Inquiry Questions for the Unit:
- How was the role of the individual and family in 19th century Norway beginning to change?
- What impact did the prevailing values and beliefs in Norway have on men and women?
Quick Facts about Norway in the 1800s.
Click HERE for sources Brief HISTORY of Norway Further SOURCE (command F "nineteen" to find relevant info)
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To what extent is the picture of marriage similar or different to that of the United States? |
Context
How did 19th century audiences receive the production of A Doll's House?
Task: Read and highlight aspects of the article that describe how audiences received Ibsen’s play. When you are done highlighting, collate your findings in a chart or a mind map.
Discussion: Why do you think audiences reacted in this way? How is it in keeping with the context?
Task: Read and highlight aspects of the article that describe how audiences received Ibsen’s play. When you are done highlighting, collate your findings in a chart or a mind map.
Discussion: Why do you think audiences reacted in this way? How is it in keeping with the context?
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” William Shakespeare
- Is human existence simply a matter of playing parts? Explain.
- "The world’s a stage" is a metaphor by Shakespeare’s. What other metaphors can you think of that would be appropriate for life today? Elaborate.
A Doll's House - Title Analysis
- What is the function of a doll and a doll house?
- What does a child do with a doll? What is the purpose of playing with a doll?
- Who makes the rules for each doll?
- According to your understanding of 19th century Norway, why is this play called A Doll's House?
A DOLL'S HOUSE: ACT 1
Setting: Nora and Torvald's living room
Essential Question
- What role does the stage play in Ibsen's production?
Using the stage directions on page 23, draw the stage on poster paper. Add as much detail as possible in order to bring the room to life. How do you imagine it? Be sure to research unfamiliar words in order to get the full effect.
As we study the play, we will continue to refer to these sketches and add notes about the symbolism of each item.
As we study the play, we will continue to refer to these sketches and add notes about the symbolism of each item.
Discussion Questions:
- Based on the items in the house, what assumptions can you make about this family? Explain.
- A bell rings in the hall outside. After a moment we hear the front door being opened. NORA enters the room, humming contentedly to herself. - Why does Nora ring the bell?
- The whole play takes place in a single room. What could this type of setting symbolize?
Characters: Nora and Helmer
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
- How does Ibsen present the character of Nora in Act 1?
- What sort of marriage do Helmer and Nora share and why?
Discussion Points and Activities [pages 24-28]
- Make a list of any of Nora's behaviors. To what extent is she conforming to her role as a wife?
- How do Helmer and Nora speak to one another? Use specific examples from pages 24-28 to support your ideas.
- What do you make of their discussion of money on pages 24-26?
- Make note of the stove in Act 1. When is it mentioned and for what purpose?
What similarities do you see between this marriage and the one in "The Yellow Wallpaper"? Be specific about the way the writers present the female characters and the dynamic between husband and wife. Use direct examples when possible.
Characters: Nora and Mrs Linde
Essential Question:
Essential Question:
- Why does Ibsen juxtapose Nora and Mrs. Linde?
Structurally, what is Mrs. Linde's function in the play? Why did Ibsen need to bring her character on stage?
Essential Questions
Task: Read the passage on pages 35-38. Annotate your text according to the questions below.
- What insight do we get into Nora's character and her marriage?
- How does the audience's perspective on Nora change?
Task: Read the passage on pages 35-38. Annotate your text according to the questions below.
- To what extent is Nora acting or playing her role in her marriage?
- Read Nora's lines on page 36. How does Nora feel in her marriage? What does this passage suggest about Nora?
- Nora confesses to how she's been paying back her debt. What does this confession reveal about Nora and her capabilities? How does this contradict the Nora we saw in the opening scene?
What is the significance of the line, "But it was great fun, though, sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man." (37)? - Why did Nora need to make up "an old gentleman" in her fantasy about how she earned money?
- Where do you see Nora’s internal struggle surface in her speeches? What is she fighting?
- How does Nora act when Krogstad enters? What does this signal to the audience?
Krogstad
Essential Questions
Opener:
Essential Questions
- What is Krogstad's function in the play?
Opener:
- Who is Krogstad? What do we know about him?
- How did Krogstad help Nora? Why did she need his help?
- Where do you see Krogstad blackmailing or threatening Nora?
- What does this revelation tell the audience about Nora and her situation?
Contrasting the Influence of Doctor Rank and Krogstad on Helmer
Examine the scenes in Act 1 involving Krogstad and paraphrase or outline the essential exchanges between Helmer and Doctor Rank & Helmer and Krogstad
For consideration:
For consideration:
- In Act I, Doctor Rank refers to Krogstad as being "morally twisted” (p 39). How does this affect the way the audience reacts to Krogstad? How does it affect the way other characters react to him? How does the comment affect Nora?
- What is Helmer’s immediate reaction when he learns that Krogstad has asked Nora to intercede for him? How does this begin to establish Krogstad’s character? What does it reveal about Helmer? Does Helmer change his mind about Krogstad? What does this say about Helmer?
- Why do the children enter at this particular moment? What do they represent?
- What is the significance of the Christmas tree (p. 51 & 54)?
Look at the metaphor of the songbird at the bottom of p.51. What is the comparison being made? How does it relate to the setting? Has the metaphor changed at all at this particular moment?
To what extent are Nora and Helmer conforming to their prescribed gender roles?
Identify the irony on p. 53. What type of irony is employed? Why has Ibsen used irony here?
How has Nora changed for the audience?
Essential Questions
- What types of characters does Ibsen present in A Doll's House, and why are they important?
- Protagonist: The main character. He/she is faced with a conflict that must be resolved.
- Antagonist: The main character who conflicts with the protagonist. Can also be seen as the obstacle the main character must overcome.
- Dynamic: A character who changes over time. Change usually occurs due to resolving a conflict
- Static: A character who does not change over time.
- Round: Anyone who has a complex personality. Often portrayed as a conflicted or contradictory character.
- Flat: Possesses one kind of personality trait or characteristic. Often, little is known of these characters. The role of a flat character is to participate in incidents that move the action forward, or to act in a predictable way that moves a character to change.
- Stock: Stock characters are those types of characters who have become conventional or stereotypical through repeated use in particular types of stories. Stock characters are instantly recognizable to readers or audience members (e.g. the femme fatale, the cynical but moral private eye, the mad scientist, the geeky boy with glasses, and the faithful sidekick).
- Foil: Personal qualities contrast with another character (usually the protagonist). By providing this contrast, we get to know more about the other character.
A Doll's house - Act 2
Essential Question:
The same room. In the corner by the piano the Christmas tree stands, stripped and dishevelled, its candles burned to their sockets. NORA's outdoor clothes lie on the sofa. She is alone in the room, walking restlessly to and fro. At length she stops by the sofa and picks up her coat (p. 55).
Revisit the Christmas tree motif.
- How is the maternal aspect of Nora's life represented at the beginning of Act 2?
The same room. In the corner by the piano the Christmas tree stands, stripped and dishevelled, its candles burned to their sockets. NORA's outdoor clothes lie on the sofa. She is alone in the room, walking restlessly to and fro. At length she stops by the sofa and picks up her coat (p. 55).
Revisit the Christmas tree motif.
- What does the Christmas tree symbolise in Act 1?
- Why is it stripped and dishevelled at the start of Act 2? What is significant about the candles being burned?
Nora and the nurse
- What do you notice about their relationship?
- Social situation/context: What has happened to the nurse? What are your thoughts on these two women? In what ways are they similar and different?
- Why has Ibsen included this minor character?
Essential Question
- To what extent is Nora changing?
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You will find the guiding questions on the Word doc or PDF on the left. Both files are the same, just diff formats.
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act_2_close_reading_-_nora_and_helmer.pdf | |
File Size: | 85 kb |
File Type: |
Dr. Rank
Essential Question
Essential Question
- What does the presence of Dr Rank reveal about Nora?
Dr Rank's Illness
NORA: No, last night it was very noticeable. But he's got a terrible disease -- he's got spinal tuberculosis, poor man. His father was a frightful creature who kept mistresses and so on. As a result Dr Rank has been sickly ever since he was a child - you understand - (p. 57).
RANK: With death on my hands? And all of this to atone for someone else's sin? Is there justice in that? And in every single family, in one way or another, the same merciless law of retribution is at work -- (p. 65). |
The origins of the sexually transmitted diseases gonorrhoea and syphilis were hazy in this period. In fact, a child would not inherit syphilis, but could be infected if the mother had been infected before conceiving.
Why might Ibsen have chosen to develop Dr Rank's disease in this manner? What parallels do you see between Rank and Nora? |
Nora and Dr Rank's Conversation
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Nora and Dr Rank's Relationship
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Essential Question
- What is the function of Krogstad's appearance at the end of Act 2?
- To what are Nora and Krogstad referring on page 71-73? Discuss with examples.
- Why does Ibsen create this dialogue between Krogstad and Nora? What purpose does it serve the audience?
- What is your opinion of Krogstad? Justify with examples from Act 2
Essential Question
- What is the significance of the tarantella?
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A DOLL'S HOUSE - ACT 3
"Now I'm a shipwrecked man, clinging to a spar."
- Who says this? To what is the character referring?
- What language feature is being utilized in this sentence?
- How does this line apply to other characters in the play?
Find evidence in Act 3 to support your answers to the following questions:
- How does Ibsen show the audience that Nora and Mrs. Linde are about to change roles? Why does he make this literary choice?
- According to the melodramatic structure of earlier 19th century theatre where stock characters were mostly utilized, Ibsen gives Mrs Linde characteristics of "the confidante" and Krogstad "the villain." How and why do these characters deviate from these stock roles, particularly at the beginning of Act 3? Research the stock roles, if needed.
Essential Question:
- To what extent is Torvald the representative voice of society?
Clothing:
Refer to pages 87-88: Torvald advances upon Nora
Torvald's speech, "And then when we're about to go, and I wrap the shawl..."
- (p 84-85): What does the contrast in Nora and Torvald's clothing reveal or solidify for the audience?
Refer to pages 87-88: Torvald advances upon Nora
- What is Nora's subtext throughout this scene, and how does it foreshadow the final scene?
- What role does the symbolic action of the tarantella play in this scene?
Torvald's speech, "And then when we're about to go, and I wrap the shawl..."
- Describe Torvald's tone in this passage. Why does Ibsen create this tone at this point in the play?
- Does Helmer love Nora? Explain.
The miracle
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Read pages 92-96.
Activity: Choose at least one page of text and add hashtags throughout the text. Your hashtags should highlight the subtext of each of the characters. You can use as many hashtags as you would like, especially for Helmer's longer sections of text. |