Kate Chopin's opera, The Awakening, and Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, were composed in a time when men dictated women in every aspect of life. They are both superior examples of literary works far ahead of their time. Each work exemplifies the rigorous social standards placed on women and how they have destructively affected women. They also demonstrate how women have managed to overcome this social ethic and arrive at a life of greater fulfillment. The characters in The Awakening and A Doll's House were very similar. Furthermore, the tests they faced were also very similar. Both female characters deal with having a domineering husband and create an exit pattern to leave them. For Nora this includes abandoning her family and running away, while Edna makes the choice Nora couldn't make and commits suicide. Nora and Edna also hide a secret that ultimately leads to their choice to leave their families. Furthermore, both writings appear to have similar themes. Both explore the idea of ​​freedom and discovering one's identity. Furthermore, they show how a woman in the late 1800s often had no freedom from what society expected of her. As a result, the only way they could find their identity was to abandon the social standards imposed by their family life. Ibsen and Chopin seem to purposely present their main characters in this way and use their gifts for writing to predict a transformation in society that must and will eventually occur. There are many similarities between the two: at the beginning each protagonist seems happy in their marriage, controlled by their husband, has a secret and eventually realizes that they are someone. Edna Pon...... middle of paper.... ..vald, tells him, “I don't believe it anymore. I believe that first of all I am a reasonable human being, just like you, or that, at any rate, I should try to become one. I know well, Torvald, that most people would agree with you, and that such opinions are found in books; but I can no longer be satisfied with what most people say, nor with what is found in books. I have to think about things myself and come to understand them. (Ibsen 112) Therefore, in the end both Edna and Nora departed dramatically, one leaving a life and the other leaving a family. Bibliography Ibsen, Henrik. A doll's house. Coradella Collegiate Books, October 11, 2004. PDF.Chopin, Kate, McMichael, George L., J. S. Leonard, and Shelley Fisher. Fishkin. The awakening. Anthology of American literature. Tenth ed. vol. II. Boston: Longman, 2011. 697-786. Press.