Cristy Mendez

Ms. Janson

English 10 Honors

Thursday, April 30, 2015

A Doll’s House

When one thinks of a doll’s house, he or she imagines a perfect house with perfect

people living perfect lives. However, as proven in “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen,

that is never the case, there is always more than meets the eye. The scene from the play

that my group and I chose to portray focuses on when Nora, the main character, and

Torvald, her husband are arguing. Dr. Rank, a friend of them, shows up at their door

unannounced. Nora and Torvald act as if there is nothing wrong, as if they had not just

been fighting. Dr. Rank speaks to Nora in front of Torvald, using code, about how he will

die. Nora understands, but hides the truth, or any form of reaction, from Torvald. In my

group’s representation of this scene from “A Doll’s House”, my character, Nora’s, vocal

tone and body language help demonstrate a clearer view of the theme of appearances in

the play.

In our selected scene, Nora uses vocal tone to demonstrate the theme of

appearances. At the beginning of the scene, when Nora and Torvald are arguing, Nora

raises her voice, desperately telling Torvald to “let her go” (68). However, when a knock

is heard on the door, Nora is startled. When Dr. Rank enters, Nora changes her tone,

pretending that nothing is wrong and laughing about the party and how much her husband

had drunk. When Nora asks Dr. Rank about his “scientific investigation” (69), which is

code for his death, she keeps her tone cheerful and nonchalant, to give the impression to

her husband as if nothing was going on. When Dr. Rank leaves, she tells him to “sleep

well” and “wish her the same” (70). Although she tries to keep her tone easy, her voice

still sounds a bit desperate, as she is referring to him dying.

Nora also uses body language to show the theme of appearances in the scene.

When Nora and Torvald are alone, they argue, although she doesn’t lose her temper very

easily. She is very frustrated, as shown by her unhappy facial expressions, but tries to

reason with her husband. When a knock is heard at the door, she looks up, worried,

before asking who is at the door. As soon as Dr. Rank comes, her body language changes

completely. She appears a bit awkward around Torvald, but smiles and tries to skip and

act completely care free and happy. When Nora secretly asks Dr. Rank about her death,

she keeps her body easy, but her face shows that she is interested and worried in what he

has to say. Even though her tone could easily hide how she was feeling, body language is

harder to hide, and if one looked closely, they could tell signs of nervousness in Nora.

Nora, the character I portray in our group’s representation of a scene from “A

Doll’s House”, uses vocal tone and body language to cause further understanding of the

theme of appearances in the play. It seemed as though everything that happened inside

that dollhouse was a lie, carefully crafted to make life seem perfect. Although Nora and

Torvald fought, they kept it hidden from the eyes of the world, always pretending

everything was fine when someone was around, and even occasionally pretending

everything was fine when they were alone with each other. At the same time, Nora kept

another secret with Dr. Rank from her husband, the fact that he was dying, in order to not

cause any worry. All in all, perfect houses with perfect people don’t exist, and the ones

that do are handcrafted and made of porcelain or plastic.