myself") and then forgive her for leaving her children, perhaps even celebrating her decision to leave her husband. Certainly, it appears that Ibsen held this view, who has been called by many critics a "proto-feminist" who advocated female independence through his writings. However, probably, this would be a reductive interpretation of the position of Ibsen, who himself stated: "I don't even know what women's rights are, I believe in human rights." We therefore see that, where Ibsen's contemporary audience could not forgive Nora's betrayal of trust in her relationship, like Ibsen, a modern audience is sympathetic to Nora's decision and understands the importance of gender equality. It could therefore be argued that the real betrayal in this case is not Torvald's betrayal ofNora, but Ibsen's betrayal of the representation of his society. she manages to achieve the same independence that Ibsen suggests Nora will find, but instead she is committed to a mental institution by her husband and is publicly shamed. Arguably, therefore, Ibsen's society was not yet ready for the female strength and determination that characterizes A Doll's House, and where a more modern audience is able to empathize with Nora, the true story behind the play and the reaction of the His contemporary audience represents the ruthless society in which Ibsen wrote. Similarly, Eve is portrayed in Paradise Lost as betraying trust in her relationship through her desperation to "turn away" from Adam's side and consequently, "from her husband's hand, with the soft hand, she withdrew." Like Nora, Eva leaves her husband with herself in mind with the desire to be "made" "more equal", but while initially, as with Nora, it appears that Eva's decision to leave her husband is based on a desire for equality , her contemplation on whether to let her husband maintain “the odds of knowledge in his power without a partner,” and her desire to be “sometimes superior,” make her actions a little less forgivable and more selfish. In Milton's society, at a time when women were considered subordinate to their husbands, Eve's desire to be "superior" would undoubtedly have been ridiculous. Milton himself believed that "wives were to husbands as subjects were to kings" and wrote extensively in his divorce treatises about the desired family structure ("who could ignore that man was created for woman and not woman for man") and so, although critics have argued that Milton, as a divorce advocate and individualist, would support Eve's desire for independence and, ultimately, it could be argued that Milton along with his contemporary audience would be unable to forgive Eve's betrayal. Perhaps it would actually be more accurate to say that her voice is represented by that of Adam and his contemptuous speech: "bad woman". On the other hand, as in the case of A Doll's House, today's audience is able to identify with Eva and her struggle for power. as a woman bound by the patriarchal parameters of society. Handle writes, "it is not surprising that she wanted to be 'sometimes superior' since she had always been treated as inferior." It seems, however, that where a modern audience is accustomed to a more gender-equal society, the reader is able to see the drastic consequences that living without equality would entail, and thus empathize with Eva's desire for power. However, Milton's contemporary society did not have that luxury, and as an audience completely unfamiliar with gender equality, it is perhaps understandable why the consideration of Eve's superiority would be considered so unfathomable and unforgivable to them. So let's see that it is in the lyrics of Milton and Ibsen, women are condemned by contemporary audiences for leaving their husbands, but where these critics fail to see past these acts of female betrayal, modern audiences have been seen to empathize with Eve and Nora and their quest for independence and equality, and as a result they were more willing to forgive them. Since in both of these texts women are shown to betray trust in their relationships, their husbands do so too, however their betrayal does not lie in the. independence but in pride, where similarly, they are shown to selfishly put their own desires first. In Paradise Lost, Adam betrays Eve by turning his back on her and blaming her completely for the fall: "Out of my sight, you serpent!" That name is the best. It suits youbond with him." In the 17th century, when Milton was writing, the vast majority of people were still fundamentally religious and so the use of the derogatory noun "serpent" aligning Eve with the devil would have been inherently offensive. The juxtaposition between Adam's speech to Eve before and after the fall serves to highlight the extent to which he avoids his wife and betrays trust in their relationship, while demonstrating his wounded pride through his animosity towards her. Before the fall Adam refers to his wife as "soul companion Eve", "Virgin Majesty of Eve" calling her "virtuous" and praising her beauty, but once he realizes the consequences of the fall his tone changes drastically to guilt acrimony as he curses her, “ungrateful Eve” and patronizes her “oh woman.” Where a modern audience would probably be quick to point out that it was Adam's final decision to fall in love with Eve, Milton's contemporaries like Adam, placed all the blame on Eve and immediately forgave him for his betrayal. C.S. Lewis, for example, referred to Eve's transgression as "murder" and Baldwin declared that "a woman's consumption of a forbidden food brought disaster to mankind," completely ignoring Adam's involvement in the fall and blaming entirely Eve of the consequences for humanity. probably, Milton's original audience did not see Adam's anger towards Eve as a betrayal but as an understandable reaction that did not need to be forgiven, and instead in an era in which female vanity and persuasion were current, blame is placed on Eve for using her feminine wiles to manipulate Adam into falling with her, who consequently "fell with exuberance" (C.S. Lewis). We then see that Eve is doubly victimized, for choosing to walk away from "her husband's side" and for convincing Adam to fall with her, and Eve is subsequently seen to doubly betray her husband with actions deemed unforgivable by Milton's readers. Similarly, where perhaps modern audiences would initially have found Adam's response to Eve unforgivable and "verbally abusive" to Edmeades unlike Torvald in A Doll's House, Adam is able to perform the "miracle of miracles" and forgive her wife, re-establishing their relationship and challenging the "test of excess love" before the end of Book X. Indeed, some critics have described Adam's actions as "heroic". However, to say that a modern audience would be completely sympathetic to Adam even after his forgiveness would probably be too simplistic, given the condescending tone of his speech: "your frailty and your weak sex pardoned", for the use of the adjective" sick". has implications of female inferiority that would be rejected by modern society. Overall, we can once again infer a generational divide in terms of audience response, but where the women in these texts were condemned by their respective contemporary audiences, Adam in this text and equally Torvald in A Doll's House are easily forgiven and instead, the woman is seen as traitors. Indeed, Adam's real betrayal in the eyes of Milton's readers is not about Eve but about his relationship with God, since giving priority to his Robbins "lust" over his love and faith for God would have been considered unacceptable in that period. In terms of Eve's betrayal, it seems that readers of that time were familiar with male pride, and therefore, the idea of ​​a woman harming him, as Eve does during the fall, would be seen as the final humiliation for a man. Finally, as in the case of Adam, Torvald's proud love for the love of his wife can be seen as the greatest.’