A Doll’s House

Learning Stations

Station 1: Background Information

Probable passage: In the story, they are a husband and wife that are happily living together. The man,
being a CEO, has a reputation that he has to hold up. However, he actually is a cruel man, blackmailing
people into giving him money as he is very greedy. To do this, he masquerades as a family relative who
needs a loan and will pay them back later. The wife, not knowing about this, decides to buy a very large
dollhouse. A letter, afterwards, comes in the mailbox saying that the purchase was rejected. She went
crying to her husband, who decided to forge bills as people had realized his scam and stopped giving
him money. He went to give the forged bills to the bank and threatened them that they better not
reject the dollhouse again. The wife doesn’t know until there is a tarantella, where, after listening to a
door, she learns that her husband has been lying to her. She accuses him of having no morality and,
wanting to redeem himself, decides to murder him at a black cross in the middle of a forest. After she
does that, she commits suicide.

Station 2: Contemporary Reviews

1. The audience, up until the last scene, was very fascinated and excited by the production of A
Doll’s House. They really enjoyed the play.
2. Based on the reviewer’s attitude towards the marriage of the two main characters of Doll’s
House, I would describe the marriage as a healthy relationship between a wife and her man,
where he is absolutely devoted to her. They have a “normal” relationship, having three children.
3. The secret Nora has kept from her husband, Torvald, is that she falsified her dead father’s
signature on a debt certificate.
4. Based on the reviewer’s attitude, Nora Helmer acts in a certain way to gain sympathy for her
situation, but is too much of a coward to tell her husband about her secret. She wants to
protect her husband, but she is somewhat hurting both of them.
5. Henrik Ibsen portrays the institution of marriage as an arrangement that, instead of educating
the individuals, still can corrupt them, leading them to a divorce. Hiding and lying will break a
marriage.
6. Nora and Torvald consider “dissolving” their marriage because she didn’t tell Torvald about
how they owed someone money as she forged her dead father’s signature on a debt certificate.
7. The reviewer seems to be offended by the production because Ibsen’s play seems to imply that,
if you hide something in a marriage, it will dissolve immediately. However, even when there are
certain obstacles, it won’t dissolve a marriage; the married individuals can work together
through it to preserve the marriage. Also, the ending of the play is weak and doesn’t always
deal with moral law.
8. A “doll-home” is every family house where the man treats his wife as a plaything or “dolls”, so
the wifes become them.
 9. The opinion of this reviewer believes that marriages should fall apart if the woman isn’t being
treated as a human but as a doll; he believes that Ibsen treated the institution of marriage
correctly as it represents human nature. The previous reviewer believes that the marriage
shouldn’t fall apart as soon as something is discovered about one of the people in the
relationship.

Station 3: Defining Identity

Step 1: Rank and explain

● Beliefs/Morality - your beliefs define who you are the most; they govern how you act and what
you believe is right or wrong
● Behavior - your express your identity through your behavior
● Social Class - your social class affects which class you identify yourself, which can affect what
you view about yourself
● Country of Origin - your country of origin can affect your identity by changing what you believe
and how you view yourself (what you identify with)
● Education Level - based on your education, you can identify yourself as well-learned or skilled
in a certain subject
● Religion - it affects what religious community you identify with and can affect what you
believe/don’t believe in
● Occupation - based on your occupation - you may view yourself as a blue-collar worker,
laborer, etc., affecting what your values are in relation to occupation
● Gender - your gender can affect what people you identify with
● Sexual Orientation - your orientation can affect your behavior, actions, and who you identify
with
● Race or ethnicity - there isn’t really such a thing as race; it doesn’t really affect your identity.
Country of origin affects your identity more.

Step 2: Group definition of identity

Identity is how you would describe yourselves to others and how others view you.

Station 4: Heinz Dilemma

Individual Reaction: Heinz should break into the laboratory to steal the drug because, if he didn’t,
it would go against his morals as his wife would die without it. Even if he got caught, I believe that
paying a fine or going to jail is worth breaking in for his wife. He should pay the money later on.

Group Discussion:
1. The last resort, morality and immorality, and the pros and cons factored into each person’s
decision in regards to Heinz stealing the drug.
2. Heinz could go to jail or face fines if he steals the drug. These consequences do outweigh the
benefits of saving his wife.
 3. If the sick woman were a stranger, he should still steal the drug because saving a life outweighs
the consequences. It is moral to save someone, even if it is a stranger.
4. Even if Heinz doesn’t particularly like his life, he should still steal the drug because, if you have
the chance, you should save a life. It is the moral thing to do.
5. Only if the consequences are really low should Heinz steal the drug to save an animal. If the
consequences are too high, he shouldn’t.

Consequences: He should be convicted of theft as he stole and be punished, but not severely. He
should pay the rest of the money to the druggist, but he shouldn’t have to go to jail.

Station 5: Essential Questions

1. Your responsibilities to others don’t usually impede your rights as an individual. Your
responsibilities to others usually come before your individual rights, but they shouldn’t
encroach on your individual rights.
2. Society’s expectations have changed a lot; many people don’t tend to assign gender roles
anymore. However, some of our society, especially older people, still expect mothers to provide
for the household and bear and take care of children; for fathers, some of society expects them
to provide for themselves and their household.
3. A person can contradict these expectations and still be a good mother or father.
4. Society’s expectations can prevent a parent’s growth as an individual if you feel the pressure
from others. If you ignore it as much as possible, parents can fully grow as individuals.
5. Society’s expectations of parents, such as women in traditional roles and men working, are
outdated in today’s world. The rest of our world has advanced; our view on gender roles should
as well.
6. Love does require sacrifice. You can’t get everything you want in life; to make love work, you
need to compromise.

Station 6: Opening Scene

1. The Helmers’ house is meant to impress people and to seem as though the Helmer’s are elegant
and classy.
2. This first scene tells that the play’s setting is sometime in December, near Christmas.
3. This tells that Torvald is truly in love with Nora and cares for her; he feels very fond about her.
4. Nora doesn’t really seem to care about the pet names; she is probably used to them.
5. If a slate fell on his head, Nora would probably have to get a job to provide for herself and her
family. She would probably have to be more conjuiced with money.
6. Helmer hates borrowing; he refuses to borrow. He probably feels that way because he may feel
that, when you borrow, you are in debt to that person. When you are in debt, you don’t have
control over your life.
7. Money is honor and security for Helmer; it is his livelihood. Getting loans for money would be
destroying his ego and security.
8. The fact that Torvald gives Nora an allowance means that he is besotted with Nora; if he
weren’t, he would try to restrict her spending more forcefully than he currently is.
9. My first impression of Nora is that she likes to buy things and she is indifferent when it comes to
money. My first impression of Torvald is that he is careful with money and doesn’t like owing
people anything. Their relationship seems to be a fairly happy marriage, where the people
seem to respect each other. Nora can get away with a lot due to the amount he loves her.
10. When Nora and Torvald come into conflict, they probably will get through it, unless it deals with
debt.