TRIFLES
1. What was Mrs. Wright’s motive, and how were the women able to deduce it (consider especially the canary, the sticky shelf, the broken stitches in her knitting, the littered kitchen, and the canary cage)?
2. Given the era in which this play was written and produced, what point do you think the author is making about the roles of men and women?
3. How does the play fit into the tradition of the French well-made play? Be specific.
A DOLL HOUSE
1. What significant differences do you notice between the setting in Act I and in Act II?
2. What differences do you notice in dialogue when Nora is speaking to her husband as opposed to Mrs. Linde or Mr. Krogstag?
3. What is the “woman problem” as defined by Ibsen in his play? Is this problem solved?
4. Comment on Nora’s relationship (or lack of) with her children.
5. What does Nora mean when she refers to the “miracle” that she has been waiting for these past eight years?
6. What is the symbolic importance of the Tarantella dance to our understanding of the relationship between Nora and Torvald in Act III?
ANTIGONE
1. Identify Creon’s and Antigone’s hamartia.
2. Identify the purposes of the chorus.
3. What does it means to call Tiresias a seer?
4. Identify the Aristotelian unities in the play.
5. According to the Aristotelian theory of tragedy, what emotions (cathartic) do we feel by the end of the play and why do these occur?
6. Explain the social/cultural/political/religious context in which the play was written and first produced.
Antigone https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Antigone.php
Trifles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c_EIR8R4B4
A Doll House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3nw7CZvO8
