Tania Vidal
Per: 4A
IB English
Dance
Dance is an art form that refers to body motion, usually rhythmic and used as a form of
expression. In A Doll’s House and Lysistrata dance is included as an important symbol, which is
important to the ending in each play. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen talks about Nora and
Torvald seem to be the perfect married couple. However, Nora had a secret and was afraid that
revealing the truth would ruin their mirage and lead them to divorce. Lysistrata by Aristophanes
is about an Athenian woman named Lysistrata who convinced the women of Greece to hold
sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers in order to force them to negotiate peace; her
strategy brought up a battle between the men and women. The plays are written in different time
periods, which make the stories different in society and morality. Although Lysistrata is a
comedy and A Doll’s House is, a modern tragedy both plays use dance to symbolize the solution
to a problem in the story.
In A Doll's House, Ibsen uses the Tarantella to symbolize how Nora struggles to keep her
secret. The Tarantella is a dance used in the ancient times in the colony of Taranto, Italy to get
rid of the venom of a poisonous spider, which was known as the Lycosa tarantula. The only was
to get rid of the venom was to use rapid motion of the body many people believed that the only
way to cure the bite was by using a very rhythmic and fast music; this became known as the
Tarantella. Ibsen utilizes the tarantella to make a connection between the spider’s bite and Nora’s
problem, the dance was used to cure from the spider’s bite, which was the person problem, yet
Nora uses it as an attempt to get rid of her problem. “My darling, you’re dancing as if your life
depended on it” Nora was dancing in order to keep Torvald from going to the mailbox; if
Torvald were to go there, her secret would be reveal, which would ruin her life. By dancing the
Tania Vidal
Per: 4A
IB English
Tarantella incorrectly, Nora was able to keep her mirage life alive, and perfect, or at least seem
to be perfect. “…you must teach me right up to the last minute, promise me Torvald…you
mustn’t open a single letter, not even go near the mailbox.” Ibsen uses this sentence as Nora’s
attempts to give herself time to come up with a plan to stop Krogstad from revealing the truth to
Torvald, by asking Torvald not to go to the mailbox until the next day. She thought she would be
able to come up with a solution or a plan to save her mirage with the help of Mrs. Linde. Ibsen
usage of the sentence adds an importance to the way he uses the dance by showing how it
important it was for Nora to dance the tarantella incorrectly, although she already knew how to
dance it.
In Lysistrata, Aristophanes uses dance in the last act to symbolize the peace that was
finally settled between the genders after they uses Lysistrata’s strategy. “Well gentle men, so it’s
all happily settled. Spartans, here are your wives back. And here are yours. …and let us have a
dance for thanksgiving-”. After the women held their sex privileges from the men, they all
stopped their war and agreed to make an agreement with the women. After the agreement was
made Lysistrata let the women go back to their husbands and asked them to start a dance of
thanksgiving. The author then includes a dance in which the men and women pair up, by dancing
they all give thanks to the god for giving the a solution. “And let us for the future all endeavor,
Not to repeat our errors, never ever!” Aristophanes uses this as one of the few last words that
Lysistrata says in the play, by doing this it makes the words have and important role in the story.
Aristophanes uses the sentence to show that by using Lysistrata’s strategy the women succeeded
and would not be using it against the men again, as long as the men would not commit the error
of going into war and leaving their wives at home to clean and stay all day, as they had done
before Lysistrata’s plan had been created.
Tania Vidal
Per: 4A
IB English
In A Doll’s House, Nora uses the dance to stall Torvald from finding out the truth, while
in Lysistrata, the men and women dance with each other to symbolize that the problem is solved.
Aristophanes utilizes the dance to show all is calm, it is used as an act of celebration for them the
restoring of peace within each other. “come, let us on the graces call Apollo…that Aphrodite
made, The goddess who Is love” The song used for the dance represent a prayer that the people
use to thank the gods, for the restore the tranquility, the author also uses the song and dance as a
spiritual thing for them. Ibsen uses the Tarantella as the climax in the story, he uses it to help
Nora look for a solution, although Nora got a solution that was not the one she wanted it, using
the Tarantella gave her time to find a solution to her problem. The Tarantella is an important part
the play, the dance was used to get rid of spiders poison for many years but people started faking
spider bites after a few years in order to dance the Tarantella, like in the play the dance was used
to get rid of a problem, but later became something else.
Finding a solution to the situation of each play was crucial to the characters of each play;
by using dance, the authors were able to facilitate the solution. They use of dance was a way for
the authors to portray the peacefulness the solution brought to each play. Although Lysistrata
was a comedy and A Doll’s House was a tragedy, both problems were resolved. The way they
resolved the problem in the plays were different in each play, it shows that there are many ways
to find a solution to a problem, but the solution will not always be what one wants.
Tania Vidal
Per: 4A
IB English
Name ________________________________________________________ Period ____
Comments: (An X indicates
_____ (20) Word Choice
___ Lively Verbs
need for improvement.)
_X__ Expanded Vocabulary
___ Academic Voice
___ Avoids Cliché
___ Absence of Redundancy
__X_ Precise Words/Phrases
__affect/effect
__real/really
__its/it’s
__fewer/less
__further/farther
__have/of
__if/whether
__use/used
__that/which/who
__imply/infer
__accept/except
__a lot
__can/may
__good/well
__lose/loose
__than/then
__their/they’re/there
__to/too/two
__whose/who
__your/you’re
_____ (20) Organization
___ Indented Paragraphs
___ Hook
___ Intro author/title/brief summary
_X__ Focus
_X__ Coherence
___ Balance
___ Unity (Strong Closer)
_____ (20) Sentence Fluency
_X__ Sentence Combining
___ Sentence Variety/Openers
___ Parallel Structure
___ Transitions
_X__ No run-ons/fragments
_X__ Agreement -- Tense, S/V
_____ (20) Idea Development
___ Evidence of Prewriting
___ Clear, effective thesis
___ Sufficient supporting details/evidence
_X__ Demonstrates critical thinking skills
___ Length
_____ (20) Process and Presentation
___ Evidence of Revision
___ Format
___ Correctness/Conventions
__colons
_X_commas
__quotations
__semicolons
__apostrophes
__capitalization
__citations
_X_end marks
I think you could do more
with P4 where you directly
compare the two. For
example, how do the dances
affect the atmosphere of their
respective scenes? How are
the atmospheres different?
I’m not sure about your
assertions regarding Nora
dancing the tarantella
incorrectly. Revisit your
analysis and be more specific
about what the tarantella
symbolizes.
Tania Vidal
Per: 4A
IB English