A Doll’s House

IB English HL 1: Dialectical Journal

Dialectical Journal: A formal log that catalogues the conversation between the author and the reader of a text.
Also referred to as a reader-response journal or a double-entry journal.

Directions: Use the following chart to record your evidence while analyzing the play. Your goal is to accurately
identify multiple themes or intentional authorial choices throughout the text, as well as how the author relates
those to the audience using intentional craft and technique. There should be multiple pieces of evidence for each
theme/intention, and commentary should be in the form of brief bullet points.

If you are struggling with craft & technique, revisit these notes: Introduction to Drama

Theme Statement/ Textual Evidence Commentary on Evidence

Author’s Intention Including Speaker & Citation & Analysis of Craft

Marriage is a “Surely you can understand with
patriarchal system of Torvald is a little like being with
ownership. papa” (47)
“Our home has been nothing but a
playroom. I have been your
doll-wife” (75)
“Free. To be free. Absolutely free.
To spend time with the children. TO
have to clean, beautiful house, the
way torvald likes it” (71)
● A socially acceptable marriage in 1897
contained one working man who was
considered the breadwinner, and a one
woman who stayed home and did the
house work and cared for the family
● The only difference between Nora's
married adult and her childhood is that
she is a mother
● She lives her life doing whatever Torvald
asks her to and being a good loyal wife so
that society accepts them and they will
keep their status and reputation

Money is the “There can be no freedom or beauty ● Money determines that a household is
gateway to about a home that depends on high class and powerful
corruption. borrowing and debt” (5). ● society in 1897 thought that only the man
should go and work and earn the money
to provide for his family
● If the woman needs to work to make
money and help the husband was seen as
weak and unable to provide enough for
the family
● It also lowers the couple’s social status
and respectability. Which is why when
Nora needed to forge her father's
signature to pay for the expense while
Torvald was sick.

All lies catch up in “It was necessary he should have no
the end idea what dangerous condition he
was in. It was me that that doctor
came to and said that his life was
endangered” (15)
● While Torvald was sick he was not
capable of making money and he had lots
of expenses to be paid even though he
was ill. So in order to pay them his wife
Nora had to forge her fathers signature to

“What a horrible awakening! All
these eight years she who ws my
joy and pride, a hypocrite, a liar,
worse, worse, a criminal” (15)
Reputation was “Yes of course. Just recall your
worth more than mind what these malicious
family creatures wrote in the paper about
papa, and how horribly they
slandered him” (40)
“From now on forget happiness.
Now it is just about saving the
remains, the wreckage, the
appearance” (57)
Gender defines a “No man would sacrifice his honor
person's future more for the one he loves” (79)
than anything else.
“Free. To be free. Absolutely free.
To spend time with the children. To
have to clean, beautiful house, the
way torvald likes it” (17)
A man’s pride is “From now on forget happiness.
worth preserving Now it is just about saving the
more than his family remains, the wreckage, the
appearance” (57)
“You and Papa have committed a
great sin against me. It's because of
you I have made nothing of my
life” (75)
“But no man would sacrifice his
honor for the one he loves” (79)
Women are human “Before all else you are a wife and
beings before a man’s a mother” (77)
get a loan to pay for everything, but she
doesn't tell her husband that her father did
not know about the loan. This leads her to
lie to him over and over again to the point
it causes strain in their marriage.
● Reputation in society was extremely
valuable
● A person or couple’s reputation
determines their class, status, and how
much respect they received from their
peers especially for the men
● A single scandal can ruin anyone's
reputation which is why no one can know
that Nora was working and paying for
everything while Trvoald was sick
because part of maintaining a reputation
was just fulfilling their assigned gender
role
● If anyone found out Nora took care and
provided for Torvald his reputation would
be destroyed and he would be seen as
weak
● Living in a male dominated society
women came second to reputation and
respect from their peers
● Nora wishes that her husband Torvald
would risk his honor for her but she is
told that no on man ever would
● She realizes that that is the complete truth
and her husband would never stand up fro
her and rick his reputation
● Family was seen as a core value to
society in this era
● Actions were not typically matched with
the words that were spoken. For example,
When Mrs. Linda told Nora she was left
by her husband without children she was
appalled because she values family.
● Even though she is seen she hardly
spends time with her children and the
nurse is their primary caregiver.
● Having a family with children is more for
status and not as much to love and care
for kids.
● Nora is told by torvald that before
anything in the world she is a caretaker to
caregiver.
“I believe that before all else I am a
reasonable human being, just as you
are or, at all events, that I must try
and become one” (77)
“Free. To be free. Absolutely free.
To spend time with the children. TO
have to clean, beautiful house, the
way torvald likes it” (57)
Marriage is for “We have been married for eight
practical reasons and years. Does it occur to you that this
not for love. is the first time we two, you and I,
man and wife, have ever had a
serious talk together?” (74)
“When you have sold yourself once
for the sake of others, you don’t do
it second” (36)
Respect is earned and “My dear little Nora, there’s a
never free. considerable difference between
your father and me. Your father was
not a man of unassailable
reputation. But I am” (6)
Societal approval has “Have you any notion what society
greater value than really is?” (19)
her children and her husband
● She stands up for herself saying that she
is so much more than just a wife and a
mother she is a human being that
deserves respect and is no one’s property.
● Nora and her husband do not have a close
relationship to the point that in a whole
eight years of marriage they have only
had one serious conversation between the
two of them
● During Nora and Mrs.Linde's
conversation they talk about marriage
respectable but not serieerably. During
their discussion they never speak of love
but of how practical marriage is and
children are
● It is clear that they marry for society and
its approval and not for love.
● Torvald makes fun of Nora’s father
because Torvald seems to have a better
reputation than her father does
● This makes him seem like a better man
in the eyes just because he has more
money and is more financially
responsible
● In order to keep the reputation he has
built for himself
● Society has minced influence on people
and the way they conduct themselves
● Nora lies and says that while Torvald
was sick she borrowed money from her
father because Torvald knew he would be
embarrassed and it can ruin his reputation
● In the eyes of others because he is not
fulfilling his duties as a man
● Mrs. Linda is also seen as less of a
woman in the eyes of most of society
because she was left by her husband and
she does not have children and she has a
paying job
Critical Theory & Lens of Focus: Marxism
Textual Evidence
Including Speaker & Citation
“There can be no freedom or beauty about a home
that depends on borrowing and debt” (5).
“My little spindrift spending money again” (11)
“You must not forget that I had a helpless mother and
two little brothers. We couldn't wait for you” (15)
Analysis of Evidence
● Money determines that a household is high
class and powerful
● society in 1897 thought that only the man
should go and work and earn the money to
provide for his family
● If the woman needs to work to make money
and help the husband was seen as weak and
unable to provide enough for the family
● It also lowers the couple’s social status and
respectability. Which is why when Nora needed
to forge her father's signature to pay for the
expense while Torvald was sick.