Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll’s House.Krogstad: If it were as you say, why did you write to me as you did at the time?Mrs. Linde: I could do nothing else. As I had to break with you, it was my duty also to put an end to all that you felt for me.Krogstad [wringing his hands]. So that was it. And all this—only for the sake of money!Mrs. Linde: You must not forget that I had a helpless mother and two little brothers. We couldn't wait for you, Nils; your prospects seemed hopeless then.
Read the passage from A Doll’s House.Nora: Really! Did a big dog run after you? But it didn't bite you? No, dogs don't bite nice little dolly children. You mustn't look at the parcels, Ivar. What are they? Ah, I daresay you would like to know. No, no—it's something nasty! Come, let us have a game! What shall we play at? Hide and Seek? Yes, we'll play Hide and Seek. Bob shall hide first. Must I hide? Very well, I'll hide first. [She and the children laugh and shout, and romp in and out of the room; at last NORA hides under the table, the children rush in and out for her, but do not see her; they hear her smothered laughter, run to the table, lift up the cloth and find her. Shouts of laughter. She crawls forward and pretends to frighten them. Fresh laughter. Meanwhile there has been a knock at the hall door, but none of them has noticed it. The door is half opened, and KROGSTAD appears, he waits a little; the game goes on.]Krogstad: Excuse me, Mrs. Helmer:Nora: [with a stifled cry, turns round and gets up on to her knees] Ah! what do you want?Krogstad: Excuse me, the outer door was ajar; I suppose someone forgot to shut it.Nora: [rising] My husband is out, Mr. Krogstad.
Which cultural differences are revealed through this conflict? Select two options.
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll’s House.Helmer [walking up and down]: He had so grown into our lives. I can't think of him as having gone out of them. He, with his sufferings and his loneliness, was like a cloudy background to our sunlit happiness. Well, perhaps it is best so. For him, anyway. [Standing still.] And perhaps for us too, Nora. We two are thrown quite upon each other now. [Puts his arms round her.] My darling wife, I don't feel as if I could hold you tight enough. Do you know, Nora, I have often wished that you might be threatened by some great danger, so that I might risk my life's blood, and everything, for your sake.
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll’s House.Mrs. Linde [looking at her watch]: Not yet—and the time is nearly up. If only he does not—. [Listens again.] Ah, there he is. [Goes into the hall and opens the outer door carefully. Light footsteps are heard on the stairs. She whispers.] Come in. There is no one here.Krogstad [in the doorway]: I found a note from you at home. What does this mean?Mrs. Linde: It is absolutely necessary that I should have a talk with you.Krogstad: Really? And is it absolutely necessary that it should be here?Mrs. Linde: It is impossible where I live; there is no private entrance to my rooms. Come in; we are quite alone. The maid is asleep, and the Helmers are at the dance upstairs.
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll's House.Helmer: How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have you not been happy here?Nora: No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never really been so.Helmer: Not—not happy!Nora: No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll's House.Mrs. Linde: We have a great deal to talk about.Krogstad: I shouldn't have thought so.Mrs. Linde: No, you have never properly understood me.Krogstad: Was there anything else to understand except what was obvious to all the world—a heartless woman jilts a man when a more lucrative chance turns up?Mrs. Linde: Do you believe I am as absolutely heartless as all that? And do you believe that I did it with a light heart?Krogstad: Didn't you?Mrs. Linde: Nils, did you really think that?Krogstad: If it were as you say, why did you write to me as you did at the time?Mrs. Linde: I could do nothing else. As I had to break with you, it was my duty also to put an end to all that you felt for me.Krogstad [wringing his hands]. So that was it. And all this—only for the sake of money!Mrs. Linde: You must not forget that I had a helpless mother and two little brothers. We couldn't wait for you, Nils; your prospects seemed hopeless then.Krogstad: That may be so, but you had no right to throw me over for anyone else's sake.Mrs. Linde: Indeed, I don't know. Many a time did I ask myself if I had the right to do it.
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.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Nora: That letter is from Krogstad.Mrs. Linde: Nora—it was Krogstad who lent you the money!Nora: Yes, and now Torvald will know all about it.Mrs. Linde: Believe me, Nora, that's the best thing for both of you.Nora: You don't know all. I forged a name.Mrs. Linde: Good heavens—!Nora: I only want to say this to you, Christine—you must be my witness.Mrs. Linde: Your witness? What do you mean? What am I to—?Nora: If I should go out of my mind—and it might easily happen—Mrs. Linde: Nora!Nora: Or if anything else should happen to me—anything, for instance, that might prevent my being here—Mrs. Linde: Nora! Nora! you are quite out of your mind.Nora: And if it should happen that there were some one who wanted to take all the responsibility, all the blame, you understand—Mrs. Linde: Yes, yes—but how can you suppose—?Nora: Then you must be my witness, that it is not true, Christine. I am not out of my mind at all; I am in my right senses now, and I tell you no one else has known anything about it; I, and I alone, did the whole thing. Remember that.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Helmer: Rank led me to expect a splendid transformation.Rank: [in the doorway] I understood so, but evidently I was mistaken.Nora: Yes, nobody is to have the chance of admiring me in my dress until tomorrow.Helmer: But, my dear Nora, you look so worn out. Have you been practising too much?Nora: No, I have not practised at all.Helmer: But you will need to—Nora: Yes, indeed I shall, Torvald. But I can't get on a bit without you to help me; I have absolutely forgotten the whole thing.Helmer: Oh, we will soon work it up again.Nora: Yes, help me, Torvald. Promise that you will! I am so nervous about it—all the people—. You must give yourself up to me entirely this evening. Not the tiniest bit of business—you mustn't even take a pen in your hand. Will you promise, Torvald dear?Helmer: I promise. This evening I will be wholly and absolutely at your service, you helpless little mortal. Ah, by the way, first of all I will just— [Goes towards the hall door.]Nora: What are you going to do there?Helmer: Only see if any letters have come.Nora: No, no! don't do that, Torvald!Helmer: Why not?Nora: Torvald, please don't. There is nothing there.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Rank: Let me play for her.Helmer [getting up]. Yes, do. I can correct her better then.[RANK sits down at the piano and plays. NORA dances more and more wildly. HELMER has taken up a position beside the stove, and during her dance gives her frequent instructions. She does not seem to hear him; her hair comes down and falls over her shoulders; she pays no attention to it, but goes on dancing. Enter MRS. LINDE:]Mrs. Linde: [standing as if spell-bound in the doorway] Oh!—Nora: [as she dances] Such fun, Christine!Helmer: My dear darling Nora, you are dancing as if your life depended on it.Nora: So it does.Helmer: Stop, Rank; this is sheer madness. Stop, I tell you! [RANK stops playing, and NORA suddenly stands still. HELMER goes up to her.] I could never have believed it. You have forgotten everything I taught you.Nora: [throwing away the tambourine]. There, you see.Helmer: You will want a lot of coaching.Nora: Yes, you see how much I need it. You must coach me up to the last minute. Promise me that, Torvald!Helmer: You can depend on me.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Krogstad: I shall only preserve it—keep it in my possession. No one who is not concerned in the matter shall have the slightest hint of it. So that if the thought of it has driven you to any desperate resolution.Nora: It has.Krogstad: If you had it in your mind to run away from your home.Nora: I had.Krogstad: Or even something worse—Nora: How could you know that?Krogstad: Give up the idea.Nora: How did you know I had thought of that?Krogstad: Most of us think of that at first. I did, too—but I hadn't the courage.Nora: [faintly] No more had I.Krogstad: [in a tone of relief]. No, that's it, isn't it—you hadn't the courage either?Nora: No, I haven't—I haven't.Krogstad: Besides, it would have been a great piece of folly. Once the first storm at home is over—. I have a letter for your husband in my pocket.Nora: Telling him everything?Krogstad: In as lenient a manner as I possibly could.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Nurse: What, out again? In this horrible weather? You will catch cold, ma'am, and make yourself ill.Nora: Well, worse than that might happen. How are the children?Nurse: The poor little souls are playing with their Christmas presents, but—Nora: Do they ask much for me?Nurse: You see, they are so accustomed to have their mamma with them.Nora: Yes, but, nurse, I shall not be able to be so much with them now as I was before.Nurse: Oh well, young children easily get accustomed to anything.Nora: Do you think so? Do you think they would forget their mother if she went away altogether?Nurse: Good heavens!—went away altogether?
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Nora: [quickly] He mustn't get the letter. Tear it up. I will find some means of getting money.Krogstad: Excuse me, Mrs. Helmer, but I think I told you just now—Nora: I am not speaking of what I owe you. Tell me what sum you are asking my husband for, and I will get the money.Krogstad: I am not asking your husband for a penny.Nora: What do you want, then?Krogstad: I will tell you. I want to rehabilitate myself, Mrs. Helmer; I want to get on; and in that your husband must help me. For the last year and a half I have not had a hand in anything dishonourable, amid all that time I have been struggling in most restricted circumstances. I was content to work my way up step by step. Now I am turned out, and I am not going to be satisfied with merely being taken into favour again. I want to get on, I tell you. I want to get into the Bank again, in a higher position. Your husband must make a place for me—Nora: That he will never do!Krogstad: He will; I know him; he dare not protest. And as soon as I am in there again with him, then you will see! Within a year I shall be the manager's right hand. It will be Nils Krogstad and not Torvald Helmer who manages the Bank.Nora: That's a thing you will never see!Krogstad: Do you mean that you will—?Nora: I have courage enough for it now.Krogstad: Oh, you can't frighten me. A fine, spoilt lady like you—Nora: You will see, you will see.Krogstad: Under the ice, perhaps? Down into the cold, coal-black water? And then, in the spring, to float up to the surface, all horrible and unrecognisable, with your hair fallen out—Nora: You can't frighten me.Krogstad: Nor you me. People don't do such things, Mrs. Helmer. Besides, what use would it be? I should have him completely in my power all the same.Nora: Afterwards? When I am no longer—Krogstad: Have you forgotten that it is I who have the keeping of your reputation? [NORA stands speechlessly looking at him.] Well, now, I have warned you. Do not do anything foolish. When Helmer has had my letter, I shall expect a message from him. And be sure you remember that it is your husband himself who has forced me into such ways as this again. I will never forgive him for that. Goodbye, Mrs. Helmer. [Exit through the hall.]
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.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Mrs. Linde: [goes on sewing. A short silence] Does Doctor Rank come here everyday?Nora: Everyday regularly. He is Torvald's most intimate friend, and a great friend of mine too. He is just like one of the family.Mrs. Linde: But tell me this—is he perfectly sincere? I mean, isn't he the kind of man that is very anxious to make himself agreeable?Nora: Not in the least. What makes you think that?Mrs. Linde: When you introduced him to me yesterday, he declared he had often heard my name mentioned in this house; but afterwards I noticed that your husband hadn't the slightest idea who I was. So how could Doctor Rank—?Nora: That is quite right, Christine. Torvald is so absurdly fond of me that he wants me absolutely to himself, as he says. At first he used to seem almost jealous if I mentioned any of the dear folk at home, so naturally I gave up doing so. But I often talk about such things with Doctor Rank, because he likes hearing about them.Mrs. Linde: Listen to me, Nora. You are still very like a child in many things, and I am older than you in many ways and have a little more experience. Let me tell you this—you ought to make an end of it with Doctor Rank.
Which statements best describe the conflict? Select two options.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Rank: And what other nice things am I to be allowed to see?Nora: Not a single thing more, for being so naughty. [She looks among the things, humming to herself.]Rank: [after a short silence] When I am sitting here, talking to you as intimately as this, I cannot imagine for a moment what would have become of me if I had never come into this house.Nora: [smiling] I believe you do feel thoroughly at home with us.Rank: [in a lower voice, looking straight in front of him] And to be obliged to leave it all—Nora: Nonsense, you are not going to leave it.Rank: [as before] And not be able to leave behind one the slightest token of one's gratitude, scarcely even a fleeting regret—nothing but an empty place which the first comer can fill as well as any other.Nora: And if I asked you now for a—? No!Rank: For what?Nora: For a big proof of your friendship—Rank: Yes, yes!Nora: I mean a tremendously big favour—Rank: Would you really make me so happy for once?Nora: Ah, but you don't know what it is yet.Rank: No—but tell me.Nora: I really can't, Doctor Rank. It is something out of all reason; it means advice, and help, and a favour—Rank: The bigger a thing it is the better. I can't conceive what it is you mean. Do tell me. Haven't I your confidence?Nora: More than anyone else. I know you are my truest and best friend, and so I will tell you what it is. Well, Doctor Rank, it is something you must help me to prevent. You know how devotedly, how inexpressibly deeply Torvald loves me; he would never for a moment hesitate to give his life for me.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Nora: [going up to HELMER] I have wanted you so much, Torvald dear.Helmer: Was that the dressmaker?Nora: No, it was Christine; she is helping me to put my dress in order. You will see I shall look quite smart.Helmer: Wasn't that a happy thought of mine, now?Nora: Splendid! But don't you think it is nice of me, too, to do as you wish?Helmer: Nice?—because you do as your husband wishes? Well, well, you little rogue, I am sure you did not mean it in that way. But I am not going to disturb you; you will want to be trying on your dress, I expect.Nora: I suppose you are going to work.Helmer: Yes. [Shows her a bundle of papers.] Look at that. I have just been into the bank. [Turns to go into his room.]Nora: Torvald.Helmer: Yes.Nora: If your little squirrel were to ask you for something very, very prettily—?Helmer: What then?Nora: Would you do it?Helmer: I should like to hear what it is, first.Nora: Your squirrel would run about and do all her tricks if you would be nice, and do what she wants.Helmer: Speak plainly.Nora: Your skylark would chirp about in every room, with her song rising and falling—Helmer: Well, my skylark does that anyhow.Nora: I would play the fairy and dance for you in the moonlight, Torvald.
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll's House.Helmer: [putting his papers together] Now then, little Miss Obstinate.Nora: [breathlessly]. Torvald—what was that letter?Helmer: Krogstad's dismissal.Nora: Call her back, Torvald! There is still time. Oh Torvald, call her back! Do it for my sake—for your own sake—for the children's sake! Do you hear me, Torvald? Call her back! You don't know what that letter can bring upon us.Helmer: It's too late.Nora: Yes, it's too late.Helmer: My dear Nora, I can forgive the anxiety you are in, although really it is an insult to me. It is, indeed. Isn't it an insult to think that I should be afraid of a starving quill-driver's vengeance? But I forgive you nevertheless, because it is such eloquent witness to your great love for me. [Takes her in his arms.] And that is as it should be, my own darling Nora. Come what will, you may be sure I shall have both courage and strength if they be needed. You will see I am man enough to take everything upon myself.Nora: [in a horror-stricken voice]. What do you mean by that?Helmer: Everything, I say—Nora: [recovering herself] You will never have to do that.Helmer: That's right. Well, we will share it, Nora, as man and wife should. That is how it shall be. [Caressing her.] Are you content now? There! There! Not these frightened dove's eyes! The whole thing is only the wildest fancy! Now, you must go and play through the Tarantella and practise with your tambourine. I shall go into the inner office and shut the door, and I shall hear nothing; you can make as much noise as you please. [Turns back at the door.] And when Rank comes, tell him where he will find me. [Nods to her, takes his papers and goes into his room, and shuts the door after him.]Nora: [bewildered with anxiety, stands as if rooted to the spot, and whispers] He was capable of doing it. He will do it. He will do it in spite of everything. No, not that! Never, never! Anything rather than that! Oh, for some help, some way out of it! [The door-bell rings.] Doctor Rank! Anything rather than that—anything, whatever it is! [She puts her hands over her face, pulls herself together, goes to the door and opens it. RANK is standing without, hanging up his coat. During the following dialogue it begins to grow dark.]
Did you find these answers helpful?