Journal #2 for A Doll's House

Assignment due for class discussion on Thursday, 4/24

• "A Doll's House" was extremely controversial, and one famous actress in Germany refused to play Nora unless the ending were changed. Since Ibsen had no control over how the play was performed in Germany, he wrote an alternate ending himself, in which Torvald makes Nora takes a last look at their children before leaving and, seeing them, she loses her will to go. Ibsen called this new ending a "barbaric outrage," but critic Otto Reinert suggests that the German version might be "a stronger indictment of male society" than the original.  Discuss what he might mean and whether you agree.