A+Doll's+House

[|Here's] the link to A Doll's House for reading at home and over Spring Break.

Here's the Socratic Seminar Questions. We're going to try something different this time. Pick five you want to write about prepare full paragraph responses with claims, quoted (partial or complete quotes) evidence and commentary.

Mrs. Linda proposes a question that could help solve all the problems of  the main characters in the play. She says to Krogstad, "If two drowning  people join hands, don't you think they have a better chance of being  rescued?" Do you think this principle could have served to help them all  out? Why or why not?

 Who ultimately leads the dance? the dancer (Nora) or the teacher of the dance (Torvald)?

 What does Mrs. Linde's statement that she needs somebody to work for suggest?  Does Ibsen believe we need masters to our lives?

 Does Nora deserve blame for her situation at the end of the play or is it  fair that Nora blames Torvald and her father? Why or why not?

 Does Nora's decision to leave her family seem too radical or rash? Why or  why not?

 Are Nora's "duties to herself" really that more important than the other  roles she plays? Why or why not?

 Do you think it was possible for Nora and Torvald to have a miracle  (change completely)? Why or why not?

For Monday March 14, 2011: Read and annotate the following poem. Annotate for imagery, diction, significant details, repetition, and syntax, and come up with two to four words to describe the tone of the poem. Bonus points for impressing Mr. Eriksson with additional, meaningful annotations you share with the class.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: normal;">**A Work of Artifice** <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: normal;">**by Marge Piercy**

in the attractive pot could have grown eighty feet tall on the side of a mountain till split by lightning. But a gardener carefully pruned it. It is nine inches high. Every day as he whittles back the branches the gardener croons, It is your nature to be small and cozy, domestic and weak; how lucky, little tree, to have a pot to grow in. With living creatures one must begin very early to dwarf their growth: the bound feet, the crippled brain, the hair in curlers, the hands you love to touch. ||
 * || The bonsai tree