Dr. Szlyk's Blog for ENGL 190: 8/29 Questions in EN 190

[Recently Gillian Anderson played Nora in a British production set in 1909. There Torvald and Krogstad were politicians!]

Good evening & welcome to our new students :)

I hope that you are enjoying watching the 1973 version of A Doll House. If you have a chance, feel free to read the play (1242-1297) or the online version:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/i/ibsen/henrik/dolls/index.html

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2542/2542-h/2542-h.htm

Feel free to take a look at the new (or not-so-new) entries on the blog as well:

http://en202.blogspot.com/2013/08/from-archives-pictures-and-more-of-doll.html

http://en202.blogspot.com/2013/08/theater-and-filmvideo.html

Here are a few more questions for you based on our discussion, the parts of A Doll House that we have seen, and the blog entries. Skim over the questions to see which ones intrigue you the most.

-- What did today's scenes add to your understanding of A Doll House? performance? theater?

-- How did today's scenes complicate your understanding of A Doll House? Nora? the characters' relationships? the actors' performances?

-- Discuss A Doll House as a film. How do the extra scenes (the opening credits, the scenes outside of the house, especially Krogstad's scene with his sons) add to your understanding of the play?

-- We've been focusing on characters' psychology and actors' performances. How do other elements (set design, camera angles, composition of shots, sound, costumes) add to your understanding of the play?

-- If you've had a chance to read the play in our anthology or online, how do the stage directions add to your understanding of the play? How do they limit it?

-- What do you make of the coincidence that Mrs. Linde and Krogstad used to know each other? Why?

-- Try out this website: http://www.pbs.org/manorhouse/1905/

What would your life have been like in 1905? How does this knowledge help you understand A Doll House a little better? Why? Below are some pictures from 1905.