In the play A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, the convention of marriage is examined and questioned for its lack of honesty. The play is set in the late 1800s, which provides the backdrop for the debate about roles of people in society. Ibsen uses the minor character, Dr. Rank, to help develop the theme of conflicts within society. This, in turn, creates connections with the plot. Dr. Rank 's function in the play is to foreshadow, symbolize, and reflect upon the truth of life and society and to break down the barrier between appearance and reality. One function of Dr. Rank in the play is to foreshadow events to come. Upon Rank 's introduction in Act I, the reader is immediately given insight into the conflict Nora will face with Krogstad. …show more content…
This can clearly be seen in what happens after the statement Nora makes about receiving Rank 's calling cards telling of his coming death, "That when those cards came, he 'd be taking his leave of us. He 'll shut himself in now and die" (1604). It is with this extremely symbolic statement that the reader can see the connections between Rank, the death of a society which does not allow honesty in marriage, and the end of pretending by Nora. Almost immediately after Nora makes the statement about Dr. Rank, she decides to perform a final "examination" of her life and lets the letter from Krogstad be revealed. It is through the symbolism of Rank that the reader sees the deterioration of society as it was known by the main characters. Another function that Dr. Rank serves is that of reflecting upon the true personalities of Nora and Torvald. Rank 's friendship with Nora and Torvald is thought to be the same, yet they are independently different. Nora is able to talk more seriously with Rank then she is with Torvald. This aspect of Rank 's friendship with Nora becomes evident in her statement: You see, Torvald loves me beyond words, and, as he puts it, he 'd like to keep me all to himself. For a long time he 'd almost be jealous if I even mentioned any of my old friends back home. So of course I dropped that. But with Dr. Rank I talk a lot about such things, because he likes hearing about them. (1585) From this statement the reader is able to understand
Rank about Krogstads job being in jeopardy. Although she is going against her husband, she is deathly afraid of what will happen if he were to ever find out that she was siding with Krogstad. She is seemingly Krogstad’s puppet because he has leverage over her for what she has done. “Does your husband love you so little, then? He knows what I can expose you to, and he still goes ahead and-.” Nora answers and says “How do you think that he knows any such thing.” When saying this she is implying that her husband knows nothing about the secret Krogstad is talking about or the agreement they have. Although she is still being devious, she will go to great lengths to make sure her husband never finds out. Krogstad said “I just want to hold onto it, just keep it in my possession. No one who isn’t involved in the matter will ever know anything about it. So, if you’ve been thinking about doing something desperate-.” Nora responds with saying “I have.” Then he asks if she thought of anything worse than running away and she responds saying once again “I have.” When reading this it can be interpreted that she would kill herself if Tolvard were to ever find out about the secret she is hiding. The secret she is withholding is the forging of her father’s signature to save the life of Torvald when he was very ill a couple years earlier. She now secretly keeps money
Deborah Tannen Author of “Sex, Lies and Conversation” says “Men tend to talk less at home and this pattern is wreaking havoc with marriage” (Tannen, Sex, Lies and Conversation:1) also says “If their husbands don’t adapt, the wives may look to their friends or family for that kind of talk” (Tannen, Sex, Lies and Conversation:3). In the play we can see, Dr. Rank a close friend of Torvald visits almost every day in their house. He knows Nora never gets enough accompany from her husband and takes that advantage to get more close with her. He is the first person ever to tell Nora that there are others who can easily give up their life for her and made her to realize how important she can be. Interestingly, Nora welcomes Dr. Rank and says “I always have an hour to spare (Ibsen 870)”. In fact, her relationship with Dr. Rank helps us to understand that there definitely lies a distance between Torvald and Nora. For Nora, Dr. Rank is the only person she is able to reveal her true self. Nora feels she can speak with Dr. Rank in a way she can never speak to Torvald. She could also talk more seriously with Rank and by the same time feels so relieve around him. Dr. Rank also is the most important character for Nora's transformation who acted as an adviser for her, helps her to realize her personal feelings. On other side, Nils Krogstad, Torvald's childhood friend
Evidence of Mrs. Linde's hard life can be seen in the conversation occurring between herself and Doctor Rank, a friend of the Helmer's. In contrast to Nora's life of little trouble and frivolity, Mrs. Linde has worn herself out, both mentally and physically:
In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, pointedly captures the reality of the Victorian Era within the play. Nora Helmer, the protagonist of the story, represents the typical women in society during that era. The audience’s first impression of Nora is a money obsessed, childish, obedient house wife to her husband, Torvald Helmer. However, as the play progresses one can see that Nora is far from being that typical ideal trophy wife, she is an impulsive liar who goes against society’s norm to be whom and what she wants. Her husband is illustrated as the stereotypical man during the 19th century, as he is the dominate breadwinner of the family, who too deserts his position as the play reaches its end. A key theme that is brought to light in A
Nora plays with Dr. Rank 's emotions; though by accident, she does so more than she had intended. Nora becomes desperate for money at one point and intends to use her sex appeal and subtle charm to get some from Dr. Rank. Nora is in the process of flirting
It is also believed that Rank's illness is a product of his morally corrupt father, which widens the connection with society's ignorant beliefs. On the night of Rank's final examination, one can see the symbolic connection between Rank's death and the "death" of Nora and Torvald's marriage. This can clearly be seen in what happens after the statement Nora makes about receiving Rank's calling cards telling of his coming death, "That when those cards came, he'd be taking his leave of us. He'll shut himself in now and die" (1604). It is with this extremely symbolic statement that the reader can see the connections between Rank, the death of a society which does not allow honesty in marriage, and the end of pretending by Nora. Almost immediately after Nora makes the statement about Dr. Rank, she decides to perform a final "examination" of her life and lets the letter from Krogstad be revealed. It is through the symbolism of Rank that the reader sees the deterioration of society as it was known by the main characters.
Rank who confesses his love to Nora and Nora herself was portrayed differently in the both the play and the two films. This is because according to Garland's film portrayal of the play; it shows this act to some extent more inelegantly than it was showed in Losey's film, as well as Henrik's imaginative work on the play. This makes one notable difference from what a leader of play will just explain to another person. If one watches these movies they will not be sure which explains the play. Garland's translation of the scene went further in explaining more of what is not in the play. I believe that the movie settler of this Film Company wanted to explain further of what would have happened in the play. Watching this play in a movie sometimes makes me feel humiliated for the Dr. Rank, the reason being he was so straight and forward. Losey's Film according to my understanding and opinion, in this scene closely followed what is in the play A Doll's House. Dr. Rank was claiming that he was in love with Nora, but it was somehow slightly.
Explanation: Kristine sees from an outside perspective the peculiarity of the relationship between Nora and Dr. Rank. The experience that Kristine obtained during the trials of her life, are now serving as hints to identify who Nora should take caution with. When Dr. Rank later professes his love to Nora in private, the true significance of Kristine’s words are unveiled. Therefore, this quote pristinely portrays
Further into the play, it can be seen how Nora feels comfortable in Rank's presence and shares insight on personal details about herself that she would think twice before sharing with Torvald. At one point in the play, she admits to Dr. Rank: "Torvald is very like being with papa." (196), which shows how Nora is completely herself around Rank's company-and how Rank treats her with dignity, something that lacks in Torvald's treatment of her. This quote also contributes to the theme of honour as she does not wish to further dishonour Torvald any more than she already has, as honour is of overwhelming importance to Torvald and it is what motivates his behaviour towards Nora in the first place. Therefore, Nora does not feel comfortable enough to
Cracknell’s portrayal of Nora in the play is one of the clearest portrayals of betrayal. The role of her character and her interactions with other characters gives the audience an insight to what her character is like. Nora’s close relationship with Doctor Rank is shown multiple times through the show, such as this scene in act 2. Nora and Doctor Rank are left alone in the loungeroom, initially they speak about his declining health and then progress to flirting with each other. Nora passes him her new stockings, which is soon followed by Doctor Rank confessing his love for Nora. This interaction between the two alone clearly shows the betrayal that Nora has committed on her husband as she
During the Christams Eve, Nora show many decriration product that she has brought to her hunsband Torvald. This makes her hunsband teases her because she spend a lots of money. When Torvald go to Dr.Rank, there is another bisitor come to visit Nora, which is Linda who is a widow and has lot time no see with Nora. They talk to each other their life, and Linda’s life is very unfortune. After that she claims that Nora is childlike and asinnocent. Then, there is a another visitor who named Nils Krogstad, who is a lawyer and moneylends which come for Torvald. When he was come merdy to tale with Trevald about the dry business matters, Nora seems the releved. After that, Dr. Rank and Linda are suprised since Nora, a house wife can know a lot about
Nora begins to confide in Dr. Rank because she feels she can trust him with any secrets. Nora knows that she cannot go to her husband and communicate with him because Helmer will blow up on her. Nora says “But I often talk about things like that with Dr. Rank because he listens to me.” How can a wife say that about another man? Nora talks to Dr. Rank about her secrets that have come up because she knows Dr. Rank will listen to her unlike Helmer. Dr. Rank portrays that he is jealous of Mrs. Linde, Nora’s friend. Dr. Rank does not like the fact that she comes over everyday just to sit and talk with Nora. Nora says “I know you are my best friend, my truest friend.” Nora is deeply connected with Dr. Rank. Nora feels completely open and forward with Dr. Rank unlike her husband. Helmer tends to be possessive and strict over the things she does.
Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” is a play about a young wife and her husband. Nora and Helmer seem to be madly in love with one another and very happy with their lives together. Yet the conflict comes into this show when Nora brags to her friend Ms. Linde about how she had forged her father’s name to borrow money to save her husband’s life and how she had been secretly paying off this debt. Helmer finds out about this crime and is furious, until he finds that no one will ever know about it. This entire conflict is written to bring to light the ridiculous social expectations demanded of both women and men. Ibsen expertly leads the audience into accepting that these social expectations are foolish and wrong. The audience
In the play “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen the story focuses on the gender differences between a man and woman. One way Ibsen display feminism in A Doll House is through the relationship of the two main characters Torvald and his wife Nora. Nora and Torvald to have the perfect life, however behind closed doors it isn’t as it seems. The play begins with a happily married couple and ends with a woman wanting to be her own human being. Nora has been treated like child throughout the play by Torvald, she finally decides she has other duties such as herself that are just as important as everyone else. Through the play Ibsen provides the readers with insight how society views women. During this particular generation men were much higher ranking in society than women, women were not viewed as individuals but as shadows of their men. Ibsen provides many examples throughout the play how women were treated less than men.
There are two other major themes in this play, femininity and masculinity. Nora has often been given the title of one of modern drama’s first feminist heroines. She breaks away from a dominating and opressive marriage. Ibsen, denied that he had intentionally written a feminist play and preferred to think of it as humanist. This said though, the traditional roles of women and the price of them breaking tradition is a constant thread throughout the play. The men of this play, in many ways, are just as trapped by gender roles as the women. An example of this is the job that Torvald Helmer holds at the bank, chief. The men must be providers and alone must support the entire household. At the end of this play these traditional ideas are put to the test, when Nora leaves and Torvald must care for the children and be their provider.