Alex and Michael: women's equality assignment

The poem "The Bonsai Tree" by Marge Piercy can be analyzed to symbolize the way Torvald treats Nora, his wife in "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen. The first lines, "The bonsai tree, in the attractive pot, could have grown eighty feet tall," represents Nora, a beautiful woman who has a lot of potential to contribute to society. But Torvald doesn't allow this potential to be utilized. In this poem, Torvald is represented by the gardener. The destructive power of the gardener, or Torvald, is seen when the poem says he "carefully pruned it." This destructive or rather impeditive behavior is seen by Torvald spoiling Nora and making her feel like she is the center if attention so she won't have to get it for herself and be her own person. This is seen when Torvld practices the dance routine with Nora. Before they start, Torvald wants to check the mail. But Nora knows there is a letter he shouldn't see in the box so she throws a sort of tantrum saying "I can't dance tomorrow if I don't practice with you." Knowing she looks beautiful in her clothing, she begins to dance sloppily and wildly, but also seductively to get Torvald's attention. 

In the later lines of the poem, "Every day as he, whittles back the branches, the gardener croons, It is your nature, to be small and cozy, domestic and weak; how lucky, little tree, to have a pot to grow in," the gardener is seen to be making the tree feel good about itself, but also discreetly insults it. Torvald does this to Nora as well. He gets her the best clothes, the best food, the nicest jewels, but he also calls her names that are very subtly derogatory. He calls her "My skylark," "child," and "my dear." These names portray his views on her as being helpless and needy.

Judith Viorst wrote a poem about how she thinks the Cinderella story really happened. The poem goes like this:
"I really didn't notice that he had a funny nose.
And he certainly looked better all dressed up in fancy clothes.
He's not nearly as attractive as he seemed the other night.
So I think I'll just pretend that this glass slipper feels too tight."

She seems to think that the slipper really did fit the princess, but she saw the prince for who he really was, and then decided she didn't like him, so she pretended that the slipper didn't fit. The princess did this to avoid living with him because she now saw the prince for who he really was and didn't like the truth for what it was. This realization can compare to Cecily's and Gwendolen's reactions from "The Importance of being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde. When Algernon, posing as Jack's brother, Ernest, asks Cecily if she would still love him if his name was Algernon. This dialogue went as follows:

Algernon(aka. Ernest)- But, my dear child, do you mean to say you could not love me if I had some other name?

Cecily- But what name?

Algernon- Oh, any name you like - Algernon - for instance...

Cecily- But I don't like the name of Algernon.
Algernon- I can't see why you should object to the name of Algernon...if my name was Algy, couldn't you love           me?

From this dialogue, it is seen that there is a major distaste of the truth when one finds out something they believe is beautiful is , in fact, much less beautiful than it seems. (i.e. Algernon's real name vs. his poser name) 

The same is seen with Gwendolen when Ernest, who believes his name is truly Jack, not Ernest, tries to convince Gwendolen that his name really is Jack. 

Jack(aka. Ernest)- You don't really mean to say that you couldn't love me if my name wasn't Ernest?

Gwendolen- But your name is Ernest.

Jack- But [suppose] it was something else...do you mean to say you couldn't love me then?

Gwendolen- Ah! That is clearly a metaphysical speculation,and like most metaphysical speculations has very little reference at all to the actual facts of real life, as we know them.

Jack- To speak quite candidly, I don't much care about the name of Ernest...

Gwendolen- It suits you perfectly...

Jack- I must say...there are lots of other much nicer names...Jack, for instance, a charming name.

Gwendolen- Jack? No...the only really safe name is Ernest.

Gwedolen is revealed the truth about Jack's real name, she doesn't like it. She doesn't like the truth, just like Cinderella in the poem. She immediately sees Jack as much less beautiful when the subject matter of changing the thing she finds beautiful comes up.