A Doll's House to the top of 1018

The tarentella, as depicted in a ballet called Napoli, choreographed by Bournonville, performed by the New York City Ballet.


Please respond to one of the following:

1. How do you feel about Krogstad at this point in the play?

2. Helmer's theory is that "almost everyone who goes bad early in life has a mother who's a chronic liar" (1014). what do you think of this theory? What does Nora think of it, and how can we tell?

3. Torvald's idea for a costume/act for Nora for the party is for her to go as a "Neapolitan peasant girl and dance the tarentella." Comment.

4. Mrs. Linde and Nora discuss Dr. Rank (1016-1017). What do we learn from this discussion?

A Doll's House to bottom of 1011

1. Comment on Nora's relationship with her children.

OR

2. How does Nora's relationship with her children fit in with other things we know or think about Nora?

OR

3. Krogstad tells Nora that she has committed the crime of forgery. Explain.

OR

4. Nora explains why she thinks a court of law would forgive her for her forgery because her motive was good. Does her explanation reinforce anything we've discovered about her so far, or does it tell us something new about her?

A Doll's House 1000-bottom of 1006

This is where the play gets potentially confusing.

1. Why is it necessary for Torvald and Nora to travel south?

2. How do they acquire the money to travel south? Or since this cannot be answered conclusively, what are the possibilities at this point?

3. What does Nora want Torvald not to know, and why does she want him not to know it?

4. Back on p. 997, we hear of how Nora locked everyone out for three weeks while she worked on Christmas decorations. What might she really have been doing?

Try to answer any of these questions, citing a quotation in support of your answer.

OR (once the answers to the above questions are established)

1. How has our sense of Nora changed since the beginning of the play?

2. What is Nora's relationship with Dr. Rank like, and how do you know?

A Doll's House bottom of 996-bottom of 1000

Having read this section, what question do you have at this point? You MUST come up with a question. If you have the same question as someone else, try to refine or develop the question a bit. If in addition to asking a question, you would like to try to respond to someone's question, great!

A Doll House 993-bottom of 996

1. Begin to analyze the relationship of the married couple, Torvald and Nora.
OR
2. Of what economic class are Torvald and Nora members? How do we know, based on what we have so far in the text?
OR
3. What pieces of evidence of feminist/sexist issues are there?

Sula 163-174

This blog assignment is optional. It is NOT in true-false mode.

1. How might the way the book ends affect the book's meaning?

2. Is it possible that Sula is both wicked, or mean, AND liked or even loved by the reader? If so, how?

3. Morrison presents us with various women, none of them perfect. Is it possible to be more whole, more complete, as a woman? On the evidence of this book, does the author think it is possible to be more whole, more complete, as a woman?

Sula 147-162

Don't forget the quoted passage.

1. T or F Shadrack is becoming more sane.

2. T or F Sula's attitude toward Nel, expressed in her thoughts after Nel leaves her, are typical of Sula.

3. T or F There are some sad and evocative images concerning poverty in this reading.

4. T or F His memory of Sula helped Shadrack become more sane.