design+of+the+home+is+used+to+create+a+secure+and+easily+controlled+environment

__In both A Doll’s House and The House of Bernarda Alba, the self-recognized heads of the household, Torvald and Bernarda, design their house so as to create an environment in which they feel in control__. __Both characters are very domineering, and in order to assert this dominance they design their home to specifically suit their desires, regardless of the opinion of the rest of their family__. For example, Torvald Helmer, who has been brought up to expect a respectable middle class family, fills his living room with any item that seems to accommodate that condition; a sofa, a piano, a stove, a rocking chair, and many more items fill his living room to create the perfect stereotypical image of wealth and comfort. Torvald’s home seems to serve almost as a sort of pen for Nora to stay in under his watch, which he custom designs to suit the idle behavior he expects of her, and occasionally lets her play with, for example by adding a Christmas tree. Bernarda Alba, on the other hand, is ostensibly much stricter towards her daughters, and therefore creates a much harsher environment to reinforce her firm control over the rest of her family. Inside her home, Bernarda has far fewer items that suggest comfort than Torvald; her rush-bottom chairs, although perhaps suitable to Andalusia, are plain, rigid, and serve their purpose and nothing more, much like the attitude Bernarda demands of her daughters. __Another difference between the two homes is how Torvald warms his up to create comfort, whereas Bernarda uses the heat in her house as a method to suppress her daughters__. With the cold Norwegian winter raging outside, the stove in Torvald’s home helps him to sustain the image of his home as comfortable and welcoming, the home of a wealthy family. Bernarda, on the other hand, uses her husband’s funeral as an excuse to seal up the windows and doors of her house and not let a single breeze blow through, despite the already blistering heat outside, further isolating her home from the outside world. Bernarda thus reinforces her dominance of her household by proving to her daughters that she controls their living conditions; she does not cares that they are suffering from the heat and she can manipulate their very home to cause discomfort. __In fact, in both plays, both Torvald and Bernarda create a home disconnected from the outside world, in order to create their own domain over which they have complete control.__ As aforementioned, Torvald creates a sort of playpen for Nora; Nora remains in the living room of her home, never even venturing into Torvald’s office which is separated by a door. Bernarda’s house, on the other hand, from its thick walls to the “shady silence” that accumulates within them, seems oddly reminiscent of a monk’s cell: quarters suited to well-disciplined individuals who must not mingle with the impure public outside. Overall, then, both Torvald and Bernarda engineer their respective houses to reflect strictly what they want out of life, regardless of what the rest of their family thinks, and use their control of their home to create a sense of security and reinforce the belief that they are in charge and always will be.