What the exam asks
In Paper 2 (marked out of 25), Criterion B1 (5 marks) tests your analysis and evaluation of textual features and broader authorial choices, while Criterion B2 (5 marks) rewards comparative analysis. Because Paper 2 is closed-book, you do not need to memorize long quotations; instead, you must refer precisely to structural turns, stage directions and visual symbols—such as how the stripped Christmas tree or the glass letterbox puts Nora’s state of mind on stage.
Core ideas
Structural closure: shutting the exits
Act 2 is built as a sequence of closing doors. At the end of Act 1, Krogstad leaves Nora with an ultimatum; throughout Act 2, Nora tests every relationship she has to find a way out, and Ibsen shuts each exit one by one.
| Scene in Act 2 | The exit Nora tests | How and why the exit closes |
|---|---|---|
| Nora and the Nurse (Anne) | Leaving her children behind to save them from being corrupted by her | Opens the idea of leaving, showing that a substitute mother already exists, though it terrifies Nora. |
| Nora and Helmer | Persuading Helmer not to dismiss Krogstad | Helmer refuses out of petty vanity because Krogstad uses “a familiar tone” at the bank (“I say, Helmer, old fellow!”), and sends the dismissal letter. |
| Nora and Dr Rank | Borrowing the money from Rank to pay off Krogstad | Rank confesses his romantic love; Nora’s personal code makes it impossible to ask for money in exchange for affection. |
| Nora and Krogstad | Appealing to Krogstad’s mercy or threatening suicide | Krogstad refuses to withdraw his demand to be taken back at the bank and promoted, and drops the exposing letter into the locked box. |
| Nora and Mrs Linde / The Tarantella | Delaying Helmer from opening the letterbox | Mrs Linde goes to speak with Krogstad; Nora uses a frantic dance rehearsal to keep Helmer away from the box until after the fancy-dress ball. |
Visual storytelling and stagecraft
Ibsen uses the single drawing-room set to track Nora’s growing fear. Act 2 opens on Christmas Day:
“THE Christmas Tree is in the corner by the piano, stripped of its ornaments and with burnt-down candle-ends on its dishevelled branches. NORA’S cloak and hat are lying on the sofa. She is alone in the room, walking about uneasily.”
In Act 1, Nora had the tree hidden until it was dressed, so that it would be seen only at its best. Now “stripped” and “dishevelled”, the tree visually mirrors Nora’s exhausted front. Her restless pacing and obsessive checking of the hall door (“Someone is coming now! ... No—it is no one” and “No, nothing in the letterbox; it is quite empty”) use physical stage business to make anxiety visible before a word of dialogue is exchanged.