Dimitrije Miskovic English B – HL 01.11.10 Ms. Gelso
Book Report: The doll’s house-Henrik Ibsen ‘‘Read much, but not many books’’, is a quote said by Franklin Benjamin and in my opinion is very true. I believe that reading few high quality books is much better then reading more low quality books. The book that I chose is very good and it can really teach you how to react in certain situations. The book name is ‘‘the doll’s house’’ written by Henrik Ibsen. The book is about a family and their everyday life. The setting of this play is always the same and it is a living room during the 1879. Two main characters of this play are Nora and Torvald Helmer. They are married and they have two children. Nora is the protagonist of the play. Initially she seems very naïve and she acts like a girl who lacks knowledge of the world outside her home. Later on we are able to see that she is not naïve at all and she is neither innocent nor happy, as she seems. Torvald is a very nice and positive character. He treats Nora like a child. He keeps on giving her as much money as she wants. He was very happy because he got a new position in the bank where he was working. Generally he is very concerned about the place and status in society. At the beginning their marriage seems to be perfect, but behind the nice mask there are a lot of hidden problems. Once Torvald was ill and he had to go in Italy in order to recover. They trip was very expensive and Nora, somehow, was obligated to find the money for that trip since Torvald wasn’t earning that much in those times. Nora didn’t know what to do so; she decided to borrow some money in order to help him. She told to Torvald that, the money came from her father. After saying that Torvald never asked her again about that money. One day an unknown guest came in their house. That was a Torvald’s colleague called Krogstad. Since Torvald got a new position in the bank, he had to fire Krogstad. When Krogstad came to Nora she didn’t know why was he there. Since Krogstad was working in the bank, all Nora’s forgery of her father’s signature was in his possession. He pointed out that if she doesn’t help him, he would ruin her and Torvald’s reputation by showing all those contracts. Nora was scared and afraid that he would really do that so, she decided to talk to Torvald. Torvald didn’t even listen to her. He wanted to fire him as soon as possible. At the end Torvald finds out in a letter given by Krogstad, that Nora illegally borrowed money and he called her a hypocrite and a liar. He said that she ruined his happiness. Nora went from the house and she said that she went away in order to make sense of herself. She went away, slamming the door behind her. This was the main reason why their family practically separated at the end. Nora has shown that she is not an innocent and little doll, like Torvald used to treat her. The main themes in this play are: the sacrificial role of women, parental or filial obligations and the unreliability of appearances. From this what I read it’s really difficult to judge anything. In one hand she did well, because the fact she borrowed money for Torvald shows that she really loves him and she cares about him. But from the other hand it’s not good that she was lying to him about the whole situation. If I were Nora I think I would do the same thing. Doing what she did, you actually show how much you care about somebody. Sometimes it’s difficult to say the truth because every person on Earth accepts the truth on different way. Maybe if she told to Torvald how she got money, maybe he would have gone in Italy.
Dimitrije Miskovic
ReplyDeleteEnglish B – HL
01.11.10
Ms. Gelso
Book Report: The doll’s house-Henrik Ibsen
‘‘Read much, but not many books’’, is a quote said by Franklin Benjamin and in my opinion is very true. I believe that reading few high quality books is much better then reading more low quality books. The book that I chose is very good and it can really teach you how to react in certain situations. The book name is ‘‘the doll’s house’’ written by Henrik Ibsen.
The book is about a family and their everyday life. The setting of this play is always the same and it is a living room during the 1879. Two main characters of this play are Nora and Torvald Helmer. They are married and they have two children. Nora is the protagonist of the play. Initially she seems very naïve and she acts like a girl who lacks knowledge of the world outside her home. Later on we are able to see that she is not naïve at all and she is neither innocent nor happy, as she seems. Torvald is a very nice and positive character. He treats Nora like a child. He keeps on giving her as much money as she wants. He was very happy because he got a new position in the bank where he was working. Generally he is very concerned about the place and status in society. At the beginning their marriage seems to be perfect, but behind the nice mask there are a lot of hidden problems. Once Torvald was ill and he had to go in Italy in order to recover. They trip was very expensive and Nora, somehow, was obligated to find the money for that trip since Torvald wasn’t earning that much in those times. Nora didn’t know what to do so; she decided to borrow some money in order to help him. She told to Torvald that, the money came from her father. After saying that Torvald never asked her again about that money. One day an unknown guest came in their house. That was a Torvald’s colleague called Krogstad. Since Torvald got a new position in the bank, he had to fire Krogstad. When Krogstad came to Nora she didn’t know why was he there. Since Krogstad was working in the bank, all Nora’s forgery of her father’s signature was in his possession. He pointed out that if she doesn’t help him, he would ruin her and Torvald’s reputation by showing all those contracts. Nora was scared and afraid that he would really do that so, she decided to talk to Torvald. Torvald didn’t even listen to her. He wanted to fire him as soon as possible. At the end Torvald finds out in a letter given by Krogstad, that Nora illegally borrowed money and he called her a hypocrite and a liar. He said that she ruined his happiness. Nora went from the house and she said that she went away in order to make sense of herself. She went away, slamming the door behind her. This was the main reason why their family practically separated at the end. Nora has shown that she is not an innocent and little doll, like Torvald used to treat her. The main themes in this play are: the sacrificial role of women, parental or filial obligations and the unreliability of appearances.
From this what I read it’s really difficult to judge anything. In one hand she did well, because the fact she borrowed money for Torvald shows that she really loves him and she cares about him. But from the other hand it’s not good that she was lying to him about the whole situation. If I were Nora I think I would do the same thing. Doing what she did, you actually show how much you care about somebody. Sometimes it’s difficult to say the truth because every person on Earth accepts the truth on different way. Maybe if she told to Torvald how she got money, maybe he would have gone in Italy.
Word Count: 676