After watching 'A Dolls House' :

So I watched a performance from an acting course in an university that was done many years ago but based on the same script. The girl who played 'Nora' played her very well. I don't know if it's in the play or if it's the university's interpretation but in the three acts, for every act the set changed and got more modern every time and so did the costumes. It started with a very Victorian based set and costumes/hair styles and so on and by the end of the play it was much more dated.

By watching the play it gave me a much more clear idea of what was going on as I didn't know that much about the story when I was just reading the monologue to myself.

Nora's character is originally in her thirties, the girl playing her came across a lot younger...of course she is anyway as it is a university piece but the way she walked and presented herself she at least looked her early twenties and at a push...possibly her late twenties. The fact that her character had three children made her seem older.

From watching the play what I have got from it is that Nora's character has always been told what to do because it seems by the end of the play she does not really know anything or what to do on her own. She is constantly asking for people to do her favours during the play and never seems to do anything alone apart from departing at the end and even then she relies on her friend to take her in. By the end of the play she does pluck up the courage to tell her husband (Torvald) that she wants to learn about life on her own and that she does not know how to be a wife or a mother. She had to wait for the truth to come out about her taking the money to get the confidence to tell her husband she does not want to be with him anymore. She has realised that she has made nothing of her life herself because she's always had other people making her life for her and she was being controlled quite rightly as she describes herself as a 'Doll'.

In one of my feedbacks from Olga she asked me what I thought about the play itself and whether I think I suit the character of Nora. Originally Olga gave me this monologue to help me find one for my contrasting monologues. I personally like the play, I like the way how it could still be something that happens in today's age such as controlling relationships, forceful parents...etc. Some of the comments such as when Nora's husband makes it clear that she cannot do anything for herself as she always does something wrong and makes a mess of it can come across quite aggressive to a audience of today. Also, at the beginning of the play it is clear that Nora constantly asks her husband for money and he gives it to her...he lets her get on with it and gives her a list so that she does not buy the wrong things comes across as her being a child and not being able to make her own decisions.

I do think I suit the character, although she is in her early thirties. I feel like I could because in modern days this is happening to younger girls and not just older women. I feel like she is very quiet and is constantly being shut down which I feel I can relate to in some circumstances. I think Nora's character is a great character. I really like her personality. She seems very vulnerable and naïve sometimes and I feel like that is what most girls/women would feel like in her situation.