Act Three

Now that the play is over, I have realized my prediction was partially true. In Act III, Nora has changed completely into a whole new person.  This I did not predict whatsoever because she was so secretive and childish.  There was a significant change in her character that I noticed when Helmer found out about the loan.  He had read Krogstad's letter notifying him of the situation that occurred years ago when he was sick.  Usually, I would think that he would be thankful that his wife would go through so much to keep him alive, but apparently not Helmer.  His reaction was quite surprising to me because he seemed very angry at Nora for doing such a thing and called her a criminal.  Not only that, but he criticized her father. (http://www.enotes.com/dolls-house-text/act-iii?start=5) But later when Helmer received the letter from krogstad that he would never bring up the issue again, there was a sudden change in his attitude, and he became very caring towards Nora telling her he would shelter her, give her money, and begged her not to leave him.  She said she would not accept anything from him and does not want anything to do with a "stranger" like him.  She told him she is not his little doll anymore and feels as if she is just there for display and is just there to be cared for, not there with him for a purpose.  By this point she realizes the whole situation and decides to be completeley done with him. (http://www.enotes.com/dolls-house-text/act-iii?start=8) Helmer seemed to be astonished and shocked. i was shocked as well because I was never expecting her to ever take a stand and speak up for herself.  She explained how he treated her as a child, not a regular adult like himself.  For example, when he calls her his little "skylark" or "my little squirrel" (Act III page 6).  Also, when he creates lessons for her taught by him for her own knowledge.  Nora then finally stated that she does not love Helmer anymore and she is clear and certain.  (http://www.enotes.com/dolls-house-text/act-iii?start=7) This also relates to the movie The Duchess.  The Duchess is about a girl who marries a duke and gets excited that all her troubles will be behind her and everything will be done for her now.  But then throughout her time with her husband she begins to realize she has no rights whatsoever and that her husband controls her. (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1171980569/) My reaction to this part of the play was surprised due to Nora's confession of not loving him anymore.  Also, I realized that not only is it Nora that acts as a child, but Helmer as well at some points.  Once she told him that she did not love him anymore he seemed very angry, but then was acting as if he wanted to help her.  This part of Act III was very confusing for me.  But I am very happy that Nora's character changed and she finally stood up for herself.  I recommend to those of you who have not read A Doll's House to read it because it is a very interesting play and keeps you entertained.  Ibsen does a fantastic job displaying detail and portraying each character.  No character is alike or has the same personality.  They are all one of a kind.  Now that the play is over, I have realized that the moral of the story is to stand up for oneself and do not let anyone bring down your self-esteem. 

Part Two of Act Two

By the end of Act II, Nora's character has displayed more development.  This development is mainly centered around the tension between Nora and the secret she has been hiding from her husband.  According to an article discussing the theme of lies and deceit, in A Doll's House "The essential tension, running throughout A Doll's House comes from Nora's fear of a secret being discovered. Her absolute terror of this revelation leads her to tell lie after lie (http://www.shmoop.com/dolls-house/lies-deceit-theme.html). By this far into the play I have noticed one of the main elements of Nora's character is deceit.  For example, in the beginning of Act I, Nora tells her maid, "Hide the Christmas tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it till this evening" (Act I page 1).  Even though this may seem as a small surprise for her children, it is just one of many examples of how Nora hides things from people. Nora hides the fact that she eats macaroons from her husband and eats them secretly (Act I page 1).  These are two minor examples of how important deceit and secretiveness is to Nora.  However, the main deceit of the play is the secret of the loan.  When her husband was ill, a medical bill needed to be paid.  In order to keep her husband becoming healthier, she borrowed money from Krogstad and forged her father's signature since women were not allowed to borrow or loan money ("A wife cannot borrow without her husband's consent") (Act I page 4).  She hid the fact that she had done this from her husband for years.  In addition to the secret about the loan, she also deceived her husband concerning how sick he was. Nora claims that "It was necessary he should have no idea what a dangerous condition he was in" ( Act I page 4).  Due to all her lying and sneaking around, Nora has made up even more lies to cover up her secret.  For example, the part of the money that Helmer gives Nora, Nora uses it to pay off the loan.  Nora states that "Whenever Torvald has given me money for new dresses and such things, I have never spent more than half of it" (Act I page5).  Since she had lied about the loan and never told her husband she has to pay it off all by herself  which limits her from buying things for herself. Another way of how Nora keeps hiding the secret from Helmer is when Krogstad leaves a letter in the letter box only Helmer has the key to.  To prevent Helmer from reading the letter she lies again and makes Helmer watch her practice the dance for the party and critique her so he would not go outside and get the letter (Act II page 7).I believe Nora's character is very secretive, immature, and deceitful. My prediction for what will happen next is Krogstad will tell Helmer about the loan and their marriage will be corrupted.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman/Writings/Drama/doll.html
http://www.novelguide.com/ADoll'sHouse/characterprofiles.html
http://plays.about.com/od/plays/a/norahemler.htm

Part Two of Act One and Part One of Act Two

My reaction to the end of Act One and beginning of Act Two was general. I had a general reaction by not being too shocked, and I was expecting it.  When I first started reading A Doll's House, I was sort of annoyed with the character of Mrs. Linde.  Mrs. Linde seemed to be very stuck up and ignorant towards Nora.  But now that I have finished reading the end of Act One and beginning of Act Two, my reaction to Mrs. Linde's character is more positive.  This section of the play is mainly based upon the discussion between Nora and Mrs. Linde, the banking business, and people using Nora.  The discussion between Nora and Mrs. Linde was mainly about their greatest accomplishments in life, good deeds, and deepest darkest secrets. At first, Nora did not really seem to have any good deeds, accomplishments, or secrets.  On the other hand, Mrs. Linde had plenty.  Finally, Nora started speaking about something she thought was very dangerous of her, but she felt proud of it.  This secret Nora told was about when she and her husband were in Europe for a great deal of time.  All that time her husband Helmer was very ill and they could not leave.  In order for him to live they had to pay a lot of money.  In order to get that money she had to go through a very risky procedure that no one had.  She confessed to Mrs. Linde that she had spent all the money her husband had gave her for her own needs and forged her fathers signature. This seemed to be the main reason I was surprised. The fact that she had forged her own fathers signature so she could have access to a money loan was very dangerous. Not only is it bad to forge signatures in general, but back then a woman was not allowed to borrow money. The reason that her father could not just sign his signature was because he was ill as well.  But Nora decided it was a risk was worth taking to save her husband's life. In the end, after the whole procedure, her husband lived as everyone can predict.  Till this day in the play, her husband is still unaware of what she had went through for him.  My overall reaction to this while situation was that I thought that it was kind of cute that she take such a big risk to save her husbands life, but it was also very risky.  Once Nora was done telling Mrs. Linde about her confession, Mrs. Linde did not seem to be to surprised about it.  Instead she brought up the fact that she had still needed a job.  I believe the only reason she came down to visit them was in order to use Nora to find her a job.  Another situation in this section of the play, Krogstad, a fellow worker of Helmer, stopped by to speak to Nora.  He began talking to her about Mrs. Linde and how she was with Helmer early this morning, if she was going to take money out of the bank, and about the banking business. Helmer had recently just been moved to a higher status in the business while Krogstad is still set in a lower status.  He started to get into asking personal questions about her home life and other questions one may not like to speak about.  It seemed to me that Krogstad was the man she had borrowed money from, and he was blackmailing her and just  using her to get information out of her since she is very gullible so he could be set as a higher status than Helmer in the business (page 8 of Act One). Once Krogstad left, Helmer saw him walk out the front.  He was very curious in why he was there talking with Nora. Then, Helmer spoke to Nora about how Mrs. Linde is probably going to take Krogstad's place in the bank.  Nora does not want that to happen because then Krogstad will tell Helmer about the secret loan.  After she had heard that from Helmer, it had stuck in her mind.  Everything had seemed to scare her from there on (page 4 of Act Two). My prediction for what will happen next is that he will soon find out about the questions Krogstad had asked, Krogstad might have a chance of having a job in the bank, but not a good one, and he will find out about Nora forging her father's signature and what she went through to keep him alive through Krogstad.
http://www.shmoop.com/dolls-house/literary-devices.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/840229/a_dolls_house_literary_analysis_.html 

http://www.helium.com/knowledge/20660-literary-analysis-a-doll-house-a-dolls-house-a-dolls-house-by-henrik-ibsen 

Part One of Act One.

A Doll's House is a well known play which was written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879.  Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway on March 10, 1829, and was raised in a very wealthy family with five other siblings.  As he grew older, he decided to study as an assistant pharmacist, and soon applied to Christiana University.  Unfortunately, he was rejected and was not able to attend the University. On the bright side, he soon became a dramatic author and wrote several plays.  He wrote Lady Inger, The feats at Solhoug, and Olaf Liljekrans. Soon enough he fulfilled his dream and took a position at Norwegian Theatre in Christiana.  Later on he met Suzzanah Thoresen.  Henrik and Suzzanah ended up falling in love and got married in 1858. Ibsen received small grants from the goverment in 1863, and soon traveled to Europe to write more plays that focused on interpersonal relationships.  The reason I contributed the main sparks in Henrik Ibsen's life is because it leads to reasons and ideas of why and how he had written A Doll's House.  Ibsen wrote this play in 1879 which was the time of the main debate of women's rights.  Henrik Ibsen soon had a tragic ending and passed away on May 23, 1906 due to his poor health and previous strokes he had suffered. http://www.enotes.com/dolls-house-text/notes. 

Anyway, back to A Doll's House.  This play generally takes place in Norway in the year of the big debate of women's rights. There are eleven characters: Nora Helmer, Torvald Helmer, their three children, Mrs. Linde, the housemaid, Doctor Rank, Anne (the Helmer's nurse), Nils Krogstad, and the porter.  The main characters of part 1 of act one are Nora, Torvald, and Mrs. Linde.  Nora's personality is quite different from most adults in the time of the 1800's.  She acts very flirty, messes and jokes around as if she is a child, complains, and is secretive.  Also, she seems to be insecure and worries that she is not the so called "perfect wife." On the other hand, Nora's husband Torvald takes things very seriously, but seems to give in to giving his wife money all the time for her to buy new things for herself and their three children.  Mrs. Linde is an old friend of Nora who is a widow, and comes to visit the Helmers in Act one.  Act one takes place just before Christmas time.  The play begins as Nora arrives at home from a day of "cheap shopping." Nora and her husband Torvald discuss how Nora is spending too much and she should be careful with her money, but Nora defends herself and states, "Yes, but, Torvald, this year we can really let ourselves go a little.  This is the first Christmas that we have not need to economise" (Ibsen 1).  http://www.enotes.com/dolls-house-text/act-i.  My reaction to part one of act one was the thought of it going to be a good play.  It has great detail and an interesting plot line. My prediction for what will happen next is that the Helmers will have to start borrowing money for them to make it by since Nora is spending so much of their money just in Christmas week.