Quotes Flashcards
Repeated bird/animal motif
-“My little songbird” “Little squirrel”
-imagery of “songbird” - expectation of performance - performative façade of perfection to entertain and amuse him.
-Inequality of the genders leads to a gruesome dynamic - which men become paternal - looking after women who have been deprived of the same educational and societal rights as men.
“His suffering and loneliness seem to provide a dark background to the happy sunlight of our marriage.”
-Helmers aesthetic preferences blind him to social realities.
-Metaphor - dark background
TORVALD:
my clandestine little sweetheart, and nobody
knows there’s anything at all between us
- Act 3
Torvald:
for the first time, I am alone with you - quite
alone with you, as you stand there young and
trembling and beautiful.
-infantilizing and sexualizing Nora.
-Virgin and the whore – feminist literary theory – stereotypes of women in fiction – shows Torvald see women in no more depth than characters and stereotypes – does not view them as complex real beings.
-Binary opposites ‘ecriture feminine’ – says the male language is one of binary oppositions – Torvald is a product of society,
-Desire her for fantasy – not for who she truly is.
-pedophilic – disturbing obsession with young and viraginous – she is a mother.
Torvald: Nora is his “most treasured possession.”
-desire for his exclusive knowledge and possession of Nora.
-reification - sees her as a valuable item with the superlative ‘most’.
TORVALD:
All your father’s recklessness and instability – be quiet! - I repeat, all your father’s recklessness and instability he has handed on to you! No religion, no morals, no sense of duty!
Act 3
-Darwinism – hereditary influence.
-Triplet and parallel syntax – emphasize his disapproval.
-hypocritical – she took the loan out of moral duty to protect him – and he is not fulfilling his duty as a loving husband.
-he is ironically melodramatic – though he accuses her of being so ‘don’t be melodramatic’ and he seems more hysterical/emotional.
-Torvald has a lot of long dramatic monologues in this part – melodramatic – he seems out of control compared to Nora’s short precise imperative ‘Read it.’
TORVALD:
An atmosphere of lies contaminates and poisons every corner of the home. Every breath that the children draw in such a house contains the germs of evil.
Act 1
-Immorality and illness likened - Victorian view.
-metaphoric ‘poison’ ‘the germs of evil’ - sickness passed from mother to child.
-Dramatic irony - creates anxiety and suspense - audience knows what Nora has done, so this feels like a threat.
Torvald: ‘Skylark twittering’, ‘Squirrel rustling’
“My little songbird”
“Little squirrel”
-Not viewed as an equal – animal imagery.
-imagery of “songbird” - expectation of performance - performative façade of perfection to entertain and amuse him.
-Inequality of the genders leads to a gruesome dynamic in which men become almost paternal in looking after women who have been deprived of the same educational and societal rights as men.
Nora: Stage directions, in which Nora “tiptoes across and listens at her husband’s door.”
-Door represents divide in-between men and women.
-Paralinguistic seperation of the sexes - childlike.
-Separate Spheres
-Power
-Secrets
Nora: “Can’t we? Just a tiny bit?” and “lots and lots”
Torvald: ‘(wags his finger)’
-Childish mannerism – childish and niave.
-repetition of “lots” makes her language sound underdeveloped
-Pleading seems childlike and desperate
-Linguistic choices and dramatic tone make Nora appear childish – without choices – reliant.
-paralinguistic Torvalds takes on the role of the scolding farther
Nora: “Do a little something to help Christine? For my sake?”
Nora “(plays with Torvalds coat-buttons, not looking at him.)”
-plead at the end of her favour to mess with Torvalds ego and need to be the “hero”, to achieve her ends.
-Intelligent and manipulative method.
-engages in her assigned role of flirtatiousness – yet is manipulating him to get what shes wants – get the money she desires.
-Nora reduced to a state where the only way she can agin power is through sexual manipulation.
-Use of questions rather than imperatives - powerless.
Nora: I’ll wrap up the notes in pretty gold paper.
-concealing the transitionary nature of their relationship – the façade.
-Relationship a sugar coated form of prostitution – she entertains him and is rewarded with money.
Rank Act 1: Macaroons! I say! I thought they were forbidden her.
Nora end of Act 2: Put out some macaroons! Lots of macaroons – for once!
-Originally macaroons symbolize Helmer’s micro level control of Nora that extends even to her diet.
-However, Nora’s eating of macaroons is a symbol of rebellion which is strengthened more openly in act 2 - open act of defiance.
Nora: (about/to her children) ‘My sweet little baby doll’, ‘lovely little baby dolls’
-repeated motif of her children as dolls – links to the title – repeated cycle of raising women as dolls.
Krogstad: Is that not correct?’, ‘Tell me Mrs Helmer, do you by any chance remember the date of your father’s death’, ‘Your father signed this paper three days after his death’.
-Suspense with slow leading questions – audience can sense where its going, makes them feel more empathy for Nora.
-Her naivety and lack of education means she fall into his trap.
-Krogstad’s language – lawyer interrogating witness.
Nora (to Krogstad): (looks defiantly at him) No, it was not. It was I who wrote pappa’s name there.
-Exposes Nora’s naivety – she admits it.
-Honest – moral integrity.
-claiming power and pride in the autonomous action.
Krogstad: The law doesn’t concern itself with motives.
Nora: Then the law must be very stupid.
-Two different perceptions of law – links to Ibsen’s ‘two kinds of moral laws’ one for men another for women ‘in practical life, woman is judged by masculine law, as though she weren’t a woman, but a man’.
Torvald: ‘When the real crisis comes, you will not find me lacking in strength or courage. I am man enough to bear the burden for us both.’
-foreshadowing/proleptic irony – he does not bear the burden.
-Stereotypical language of patriarchal hero.
-alliteration ‘burden for us both’.
Torvald: There, there, there; don’t look at me with those frightened little eyes.
-fatherly/patriarchal
-Infantilizes her
-patronizing – little animal motif.
Nora: He must never see that letter. Tear it up. I’ll find the money somehow-
-Obsession with façade
-Letter as a symbol of truth – a dramatic device for suspense.
-Repeated motif of tearing
Krogstad: Under the ice? Down in the cold, black water… float up again, ugly, unrecognizable, hairless-?
-Thinks façade is the only thing that matters to Nora.
-black water symbolizes death
-preposition ‘down’ to scare her.
-Fear used to control.
