1. What are the expectations of a housewife?

To be a songbird, to look pretty for Torvald

Animal imagery : reflects societys view of Nora : subservient to
husband
Very superficial
ufrihet: the unfree condition of middle-class women is of major
concern in all his drama and encompasses the most crucial moral,
psychological and existential ideas in the plays from A Dolls House
not a militant blow against the institution of marriage
tvertimod (meaning: quite the contrary)
One by one, Mrs Linde had shed the ties (and the roles they imply)
that confine the woman to the dolls house and define the angel in the
late Victorian home: the unloved and unloving husband is dead, which
frees Mrs Linde from Noras role as wife; there are no children, which
frees her from Noras happily purposeful maternity; there is no house,
no property, which frees Mrs Linde from dollydom itself, from Noras
happy housekeeping in her bourgeois paradise

2. In what ways does Nora fulfill those expectations? Or not fulfill them?
Fulfils them by performing the role of the mother caring for her
children, ensuring the proper running of the household
Does not fulfil them when she steps out the role that society has
carved for a woman like her she takes a loan to finance a trip to
Italy, which was out of the norms of the society reflects the
patriarchal society, as well as the archaic views the society has.

3. By the end of the play, how have Torvald and Nora developed?
Torvald : still remains in the clutches of the society
reflects that he is rather shallow, only believes in holding onto the
archaic beliefs, which gives him power.
Inability to tolerate the dark sides of life (i.e. sickness and death)
shallow
Nora: liberates herself from societys clutches
Reflects her inner strength (as seen earlier from her forging her
fathers signature to have the loan approved)
Surprisingly open, able to sacrifice sacrifice her children for the
sake of her freedom, her ability to explore her identity
Playwrights message: Liberate women from the confines that society has
crafted/carved out for them. Leave them to be independent, as they are able
to. Do not make them subservient to men changing gender roles in
society, and how people should
Everyone should have the courage to stand up against society and form their
own opinions Think about itin a way, Torvald, Nora's husband, is just as

caged by society as his wife. Society has programmed them both into their
prescribed roles: dominant, provider husband; submissive, homemaking wife.
In Ibsen's mind, all human beings have a sacred duty to themselves.
Ibsen is not a social philosopher, but a poet for whom the politics of
liberation have become the inspiration for his vision of the human
predicament. He sees humankind as trapped, like Nora, between the
seductive and soul-destroying security of her dolls house and the frightening
emptiness of the freedom that awaits her beyond the door. A Dolls House
Ibsens Myth of Transformation
The measure of her loss, as a free and emancipated spirit, is carefully
gauged by the career of her mirror image, Kristin Linde, who enters the world
of domestic security to seek a new definition of freedom within its confines.
A Dolls House Ibsens Myth of Transformation
Nora and Mrs Linde: together they constitute the tvertimod at the heart of
the problem of women, the eternally unreconciled needs and impulses that
cry out for accommodation but that ultimately resists synthesis