Doll's House Reading and Test

If you have missed reading part of Ibsen's play, you may read the missed sections online. Click here to access a website will the full text of the play.

The 25-question multiple choice exam on A Doll's House will be Friday, May15. Students doing May Term need to take this exam as the last assignment for their fourth quarter grade.

Henrik Ibsen

• Born in Skein, Norway


• Lived his early life in poverty, stung by social rejection.


• Hired as a playwright by the National Theater in Bergen.


• Left Norway in 1862, starting a 27-year self-imposed exile. During this time he wrote his finest plays.


• "A literary pioneer who created the modern, realistic prose drama.”


• The bold, social commentary in his plays often earned him criticism.


• “A Doll’s House (1879) aroused controversy because it portrayed a woman whose actions were not considered acceptable at the time.”


• Ibsen was a revolutionary playwright who provided detailed stage directions that precisely described sets, lighting, props and how actors should interpret their lines.

Essay and Test on March 27

The final exam for your choice book unit is Friday, March 27. That is also the date that your essay is due. If you are leaving early for spring break, you need to complete both assessments before you leave. Below is a description of the essay assignment.

For the choice book analytical essay you need to compare your choice novel to two other works studied in World Literature. Your comparison should analyze a common topic by detailing text to text connections – remember that you can discuss the differences in how the texts approach the topic as well as the similarities. The A to Z Taxonomy of Common Issues is a great place to start for essay ideas. You may use any films, poems, short stories or novels read in World Literature this year for the two texts that you will compare to your choice novel. Since you may not have ready access to the short stories or previous novels read in World Lit, supporting details for main points for those texts simply need to be paraphrases of events and ideas. However, you should support main ideas about your choice novel with direct quotations from the text.

Comparison Texts

World Literature I major texts:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Choice novel (Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Snow by Orhan Pamuk, The Last Summer of Reason by Tajar Djaout, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Films: Il Postino, The Cup, Surviving Picasso

World Literature II texts (so far)

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Films: Pride and Prejudice, Lagaan
Various short stories (keep track of them in your notebook)

The essay should be two pages long, 12-point font, double spaced.

The essay is due on Friday, March 27 or the day before you leave for spring break!

Jane Austen's Influence

Jane Austen, 1775-1817

• The daughter of a rector—the seventh of eight children—educated at home and never lived apart from her family
• Her novels are closer to 18th century satire than Romantic Age works.
• Observed social behavior with “shrewd perceptiveness.”
• Common theme—maturity achieved through loss of illusions
  
  Novels:
  Sense & Sensibility (1795)
  Pride & Prejudice (1796)
  Northanger Abbey (1797)
  Mansfield Park (1811)
  Emma (1814)
  Persuasion (1815)

**Sense and Sensibility first published in 1811

Pride & Prejudice Characters

The Bennet Sisters:

Jane Bennet--the beautiful, eldest daughter
Elizabeth Bennet - The novel's protagonist
Mary Bennet - The middle Bennet sister, bookish
Catherine (Kitty) Bennet - The fourth Bennet sister, a flirt
Lydia Bennet - The youngest Bennet sister, a flirt

Love Interests:

Fitzwilliam Darcy - A wealthy gentleman, the master of Pemberley
Charles Bingley - Darcy's best friend, has a considerable fortune.
George Wickham - A handsome, fortune-hunting militia officer.
Mr. Collins - A pompous clergyman who stands to inherit the Bennet's home.

Key Word Prediction

Consider the key words from the first pages of The Handmaid’s Tale and predict the story.

palimpsest: a parchment that has been erased to make room for other text
pedantic: overly concerned with minute details
debase: to reduce in value or dignity
servile: submissive; fawning

angels
football
thongs
unwoman
nunneries
colonies
blood
shatterproof
black market
prayvaganzas
Econowives
anarchy