Food’s Role of Foreshadowing and an Escape from Reality...

In Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, a young man named Gregor gets transformed overnight into a massive grotesque bug, much to his family’s disgust. After trying to live with his family and hold onto his past relationships, he eventually dies due to lack of love and wounds he received from members of his household. In A Dollhouse by Henrik Ibsen, a woman named Nora Helmer struggles to maintain her relationships with her husband, friends, and associates as she deals with financial troubles and scandals. Eventually, she ends up divorcing her husband Torvald after she goes through an awakening and realizes that she has been miserable with her marriage. In both works, the authors use food as a symbol of an escape from reality for Nora and Gregor,†¦show more content†¦Later in the play, Nora’s spirit of indulgence advances to the stage that she is not afraid to ask Helen for â€Å"lots [of macaroons], just for once† for their banquet, and she does this in front o f Helmer’s face. The lying about a small thing like macaroons foreshadows how she then becomes revealed as a character that lied about a major financial scandal that broke the law. Nora’s open rebellion by purchasing the macaroons was a very minor act in the start of Act 1, however her idea of freedom extends from eating sweets to freeing herself of familial obligations and going out â€Å"to see if [she] can make out who is right, the world or [herself]† (Ibsen). The macaroons were a method for Nora to escape from the miserable reality of living with Torvald, and this foreshadowed how she eventually would actually leave her world at home to escape this reality. After Gregor was transformed into a giant bug in Metamorphosis, his family despised his appearance and locked him in his room. Gregor was alienated, and he was stuck as a bug and his family even attacked him when he attempted to leave. When he was alone in his room, his sister Grete gave him sweetened milk with bread, which was his favorite food as a human. However, the food â€Å"did not appeal to him at all† which surprised him, so his sister then got him â€Å"old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal, covered with a white sauce