A Doll's House

Torvald uses at least six different pet names for Nora in Act One. List them and analyze what each one implies about how he sees her. What is the cumulative effect of this naming?

Nora's most significant act of agency — borrowing and repaying the loan, saving Torvald's life — was illegal because she is a married woman. How does the law function in the play as an argument?

Nora hides her macaroon-eating from Torvald in Act One. This seems trivial — why does Ibsen open the play with it?

Ibsen gives Nora and Krogstad symmetrical situations: both committed forgery to protect someone they loved, both have been hiding the act ever since. What is he saying with this parallel?

The tarantella is an Italian folk dance supposedly cured the poison of a tarantula's bite through frenzied movement. Why does Ibsen choose this specific dance for Nora's Act Two rehearsal?

Torvald's response to Krogstad's first letter is fury, self-protection, and contempt. His response to the second letter (the threat withdrawn) is instant forgiveness. What does the speed of the reversal tell us about his character?

Nora says she must leave to educate herself, because she has never had any education that was really hers. But she is clearly intelligent throughout the play — she manages accounts, navigates complex social situations, and argues philosophy in Act Three. What kind of education is she actually missing?

Dr. Rank announces the final stage of his illness by leaving a calling card with a black cross. Why does Ibsen give death this bureaucratic form — an office etiquette — instead of a dramatic scene?

Kristine deliberately lets Krogstad's letter stay in the mailbox. Is she right to do so? Argue for and against her decision, using the play's own terms.

Ibsen insisted A Doll's House was a humanist play, not a feminist one — that Torvald is also trapped by his role. Is he? Does the play support the claim that Torvald is equally imprisoned?

Nora's final conversation with Torvald contains almost no appeals to emotion — no tears, no anger, no pleading. She argues. Why does Ibsen make this choice?

Anne-Marie the nurse gave up her own child to work for Nora's family. Nora will now leave her children. Is Ibsen making a comment about the generational transmission of sacrifice? What does this parallel suggest?

The play was written in 1879 but set in an unnamed present-day. Name three aspects of Nora's situation that have changed in modern Western countries and three that have not.

An alternate ending was imposed on German productions — Nora stays when Torvald shows her their sleeping children. Why is this ending considered a betrayal of the play? What does it change?

Track every time a character refers to 'duty' in the play. Who invokes duty, toward whom, and with what implied threat? How does Nora redefine the word in Act Three?

Nora speaks of 'the wonderful thing' she expects Torvald to do when the crisis comes. She never names it directly. What is she expecting? Why does she not say it out loud?

The Christmas tree appears in Act One decorated and bright; in Act Two the stage direction describes it 'stripped of its ornaments, with burned-down candle-ends on its dishevelled branches.' Analyze this as staging, symbol, and structural marker.

Rank's illness is caused by his father's 'excesses' — Ibsen's coded reference to inherited syphilis. How does this hereditary rot function as a metaphor in a play about institutions and their hidden costs?

Nora does not know whether she will be able to raise her children; she does not know if leaving is the right thing; she does not know what she will do next. Is this uncertainty a weakness in the play's conclusion or its most honest move?

A Doll's House is set in Norway but has been adapted into Japanese, South African, Iranian, and American contexts with very different cultural overlays. What does the play's portability tell us about its central argument?

Nora has been secretly repaying the loan for years by 'amusing herself' — working during the holidays, doing copying late at night. Torvald never noticed. What does his not noticing mean?

Compare Nora Helmer to Ibsen's other famous female protagonist, Hedda Gabler. Both are trapped women — but they respond to their situations very differently. What does the comparison reveal about the available options?

Torvald says: 'Before all else, you are a wife and a mother.' Nora answers: 'I don't believe that any longer.' What does she believe instead? Build her complete counter-argument from the text.

The play ends with a question: the 'most wonderful thing' — the genuine transformation of both Nora and Torvald — 'would have to happen.' Does the play give any indication whether it could? Is there hope?

In 1879, Nora's exit would have meant poverty, social exile, and almost certain inability to see her children again. Does knowing this change the meaning of the door-slam? Does it make Nora braver or more reckless?

Ibsen's stage directions are unusually precise — he specifies furniture placement, the state of the Christmas tree, where characters stand. How does this physical precision serve the realist project?

Krogstad has been destroyed by his forgery — ostracized, demoted, his children affected. Nora has been protected by her forgery — her marriage stable, her life comfortable. What determines who gets protection and who gets punishment?

Nora's exit is silent — no final speech to the audience, no soliloquy, just the door. Shaw would have given her three more pages. Why does Ibsen cut to the door?

Is A Doll's House a tragedy? Apply Aristotle's definition — hamartia, catharsis, recognition — and decide whether the play qualifies, or whether it is something else entirely.

Rewrite the play's final scene with Nora staying. What would she say to justify staying? Is it possible to write that scene without betraying everything the play has established about her character?