CHS/AP Lit.&Comp.

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A Doll’s House
Discussion Questions and Scholar Interpretations
[TYPE ANSWERS IN A COLOR THAT IS NOT BLACK.]
Directions: Use your own ideas as well as those from your group members and teacher to complete the chart.
Your answer and/or answers Ideas shared out loud by
Question discussed by your group classmates not in your group
(at least three sentences) and/or by the teacher (see slides
linked on Canvas if absent)
(sentences; not bullets)

#1: Ibsen is known for using his plays to He was progressive in the topics of Money dehumanizes people when
provide social commentary, attacking women's rights and saw them as it is made a priority. The issue with
certain aspects of his Victorian Era equals to men. For money, he saw it gender roles is that the patriarchy
society. as something more important to men deprives women of gaining
●​ Based on play specifics, how than women. Marriage is viewed as self-actualization. In marriage,
would you describe Ibsen’s something that should have equal Ibsen believes there must be an
view of money, gender roles, partnership as women Ibsen believes equal partnership as free will is
and marriage? that women should have the same important.
respect and power as men.

#2: Like many modernist authors, Ibsen She is first presented as aloof as her In the beginning, she is seen as
focuses more on characterization rather entire life is centered around pleasing selfless as she wants to save her
than plot development. others. She is called names that show sick husband which is actually
●​ Does Ibsen present Nora as she is young and only lives for her seen by him as a crime. The
heroic, selfish, foolish, and/or husband’s pleasure. However, wonderful thing she believed would
one of your own ideas? towards the end, she is portrayed as a happen did not, showing that she is
Consider: Her decisions and thoughtful and intelligent character as a realist. She is heroic as she
motivations concerning her she finally realizes that she is not leaves at the end and shows the
crime, her epiphany about “the being treated well in her home. power that women can have in
wonderful thing,” and her their lives.
leaving at the end.

#3: Many symbols pervade this text, The tarantella dance is symbolic of The play’s title symbolizes how
including the play’s title, the macaroons, her frantic nature as she cannot show Helmer plays the expected roles of
the tarantella dance, Torvald’s nicknames power without showing off her beauty society rather than forming real
for Nora, and the Christmas tree. and grace for the men to respect her. identities. Macaroons are symbolic
●​ How would you describe the The macaroons also show how of Torvald's control of Nora and her
meaning of some of these Torvald is able to keep Nora the way rebellion later in the story. The
symbols listed above or others her wants since he is aq man and has Tarantella shows the sexual nature
you identify in the text? power over her. Nora is like a child as of Nora that she wants to express
she is called childlike names and is but is only over-exaggerated by
controlled by Torvald. Torvald.

#4: Another typical modernist writer Ibsen presents an optimistic ending as It is seen as an optimistic ending
characteristic is including ambiguities he shows how women can have s say as Torvald changes which shows
within stories to challenge readers to in their own lives. During the period, that he is taking Nora seriously by
impose their own order/interpretation on audiences saw the ending as taboo returning the wedding ring to her
the text. and disliked the idea of Nora leaving and accepting that she does not
●​ How would you explain her family. In the modern-day world, want to be written to.
whether Ibsen presents a audiences would understand and love
pessimistic or optimistic his portrayal of women’s rights.
ending to this play?

#5: Ibsen includes some secondary Mrs. Linde is seen as the type of Mrs. Linde is the catalyst for the
characters throughout the play such as woman that nobody in society desires ending of falsehood within the
Mrs. Linde, Krogstad, and Dr. Rank. or wants to be like as she portrays the Helmer marriage. She has good
●​ How would you explain the opposite of societal norms. Krogstad intentions when betraying Nora
function of some of these serves as a reminder to Nora that she because she thinks truth will heal
CHS/AP Lit.&Comp.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A Doll’s House
characters listed above or has been hiding her entire life and the Helmer marriage. Dr. Rank
others you identify in the text? deserves to come out of her shell. represents Nora’s true desires as
she loves Rank but is obligated to
her social relationships, so she
stays with Torvald.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scholar Interpretations: Highlight and annotate the scholarly article excerpts in the below chart to learn about
three characters who function in the play as “mirror images” to the protagonist, Nora Helmer.

Highlight: At least THREE statements by the critic in the article Annotate: Based on the article,
excerpt that serve as evidence for your annotation answers. how would you explain THREE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ideas that Anne Marie, the
For Nora, Anne Marie is the mirror of the woman deprived of her nursemaid, represents and/or how
children, the test case for her own necessary relinquishment of her she functions as a mirror image to
babies to the kindness of strangers. Anne Marie’s is a pathetic account of Nora?
a devastated life, all the more so for the understated, compliant tone in --------------------------------------------
which the woman accepts the conditions imposed on her by social
morality, the class structure, and economics. Without rights to child 1.​ The two each had to leave their
support, without alimony, and without protection, she acquiesces in what children to escape reality.
seems to her inevitable. The loss of her child is simply something she
must bear. And just as children “get used to anything in time,” as she
points out, so her estrangement from her daughter recedes into the
habitual and the commonplace.
Accepting without question Torvald’s theories of the maternal
corruption of children through lies and deceit, Nora has already begun to
withdraw from the pleasure of being with her babies, leaving them for
longer periods of time with Anne Marie. Like the pathetically limited
servant, she accepts unquestioningly the unwritten law that makes her
unfit to bring up her children. In the final moments of the play she
dismisses the ridiculous theory of moral infection and comes to
understand the crucial failure of her parenting: she has been playing
doll-mother with doll-babies, keeping them in ignorance of the world, and 2.​ Each of them were being
perpetuating the sex-based stereotypes of the dolls’ house. controlled by their husbands so
Anne Marie’s “sin” has been her passive acceptance of the treatment they left them.
meted out by an indifferent man, coupled with her confusion of alterable
circumstances with ineluctable fate. “Getting used to things” and “making
the best of things” philosophy sums up the terms of her fatalism. The
Nora who slams the door on the dolls’ house may be subject to the same
economic deprivations, but she is not subject to the cultural compulsions
that have conditioned Anne Marie’s deterministic vision. To “sin” against
herself in this way may be a more heinous “sin” against her children than
leaving them to the care of strangers. Ibsen implies as much in a
speculative comment on the Noras of the late Victorian world: “These
women of the modern age, mistreated as daughters, as sisters, as wives,
not educated in accordance with their talents, debarred from following
their mission, deprived of their inheritance, embittered in mind—these are
the ones who supply the mothers for the new generation. What will be the
3.​ Both of the women had to leave
result?” There is a substantial difference between the Nora whose deep their children and lives behind
misgivings about her parenting persuade her to educate herself for the for personal success.
responsibility and the Nora whose dream of suicide subordinates the
well-being of her children to her own romantic yearning. It is perverse to
maintain as some critics do that Nora “forgets . . . her very instinct as a
mother, forgets the three innocent children who are asleep in the next
CHS/AP Lit.&Comp.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A Doll’s House
room, forgets her responsibilities, and does a thing that one of the lower
animals would not do.” Nora’s acute mindfulness of these very factors
possesses her, converts her conscious decision into a tragic necessity,
and intensifies her painful metamorphosis from doll-mother into woman. It
is rather Anne Marie who has forgotten her child, who has left it without a
pang, and whose motives for child abandonment bring into focus the
vastly different set of motivations that impel Nora to question her
adequacy as a doll-mother for the new generation.

Highlight: At least THREE statements by the critic in the article Annotate: Based on the article,
excerpt that serve as evidence for your annotation answers. how would you explain THREE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ideas that Krogstad represents
Krogstad is a mirror that throws back at Nora the reflection of a and/or how he functions as a mirror
persecuted criminal in an unforgiving society, the image of the victim image to Nora?
whose fatal error has been accommodating a system that destroys him. ---------------------------------------------
Krogstad is as narrowly confined in the commercial dolls’ house as Nora
is in the domestic dolls’ house, is subject to the same petty exercise of 1.​ Krogstad represents a mirror to
authority, and is shaped by the same pressures to conform to type. Nora as both of the, are
However, just when Krogstad insists to Nora their shared identity as criminals who wanted to keep
criminals, the mirror begins to reveal a set of obverse images. Krogstad their old lives the same, but
has fallen victim to this cruel discrepancy in social morality, but instead of eventually changed for the
rejecting its operation he has found a way of exploiting it to his
better.
advantage. Armed with the law of business transaction, he persecutes as
he has been persecuted, supporting the operation of a machine that has
already engulfed him. On the other hand, Nora subverts that system by
postulating a radical alternative that cannot coexist with the current law of
the state. Her mode of thought is a danger to the state, a form of thinking
that challenges tradition and calls into question the wisdom of a
male-dominated morality that does not take women’s perspectives into
account. “There are two kinds of moral law,” Ibsen wrote “two kinds of
conscience, one in man and a completely different one in woman”; her
trust in love displaces his trust in legality as a motivating force in human
affairs.
In her second interview with Krogstad, the two pathetic outcasts
discuss suicide and the courage it takes to go through with it. Suicide, as
he knows, is a solution for the desperate, but it takes tremendous
courage. He is relieved to find in Nora a kindred spirit in cowardice, one 2.​ Krogstad and Nora mirror each
who lacks the necessary courage to take her life. Krogstad assumes that other as they are both cowardly
his failure of nerve is a mirror of hers, that they are cowards as well as and too afraid to commit suicide.
criminals beneath the skin. With the comfortable knowledge that Torvald
lacks the necessary moral fiber to resist, he escalates his demands on
Nora. He wants Nora to compel Torvald to promote him instantly, to
create a new vacancy and install him as the second-in-command who
actually runs the bank. His demand pushes Nora over the edge of
reticence and indecision. This is the final challenge to Nora’s courage
that impels her flagging and uncertain will to accept responsibility for the
consequences of her actions.
What is remarkable about Krogstad is that in the last act of the play he
abandons the tactics of retaliation and displays the greater power of the
heart in his response to the individuals who make up the social world.
Krogstad’s capacity for change and moral recovery is perhaps the most
significant mirror image of Nora’s metamorphosis of spirit. The details of
Krogstad’s wretched private life come sharply into focus in his scene with
Mrs. Linde, which is a mirror for the dolls’ house marriage and a gloss on 3.​ Eacdh of them change for their
Nora’s sacrificial fantasies. “Let’s talk,” says Mrs. Linde, anticipating the morality. They both want to
Helmers’ great reckoning at the end of the evening: both couples come to escape their realities and live
terms with each other, understand the dynamics of their relationship, and the lives they desire.
CHS/AP Lit.&Comp.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A Doll’s House
seek out alternatives to dollydom and the death of spirit in the
middle-class commercial world.

Highlight: At least THREE statements by the critic in the article Annotate: Based on the article,
excerpt that serve as evidence for your annotation answers. how would you explain THREE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ideas that Dr. Rank represents
As another mirror image to Nora, Dr. Rank lives through the horror of and/or how he functions as a mirror
the physical stages of approaching death while Nora’s psychological image to Nora?
doll-self, with the false assumptions and values of the doll’s house world, ---------------------------------------------
is dying. But, for all its superficiality, the doll’s house is a very real world,
and for Nora to deprive herself of its comforting certainties is to commit 1.​ Dr. Rank mirrors Nora as he
herself to a process as harrowing as Dr. Rank’s. The central, dynamic lives through the physical stages
movement is Nora’s illuminating flash of moral consciousness when, of Nora's psychological events.
casting aside the perverse sexual maneuvers of the doll, she gives up all
hope of extricating herself from death by exploiting Dr. Rank’s affections,
and her fate becomes as inescapable as his.
Dr. Rank shows a sense of the injustice of inherited disease and the
cruel retribution in the gene. The idea that rottenness is passed, like a
kind of moral syphilis, from father to daughter and so on to the children,
transforming dolls’ houses into houses of contagion, is forced on Nora
both by her friend and her husband, and she too readily accepts the
notion. Her immediate response is to make light of the horror and so
deny it. But even in trivializing Rank’s situation, Nora calls to mind the
sadness of forfeiting life’s pleasures before repletion and they share the
pity of their common fate. It may be that, for a split second, each sees the
other as a desire forever relinquished, a love abandoned before enjoyed.
Dr. Rank is the man she would rather be with, as she later admits. Being
with Torvald is rather like being with her father. 2.​ Nora feels like her spirit is
Nora sees in Rank the mirror of her own inevitable death—the dying, while Rank is actually
possibility of finality and being forgotten. All the sadness of dying fills their dying.
last scene together, with Dr. Rank’s farewell to a world worth the
leave-taking, and Nora’s long goodbye after dancing the tarantella. Both
have arrived at the moment of complete and confident “certainty.” Nora
learns from Dr. Rank’s stoical acceptance of necessity how to face death
without hysteria. Her last gesture of sympathetic affinity with her
companion in life and death is to light his final cigar, a moment that
rekindles the poignant memory of what each has lost in the other: the
sustaining “fire,” the light, the ardor of a joyful life.
The rest of the play makes clear that this mirror in which Nora is
reflected, like the others, ultimately emphasizes the obverse image..
Against Dr. Rank’s spirit of diagnostic certainty, Nora commits herself to
possibility, to the transformative power of change even in a state of
terrible uncertainty. For Rank, change leads only to degeneration and
death, whereas for Nora, change offers a metamorphosis of intellect and
spirit. Rank looks at society with the inflexible gaze of absolute certainty 3.​ Nora having to leave her home
and finds it as hopelessly determined as his own physical condition, but and family is seen as death to a
Nora is not delimited by his vision of unavoidable necessity. part of her. Dr. Rank has been
Even though her departure may be a form of death, Rank’s vision of dying and is made to look like
disintegration and the slow process of decay is countermanded in Nora’s he was getting worse because
experience by the emergence of the woman from the socially constructed of his visits to Nora's.
doll. At every disintegrative stage of the wooden plaything, there is a
CHS/AP Lit.&Comp.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ A Doll’s House
reintegration of the autonomous woman, and the pain of the doll’s death
is held in a delicate balance with the new and difficult life of Nora’s
self-sufficiency. Creating another identity simultaneously requires a
relinquishment of the old and comfortable certainties, the protective mask
one wears to face the world. The emergent self, unshaped and
vulnerable, must find its consolation in the possibility of becoming its own
essential creation by vigilant warfare against Dr. Rank’s demons of
despairing certainty, of hope eternally deferred, of unalterable
circumstance, of death in life determined by inflexible social codes.

Durbach, Errol. "Nora’s Mirror Images: Anne Marie, Krogstad, Rank." A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation, Twayne,
1988, pp. 74-90. Twayne's Masterwork Studies 75. Gale Literature: Twayne's Author Series,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2329500020/GLS?u=carnegielib&sid=GLS&xid=282e64a8. Accessed 14 Apr. 2021.