A well-developed post is meaningful, shows relevance to the topic, and reflects your knowledge of the material. Well-developed posts demonstrate synthesis of the subject matter, extend the discussion by building on previous posts, and include proper source citations, when applicable.
Do NOT look up any information about the literature from the internet for your discussion posts. The entire idea is for you to discuss what you think it all means and to exchange ideas with each other, supporting your theories with evidence from the literature itself. There is no one right answer anyway when it comes to literature. Multiple interpretations are possible.
Instructions:
- Please read the above underlined explanation of what the discussion should be like.
- Read A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen The second and third acts (called ACT II and ACT III, pages 33-81) of https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2542/2542-h/2542-h.htm
- After completing the play, read chapter 10 (pages 89-90) of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/wollstonecraft1792.pdf
- Respond to the following questions:
Respond to the following questions (but don’t read them before finishing the play, as there will be SPOILERS!)
- We see two relationships in this play — Nora and Torvald’s and Christina and Krogstad’s. In what ways do these relationships differ? Do you think that Ibsen intended to draw a contrast between them?
- What role does Dr. Rank play in the story? What’s the purpose of his character?
- Consider the mailbox as a symbol? What might it represent?
- Why does Nora leave behind not only her husband, but also her children? Wollstonecraft (2017) argues that “to be a good mother, a woman must have sense and also the independence of mind that is possessed by few women who are taught to depend entirely on their husbands” (p. 90). What does she mean by this, and how would Wollstonecraft see Nora’s actions at the end of the play?
