The ideals of a high society Victorian Era woman are presumably different than that of a mid-1940's Nigerian clan leader. Nora Helmer is a young flustered Norwegian housewife who has quite a complicated history with her husband, while Okonkwo is a highly esteemed tribal leader battling with the changing rituals and ethics of his clan.

The character of Nora in the play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen is pressured by society into having certain values, storing conflicts, and making abominable choices, the same as the character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart.

The societies in which Nora and Okonkwo live pressure them into having certain values, yet they also challenge them to create values and traditions of their own. Nora's and Okonkwo's cultures both value pride, tradition, and religion but in diverse ways. Nora is confronted with the issue of pride because in...