Read the passage from A Doll’s House . 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 economize. How do the stage directions in brackets affect the meaning of the text?
Read the excerpt from act 1 of A Doll's House . 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. How does the interaction between Helmer and Nora advance the plot?
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House. Nora: [putting her arms round her neck] Dear old Anne, you were a good mother to me when I was little. Nurse: Little Nora, poor dear, had no other mother but me. Nora: And if my little ones had no other mother, I am sure you would—What nonsense I am talking! [Opens the box.] Go in to them. Now I must—. You will see tomorrow how charming I shall look. How does Ibsen use dramatic irony to create the suspense in this passage?
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