Literary Work Extract: A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen 1879.

1. Nora: When that was done, I was so absolutely certain, you would come
2. forward and take everything upon yourself, and say: I am the guilty one.
3. Helmer: Nora--!
4. Nora: You mean that I would never have accepted such a sacrifice on your
5. part? No, of course not. But what would my assurances have been worth
6. against yours? That was the wonderful thing which I hoped for and feared;
7. and it was to prevent that, that I wanted to kill myself.
8. Helmer: I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora—bear sorrow and
9. want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he
10.loves.
11.Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.
12.Helmer: Oh, you think and talk like a heedless child.
13.Nora: Maybe. But you neither think nor talk like the man I could bind
14.myself to. As soon as your fear was over—and it was not fear for what
15.threatened me, but for what might happen to you—when the whole thing was
16.past, as far as you were concerned it was exactly as if nothing at all had
17.happened. Exactly as before, I was your little skylark, your doll, which you
18.would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and
19.fragile. [Getting up.] Torvald—it was then it dawned upon me that for eight
20.years I had been living here with a strange man, and had borne him three
21.children--. Oh, I can’t bear to think of it! I could tear myself into little bits!
22.Helmer: [sadly]. I see, I see. An abyss has opened between us—there is no
23.denying it. But, Nora, would it not be possible to fill it up?
24.Nora: As I am now, I am no wife for you.
25.Helmer: I have it in me to become a different man.
26.Nora: Perhaps—if your doll is taken away from you.
27.Helmer: But to part—to part from you! No, no, Nora, I can’t understand
28.that idea.
29.Nora: [going out to the right]. That makes it all the more certain that it must
30.be done. [She comes back with her cloak and hat and a small bag which she
31.puts on a chair by the table].
32.Helmer: Nora, Nora, not now! Wait until tomorrow.
33.Nora: [putting on her cloak]. I cannot spend the night in a strange man’s
34.room.
35.Helmer: But we can’t live here like brother and sister--?
36.Nora: [putting on her hat]. You know very well that would not last
37.long. [Puts the shawl round her]. Goodbye, Torvald. I won’t see the little
38.ones. I know they are in better hands than mine. As I am now, I can be of no
39.use to them.
40.Helmer: But some day, Nora—some day?
Authorial choices in literary work:

 Figurative Language (line 12)

 Diction (lines 20-21)

 Symbolism (lines 17-19)

Non-literary Work: (Global Issue – Gender Inequality)

Author: Angel Boligan.

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Authorial choices in non-literary work:

 Symbolism

 Colour

 Placement