Introduction

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Goals today

Predicting some of the concerns, characters, concepts and themes in A Doll's House

Understanding come context of composition 

Summative on A Doll's House (ADH) 1st December 

Marking expectation - Thursday 16th October 

A Doll's House 

Bring your copy of A Doll's House to lesson. 

You cannot annotate directly in your copy as it must be returned, but please use post-its to annotate important passages or record your thinking. 

Homework - Language & Literature HL

Read in your text book pages 165 & 169 

Take notes in your exercise book for Thursday 

Homework for 9th October 

Words to use/learn (AWL)

Analysis 

Approach 

context 

establish 

function 

indicate 

response 

specific 

Words to learn/use (terminology) 

Dramatic dialogue 

connotative meaning 

denotative meaning 

playwright 

performance 

stage 

speech directions 

Write this vocabulary down in their columns 

Tick the words off as you use them in your written and spoken work. 

01:54

What impression do you have of Nora? What kind of person is she?

03:04

Nora's shoes could be considered to be a symbol. What might they be symbolic of?

04:27

What point could this section be making about the structure of society?

05:36

Shoes 

Notice how the symbolic meaning attached to an object can be augmented through the way they are used and appear in the narrative. 

06:16

The front door also carries symbolic meaning. what might be the symbolic message?

06:29

Music 

Notice how music is used to place emphasis on certain objects, events or actions. How could a playwright achieve a similar effect? What techniques could be available?

06:42

Keys and mobile symbolic? What idea could these symbolise?

07:48

This moment has been foreshadowed. What feeling/idea was triggered in you from the foreshadowed image.

Jot down your thoughts ...

1. Predict some of the ideas and events that might be in the play. 
   
2. What characters could there be and how do they interact with each other? 
   
3. What themes/ main ideas were highlighted in the short film that we watched? 
   

   (2:27) 

Etymology 'playwright'

"writer or adapter of plays for the stage," 1680s (Ben Jonson used it 1610s as a mock-name), from play (n.) + wright (n.).

Old English wryhta, wrihta (Northumbrian wyrchta, Kentish werhta) "worker," variant of earlier wyhrta "maker," from wyrcan "to work" (see work (v.)). Now usually in combinations (wheelwright, playwright, etc.) or as a surname. A common West Germanic word; cognate with Old Saxon wurhito, Old Frisian wrichta, Old High German wurhto.

From: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=playwright

Concept: Identity 

How one expresses themselves in relation to the context (beliefs/morality, race or ethnicity and gender)

Identity 

A way somebody sees themselves based on experiences, beliefs and origins. 

Beliefs and morality

Race and Ethnicity, Religion, 

Social Class, 

Gender, 

Occupation, 

Education Level, 

Country of origin, Behaviour, 

Sexual Orientation  

Henrik Ibsen 

Born 1828 in Norway 

Died 1906 

A Doll's House 

Written in 1879 

21st Dec 1879 world premier in Copenhagen 

1882 first English translation performed in Milwaukee USA

Context of composition 

The father of realism. 

Context of composition and context of interpretation 

Realism 

Ibsen, established realism as a vital mode in the theatre. Realism for Ibsen is simultaneously a theatrical technique and a philosophical stance. We find realism at work in Ibsen’s dialogue, scenery and characterisation, as well as in the plays’ relentless critique of bourgeois ideals. Ibsen was not the first realist dramatist, but he remains its most influential practitioner. The plays continue to bear witness to realism’s effectiveness, as audiences continue to find themselves represented, in all their faults, in his dramas.

Adapted from Cambridge.org

Well-made play 

 A Doll’s House may be described as a ‘well-made play’: a style of 19th century play with clear-cut protagonists and antagonists, artificially logical plots, often involving some ‘skeleton in the family cupboard', and usually happy endings. Ibsen often used the basic form of the well-made plot, but used more realistic and problematic characters than were previously seen. 

The term was coined by the influential French playwright Eugène Scribe (1791-1861)

What denotative and connotative meanings does the title A Doll's House have for you? 

Jot down your answers...

during the music (2:03)

Draw the stage layout from above. You can also decide to draw it in 3-D. See next slide. 

Why, do you think, that Ibsen gave such a detailed description of the stage directions?

Act One stage directions 

A comfortably and tastefully, but not expensively furnished room. Backstage right a door leads to the hall; backstage left, another door to Helmer's study. Between these two doors stands a piano. In the middle of the left-hand wall is a door, with a window downstage of it.Near the window, a round table with armchairs and a small sofa. In the right-hand wall, slightly upstage, is a door; downstage of this, against the same wall, a stove lined with porcelain tiles, with a couple of armchairs and a rocking-chair in front of it. Between the stove and the side door is a small table. Engravings on the wall. A what-not with china and other bric-a-brac; a small bookcase with leather-bound books. A carpet on the floor; a fire in the stove. A winter day. 

Goals today

Consider characterisation and language usage in Act 1 

Learn about play structure and the plot and sub-plot

Act 1 production analysis and consideration 

Reading complete Act 1 for 11th November 

Words to use/learn (AWL list 1) 

Assume 

Available 

Consistent 

Identify 

Interpretation 

Occur 

Section 

 

Words to learn/use (terminology) 

Plot 

sub-plot  

Exposition 

complication 

resolution/denouement

Well-made play 

parallels & contrasts 

Write this vocabulary down in their columns 

Tick the words off as you use them in your written and spoken work.