Friday, June 4, 2010

My Alternate Ending

[Nora walks out with her children. They go to Kristrina's apartment to spend the night. They arrive and Nora knocks on the door.]
CHILDREN: (all at once) Mommy, mommy! Why are we here? Why couldn't father come with us? Why was he crying?
NORA: Settle down please, your father will be alright. He's a grown man and he knows how to take good care of himself. We will spend the night here tommorow I will get the rest of our things back at the apartment and we will be on our way to your grandmother's house.
CHILDREN: (loudly) Yay! Grandma! Yay!
NORA: Quiet down!
[The door finally opens and Krogstad stands there at the doorway]
KROGSTAD: (yawning) Oh, its you, Nora what a pleasant surprise. How may I help you at this hour?
NORA: (puzzled and surprised to see Krogstad) The surprise is mine! Where's Mrs. Linde?
KROGSTAD: She'll be right with you. Please come in.
[Nora enters the living room of Mrs. Linde's apartment with her children. She glances down at them who are as confused as she is. A few minutes later, Mrs.Linde arrives.]
MRS. LINDE: (nervously) Oh Nora! Krogstad frightened me! He said a-
NORA: He frightened you? I was the one to be frightened! Why in the world is he here? You couldn't possibly have.. (stuttering) have fallen for eachother once again!
MRS. LINDE: Why yes Nora. We have fallen for eachother again...
NORA: You mean he's given you another chance? After what you did to him-
MRS. LINDE: (annoyed) Nevermind that Nora! Why are you here? I mean, I don't mind you being here but why so late?
NORA: Well Kristina, I've come to ask you a huge favor. My children and I need to stay somewhere..just for tonight and-
KROGSTAD: (tiredly, in Kristina's bedroom) Oh, Krissy! Where are you hun?
MRS. LINDE: (turning to face her bedroom door) I'm coming dear! Just a minute! (facing Nora again and speaking in a rush) You and your children can stay in that room over there. (She points to a room down the hall) Goodnight. (Mrs. Linde exits the living room and quietly enters her bedroom)
[By this time the children have fallen asleep once more and Nora carries each one of them onto the bed they will all share.]
NORA: (laying in bed, talking to herself) Tommorow I shall go over to my- I mean Torvald's apartment and collect the rest of the necessary belongings of me and the children. Then we will be on our way to mother's house and begin our new lives. (She smiles to herself, closes her eyes, and falls asleep.)

Monday, May 31, 2010

Analyzing Act II


So, things get pretty heated in Act II. Nora and Dr. Rank start intolerably flirting with eachother which then lead to him telling her how he's always had feelings for her. Nora gets upset at the fact that he tells her this. I think Nora tried to play with Dr. Rank's emotions. I think she knew about him and his feelings for her yet she didn't have the same feelings toward him. However, Nora probably found it fun flirting with him and giving him mixed signals. I do feel bad for Dr. Rank because he was definetly PLAYED OUT by Nora.
In this act, Nora also gets closer to the climax of the plot (when Torvald finds out about all her lies). Krogstad puts a letter in Torvald's letterbox telling Torvald about the forged contract. At this point, Nora is freaking out. She says that “something glorious is going to happen,” Its as if she finally begins to realize that sooner or later the truth will come out. Yet, she still tries to stall Torvald to prevent him from even looking into his letterbox. I don't think stalling is going to help her much. She really needs to just face the consequences to her actions because she is driving herself crazy by stalling her husband from seeing the letter.

When talking to herself, she says that she has thirty-one hours until the tarantella is over, which means thirty-one hours before Torvald reads the letter which means “thirty-one hours to live.” This quote had me in hysterics! It shows me that Nora has seriously gone insane! Does she really think she's going to die? She should be some what relieved when all those lies come out because she won't have anything to hide from anyone. She'll have a clear concience and she'll finally get everything off her chest. But obviously Nora doesn't see it that way.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Analyzing Act I


In Act I, Nora (who has done nothing but lied to everyone in the play so far) is faced with the internal conflict of fear and guilt. The reader is able to assume that Nora has borrowed money from Krogstad behind Torvald's back. Even worst, Nora reveals the fact that she forged her father's signature so that Krogstad would give her the loan. All of Nora's actions show me as the reader that Nora doesn't seem to think much about the consequences to her actions.

During the entire act, Nora seems to be hiding her true colors. She tries to make it seem like she always does what her husband wants her to do and always does what she thinks she should be doing. Yet Nora is very independent from her husband secretly. Although some readers might say Nora is dumb and doesn't know what she's doing, I think she knows exactly what she's doing. She does things in very sneaky ways and so far she's been able to get away with everything which irks me. She purposely makes everyone think she's so useless and innocent when in fact she really isn't.


This play can relate to many people in high school because a lot of teenagers pretend to be something they are not. They do it just to fit in and it shouldn't be that way because everyone should feel free to be themselves no matter what the circumstances are. I think Nora doesn't act herself because she thinks that the role of women is to be a perfect stay-at-home wife who's very dependent of her husband. Therefore by acting the way she does, Nora tries to fit in society and the way society views women. Nora reminds me of Ruth from A Raisin in the Sun who was also very dependent of her husband due to the way society viewed the role of women during that time period.


Nora let's her husband call her things like a 'squandering squirrel' and 'little skylark' which also bothers me. It is true that a husband has the obligation to protect and sometimes guide his wife. However, that doesn't mean he should be calling her such absurd nicknames. Why doesn't he just call her something ravishing like beautiful or angel?


Friday, May 14, 2010

My First Blog :)


So, this is Herselis. This year has gone by really fast. We've done a lot of work this year in English class. I personally enjoyed reading A Raisin in the Sun in the beginning of the year. The research papers weren't too fun, though.
A Doll's House is a play about a woman named Nora living in the 1940s who is unhappy with her maltreating husband. The author of this play Henrik Ibsen was a nineteenth century Norwegian author. He was born March 20, 1828 in Skien. He had a drastic change from prosperity to poverty growing up. Yet he was able to go to Christiniania University. He then established himself in Rome, Munich, and then back to Christiania where he died on May 23, 1906.