ACT III

Nora [picking up her bag]: Oh, Trovald- there would have to be the greatest miracle of all...

Helmer: What would that be - the greatest miracle of all?

Nora: That our life together could be a real marriage. Good-bye [she goes out through the hall.]

Helmer [sinking down on a chair by the door and burying his face in his hands]: Nora! Nora! [He rises and looks round.] She's not here anymore! [With a glimmer of hope] 'The greatest miracle of all...'? [From below comes the noise of a door slamming]

                                                          * 6 months later *

Nora [enters after a long day of work]: Ugh!!! Such a long stressful day of copying and filing, I am starting to feel ill. [Pulls out macaroons] these will make me feel better. [Changing her clothes she looks through her letterbox] more and more letters from Torvald. Ugh! When will he get the message?  I do not want to be his doll anymore.  I told him only to contact me for the children I do not want anything to do with him. Besides I found someone else who really loves me.

Dr. Rank [enters the room and walks up to Nora]: Hey Darling! How was your day? [Goes up to Nora and caresses her]

Nora: Really good but yet stressful.  I finally feel like you though, a man.

Dr.Rank [laughs]: Aha! Well that's wonderful for you sweetheart although I have to go back to the office.  Mr. Helmer called me back and wanted a private meeting.

Nora: [sadly] okay. Don't be back to late. I'll miss you.

Dr. Rank; I'll miss you too. [Leaves the house]

Nora: He’s everything I ever wanted and I finally have him. Oh my gosh! He left his briefcase. Well he can't live without it I must go give it to him.

                                                          [At the bank]

Nora: Honey I have your briefcase. Oh My God! [Crying] Why??!! [Dr. Rank lying on the ground dead with a gunshot wound] 

Nora: YOU! YOU DID THIS?! WHY? [Sees Helmer standing over Dr. Rank's dead body with a gun in his hand]

Helmer [grabbing Nora]: I found our miracle. He had to die for us to be together. He was the reason for you leaving me. We can finally be together again.

Nora: [pulling away] No! You took my miracle away from me. [Walks away crying and thinking] He was everything he ever wanted and I lost him.

ACT II

My fellow bloggers we have reached Act II finally.  So many scandalous events have happened in Act II.  How about Dr.Rank confessing his love for Nora?  I had some suspicion due to the fact that Mrs. Linde thought Nora borrowed the money from Dr.Rank.  I will always have sympathy for Dr. Rank because he had to watch the woman he loved be caressed by her husband but his refinement stayed intact.  I respect him for that; I would’ve reproached the interaction.  I would have never seen this coming; Mrs. Linde and Krogstad have a past???  "There was a time when he would gladly have done anything for me"(Ibsen 202).  It seems like they used to be close.  I can't wait to see how they know each other.

Another event that really caught my eye was Krogstad and Nora bonding over their thoughts of suicide.  "How did you know that I'd thought of that?"(Ibsen 198). "Most of us think of that at first. I thought of it, too-only I hadn’t the courage"(Ibsen 198).  I know that Nora sometimes contains the quality of being dramatic but I never thought she would think of something so intolerable.  I believe that Krogstad tortures Nora just so he has someone to bond with over his crime and mistake.  He was very discouraged by everyone isolating him so if he continues to torture Nora he has someone who is just like him.  Also, unlike Krogstad, Nora did have the courage because by the end of Act II she plans to kill herself.

ACT I

The relationship between Torvald and Nora is represented as if Torvald is Nora’s father.  When he speaks to her, he talks down to her and insults her level of maturity.  “Is it my little squirrel bustling about?”   Torvald calls Nora childish pet names which make her sound like she is inferior to him.  He continues to reprimand her and Nora doesn’t receive the respect she deserves from him.

As Nora told Mrs. Linde about how she earned the money that saved her husband, she was proud of herself.  She explained how it gave her the opportunity to have the same abilities as a man.  Nora knows she has the ability to do more than just stay home but she hides it to protect her husband’s pride.  "How painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything!"  Society does not allow Nora to have any power even if it is to help her husband.  It isn’t fair for Nora to have to act as if she doesn’t know anything when she has these great abilities to actually do something.  If I was in Nora’s position in today’s society, I would not go along with the way Nora is expected to live.  I would rather deny my husband his pride than lose respect for myself.

 Hello! Noelle here. What I like the most about English class this year is the seminars.  I find the different opinions and the ways of thinking fascinating.  Discussing a reading with the class and along with the teacher betters my understanding of whatever we are reading at the time.  It also lets me see other people's perspective of the story.  The seminars give me the chance to agree or disagree with everyone's opinions.

Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828 in Skien, Norway.  Ibsen was the oldest sibling to five other children and his parents’ names were Knud and Marichen Isben.  Henrik’s parents were very experienced in the field of the arts, so he took part in them as well.  At the age of 8, the Ibsen had to move to a rundown farm because the father's business experienced problems; therefore the family was thrown into poverty.  At the age of 15, Henrik stopped going to school and went to work for six years as an apprentice in an apothecary in Grimstad.  His first play Catilina was paid for by his friend named Ole Schulerud to be published but was not noticed.  Ibsen was later discovered by Ole Bull and was offered a job as a writer and manager of the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen.  After being judged for how he ran the theater by multiple people, he continued to write plays.  He returned back home to Norway as a literary hero and tourist attraction.  In his later years he had multiple strokes which gave him the inability to write.  Henrik Ibsen died May 23, 1906.

I think the title A Doll's House relates to the story's main idea of the traditional roles of a wife because in a doll house, everything is set up perfectly and is supposed to go in specific spaces.  Doll houses are supposed to be the image of what a perfect home looks like.  I remember being younger and seeing Barbie doll houses and wanting them so much because of how nice the house looked.  In a doll house everything has a place and women are put in the place in home life of keeping the house clean and being a stay at home mother for the children.  Doll houses represent what a traditional home should look like and this is a symbol for what women's places are in the home.  I can predict that the play will focus on the theme of gender equality and the question of whether women can do more than just stay at home and have children.

http://www.biography.com/people/henrik-ibsen-37014#childhood
http://www.shmoop.com/dolls-house/themes.html