Toqa Hosam 11T
Sunday, 8, January, 2012
English Language and Literature SL
Dear Torvald,
Greetings Torvald, I wanted to write you this letter to express my feelings and to fully rationalize to you why I left you. I hope you still know that this letter doesn’t change anything I previously said, I will not come back and you are not allowed to write me back. I just thought that you and my children need and deserve an explanation on the details of why exactly I departed other than madly rushing through the door like that, so let’s start shall we?
I believe you know why I left even though you might be in denial, which is what this letter is for; it’s to assure your considerations. First of all, you are a man that is financially stable and considered to be in the high social class, and add handsome to that and so that results in a perfect and ideal husband. I truly believed you were my perfect husband at the time we got married. I felt it was a dream come true. Even though I was a grown adult when I married you, I guess I hadn’t matured yet. As I matured I started to see the bad areas of this marriage, and I discovered that you are not the perfect husband for me, but you’re the perfect husband to the society. I know that you were unaware of that I got sincerely bothered by they way you treated me in.
But I am also aware that this behavior is very common in our society and that is why you might have not even known they were insulting And for that, I am writing to alert you with the wrongness of these acts and maybe after I’m done, you’ll never treat a

woman the same why I was treated. Not even the next wife you have, that is, if you have one.
You treated me in a way that suggested that I was very self-indulgent, almost child-like in fact. You forbid me from eating foods that you thought would make me fat just like what my mother did to me as a child, the same exact scenario You forbid me from having any responsibility of anything but the house and the kids even if I wanted. You never ask me to cook, clean, buy groceries, or take care of the children, you just expect to go home to a well prepared dinner, with the kids bathed and done with their homework, and a well dressed wife waiting for you on the dinning room table. Not only that, but the part that killed me the most is that you never even said thank you, Like this was the job I was brought to earth to do, and I had no other choice, and that I don’t deserve an appreciation. It was almost like I was a doll and you were pulling the strings and making me do whatever you wanted me to do whenever you wanted me to do it. I am aware of your intentions, Torvald. I know that you did these things in order to comfort me. But this is just not what I want. I want responsibility. I want independence. Torvald, I don’t want a man with me anymore. I apologize Torvald if this is harsh, but as a matured I realized that I don’t love you anymore and maybe the reason I got married to you from the very first place was my young adventurous self.
As for the children, they are my sweethearts and just like any mother, I love them more than anything in the whole entire universe. Everyday I think about them and how much I miss them and I cry myself to sleep, but I had to leave them. I didn’t know where I’d go when I left, I didn’t know if I’ll be able to have a good job, a nice

home, good money, or if I’ll live on the streets. I didn’t know if I’ll be able to give them a better life than the one you can give them, and for that reason Torvald, I left the children. I wish I can see them again one day, see them safe and happy going on with there, hopefully, bright-filled and successful life. I wish you could fulfill that one wish for me, that last thing I want from you, just take care of them Torvald and prove to me that you are a well qualified father, unlike you being a husband.
I wish you a good life Torvald and that you find yourself a woman that you love and that loves you back. I’d also like to ask you a favor… Show this letter to the children when they are old enough so they wouldn’t hate me so much, just the part about them of course, they don’t have to know about our problems, and give them indirect advice about the mistakes both of us committed so they’d learn from them.
Again Torvald, nothing had changed by me sending you this letter, I don’t love you anymore, and I’m not coming back to that doll’s house again. I will not write a return address on this letter, and please Torvald don’t try and figure out where I live or try and write back because I won’t even open the letter. I’m done with this phase of my life and moved on. I will not give you any information about my new life, as I don’t want to deliver to you the indirect and false message that you are a part of that new life. Trust me this is better for both of us; I wish you could see that one day.
Have a nice life Torvald.
Sincerely, Nora

This written task is a letter based on part 3, A Doll’s House. My aim was to write a letter from Nora to Torvald after she left him at the very end of the play. I chose to write a letter because it seemed realistic enough, and includes the character’s feelings within the words in the letter. Also it is more suitable for the time frame set for this book to send letters rather than communicating by other means.
I chose the letter to be sent specifically from Nora to Torvald because Nora was the one who acted in a way that deserved an explanation later on. Even though she was the victim of society, she was still the one who ran out the door leaving her hurt husband and kids behind and they deserved an explanation on why she did that.
And the reason why she wrote it was because even though she left, there’s always a part of her that’s nostalgic to her husband and old life.
The statement “You forbid me from eating foods that you thought would make me fat just like what my mother did to me when I was a child, the same exact way” suggests that Nora was not only oppressed by her husband, but also by her mother as a child. She was a victim of society all her life, which explains her being fed up and just leaving without explaining.
“I don’t love you anymore” was written more than once to emphasize her point and also to show how she’s thinking about it involuntarily.
I used several different paragraphs in the written task to show how Nora had a lot of points to tell Torvald and because they overwhelmed her, they were not strategically structured. She also used casual language, as this is not a formal letter.