Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879) Questions

Contrast Mrs. Linde and Nora.  Why does Nora initially fail to recognize Mrs. Linde, and what does this suggest about the differences in their recent lives? 

Compare Krogstad and Nora.  What compels both of them to break the law?

Compare Dr. Rank and Nora, or, perhaps, try viewing Dr. Rank as a symbol of Nora’s personality: in what ways are they alike?

The most obvious and perhaps important ironic, thematic clue to understanding this play revolves around Nora’s relationship to money, at first as Torvald describes it for us in Act I and then, of course, in reality, as it is slowly revealed throughout the play.  Summarize this difference:  how does she first appear to handle money; how does she really handle money, why is this so significant? 

Consider this relationship to money (from the above question) from a Marxist perspective, as well, in terms of Hegemony, Means Of Production, and the relationship of these to Ideology.

Compare and contrast Mrs. Linde and Krogstad’s relationship (as Mrs. Linde establishes it, proposes it to him, in the final Act) with Nora and Torvald’s relationship.  How are the relationships ironically predicated on identical material conditions but opposite definitions of how a couple should define itself;  or, in other words, how does Mrs. Linde set out to make her relationship succeed in response to how Nora and Torvald’s has failed?

How does this play fit the traditional definition of a tragedy?  Or, we might ask, in what ways does this play represent what we might call a "Modern, Marxist Tragedy" with Ideology playing the traditional role of "fate" or "hamartia"?

Discussing this play usually leads to a single question:  what do you think of Nora’s decision?  When you answer that, consider this: would you feel different about her decision were she a man?  Or, put another way, would her decision have been so controversial were she a man, and, if not, can we really say that women and men are truly “equal”?