Written Task Lang & Lit HL Written Task Two Help

[espina852]

Hi I'm writing my first practice written task two and my teacher hasn't really given me much guidance and it's due next week!!!!

How exactly do I go about formatting this task as well as how do I incorporate aspects of the text in it....

Studying: A streetcar named desire

Question: Which social groups are marginalised, excluded or silenced within the text?

I understand the question I just don't really know how I would answer it in an essay format...

[Blackcurrant]

Format? Well, in broad strokes here it is: Intro, main body and conclusion, as for any essay.

-Intro. outlines your topic and makes a claim.

-main body argues and develops your claim

- conclusion wraps things up

Just make sure you answer the question and make your answer into a clear, coherent argument.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Blackcurrant

[vedant dhanuka]

An exploration of the supportive role of “Mrs Linde” in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”.

Henrik Ibsen created an unforgettable controversial female character in Nora as the protagonist of this play “A Doll’s house”. This was written in 1879 and first performed on 21 December of the same year. The play set up a storm being the first of the “realist” genre. But a story always has supporting characters that are deliberately included by the author to drive the story forward. The role of such characters may be long or short but what matters is that how do they impact the story what impression do they leave upon the reader or the audience. One such character is Mrs. Kristine Linde in “A Doll’s House” she is a character who is very craftily used by Henrik Ibsen and I shall attempt to explore the ways in which Ibsen has used Mrs. Linde to support his play and her character there in,

Mrs. Linde is the childhood friend of Norah and makes an early entry in the play. The early entry is a deliberate plot used by Ibsen to initiate and carry out the exposition of the play so we have Norah and Kristine meeting after a gap of nearly 10 years and catching up on the years.

“Kristine fancy not recognizing you again! Best how was I to, home you’ve changed... I dare say in the last eight- nine years.” [1]It is through their conversation that Ibsen gives us first hint that Nora is not the childish, dim wit character that she is shown to be in the opening of the play and so she says “But little Nora isn’t as stupid as everybody thinks”[2]It is here that Ibsen choose to tell us about Nora taking money from her father when Torvald had to be taken to Italy for treatment without letting her husband. After a friendly jibe from Kristina Nora confesses that she too her done something to be happy and proud about just like her and that she had her trials and tribulations. It is because of Mrs Linde that we come to know of Nora’s big secret , the secret she shares only with her.

Lind is also used by Ibsen to further the plot and her presence help to provide the entails twists and turns in the plot .Torvald the banker is beseeched by Nora to provide a job to Kristine in his bank . Torvald sees the perfect reason to remove one of his employees (Krogstad) fromhis bank and after the position to Mrs Linde. Mrs Linde being a widow and in need of the job saves Torvald from being projected as a villain for removing Krogstad .so uphill now Mrs Linde help to mean the plot and thicken it too.

Mrs. Linde plays a significant role after. When Norah faces imminent exposure of her crime and black mail by Krogstad in is Mrs. Linde consults Norah to let Torvald know the truth. She forces Norah to end the deception that was present between Norah and husband. She tells Norah that hiding things from her husband is not good at neither will it help her life in future. Deception in marriage does not allow it to thrive. It will only allow it to wither and die.

Allowing Torvald to receive and read Krogstad can be seen as the learning point in the play and Mrs Linde is responsible for the letter reveals and her marriage. So it is Mrs. Linde who forces Norah to let the truth come out. Did Norah have an intuition? And so unconsciously she was avoiding confrontation? Did Mrs. Linde act or advice because she is jealous of Norah and her good fortune? But no one of these questions have any merit and Norah feared Torvald’s reaction and his act of saving Norah, she feared that he would take the blame which would ruin his reputation and that could not be allowed to happen first when he has been promoted just for this reason she has even contemplated ending her life. Again Mrs. Linde counselled her and prevented her from taking this rash step.

Ibsen has presented Mrs Linde as the perfect foil to Nora. Their lives run parallel but do not meet. When we are introduced to Nora she is shown is a housewife, immature, frivolous spendthrift while Mrs Linde is mature, servers and money wise lovely lady. Nora basks in her happily married status, boarts about her beautiful children and thanks her stars for having smiled upon her, she is exuberant and kindly disposed towards her friend. Mrs Linde is all that Nora is not. Her trials and hardship have downed her exuberance though. She has not lost her spirit to live a good life.

Nora’s deception in matters like eating macaroons foreshadow the greater deception to the disserving reader and therefore the bigger deception of having a dual persona come as a little surprise. But Mrs Linde right from the beginning comes through as a very honest and morally sound woman. Who is just and capable of sustaining herself under all conditions?

That she exudes soothing effect is very evident and Ibsen uses this to counter Nora increasing nervous energy as the play unfolds. We see the effect on Krogstad too! The restlessness that Krogstad shows in Act 1 changes to a relaxed excitement in Act2-3 after Mrs Linde proposes to him.

She is able to assure and convince Krogstad that she likes him and would love to be health inspire of knowing his background. That is enough to boost the sagging confidence .

To some extent, it is Mrs. Linde who is responsible for the change that we observe in Nora. Mrs. Linde observes that “…it’s quite incredible the things that I’ve [she] witnessed in the house in the last twenty-four hours. Helmer must know everything. This unhappy secret must come out.”[3] If she wanted, Mrs. Linde could have prevented Torvald from knowing the truth but she lets the confrontation take place because she believed that Torvald should know the truth and that the marriage should not be built on lies. All this secrecy and deception just can’t go on.

Just as Mrs. Linde had appeared in the play unannounced and without fanfare so does she leave. Just like her character, her entry and exit is marked by the absence of fanfare that is why in contrast to her inconspicuous coming and leaving the play; her role in the play is of utmost importance.

For a moment if we take Mrs. Linde out of the play; we would find ourselves unable to understand Nora without knowing her past. Again the play would not progress or unfold in the manner that it has. Mrs. Linde was the spark which ignites the fire that consumed the Helmers’ marriage. But it needs to be understood that she was only instrumental in making and affecting the break; which was inevitable, if not today then tomorrow.

Mrs. Linde helps to open Nora’s eyes and see the truth about her marriage. For the first time Nora realizes that she had been loving a shadow, was seeking support from a shadow which disappeared at the first hint of dark clouds. Nora also witnessed Torvald crumbling under social pressure. This is what Mrs. Linde meant when she said that they must see the truth.

One would therefore say that Ibsen used Mrs. Linde as a counter to Nora. I think she emerges as a stronger character than Nora. I liked her a lot and it is because of her that Nora awakens to her desire to discover herself and be herself. It is from her and due to her that she gains the strength to stand up against Torvald and take the bold step, a step that set women on the path to emancipation.

Word Count: 1331

Bibliography

Ibsen Henrick,1997. Doll’s House. Edition. Oxford University Press. Translated by James Walter McFarlen

[1] (Act 1 Pg. 9) Ibsen Henrick,1997. Doll’s House. Edition. Oxford University Press.

[2](Act 1 Pg. 11 ) Ibsen Henrick,1997. Doll’s House. Edition. Oxford University Press.

[3](Act 3 Pg.68 ) Ibsen Henrick,1997. Doll’s House. Edition. Oxford University Press.