Act 3 Ending

I decided to use some of the parts from the play and then I added my own ending...

{After Dr. Rank visits, and Helmer says goodnight}

NORA: I shall never see him again! Never- never- never! [She shuffles through drawers impatiently and quickly] And never see the children again either- never, never again. The water’s black and cold as ice- and deep….so deep… Oh how could I leave the children this way? [She hurries down the hall to her children’s bedroom and opens the door quietly. She whispers quietly to them] Oh, my little darlings. You must be exhausted.

CHILDREN: Mamma!

NORA: [She puts her finger to her mouth motioning for them to be quiet] Shh, you must be quiet, as not to wake your father. It is very late. Now, come and give Mamma a big hug and kiss. [She hugs and kisses the children] I love you all very much. Do you love your mommy?

CHILDREN: Yes Momma we love you very much. Why are you asking?

NORA: Oh I just want to be the best mother I could be for you all. [She strokes their hair] Now, you must be quiet… Do you love your father too my darlings?

CHILDREN:  Yes of course mamma we love father.

NORA: Very good, my dears. Now you must go to bed, it is very late. [She picks each of them up and puts them in their beds and tucks them in] Goodnight, I love you. Mamma will see you soon.

CHILDREN: Goodnight Mamma…. [The children seem confused, tilting their heads] Why will we see you soon? Will you read us a bedtime story? [The children’s eyes light up and they speak tumultuously]

NORA: No, it is too late for bedtime stories…. Oh and I will see you somewhere far away...Maybe in dreamland…. somewhere far away, somewhere beautiful. We will all be there together someday. Mamma’s visiting tonight, very soon. If you fall asleep soon maybe you’ll see…. Now you must close your eyes and think of that beautiful place.

CHILDREN: Oh Mamma. I don’t quite understand, but it sounds lovely.

NORA: It is….Shh, my darlings; now go to sleep. We’ll all be together soon. [Nora shuts the door quietly and runs down the hall to her room. She grabs her suicide note and overlooks it quickly]

“….I’ve been evading the real problem here, and now I must act on it. You will never see me again. I cannot go on living in this misery any longer. Goodbye Torvald, care for the children well.”

[Nora gets up quickly and locks her bedroom door. She slowly walks over to her writing desk and places the note down. She hears Torvald swearing and calling her name] Leave me alone Torvald! I’m going to sleep. [Nora picks up a knife and looks around the room frantically.] Well, this is last I’ll ever see of this horrid world. I’ll feel no more misery. No one can control me anymore.

[She takes the knife to her neck and slits her throat quickly and sinks to the ground… Nora is dead]

HELMER: Nora! Open the door this instant! Nora you stupid woman! How could you do this to my reputation! You’ve made me look like a fool…..Nora open the door now!

[He finally breaks through to her room, hours later. He drops to his knees sobbing.]

Nora how could you do this to me and the children…

[He reads her suicides note, sobbing] You were so beautiful and full of life. If only I had treated you right. If only I could’ve held my little songbird one last time. I would make it all right.

NANNY: [Comes into the room] She didn’t want to be your damn songbird! She wanted to be free of you! Can’t you see what you’ve done? And she already told me she doesn't want you caring for her children. Goodbye Helmer. I hope you live in your misery…

[The Nanny has already collected the children downstairs. She takes them away and raises them as her own]

THE END

Act 2 Analysis

           Things got pretty interesting during Act II. Everything picks up speed and we find out more about the characters.

It starts off with Nora talking to the nanny about running away and caring for her children, and Nora and Mrs. Linde discussing Dr. Rank. Mrs. Linde thought Nora borrowed the money from Dr. Rank, and she was very suspicious. In reality, Nora borrowed the money from Krogstad (which we already found out in Act I.)

Now Nora must ask Torvald to keep Krogstad’s position at the bank, or Krogstad will send the letter revealing all her secrets and she will pay her retribution. Torvald did not in any way want to hear what Nora had to say to defend Krogstad. He was only worried about his reputation. He says to Nora “..Suppose it were to get about that the new Manager had let himself be influenced by his wife…” (Ibsen 188) He viewed Krogstad as disreputable person and a criminal, and he did not want it to seem as if they were friends. He said it would make his job very intolerable.

Torvald is also a very sexist person and does not see Nora as an equal almost, and calls her a woman as an insult. There was no way she was going to be able to persuade him.

After that was over and the letter to Krogstad has been sent, Nora and Dr. Rank were talking. He confesses that he loves her and that he thinks he is dying. “As soon as I’m quite certain my end has come, I shall send you my card with a black cross on it and then you’ll know that my disgusting end has begun.” (Ibsen 191) This is kind of surprising because you don’t think that he will die. Then, he says he loves her I didn’t know what to think. “To have loved you as deeply as anyone else- was that horrid?” (Ibsen 195) Maybe Nora loved him back; by the way they were flirting.  

Towards the end of the act, Nora decides she will kill herself. What is so ironic is that, when Helmer has her rehearse the tarantella. Helmer keeps critizing her and he says “But Nora darling, you’re dancing as if your life depended on it!” (Ibsen 205) The funny thing is, her life did depend on it. She also asks the maid about having champagne and macaroons. She needed to somehow enjoy the last moments of her life before she would kill herself. No one else understood what was going to happen to her.

Act 1 Analysis

After reading Act 1 of A Doll’s House, I have noticed certain traits about the characters. Nora seems to be very conceited, self centered, frivolous, and comes off as ignorant a bit. When Mrs. Linde came back to visit, Nora said “I suppose it is. But you know, I’ve been so happy these last eight years.” She disregarded the hardships her friend, Mrs. Linde was going through. She didn’t seem to care or understand, because she went on about herself, bragging. “Oh Kristina, I’m so happy! It’ll be really wonderful to have lots of money, and never need to worry, wont it?” Meanwhile, Mrs. Linde was trying to find a job, which is the reason she came to her for help because Helmer would be given advancement as bank manager.

Another thing about Nora is that she keeps all kinds of secrets from her husband. The most obvious one is how she forged her father’s signature to pay off a loan for the trip to Italy. It was supposedly to save his life, but Nora seems like a gold digger, and she always tries to get money from her husband, and then hides the fact that she is squandering it away on silly things. She also should realize how Helmer feels about forgery, because that’s her husband. “Just think how guilty a man like that must have to be to lie and cheat and play the hypocrite with everyone. How he must wear a mask even those nearest and dearest to him.” He goes on saying how it poisons and corrupts the children.

Back to Nora; she always says fake things. When she was talking to Mrs. Linde about her forgery secret she says “he’d be terribly hurt and humiliated if he thought he owed anything to me. It’d spoil everything between us, and our lovely happy home would never be the same again.” Clearly their relationship cannot be so close and happy if she has room to hide so many secrets.

Another point about that is, their relationship is very odd. It isn’t much like a husband and wife relationship. It is more like a father/ daughter relationship. “My little songbird mustn’t ever do that again. A songbird must have a clear voice to sing with- no false notes.” Helmer was talking about lie, but he sounds like Atticus repremanding Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Nora is similar to Scout in the way she would talk to her father, which reminds me of her and Helmer. It is very odd.

Towards the end of the act, Mrs. Linde brings up a very interesting possibility that Dr. Rank may have been lending Nora the money.Once again, Nora is lying! To top it off, Nora acts innocent asking for him to help her decide what to wear at the party. “Torvald, couldn’t you take me in hand and decide what I’m to go as- what my costume’s to be... Yes Torvald, I couldn’t do anything without you to help me.”

One of the other interesting things I noticed, was when Nora was talking to the maid, she makes it obvious she might run away. The maid said she would care for the children in a situation like that, if anything happened to her. The whole thing seems suspicious.

Mrs. Linde also seems a bit odd, how she popped back into Nora’s life only when she needed help from her. Krogstad just seems like a typical Disney villain-type character. There isn’t much I noticed about him. All of the characters seem to be revolving around Nora in a way. I’m thinking Nora probably cheated on Helmer with Dr. Rank, because he didn’t know who that was. And she’ll probably get herself into more trouble and run away. I feel like the ending of the play will either end as expected or completely the opposite. We have yet to find out!

About Me & The Author of A Doll's House!

Hi everyone! This is my fierce, fabulous, flawless, fresh, and fun blog. Anyway, this year I enjoyed reading The Alchemist the most. There were many important life lessons to learn from and good quotes. I think a lot of things from The Alchemist can be applied to our daily lives, such as enjoying life's journeys. 

On to the author of A Doll's House! Henrick Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828, in Skien, Norway. He was the oldest of 5 children. His parents were Knud and Marichen Ibsen. His parents were very much into the arts. Their family was in a bit of poverty, because his father was having business problems. The family moved to a farm and at 15 years old, Ibsen stopped school to start working. He started as an apprentice as an apothecary, which is similar to a pharmacist. He worked there 6 years. In 1849, he wrote his first play Catalina. He wrote it from his inspiration, Shakespeare.

He moved to Christiania in 1850 to prepare for an exam to go to The University of Christiania. His play Catalina did not go very far or make much progress. He later met a violinist/ theater manager name Ole Bull who offered him a job as writer and manager for the Norwegian Theater in Bergen. In 1857, he returned to Christiania to run another theater there. It was a very frustrating job there.

In 1862, he left Norway for Italy and continued writing. He wrote plays and about 300 poems. His most famous works are A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler. In 1900 he had a series of strokes which left him unable to write. He passed away on May 23, 1906. His last words were "to the contrary!" He was a literary hero. 
( http://www.biography.com/people/henrik-ibsen-37014 )

I think A Doll's House may be about a family, because of the poverty stricken family Ibsen grew up in. Possibly about the hardships people go through having to grow up quickly. It may be about a rich family or a woman being "a doll". It could also be about childhood, literally being about a doll house and children.

FIRST POST!....Theres something wrong with the computer & it won't let me write normal text right now ):