EXCERPTS FROM A DOLL’S HOUSE KCSE REVISION QUESTIONS- EXCERPT 11-15

Get Questions and Answers For The Excerpt 16-20

A DOLL’S HOUSE SAMPLE EXCERPT QUESTIONS NUMBER 11  

Read the excerpt below and then answer the question that follow.  

Helmer: (walking about the room) What a horrible awakening! — All these eight years- she who was my joy and pride — a hypocrite, a liar— worse, worse —a criminal! The unutterable ugliness of it all! — For shame! For shame! (NORA is silent and looks 

15 steadily at him. He stops in front of her.) I ought to have suspected that something of the sort would happen. I ought to have foreseen it. All your father’s want of principle — be silent! — all your father’s want of principle has come out in you. No religion, no morality, no sense of duty-. How I am punished for having winked at what he did! I did it for your sake, and this is how you repay me.  

Nora: Yes, that’s just it.  

Helmer: Now you have destroyed all my happiness. You have ruined all my future. It is horrible to think of! I am in the power of an unscrupulous man; he can do what he likes with me, ask anything he likes of me, give me orders he pleases — I dare not refuse. And I must sink to such miserable depths because of a thoughtless woman!   

Nora: When I am out of the way, you will be free.  

Helmer: No fine speeches, please. Your father had always plenty of those ready, too. What good would it be to me if you were out of the Way, as you say? Not the slightest. He can make the affair known everywhere; and if he does, I may be falsely suspected of having been a party to your criminal action. Very likely people will think I was behind it all — that it was I who prompted you! And I have to thank you for all this you whom I have cherished during the whole of our married life. Do you understand now what it is you have done for me?  

Nora: (coldly and quietly) Yes.  

Helmer: It is so incredible that I can’t take it in. But we must come to some understanding. Take off that shawl. Take it off, I tell you. I must try and appease him some way or another. The matter must be hushed up at any cost. And as for you and me, it must appear as if everything between us were just as before — but naturally only in the eyes of the world. You will still remain in my house that is a matter of course. But I shall not allow you to bring up the children; I dare not trust them to you.

To think that I should be obliged to say so to one whom I have loved so dearly, and who, I still No, that is all over. From this moment happiness is not the question; all fragments, the appearance. (A ring is heard at the front-door bell)  

Questions:   

1. Briefly explain the events that lead to this excerpt. 6mks  
2. What is so ironical about Helmer’s reaction after reading Krogstad’s letter? 4mks  
3. Give and illustrate two themes brought out in the excerpt 4mks  
4. What is it that Nora did that makes Helmer so angry? 4mks  
5. What does Helmer’s reaction reveal about him? 2mks  

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• What happens immediately after the excerpt? 3mks  
• When am out of the way, you will be free. (Add a question tag) 2 mks  

A DOLL’S HOUSE SAMPLE EXCERPT QUESTIONS NUMBER 12  

Read the excerpt below and answer the questions that follow.  

Nora: Yes, read it.  

Helmer: (standing by the lamp) I scarcely have the courage to do it. It may mean ruin for both of us. No, I must know. (Tears open the letter, runs his eye over a few lines, looks at a paper enclosed, and gives a shout of joy) Nora! — No, I must read it once again Yes, it is true! I am saved! Nora, I am   Nora: And l?  

Helmer: You too, of course; we are both saved, both you and l. Look, he sends you your bond back. he says he regrets and repents —that a happy change in his life — never mine what he says! We are saved, Nora! No one can do anything to you, Oh, Nora, — no, first I must destroy these hateful things. Let me see – . (takes a look at the bond) No, no, I won’t look at it. The whole thing shall be nothing but a bad dream to me. (Tears up the bond and both letters, throws them all into the stove and watches them burn.) There — now it doesn’t exist any longer. He says that since Christmas Eve you —These must have been three dreadful days for you, Nora.  

Nora: I have fought a hard fight these three days.   

Helmer: And suffered agonies, and seen no way out but-. No, we won’t call any of the horror to mind. We will only shout with joy, and keep saying, ‘It’s all over! It’s all over!’ Listen to me, Nora. You don’t seem to realize that it is all over. What is this? — Such a cold, set face! My poor little Nora, I quite understand; you don’t feel as if you could believe that I have forgiven you. But it is true, Nora, I swear it. I have forgiven you everything. I know that what you did, you did out of love for me.  

Nora: That is true.  

Helmer: You have loved me as a wife ought to love her husband. Only you had not sufficient lcnowledge to judge of the means you used. But do you suppose you are any the less dear to me, because you don’t understand how to act on your own responsibility? No, no; only lean on me; I will advise you and direct you. I should not be a man if this Womanly helplessness did not just give you a double attractiveness in my eyes. You must not think any more about the hard things I said in my first moment of consternation, when I thought everything was going to overwhelm me. I have forgiven you, Nora; I swear to you I have forgiven you.  

Nora: Thank you for your forgiveness. (She goes out through the door to the right.)  

Questions:   

1. What is it that Nora asks Helmer to read? 4mks  
2. After reading the letter, Helmer exclaims. ‘l am saved!’ What does this reveal about him?’ 3mks  
3. What style is brought out when Helmer says, ‘I know that what you did, you did out of love for me.’2mks.  
4. Explain what happens after the excerpt. 6mks  
5. From your knowledge of the play what made Krogstad change his stand. 4mks  
6. Thank you for your forgiveness. (Use the word appreciate instead of thank you) 2 mks 
7. What is the meaning of the following words as used in the excerpt? 4mks  

A DOLL’S HOUSE SAMPLE EXCERPT QUESTIONS NUMBER 13  

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Read the excerpt below and then answer the questions that follow.  

Helmer: What sort of an expression is that to use about our marriage?  

Nora: (undisturbed) I mean that I was simply transferred from papa’s hands into yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as yours or else I pretended to, I am really not quite sure which — I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other. When I look back on it, it seems to me as if I had been living here like a poor woman —just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely to perform tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life.  

Helmer: How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have you not been happy here?  

Nora: No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never really been so.  

Helmer: Not — not happy!  

Nora: No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s dollchild;and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been Torvald.   Helmer: There is some truth in what you say — exaggerated and strained as your view of it is. But for the future it shall be different. Playtime shall be over, and lesson-time shall begin.  

Nora: Whose lessons? Mine , or the children’s?  

Helmer: Both yours and the children’s my darling Nora.  

Nora: Alas, Torvald, you are not the man to educate me into being a proper wife for you.  

Helmer: And you can say that!  

Nora: And I — how am I fitted to bring up the children?  

Helmer: Nora!  

Nora: Didn’t you say so yourself a little while ago — that you dare not trust me to bring them up?  

Helmer: In a moment of anger! Why do you pay any heed to that?   Nora: Indeed, you were perfectly right. I am not fit for the task. There is another task I must undertake first. I must try and educate myself— you are not the man to help me in that.  

I must do that for myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now.  

Helmer: (springing up) What do you say?  

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Nora: I must stand quite lone, if I am to understand myself and everything about me.lt is for that reason that I cannot remain with you any longer.  

Helmer: Nora, Nora!  

Nora: I am going away from now, at once. I am sure Christine will take me in for the night 

—  

Helmer: You are out of your mind! I won’t allow it! I forbid you!   Nora: It is no use forbidding me anything any longer. I will take with me what belongs to myself. I will take nothing from you, either now or later.  

Helmer: What sort of madness is this!  

Nora: Tomorrow I shall go home — I mean, to my old home. It will be easiest for me to find something to do there. Helmer: You blind, foolish woman!  

Questions:                                                      

1. What expression had Nora used about their marriage? 4mks  
2. How does this excerpt add relevance to the title of the play?

4mks  

• Give two-character traits for each of the following characters as

brought out in the excerpt. 8 mks  

1. Helmer
   1. Nora  
2. What theme comes out in the excerpt? 4mks  
3. explain place of women in society 4 mks  
4. I am going away from here now. (Change into a negative

statement) Imk  

A DOLL’S HOUSE SAMPLE EXCERPT QUESTIONS NUMBER 14   

Read the excerpt below then answer the questions that follow:

Mrs. Linde: I think I have the right to be. I too have  

Nora: I think so, too. But now, listen to this: something to be proud and glad of.  

Mrs. Linde: I have no doubt you have. But what do you refer   Nora: Speak low. Suppose Torvald were to hear! He mustn’t on any account — no one in the world must know, Christine, except you.  

Mrs. Linde: But what is it?  

Nora: Come here. (pulls her down on the sofa beside her.)   Now I will show you that I too have something to be proud of.

It was I who saved Torvald’s life.  

Mrs. Linde: ‘Saved’? How?  

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Nora: I told you about our trip to Italy. Torvald would never have recovered if he had not gone there —  

Mrs. Linde: Yes, but your father gave you the necessary funds.   Nora: (smiling) Yes, that is what Torvald and all the others think, but—   Mrs. Linde: But—  

Nora: Papa didn’t give us a shilling. It was I who procured the  Mrs. Linde: You? All that large sum?  

Nora: Two hundred and fifty pounds. What do you think of that?  

Mrs. Linde: But, Nora, how could you possibly do it? Did you win a prize in the lottery?  

Nora: (contemptuously) In the lottery? There would have been no credit in that.  

Mrs. Linde: But where did you get it from, then?  

Nora: (humming and smiling with an air of mystery) Hm, hm! Aha!  

Mrs. Linde: Because you couldn’t have borrowed it.  

Nora: Couldn’t l? Why not?  

Mrs. Linde: No a wife cannot borrow without her husband consent.  

Nora: (tossing her head) Oh, if it is a wife who has any head for business — a wife who has the wit to be a little bit clever  

Mrs. Linde: I don’t understand it at all, Nora.  

Nora: There is no need you should. I never said I had borrowed the money. I may have got it some other way. (lies back on the sofa) Perhaps I got it from some other admirer. 

When anyone is as attractive as I am –  Mrs. Linde: You are a made creature.  

Nora: Now, you know you’re full of curiosity, Christine.  

Mrs. Linde: Listen to me, Nora dear. Haven’t you been a little bit imprudent?  

Nora: (sits up straight) It is important to save your husband’s life.  Mrs. Linde: It seems to me imprudent,      without    his    knowledge,      to     –  Questions:   

1. Place the excerpt in its immediate context. 6mks  
2. What major theme comes out in the excerpt? 3mks  
3. Give two-character traits of Nora brought out in the excerpt.

4mks  

• Compare what Mrs Line has been through to what Nora has gone through and say what it reveals about women. 6mks  
• Explain dramatic irony as brought our through Nora’s revelation. 4mks  

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• I think I have the right to bee (Add a question tag) 2 mks  

A DOLL’S HOUSE SAMPLE EXCERPT QUESTIONS NUMBER 15   

Read the excerpt below and then answer the questions that follow. (25 marks) 

Mrs. Linde: Listen to me Nora you are still very like a child in many things, and I am older than you in many ways and have a little more experience. Let me tell you this-you ought to make an   end of it with Doctor Rank. 

Nora: What ought I to make an end to? 

Mrs. Linde: Of two things I think. Yesterday you talked some nonsense about a rich admirer who was to leave you money-              

Nora: An admirer who doesn’t exist, unfortunately! But what then? Mrs. Linde: Is Doctor Rank a man of means? 

Mrs. Linde: And comes here every day? 

Nora: Yes, I told you so. 

Mrs. Linde: But how can this well-bred man be so tactless? Nora: I don’t understand you at all. 

Mrs. Linde: Don’t prevaricate, Nora.do you suppose I don’t guess who lent you the two hundred and fifty pounds? 

Nora: Are you out of your senses? How can you think of such a thing? A friend of ours, who comes here every day! Do you realize what a horribly painful position that? would be? 

Mrs. Linde: Then it really isn’t he? 

Nora: No, certainly not. It would never have entered into my head for a moment. Besides, he had no money to lend then; he came into his money afterwards. Mrs. Linde: Well I think that was lucky for you, my dear Nora. 

Nora: No, it would never have come into my head to ask Doctor Rank. Although I am quite sure if I had asked him-  Mrs. Linde:  But of course you won’t. 

Nora: Of course not. I have no reason to think it could possibly be necessary. But I am quite sure that if I told Doctor Rank-   Mrs. Linde: Behind your husband’s back? 

Nora: I must make an end of it with the other one, and that will be behind his back too, I must make an end of it with him. 

Mrs. Linde: Yes, that is what I told you yesterday, but- 

Nora: (walking up and down) a man can put a thing like that straight much easier than a woman. 

Mrs. Linde: One’s husband, yes. 

Nora: Nonsense! (standing still) When you pay off a debt you get your bond back, don’t you? Mrs. Linde: Yes, as a matter of course. 

Nora: And can tear it into a hundred thousand pieces and burn it up- the nasty dirty paper. Mrs. Linde:(looks hard at her, lays down her sewing and gets up slowly.) Nora you are concealing something from me.  Nora: Do I look as if I were? 

Mrs. Linde: Something has happened to you since yesterday morning. Nora, what is it? 

Questions  

1. Briefly explain what happens before the events in this extract.

(4marks) 

• Explain why Mrs. Linde says “…I am older than you in many ways and have a little more experience? What is Mrs. Lindes’ view about Doctor Rank and Nora’s relationship? (2 marks) 
• From the dialogue, what do we learn about Nora’s character?

(4 marks) 

• Identify and explain the use of hyperbole in this excerpt.  (2 marks) 

• What does Mrs. Linde think Nora is concealing from her? Is

Mrs. Lindes right?  (3 marks) 

• Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the extract. (3 marks) 

i) A man of means  ii) Prevaricate iii) nasty 

• Describe what happens immediately after the events presented in this extract (4 marks) 

Get Questions and Answers For The Excerpt 21-25