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READ FOR UNDERSTANDING Ibsen, A Doll’s House Dramatis Personae…
READ FOR UNDERSTANDING
Ibsen, A Doll’s House
Dramatis Personae
Torvald Helmer
Nora, his wife
Doctor Rank
Mrs. Linde
Nils Krogstad
Helmer’s three small children
Anne, their nurse
A Housemaid
A Porter
Scene: The action takes place in Helmer’s house.
ACT I
Scene: A room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly. At the back, a door to the right leads to the entrance-hall, another to the left leads to Helmer’s study. Between the doors stands a piano. In the middle of the left-hand wall is a door, and beyond it a window. Near the window are a round table, arm-chairs, and a small sofa. In the right-hand wall, at the farther end, another door; and on the same side, nearer the footlights, a stove, two easy chairs, and a rocking-chair; between the stove and the door, a small table. Engravings on the walls; a cabinet with china and other small objects; a small book-case with well-bound books. The floors are carpeted, and a fire burns in the stove. It is winter.
A bell rings in the hall; shortly afterwards the door is heard to open. Enter Nora, humming a tune and in high spirits. She is in outdoor dress and carries a number of parcels; these she lays on the table to the right. She leaves the outer door open after her, and through it is seen a Porter who is carrying a Christmas Tree and a basket, which he gives to the Maid who has opened the door.
Nora: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed. (To the Porter, taking out her purse.) How much?
Porter: Sixpence.
Nora: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The Porter thanks her, and goes out. Nora shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband’s door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
Helmer (calls out from his room): Is that my little lark twittering out there?
Nora (busy opening some of the parcels): Yes, it is!
Helmer: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
Nora: Yes!
Helmer: When did my squirrel come home?
Nora: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
Helmer: Don’t disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
Nora: Yes but, Torvald, this year we really can let ourselves go a little. This is the first Christmas that we have not needed to economise.
Helmer: Still, you know, we can’t spend money recklessly.
Nora: Yes, Torvald, we may be a wee bit more reckless now, mayn’t we? Just a tiny wee bit! You are going to have a big salary and earn lots and lots of money.
Helmer: Yes, after the New Year; but then it will be a whole quarter before the salary is due.
Nora: Pooh! we can borrow until then.
Helmer: Nora! (Goes up to her and takes her playfully by the ear.) The same little featherhead! Suppose, now, that I borrowed fifty pounds today, and you spent it all in the Christmas week, and then on New Year’s Eve a slate fell on my head and killed me, and
Nora (putting her hands over his mouth): Oh! don’t say such horrid things.
Helmer: Still, suppose that happened,what then?
Nora: If that were to happen, I don’t suppose I should care whether I owed money or not.
Helmer: Yes, but what about the people who had lent it?
Nora: They? Who would bother about them? I should not know who they were.
Helmer: That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for the short time longer that there need be any struggle.
Nora (moving towards the stove): As you please, Torvald.
Helmer (following her): Come, come, my little skylark must not droop her wings. What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper? (Taking out his purse.) Nora, what do you think I have got here?
Nora (turning round quickly): Money!
Helmer: There you are. (Gives her some money.) Do you think I don’t know what a lot is wanted for housekeeping at Christmas-time?
Nora (counting): Ten shillingsa poundtwo pounds! Thank you, thank you, Torvald; that will keep me going for a long time.
Helmer: Indeed it must.
Nora: Yes, yes, it will. But come here and let me show you what I have bought. And all so cheap! Look, here is a new suit for Ivar, and a sword; and a horse and a trumpet for Bob; and a doll and dolly’s bedstead for Emmy,they are very plain, but anyway she will soon break them in pieces. And here are dress-lengths and handkerchiefs for the maids; old Anne ought really to have something better.
Helmer: And what is in this parcel?
Nora (crying out): No, no! you mustn’t see that until this evening.
Helmer: Very well. But now tell me, you extravagant little person, what would you like for yourself?
Nora: For myself? Oh, I am sure I don’t want anything.
Helmer: Yes, but you must. Tell me something reasonable that you would particularly like to have.
Nora: No, I really can’t think of anythingunless, Torvald
Helmer: Well?
Nora (playing with his coat buttons, and without raising her eyes to his): If you really want to give me something, you mightyou might
Helmer: Well, out with it!
Nora (speaking quickly): You might give me money, Torvald. Only just as much as you can afford; and then one of these days I will buy something with it.
Helmer: But, Nora
Nora: Oh, do! dear Torvald; please, please do! Then I will wrap it up in beautiful gilt paper and hang it on the Christmas Tree. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Helmer: What are little people called that are always wasting money?
Nora: SpendthriftsI know. Let us do what you suggest, Torvald, and then I shall have time to think what I am most in want of. That is a very sensible plan, isn’t it?
Helmer (smiling): Indeed it isthat is to say, if you were really to save out of the money I give you, and then really buy something for yourself. But if you spend it all on the housekeeping and any number of unnecessary things, then I merely have to pay up again.
Nora: Oh but, Torvald
Helmer: You can’t deny it, my dear little Nora. (Puts his arm round her waist.) It’s a sweet little spendthrift, but she uses up a deal of money. One would hardly believe how expensive such little persons are!
Nora: It’s a shame to say that. I do really save all I can.
Helmer (laughing): That’s very true,all you can. But you can’t save anything!
Nora (smiling quietly and happily): You haven’t any idea how many expenses we skylarks and squirrels have, Torvald.
END
1-. What is your impression of it? What strikes you about it? What do you find confusing or unclear?
2-What is happening in the scene? What is the location? Who are the characters? How would you summarize what takes place?
3-The first things that characters do in a play often reveal their personalities and their motivations. Nora does two things here: she tells the maid to hide the Christmas tree until it’s decorated and she overpays the porter for his help. What does this suggest about the main character of the play? What might her motivations and interests be?
4- As becomes evident through the play, Torvald holds some very conventional nineteenth-century views. How does Torvald view women? What does his explanation of debt and its dangers suggest about how he views his wife? About how he views the world?
5- In this scene, Torvald frequently accuses Nora of being unable to economize and spend wisely. How does Nora’s explanation of her Christmas shopping confirm or refute his accusations? Why?
6- It becomes evident later in the play when Nora speaks with her old friend Christine Linde that Torvald is very concerned with everything in his household appearing to be beautiful. What does Torvald’s statement here suggest about his view of the upkeep of the house? What does this suggest about his understanding of what actually goes into keeping up the appearances of proper middle-class life?
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DRAW CONNECTIONS
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House and George Bernard Shaw’s commentary on the play
George Bernard Shaw, a playwright and literary critic roughly contemporaneous with Henrik Ibsen, was among the first to take Ibsen’s work seriously. In his commentary on the work of Ibsen, he considers the social issues at play in Ibsen’s work.
Before you begin answering these questions, return to the close reading module folder in your Achieve course and click into Draw Connections: George Bernard Shaw, Commentary on A Doll’s House to read Shaw’s commentary on A Doll’s House. Then return to this module and answer the following questions.
7- In opening his discussion of A Doll’s House, Shaw talks about another, previous play Pillars of Society as a propagandist play, suggesting that it was not as good as this one. How does A Doll’s House avoid being propaganda, despite the fact that it has a clear social commentary at its heart?
8-Shaw (himself a man of the late nineteenth century) suggests that Nora uses her womanly wiles to “coax her husband into giving her what she asks.” How does the opening of the play bear that idea out? In what way might Nora be seen as manipulating Torvald? How else can their relationship be read?
9-Shaw focuses much of his commentary on the idea of the illusions that Nora and Torvald both cling to. In the opening scene of the play, what items or actions suggest these illusions? What support can you find for Shaw’s claim of the illusory nature of this household?
10-Shaw’s commentary begins with a suggestion that Torvald Helmer is a “pillar of society.” In what way is that pillar, as embodied by Torvald, ignorant of the world in the opening scene of the play? How does that ignorance compare to what Shaw says about Nora’s own ignorance about the outside world?
