A Doll’s House – questions to
consider after Act II
1. In what ways does Ibsen
show Nora Helmer to fulfil the role of the Victorian woman?
A. A Victorian woman is one who is gentle, subservient
to her husband, and both an ideal mother and wife to her family. In this way, Ibsen
portrays Nora to fulfil this role as she primarily stays home, taking care of
the household-her husband, Torvald, and her children (the role of motherhood
and marriage). She values her family highly (she commits crimes to protect the
sanctity of her family-e.g. forgery, going against her husband’s wishes to
borrow money to save his life), and strives to maintain a harmony within her
relationships. Nora is also self-sacrificing, as she wilfully serves her
husband by adhering to his rules when in front of him, providing entertainment
(Tarantella), and ultimately, situating herself below Torvald’s status, so he
feels more powerful. Ibsen shows this through the unbalanced level of power
within Torvald and Nora’s conversations-e.g. when Torvald continuously
questions Nora or calls her diminutive nicknames (“my little skylark”), Nora
simply accepts Torvald’s patronization by replying with “Yes, Torvald”,
allowing her husband to reign over her.
2.
In what ways does she not
adhere to the role?
A. Although most of Nora’s actual actions take place in
the household, the type of actions do not classify as those of a housewife-
e.g. forgery, lying to family, borrowing money off her husband’s employee….
Therefore, this other side of Nora’s personality prevents her character from
being matched to a typical Victorian woman, as her character is too complicated
to be classified as a type of woman. Also, the fact that she does not consider
the severities of Victorian taboo/crime differentiate her from the banal
mother/wife figure; Nora does not understand the fine line between a white lie
and a dangerous lie (no limits), causing her to not be able to fully see the
seriousness of her actions. E.g. When she chooses to leave her family at the
end of the play, this completely goes against all Victorian morals, although
she believes it is the right thing to do, and therefore, Nora cannot be
compared to the role of a Victorian woman.
3.
In what ways does Ibsen
develop Nora’s character to present her complexity? In what ways might this
have been a challenge to the audience of the period it was written in?
A. Nora strives to follow the ideal Victorian woman’s
role of being a model wife and mother to her family, but to do this, she takes
part in illegal, immoral acts, which contradicts the qualities of who she
should be. Therefore, the contrast between these two sides of Nora’s
personality makes it difficult for the audience to understand the character,
making Nora complex. Also, Nora refuses to let these two sides meet, preventing
her family from knowing about her forgery and borrowing by putting on a jolly,
frivolous attitude in front of Torvald and her children, speaking of Christmas,
parties, and games. When she does delve into the darker side (meeting
Krogstad/discussing her crime with Mrs. Linde), her personality becomes more
somber and her tone becomes more serious, as she speaks of business
transactions and her future. This other contrast of frivolous to serious may
confuse the audience as in the Victorian era, women were supposed to follow
legislation and moral law thoroughly, without any hidden opinions. Women were
also thought to be simpler than men, only dedicating themselves to the household.
Therefore, the audience may not understand Nora’s intentions of keeping one
side of her secret to her family, and why there are such stark contrasts within
of her personality (why a woman should be so mentally complicated).
4. What elements might have
shocked a Victorian audience in Act 2?
A. Nora’s consideration of leaving her family for
good/the ambiguity of whether she will commit suicide “Thirty-one hours to live”,
the extent to which Nora lies to Torvald and desperately tries to steer him
away from being exposed to her big secret/ the ease in which she lies to her
husband, the suggested intimacy between Nora (already married) and Dr. Rank,
and how Nora allows this intimacy (if she is aware of it).
5. Through the presentation
of Nora, what ways does Ibsen suggest that it is a necessity for a person to
fulfil their “destiny”?
A. Ibsen was known to be occupied with the fulfilment
of destiny within his plays. In “A Doll’s House”, one’s destiny may be linked
to their life ambition or purpose. During Victorian times, a woman’s life
purpose was to take care of the household in terms of family and household
duties (e.g. cleaning, entertaining, hosting…). Ibsen presents Nora
consistently trying to carry out house tasks such as preparing the house for
Christmas (cooking, decorating the Christmas tree, buying presents), in order
to maintain a harmony within her family. Nora goes to great lengths to assure
that her husband and children stay in the comfortable bubble of middle-class
Victorian life, by handling the family difficulties herself. For example, she
lies to her husband (by taking advantage of her inferiority to him “Yes,
Torvald…I can’t get anywhere without your help. I’ve completely forgotten [the
Tarantella]” <-she does this to divert Torvald from looking in the letter
box and discovering Nora’s outstanding debt.) Nora also forges her father’s
signature and goes against Torvald’s rules of never borrowing money, all in
order to save her husband’s life from a time of serious illness, but she does
not mention her actions to any of her family members, so they remain ignorant
of the harsh reality that the family has put itself in. Furthermore, Nora
purposely distances herself from her children so she doesn’t “poison” them (it
is unclear if Nora literally believes her sinful actions will physically or
mentally poison them). Therefore, Nora is sacrificing her mental stability to
fulfil her life purpose, showing how important “destiny” is.
6. Does Ibsen build empathy
for Nora in Act 2? If so, in what ways?
A. In a way, Ibsen does build empathy for Nora in Act
2 through her gradual build-up of paranoia of Torvald discovering her secret. This
is shown through Ibsen’s stage directions for Nora becoming more “terrified…wide-eyed
with terror..”, and because Nora’s complex character allows audience members to
relate with her, the audience at this point may empathize with her emotions as
well. However, as the play continues, Nora finally deals with the harsh reality
she has brought on to herself, and her stage directions are no longer frenzied,
but rather “toneless…hoarse…”, solemn, as though the impact of the truth has
robbed her of her pureness and energy. Therefore, the audience may empathize
for Nora, as a delicate Victorian woman in this era would not be expected to
have to deal with such serious matters on her own.
Ibsen
also builds up the drama of Nora’s secret, by adding different scenes with
different characters to increase the complexity of Nora’s burden. At first,
Nora was focused on paying back her debt and keeping it hidden from Torvald.
However, in Act 2, the debt is no longer as serious of an issue when Krogstad
threatens to publicize Nora’s forgery and borrowing if his position at the bank
is not secured. This makes the situation more intimidating for Nora, as she can
no longer just pay the debt back and forget/eliminate her problem. Now, she has
to directly confront Torvald about Krogstad’s position without exposing her
secret, making Nora’s life increasingly more risky. This, and Dr. Rank’s
proclaimed love for Nora, ultimately adds to the level of intensity of tension
and drama in Act 2, which may provoke empathy from the audience, as a Victorian
woman should not have to endure such difficulty, while trying to fulfil her “destiny”
in tandem. However, the audience may not empathize as such difficulties could
be interpreted to be caused by Nora herself, and that empathy should not be
given to a character that put herself in trouble.
7. Ibsen parallels some
themes with other subplots in the play for example lies and deception, breaking
the law, poisoning one’s offspring, if someone goes away – everyone will soon
get used to it. Name which parts in the play it occurs and the effects it has
on the audience.
A. Lies & Deception:
Nora lies to Torvald when she gives a reason to her wanting her husband to
secure Krogstad’s job at the bank: “It’s your father you are thinking of.” “Yes…yes,
that’s right.” She constantly bends the truth, or corroborates Torvald’s
assumptions, to prevent him from knowing the crimes she has committed and the
effect it will have on the family. The audience may not feel empathetic towards
Nora as her consistent lying could represent an attempt to overpower the male figure
of the household (knowing something important that Torvald doesn’t know). Her
lying goes against the ideal Victorian woman role, and therefore, she defies
the norm, and because society did not accept any sort of defiance towards
traditional morals, Nora may not have been favoured at this point.
Furthermore,
Ibsen presents some ambiguity of Nora’s intentions during her conversation with
Dr. Rank. One can interpret Nora to be leading Dr. Rank on, as when Dr. Rank
teases Nora: “You are a bigger rascal than I thought you were”, Nora mirrors
his tone and energy, “I feel full of mischief today”, and this mirroring
suggests that Nora feels the same way that Dr. Rank feels towards her (in which
Dr. Rank hints that he is in love with Nora and would like her to have an
affair with him). However, when Dr. Rank explicitly tells Nora his true
feelings, “…I have loved you every bit as much as anybody…”, Nora instantly
rejects his confession and the dialogue is no longer mirrored. Therefore, this
sudden change of tone and intention may confuse the audience, as though they
have been deceived of who Nora really is. Also, the level of misunderstanding
between the two characters may throw off audience members (e.g. Nora saying one
thing that Rank interprets as something else, and Nora then interprets what
Rank interprets as another meaning entirely).
Breaking the law: Ibsen presents sub-themes of
breaking the law in Nora and Krogstad’s secret conversation, when Nora locks
Torvald in his own office. By trapping the male figure of the household, Ibsen
suggests that the contents of the following conversation are not to be heard by
the head of the house, implying that such contents are against both moral and
legal law. Krogstad’s blackmailing “You still wouldn’t get your IOU back from
me…Your husband is going to create a new vacancy, just for me…” also portrays
feature of law breaking, by forcing Nora to improve his economical standings
(his income, job-basically official, legitimate matter) under the government’s
eye. Therefore, the audience may feel scandalous towards the two characters, as
Victorian law did not permit such transactions, and therefore the audience may
not have been able to relate to the conversation, and may have felt angry
towards the defiance of the law, as if the play suggested that the legislation
at the time was weak and sketchy transactions were easily carried out.
Poisoning offspring: pg. 35-36 “You’ll catch a death
of a cold” “worse things might happen-how are the children?” and “from now on I
can’t be with them as often as I was before”. Ibsen portrays Nora to imply that
a deathly cold is not as threatening as the poisoning of her children (because
she mentions her children right after she replies that “worse things might
happen”), suggesting that her responsibility as a protector of her children is
more significant than her own life. This may show the audience how highly Nora
prioritizes her children, purposely distancing herself from them to keep them
safe, showing her selflessness. It also shows that she, like many other
Victorian women, is not highly educated, if she thinks that committing her
crimes physically poisons her children.
If someone goes away-everyone will soon get used to
it: pg. 36 when the nursemaid suggests that “children get used to anything in
time”, Ibsen may imply that children during that era were not as close to their
parents, so if anything were to happen to them, the children would adjust with
time, as they are young; children adapt easily. In this way, the audience may
feel empathy towards Nora, who is painfully considering leaving her family, but
it is suggested that her children will not feel the same pain. However, the
audience may not empathize with Nora in that, because children were not close
to their parents during Victorian times, the audience may focus more on the
notion that Nora is abandoning her motherly duties.
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