A Dolls house Flashcards
Revolving set- showed different rooms of the Helmers household, symbolizing Nora’s entrapment within her domestic life. Allows the audience to observe the flow of domestic activities, emphasising the cyclical nature of Nora’s existence. A prominently placed Christmas Tree serves as a central prop, symbolising the facade of familial happiness and the societal expectations imposed on Nora
Carrie Cracknell 2012
Gingerbread Perfection- picture-perfect environment symbolising the superficial sweetness and underlying fragility of Noras domestic life. This aesthetic choice highlighted the facade of perfection that Nora strives to maintain , reflecting societal expectations of women during the period.
Preston Lane Triad Stage 2009
Nora is depicted with a black eye, a visual representation of the physical and emotional abuse she endures. The stark imagery underscores the themes of domestic violence and the subjugation of women, bringing to light the darker aspects of Nora’s seemingly idyllic life.
Patrick Garland 1973
Their gaze desouls her and turns her into a mechanical doll
Toril Moi
Marriage is the most hypocritical form of woman-purchase, critiquing the objectification of women and the societal expectation that ‘woman’s pleasure was to please’ her husband
Mona Caird
Historical Context
- Written during a time when the institution of marriage was legally and socially oppressive for women
-Industrialisation and modernisation challenged traditional family structures, giving women more visibility in society but not necessarily more autonomy
Social context
-Wrote at a time when Euopean societies were debating the role of women in marriage and the wider world
-Middle-class women had little legal or financial independence, as seen in Nora’s reliance on Torvald
- A dolls house sparked outrage for its depiction of a woman leaving her husband and children, a scenario considered scandalous and immoral
Political Context
- challenged the established order, particularly the constraints placed on individuals by societal expectations#
-critiques the legal and moral framework that made women economically and socially dependent on men - The rise of liberal and feminist movements in Europe supported the idea that marriage should not be a prison but a partnership based on equality
Divorce and individual freedoms
- Believed in personal freedom and self-realisation, arguing that individuals should prioritise their own growth over societal expectations
-Nora’s descision to leave Torvald is a radical assertation of individual autonomy, mirroring Miltons (Paradise Lost) argument that an unhappy marriage should not be endured at the cost of personal happiness
Nora quotes
’ I believe that I am first and foremost a human being, like you, or anyway, that I must try to become one’
‘You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me’
‘I must stand quite alone if I am to understand myself and everything about me’
‘I have been your doll-wife , just as at home I was Papas doll-child’
‘I have another duty which is equally sacred. My duty to myself’
‘I must try and educate myself. You are not the man to help me in that’
‘our home has never been anything but a playroom’
Torvald quotes
’ No man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves’
‘Nora darling, you’re dancing as if your life depended on it’
‘To foresake your home, your husband, and your children. You dont consider what the world will say’
‘Helmers love for Nora is inseperable from his need to control her
I. Iversen
Nora is not just a women arguing the female liberator. She us much more. She embodies the individualist urge for self-realisation.
J Templeton
Noras rejection of her marriage is the most famous ‘doors slam’ in the history of theatre
G Finney
Torvald is less a villian than a symbol of a society that traps both men and women in rigid gender roles
J Templeton
Torvald sees his wife as a charming little songbird, but never as an independent human being
R Ferguson
Polly Teale
Home is both a sanctuary and a prison
Dr Rank quotes
Symbol of moral decay due to his illness
“His suffering and his loneliness seemed almost to provide a background of dark cloud to the sunshine of our lives’
Well, Nora! Now you know. And now you know too that you can confide in me as in nobody else.”
That I have loved you as deeply as anyone else has? Was that horrid of me?
Krogstad quotes
Mrs. Helmer, you evidently don’t appreciate exactly what you have done. But I can assure you that it is no bigger nor worse a crime than the one I once committed and thereby ruined my whole social position.- social position ruined by HIS forgery
Mrs. Linde: You said just now that with me you might have become a different person.
Krogstad: I know I could have.
Mrs Linde quotes
Women as independent of their husbands- she married her late husband out of convienence not out of love
No, Nora. Just unspeakably empty. No one to live for any more.- only lived to serve other people, and now that everything is gone she does not know what to make of her life
Since I had to break with you, I thought it my duty to destroy all the feelings you had for me.- sacrficed love in order to fulfill her duties
‘shipwrecked souls’ ‘Castaways have a better chance of survival together than on their own.’- stark contrast to N/T
‘This unhappy secret of Nora’s must be revealed.’
Meyers
The need for every individual to find out who he or she really is
