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.