Awaking from the Spider's Bite - Act 2 of

A detailed Summary of Awaking from the Spider's Bite - Act 2 of

Reality is sometimes a hard thing to come to terms with. A child doesn't want to know that Santa Claus doesn't really exist, just as a cuckolded husband doesn't want to believe his wife is cheating on him. But eventually we as humans must face up to the truth about ourselves. Otherwise, we'd never evolve. It is this striking theme that permeates the entire second act of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. The first act of the play found Nora's secrets backfiring on her, threatening to upset forever the blind tranquility of her home life. In this second act, she begins to come to terms with the fact that her perfect fantasy world is in fact just that - a fantasy. Nora begins to have realizations about the nature of her marriage and, indeed, her very life. She doesn't want to face these facts about herself and her family, but she can no longer turn back. Something has to change, for better or for worse.

This principle dramatic action is set into motion from the very first scene, which begins with the first stage directions of the act and ends with Nora crying, "Ah- they're coming-!" The nurse makes a comment while talking to Nora that seems to sum up the dramatic action of this scene - "A poor girl what's got into trouble ca

Scene six starts as Mrs. Linde enters from the nursery (p. 554, Col. B) and ends with her stating, "I'll be back as quickly as I can" (p. 555, Col A). The major dramatic action in this scene is Nora's resignation to the idea that there will be a confrontation with Torvald. She begins, of course, in hysterics, begging to Christine to be her witness as she accepts all responsibility for the oncoming situation. This quickly segues into a definite acceptance of the situation at hand, though a begrudging one. "A miracle - is - about to happen... but it's so frightening... it mustn't happen," she cries (p. 555, Col. A). This acceptance is what nearly all of the preceding scenes have been leading up to - every new interjection of reality into her fantasy has led her to this one final hope, and it is on this "miracle" that she is placing the fate of her entire marriage, really. We see that she is truly becoming resigned to this course of events as Christine attempts to salvage the situation and Nora simply states, "There's nothing to be done now" (p. 555, Col. A).

The second scene begins with Mrs. Linde entering from the hall (pg. 548, Col. B) and ends with her saying, "But I shan't leave this house until we've talked this matter out" (pg. 549, Col. B). I believe that the dramatic action of this scene is to firmly establish Nora's naivete, the naivete that she's clearly attempting to cling to as best she can. She wants to act and play - to be Torvald's little songbird. She desperately wants things to stay the same. The tarantella that is mentioned at the beginning of the scene represents a last-ditch effort to maintain this fragile facade of a marriage that she and Torvald have created, this superficially perfect construct. When asked about the tarantella, she says, "Torvald wants me to go," and also "Torvald says I should" (p. 548, Col. B.) She still wants to be that carefree pet that she's always been, deferring responsibility for all things good and bad to her husband. Another important example of Nora's naivete is the discovery that Dr. Rank may in fact see her in a romantic light. The fact that Christine, her older and more experienced friend, points out this possibility helps drive home just how inexperienced and naive Nora is.

Scene three begins as Helmer enters from the hallway (p. 549, Col. B) and ends with Nora whispering, "Anything, I don't care-!" (p. 551, Col. A) This scene finds us becoming increasingly aware of how petty Torvald is (in fact, Nora states this outright!). He behaves like a spoiled brat. He won't even consider Nora's opinions - in fact, he seems to intentionally contradict her even when he thinks she might be right, just like a child will. This is most apparent during Nora and Torvald's argument during this scene. Torvald admits, "I might conceivably have allowed myself to ignore his moral obloquies, and I hear he's quite efficient at his job," but then finds a trivial little excuse to assert that it's still his decision, and he won't stray from it - "[Krogstad

Some common words found in the essay are:
Col Scene, Doll's House, Krogstad Christian, Dr Rank, Krogstad Nora's, Nora Torvald's, Torvald Papa, Col Nora, Santa Claus, Torvald Torvald, dramatic action, dramatic action scene, action scene, 553 col, 548 col, 555 col, col scene, 556 col, 554 col, 551 col, scene begins, torvald papa 553, principle dramatic action, we're lost 554, lost 554 col,

Approximate Word count = 2041
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English