Wearing her [ballroom] dress marked the turning point in her life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay: Barbara Fass Leavy Clothing and appearance have historically played a significant role in the development of fairy tale plots. Perhaps the most famous dress in our collective memory is the one given to Cinderella by her fairy godmother. A less common, though no less important, dress is seen in Ibsen's A Doll's House. Nora's Italian tarantella costume is in fact functionally similar to Cinderella's ball gown. Although they are obtained in different ways and ultimately serve different purposes, dresses in both Cinderella and A Doll's House fairy tales serve the same purpose of allowing the heroine to transcend beyond the constraints that society has placed on her. their presence and absence play a fundamental role in the protagonist's ability to overcome her difficulties and reach her true potential. Elisabeth Pantajja, in her essay Going up in the World: Class in Cinderella, examines the role of clothing as a 'political tool of the lower middle class' (99). The removal of certain types of clothing, he argues, is representative of the removal of social status. Class, and class inferred from clothing, is the crux of the limitations placed on a character in Cinderella. In many versions Cinderella's clothes are lost at the beginning of the story. They took away her beautiful clothes, dressed her in an old gray apron and gave her wooden clogs, reads the first scene of the Brothers Grimm version. In "Donkey Skin" the protagonist's clothes are not taken from her by force. Rather circumstances dictate that you do not wear them, but instead just wear the old donkey skin. In both of these cases, the removal of fine clothing is a symbol of demotion. Extending that metaphor to a more general interpretation, it is symbolic of pushing the character out of a realm to which he once belonged. In the case of the Cinderella stories, the kingdom is simply that of a higher social order. In the modern interpretation of the Swan Maiden Tale, A Doll's House, the body covering is also initially lost. This is inferred at the beginning of Act II in A Doll's House when the nurse says that I have finally found it, the box with the masquerade costumes (35). Finally, it implies that they were wanted, a factor that becomes more relevant when their plot function is served. Barbara Leavy parallels this brief scene of discovery with the point in the Swan Maiden tale where the swan's wife discovers her long-lost feathers. It is noteworthy that the costumes are for a masquerade and not for an everyday event, as they thus symbolize entering another non-ordinary world. The fact that Nora already had the dress, the feathers themselves, indicates that she had once been part of this other place. Extending the literal imagery of the masquerade to the more abstract realm, one could say that this other place from which she was held captive, was a world in which she had free will. Unlike the Cinderella figures, Nora does not initially realize that she has been held captive in another world. Like the figure of Cinderella, however, wearing her special dress facilitates her transcendence of the forces that essentially hold her captive. The rediscovery or restoration of such garments is more subtle in Cinderella fairy tales. In the Brothers Grimm version, beautiful dresses are thrown down from a hazel fairy godmother style. In Donkeyskin, because clothing is never taken away, rediscovery seems to happen on a weekly basis. Yes it isclean, then opened his chest and first put on the moon robe? Perrault, this sweet pleasure kept her going from one Sunday to the next (112). Through this rediscovery of her clothes, Pelle d'Asino prepares for the moment in which those clothes will allow her to overcome her diminished social stature. Likewise, the magical appearance of Cinderella's classic dress, as well as Nora's rediscovery of Italian costume, fashion transformations themselves, foreshadow more significant nonphysical transformations to come. How exactly the various outfits allow the characters to emerge from their limited roles is where the two stories diverge. In Cinderella fairy tales the protagonist is passive. In the classic tale, it is the prince who takes a proactive role. Grimm's version says that she was so beautiful in the golden dress that they thought she must be the daughter of a foreign king. The prince approached Cinderella, took her hand and danced with her. He had no intention of dancing with anyone else and would never let go of her hand. Whenever someone else asked her to dance, he would say: She is my partner. (119)There is a direct link between how beautiful the dress was and the prince's interest in her. The extent to which the prince takes possession of her is important to the plot since it is that feeling of possession, repeatedly asserted throughout the three days of the wedding, that motivates the prince to seek out Cinderella, ultimately bringing her back up the social ladder. marrying her. In Donkeyskin, it is only when the prince sees the princess in her elegant clothes that he is overwhelmed by her beauty, and so begins his quest. Although the disclaimer No matter how her dress was, the beauty of her face, her lovely profile, [etc.] moved him a hundred times more (113) is in the text, it is difficult to exclude the fact that she She was actually wearing her special outfit when she caught his attention. It's hard to imagine that he would have been as stunned if she had been wearing her usual donkey skin. In both versions of the Cinderella story, the dress has the function of catching attention. This attention-grabbing prompts the prince to begin his ultimately successful search for the Cinderella character. Through her marriage to the prince, Cinderella obtains a noble status, therefore, with direct merit to the dress, going beyond what was originally her constricting social situation. Ibsen's Nora is a much more proactive character than Cinderella although she too uses her festive dress to overcome her social difficulties. constraint. Unlike the characters in Cinderella, the different worlds of social classes do not concern Nora. Rather, its different worlds are separated on the axis of genre. Throughout the play Nora exists in a world distinct from her husband. From the openly closed door of her office, to the secret of the money loan she keeps from him, the two exist on completely separate planes. The dress itself is one of the few connections their worlds have, and even that is pretty tangential. In the second act Nora tells Kristine that Torvald wants her to go to the masquerade ball as a Neapolitan fisherman and dance the tarantella, the dance she learned when they were in Italy. Moments after Kristine helps her repair her costume (40) Torvald enters the room: NORA: No, it was Kristine. He was helping me with the costume. I think it will be very nice?HELMER: Wasn't that a good idea of ​​mine, now?NORA: Wonderful! But wasn't it nice of me to let you have your way? HELMER: Nice of you, why did you let your husband have his way? All right, you little scoundrel, I know you didn't mean to say it this way? You'll want to try on the costume, I suppose. (40)Presenceof the dress and the power struggles associated with it are briefly highlighted in this scene. Torvald wanted Nora to learn to dance in Italy and even bought her dress. What Torvald doesn't understand, and perhaps neither does Nora at this point, is the effect that the dress and the dance associated with it will have on their relationship. The presence of the dress in question also gave Nora more freedom of action. Her mistake almost gave Torvald a clue that she knows more than she generally lets on. Although the audience does not see the actual performance of the costumed dance at the masquerade ball, Torvald's account highlights necessary elements and indeed it is the consequences that are more important than the actual performance. He dances the tarantella² and "there was wild applause" (67) Torvald describes. One can imagine Nora performing the frenetic dance, as she realizes that she must leave the world she knows. While it is possible, it is difficult to imagine the dance being performed without the elaborate costume. The costume serves to transform Nora into a beautiful vision (67), simultaneously transforming her spirit into one of fulfillment, illumination of her situation and the options she has. By the end of Act III, Nora has transformed into a much more serious and outspoken character. She speaks conservatively, often in short sentences compared to Torvald's long descriptions of how he will save her. In his book The Search for the Swan Maiden, Leavy examines the power struggle and the question of costume ownership. To the extent that all of Nora's assets belong to Torvald, do they remain under his control? Leavy states (299). They are illustrative of Torvald's control over Nora, the social constraints she must overcome. Torvald tries to exert control over the clothes, and by extension Nora, when he discovers her secret. Take it off. Take it off, I tell you! (76) exclaims Torvald. But Nora, after dancing the tarantella and, if only for a moment, entering a different realm from the dollhouse she knows, has increased her determination. As the scene progresses, his control over his clothes, as well as his life, increases. When Torvald asks her what she is doing, she replies Taking off this costume (78). Torvald is surprised when she is not getting ready for bed, and then replies Yes, Torvald, I have changed (79). The meaning of this statement goes much deeper than just changing her outfit. Putting on the dress, Nora had an epiphany. He realized that his life was a doll's house and that he didn't want to live it that way. By removing the dress, she freed herself not only from Torvald's property, but also from the social constraints that held her in his artificial world. The chronological changes in Nora's dress, from ordinary to elegant and back to ordinary, and the corresponding change in attitude indicate that a transformation occurred while wearing the costume. In Leavy's words, Wearing her ball gown brought the turning point in her life (298). Therefore, it was the dress itself that facilitated Nora's true change, a realization that perhaps would never have occurred had she not performed the special dance. in the special dress. Unlike the characters in Cinderella, Nora returns to her original clothes. This difference can be attributed to different social constraints and outcomes. As Cinderella's characters assimilate into another restricted realm - the high society culture they enter with marriage, Nora is entering an unknown world, a world supposedly free from the confinement and ownership that her costume represented. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay When the clock struck midnight in the story of..