ACT III : she dropped his butt ! To be Continued...

I LOVE THIS PLAY ! OH MY GOSH ! NORA LEFT HELMER ! She FINALLY realized that she deserves better than Helmer. She realized that she doesnt HAVE to settle and be the housewife



Im so extatic! SHE LEFT HIM! WOW ! I'm so proud of her. HE was dumbfounded when she broke it all down to him. He would've never imganined that she wouldve ever had the balls, curage and mentality to think for herself . to be continnuedd....

Act II : Will Nora lose her doll house?

Act II was quite interesting. Secrets were revealed and the drama is just piling up. At this point in the play Nora has confessed her biggest secret to Mrs.Linde. We learned that Mrs.Linde now knows everything that is going on between Nora and Krogstad and the type of relationship they have. During this act there’s a scene where Mrs.Linde and Nora are have a conversation about how Krogstad placed a letter in their mailbox for Torvald explaining EVERYTHING to him to try and clear his disreputable name. While they’re talking Mrs.Linde said something very interesting. She said “There was a time when he would gladly have done anything for me.” Is this foreshadowing something? Well, we all know the answer to that question but I thought it was slick how she briefly mentioned it and then took matters into her own hands. Personally, I think that writing that letter was such an immoral thing to do on Krogstad part. He’s set on that mentality that if he’s going to lose his job because Nora won’t secure it, he’s going to bring her down with him. That’s so messed up. He knows exactly what Nora’s feeling because he’s been in that situation before yet he’s putting her through this excruciating reproach for his personal gain. In addition to all of this we find out that Dr.Rank, the very close family friend, has been secretly head over heals for Nora all of these years. SO, so far we have a dieing doctor in love with his “best friends” wife, a man trying to save his job and refinement by black mailing and later snitching on a woman he’s known for many years (ironic much?), a husband who is so wrapped up with preserving his reputation he doesn’t care if it costs him his happiness, and a woman with a HUGE secret that could cost her, her marriage, children and doll house.

Act I : This is some drama-packed stuff!

Incredulously, as opposed to many, some women choose to let themselves live down to society’s standards. During Act I, of the play A Doll’s House, we are introduced to a dependant, misunderstood and “frivolous” woman. Her name is Nora Helmer. Although she commonly answers to the names of squirrel, skylark, and even featherbrain to her husband, this woman doesn’t have one indiscreet bone in her body. Her husband is Torvald Helmer. Together they have three children and Torvald is a lawyer who is soon to be placed as the manager of a bank. The fact that Torvald is going to be the manager of a bank means he is going to be ranked higher, leading to a better income. This leaves Nora ecstatic because she is constantly squandering about buying macaroons and generally useless things. His position as manager at the bank will eventually result with more spending money in her pockets. Torvald is a man of dignity, pride and power over Nora. He believes that it is unacceptable to under any circumstances borrow money form anyone else and remain in debt with that person. As they say, for every action there is a reaction. Unfortunately, Nora never took this rule into account. During a desperate time of her husbands degenerating health state, Nora decides to take matters into her own hands. In order to save her husbands life, she needs to some how temporarily migrate her family to live in Italy due to their warmer weather. In order to that, one would think she’d need money, right? Exactly. Then one would realize that Nora doesn’t have a job so how is she expected to pay for this? Well, Nora does exactly what her husband doesn’t want her to do. She ends up borrowing money from Krogstad, another character who works at the bank with her husband, which disapproves of him due to his supposed “low morals” along with his criminal record. Nora is so desperate for this money, that she forges her dieing father’s signature to consent that if for any reason she cannot repay Krogstad, he (her father) would complete the payments. Her father dies after the date she signed to the agreement, leaving an undiscovered loophole in whole situation. After she completes the forgery without anyone but herself and Krogstad knowing and behind her husband’s back she ends up saving his life. This secret of hers is never to be revealed and known by very few. Shortly after the play commences, the tables turn and Krogstad is in desperate need of Nora’s help. Mrs.Linde, Nora’s friend, comes back seeking employment from Torvald and now Krogstad’s position at the bank is at risk. He quickly learns that he is being replaced by Mrs.Linde and begins to panic. Krogstad is trying to recover from his life of crime and misdoing. He is trying to earn his respect back and clear his family name up throughout town. Ironically enough, he confronts Nora about her forgery and threatens to reveal her secret to her husband if she does not persuade Torvald to secure his position at the bank. Once Krogstad leaves, Torvald arrives and Nora presents the idea of keeping Krogstad’s position secure at the bank to him. In response, Torvald vehemently tells Nora that all he wants is to get Krogstad out of the bank and away from them. In a helpless effort to remain inconspicuous, she agrees. By the end of Act I, Nora had created and buried herself in a scandalous situation that is becoming drama-packed by the sentence!

Independent and self-sufficient vs. dominated and handled

Shouldn’t women be strong, independent and self-sufficient beings? Why should any woman have to depend on a man so vigorously? Why is it that Nora depends so greatly on her husband Helmer for money?

As we were reading in class today, it bothered me how Nora kept pleading to Helmer for money. Personally,I believe that women are more powerful and dominant than men in most cases. Generally, women can handle emotional, stressful and more difficult situations better than men. I’ve read in the past that women tend to deal better with these situations because unconsciously we want to relate on a personal level. So my question is, although Nora was living during the 19th century, a time where women were diminished and unvalued, why did she let herself be put down in that way by her husband, the one person who was supposed to love and respect her unconditionally? Why doesn’t she stand up for herself as Beneatha did in A Raisin in the Sun? Does she simply not care/mind settling for where society places her, labels her as and restricts her from doing?

Henrik Ibsen

Born as the second son of a six-children family, the author of the play "A Doll's House" is a Norwegian writer named Henrik Ibsen. Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828 in the small town of Skien, Norway. Most of his plays were viewed as controversial pieces and his style of writing was the step stone of modern drama in plays. During his 19th century lifetime, Ibsen’s writings went against the European Victorian family values and censorship. As a child, Ibsen aspired to in becoming an artist. His mother, an avid painter fell in love with the idea of the theater.
During his mid-teenaged years, Ibsen’s education was brought to a sudden halt do to his families financial difficulties. Once he was out of school, Ibsen was apprenticed to a pharmacist in Grimstad for seven years. During those seven years, Ibsen discovered his passion for writing. In addition, in the course of those seven years, Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen, the stepchild of the novelist Magdalene Thoresen and had their only child, Sigurd. Together the Ibsen’s worked in the theater until it went bankrupt in 1862. This misfortune forced them to leave Norway and they spent the next twenty-seven years living in various cities throughout Europe.
During his life, after publishing several of is most famously known works, Ibsen received an award for foreign travel from the government, and was also aided with financial help from Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. He even lived in Germany and Italy until he suffered a horrible stroke in the year of 1900 that disabled him to write, work in the theater, and even continue his routine lifestyle for its remainder. During the year of 1906, Ibsen died due to a series of strokes.
The title of the play, A Doll’s House, may relate to Ibsen directly. It was said, that as a child Ibsen commonly experienced social isolation and was on his own to self-discovery. This work of his, A Doll’s House, was famous for strongly illustrating women imprisoned by the rules of society, “trapped in a doll’s house”, and unable to truly find their own voices. It has been said that Ibsen is known in the literary and theatrical worlds for his contribution to the study of social isolationism and the study of individualism. Although his works have been published over a century ago, Ibsen’s legacy has gained international acknowledgment and respect over the years.
Society took the role of the woman and greatly diminished it. It restricted women to the roles of a housekeeper, chefs and even a baby sitter. Society promoted women as the weak, dependant, and…. Gender. All that Ibsen was trying to do was educate the people of his time period. He was trying to tell them that their way of thinking and viewing women was wrong. Although his modern mentality didn’t quite fit his time era, Ibsen set a great example for revolutionary outcasts and inspired many women to take control of the situation which later instigated women’s rights and lead our country to what it is today. People such as Ibsen led the women of our country to be outspoken, unrestrained and dollhouse free figures in society.

I gathered my research from these sites:

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/dh/BIO.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ibsen.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280962/Henrik-Ibsen