THE ARCHETYPAL IMAGE OF WOMEN IN IBSEN'S A DOLL'S HOUSE AND PINTER'S THE HOMECOMING

On the canvas of literary creation, characters are portrayed in myriad colours along with the nuances of tints and shades. Either in real life or literary imagination always the aspect of ‘gender’ is playing a significant role justifying the words of Sigmund Freud that ‘anatomy is destiny.’ The characteristics of the archetypal image of woman are: weakness, powerlessness, inferiority, otherness, irrationality, passivity, insignificance, worthlessness, dependence, etc. This is a societal image created by society dominated by men. The relationship between man and woman is a hierarchal one. It is a superiority/inferiority relationship. Keeping these views in mind this paper attempts to draw an interesting comparison between Ibsen's A Doll's House and Pinter's The Homecoming. The society introduced in the two texts is a capitalist society, shaped by competition and individualism.