A Doll’s House – by Henrik Ibsen – The opening section
 Context – Bourgeois family home – 1879 – Norway
1. Look closely at the set design. What sense do we have of the
character’s lifestyle and class?
2. What is revealed about Nora’s character and circumstances in
the opening section.
3. Observe closely the relationship between Nora and Helmer.
Focus on:
a) The power relationship
b) The language they use with each other (e.g epithets)
c) Their different attitudes towards money and other
social values?
d) What do the macaroon’s seem to signify?
4. Evaluate their marriage.
A Doll’s House Act 1 – Nora’s Relationships
We have just observed how Nora’s marriage to Helmer, whilst superficially
ideal, contains many imbalances, concerns and potential conflicts.
Nora and Mrs. Linde These aspects are accentuated through her dialogue
with her old friend Kristina Linde (p.153-164). To analyse how, look out for
the following features:
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Their different family and financial circumstances
Their explicit declarations about their feelings on life in general
Nora’s self-delusion, egocentrism and insensitivity
Nora’s motivation to tell Kristina about where she got the money
How she changes on the entrance of Krogstad
Nora and Rank – Dr. Rank is also used as means of revealing aspects of
Nora’s personality and marriage:
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Their contrasting attitudes to life and society
His cynicism opposed to her naiveté
His explicit comments and her surreptitious ones
Her use of the macaroons
Nora and Krogstad – Having already been introduced to Krogstad through
his entrance, comments by Rank and Nora’s excessive concern about him,
the audience is ready for a very different kind of relationship.
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Her different manner towards him
His family and financial circumstances
Their actual financial relationship
Their similarity in past actions
Nora and Helmer – Now we know Nora’s real situation, look closely at
how she behaves with her husband at the end of the act.
 Her new attitude towards life
 Her desire for dominance
 The dramatic irony behind Helmer’s comments
Extended question – How does Ibsen create dramatic tension in the first act
to reveal the unstable premise of the Helmer’s marriage?