Ibsen’s A Doll House Critical Analysis #3

Ibsen’s A Doll House  Critical Analysis #3: Drama

Your final critical analysis in this class focuses on one of the two plays we read: Ibsen’s A Doll House or Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles. Prompts to get you thinking about each play appear on the next page.

The NHTI English Department also wants to reinforce information literacy and bibliographic skills—aka, research—in literature courses. So for this final analysis, I ask that you reach beyond the primary texts (the plays) and engage in the larger conversation of literature. You must include 2-5 secondary sources in this analysis.

The secondary or critical sources you cite should only be drawn from scholarly sources: the NHTI Library link offers the JSTOR database, which provides strong humanities and liberal-arts articles written by experts in their fields. Google Scholar is an option, though you may find that you have direct access to articles in JSTOR that Google Scholar does not. (I’ve tried both and found the same article: free in JSTOR, $39 when Google takes me there!) EBSCOhost can work, too, though you have to limit results to Full Text and Scholarly Articles, or your results list will include general-audience newspaper and magazine articles. Like general-info Web sites, these are NOT scholarly articles and should not be cited in this analysis. Wikipedia and other dot.com sites are best avoided; dot.edu sites are best.

For books, your best bet is the ebrary database (on the Library page). The physical stacks in our library don’t have much to offer on these authors. But an ebrary search will bring you to ebooks that you can search by keyword, making them powerful resources. You can also get lucky at your local public library.

Please adhere to the following criteria, along with checking that your paper meets the guidelines for presentation, organization, thesis, textual evidence, and format (as explained in documents on Blackboard):

• Your final critical analysis should achieve 5-7 pages.
• Provide a works-cited page for all cited works.
• Cite 2-5 secondary/critical sources.
• Be sure to cite all sources accurately and conscientiously.

Prompts for Drama Analysis:

Ibsen, A Doll’s House

1. Examine the character of Nora. What are her character traits? What are her strengths and weaknesses? How is she presented to the audience? Compare how Helmer perceives her with how she sees herself.
2. Analyze the role of money in this drama. How do the different characters view/use/react to money? What role does money play?
3. Analyze Ibsen’s depiction of marriage. How does he present married life in the play?(You may also compare this treatment of the institution of marriage with other writers we’ve read.)
4. Discuss Nora’s secret. Why does she do what she does? What is the impact of her actions? What do her actions say about her? Consider the themes of appearance, deception and secrecy.
5. Analyze the play’s title and the depiction of Nora as a child. What is Ibsen saying about domesticity, family life, and gender?
6. The play ends with a door slamming. What is signified by this sound? Why is it the final stage direction? How is this sound a commentary about women’s lives?(This would likely be used as evidence for a larger thesis about womanhood, marriage, female empowerment in the play.)
7. Pages 844-45 of the Norton offer some prompts for writing as well. Consider them part of this list of potential launch points.

 

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