Miss Julie and a Doll's House

Plays employ various kinds of structural divisions such as prologues and epilogues, act and scene division, even carefully placed intermissions. Discuss the dramatic uses made of these divisions in atleast two plays you have studied.

“A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen is divided into three acts. In act one, the transition between Nora and the porter that open “A Doll’s House” is immediately puts the money, which emerges as one of the most significant symbolism that forces the play’s conflict as it concerns genders, classes and moral standards. Similarly, act one always portrays Torvald’s insistence on calling Nora by affectionately flyspeck names; Little Songbird which evokes her helplessness and her dependence on him. The only time he called calls Nora by her actual name is when he is angry at her. By placing these names it suggests that Torvald not only asserts his power over Nora but also dehumanizes her. This implies that Nora has no sense of the fundamental male ability to deal with financial issues. In addition to being sort of a doll to Torvald, Nora is also like a child, in the eyes of Torvald. He treats her like a child. Nora’s selection of gifts- a sword and a horse for the male children and a doll for her daughter also portrays that Nora is in forcing stereotypical gender role discrimination. Nora sees her daughter the same way as she has been treated-as a doll.
The second act opens with a hopeful, symbol, Christmas. In this act, the audience sees Nora flirting with Dr Rank, coquettishly showing him her new stockings. Nora shows signs that she is becoming aware of the true nature of her marriage and her relationship with Dr Rank. When she compares living with Torvald and living with her father, there is doubt in the depth of her love for Torvald. Nora begins to realize that through her life with Torvald adjusts to social expectations in how husband and wives should live a certain way that is socially acceptable.
Consequently, in act three, Nora becomes more independent and mentions Torvald’s restriction. He treats Nora like a possession. Contributing to the feeling of control is exercising over Nora in the Tarantella dance. As the play continues, the audience discovers Nora’s secret, whereby she has forged a signature in order to get a loan to save Torvald. Torvald believed that this was certainly unacceptable and this ruins his reputation in the eyes of society. As Nora’s childish innocence and faith in Torvald has shattered, so do all of her illusions. She realizes that her husband does not see her as a person but rather as a possession nothing more than a doll. Nora also realizes that since she has been treated as a child her entire life, she is still childlike and heed to grow before she can take care of her own children. Nora decides she must be totally independent to be her true and therefore rejects her family. This suggested that Nora was trapped by society, confined in a cage. Nora exits her doll’s house with a door slam, emphatically resolving the play with the act of self-assertion. Clearly, this shows that Ibsen has used three acts to aid in the development of characters. In the first act, Nora is portrayed as this totally average 19th century Norwegian mother and wife. Similiarly, Torvald is also portrayed as this average 19th century Norwegian Husband and Father. Krogstad on the other hand, is portrayed as criminal somewhat alienated from the society for doing something against what society thinks is unacceptable. However, Christine is a constant character, as though she is what the other characters is compared to in the play. From act one to act two, each character is seen to have developed and thus changes the audience’s opinion about each of the characters. Similarly, from act two to act three, the characters were able to finally realize their role in society and gave the audience a reaction. The use of different acts is to allow the audience to think what has happened through what was staged in the play. In contrast, ‘Oedipus The King’ and ‘Miss Julie’ the play is more of a continuous play where by the characters just comes in and goes away and there is always a character on stage. This rather overwhelms the audience as it is just a solid piece. The whole continuous play portrays a character’s development throughout the play. It is as though it’s on the last bit of the character development and it speeds up to the climax. The continuous play is about the same as the third and final act in ‘A Doll’s House’. In ‘Oedipus The King’, there is a character called “the chorus” where by represents society (people of Thebes), instead of having an intermission the chorus helps to tie the play together and is somewhat influencing the audience’s opinions. Similarly, ‘Miss Julie’ has a scene where there is a “ballet” section this helps fill in the play that helps to direct the play to the author’s favor of the opinion. These continuous plays tend to be shorter than the ones with acts and intermissions.