A Comparative Essay: the Notion of the Bird in Siddhartha and a Doll's House

A Comparative Essay: the Notion of the Bird in Siddhartha and a Doll's House

  • Submitted By: yiphuik
  • Date Submitted: 05/08/2010 5:21 AM
  • Category: English
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Literary Comparative Essay
The notion of the bird in Siddhartha and A Doll’s House.
Symbols are used in literature to mean a whole world of concepts and various view points. Just one object can signify something absolutely abstract to personal opinion. The range of meaning is almost endless. Therefore, symbols have a special place in any text where the reader is free to create concepts of meaning and purpose behind items which appeal to them. This boundless array of possibilities allow for a subtext to be given to an instance or any item of a text. Stemming from the recurring instances of it in Siddhartha and A Doll’s House, the bird is an apt symbol, which simultaneously opens up into concepts which come from the main characters to the readers themselves. As the bird is mentioned in these two separate texts, their purpose in it differs and develops from being an oxymoron to something almost identical to each other. This essay will compare different aspects of the symbol or concept of the bird in the 2 texts in accordance to its integration into the whole text structure and meaning.
As a young boy in Siddhartha, there is no mention about the bird, it is not till he has a dream about Kamala’s song bird that triggers a realisation that his inner self contains the notion of a bird. Siddhartha sees the bird as something which is essential to his being, where he is repeatedly concerned if the bird within him is still singing. Being such an innate symbol, Hesse has chosen to bring up this one animal in the novel at a turbulent time for Siddhartha, when he leaves Kamala. The bird would stand for his lifelong need to obtain satisfaction, in other words, liberation of the soul. He strives to achieve this satisfaction, where he realised it’s not material nor lustful satisfaction, which has its criteria being shifted continuously through the novel in line with the main character’s phase of life.
Siddhartha’s quest for satisfaction in life has deeply relied on keeping...

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