4th Response

4th Informal response

During Act III, things definitely take a turn of the characters of Nora, and Mrs. Linde. When reading the play in the beginning NORa seems like a very family oriented type of person, but by the end of Act III Nora has really entered a new stage in her life. Nora has decided to leave both her husband and kids! She did this because she wanted to find her own real independence as a woman. On the other hand Mrs. Linde has decided that her independence is not as important to her and she decided to marry Krogstad, and take care of his family. As we learn throughout reading Mrs. Linde likes to be depended on by others, and her own independence doesn't really make her all that happy. Both Nora and Mrs. Linde finally due seemed to be fulfilled with their new choices, which is ultimately what is important. Both these women have chosen the destiny or fate as they see it, with any male consent. What I see the author is focusing is on, is not the fact that they were able to make their own choices, or the actual choices they made, but the fact that both women made the choices themselves. Back when this play was first written, it does make sense as to why he focuses on this, because it was not the norm back then for a woman to make a decision without a man involved. So you can see that, that is a big difference from today society. In today's society a woman can make a decision by herself, and no one would even think twice about it. When i first started reading this play i never would have thought it would have taken this turn. But, it made the play way more interesting! Overall i thought the play was pretty good, it was a little difficult to relate to, due to the fact it was written such a long time ago. but, it was interesting to see the different style of writing, and also how much times change year to year. 

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/fiction/ibsen/doll/ch03.htm

http://www.gradesaver.com/a-dolls-house/study-guide/section3/

3rd Response

3rd Response

Towards the end of Act II I could see much more development in Nora's character. This growth mainly came from the issues nora was having, keeping the secret from her husband. It seems to be that one of Nora's biggest fear is that her husband and others will find out about what she did. She will do anything for people not to find out, even tell lies after lies. What she does not realize is telling lies, can make things worse for her. It has become apparent to me what Nora is kind of a liar, and that she doesn't really want people to know the truth about her. One example of this is that she hides the fact that she is eating the macaroons from her husband (Isben 1). This is just one small way in which she shows the lying, and sneaky aspect of who she is. The bigger way in which we can see this side of her is with this whole loan situation. When they were scores seas in Europe her husband go very ill, and they needed a way to pay the hospital bill. Meanwhile during that whole situation Nora's father was dying. So what Nora did to get the money was borrow money, and forge her fathers signature. Back in the day is was not allowed for women to borrow or loan money, especially from a man (Isben 4).  This was the secret she has been hiding from her husband throughout the whole play, and seeing as though it was not the proper thing for women to do back then, it does make sense why she is lying, but it still does not give her a right to lie to her own husband. Another big thing that show lied about was that she never actually told her husband how sick he was. She says "It was necessary that he should have no idea what dangerous condition he was in" (Isben 4). Due to all these secrets, she has to keep covering them up with lies. For example when her husband gave her money she kind of just joked around and said she would go and buy dresses but really she would use it to pay off her loan. She said "Whenever Torvald has given me money for new dresses and such things, I have never spent half of it." (Isben 5). Since she cant ask her husband to help her pay the loan off, this is really the only way that she can get the loan paid off. I think that her husband is eventually going to find out about the loan, and he will be really upset, but in the end he will forgive her to show her that she never had to lie to him in the first place. But that is only my prediction. The more I continue to read the more I want to know what will happen next.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman/Writings/Drama/doll.html