ipl-logo

Dr Rank In A Doll's House

833 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Nora realisation in a dolls house

Doll House The characters in A Doll House are complex but rather easy to rank in terms of virtue and integrity. Nora is a sweet and innocent victim of society that cares and sacrifices for her husband, clearly the most virtuous of them all. Dr. Rank could be seen as a bad friend to Torvald, but loves deeply for Nora as a person and not as an object. Torvald, however; only lusts after Nora and does not truly love her for who she is. Torvald treats Nora as an object and although he is just is a man of his time, it is still a vile and not virtuous thing to do to another human being. This play has characters that are complex, but their virtues are clearly seen. Every fault that Nora has in this play can be linked back to her being a victim of the time she was born in and the people that …show more content…

Rank is one of the only people in this play that appreciates Nora for who she is, and does not simply want her to be a housewife that conforms to the social norms of society. An friend of Torvald from youth, Dr. Rank should have been one of the people that Torvald could trust the most. And he does, throughout the play Torvald believes that Dr. Rank is his most trusted friend. However, Dr. Rank is in love with Nora, Torvald’s wife. “I swore to myself that you should know this before I’m gone. I’ll never find a better chance. Yes, Nora, now you know. And also you know now that you can trust me beyond anyone else” (Ibsen 909)And although this is a natural thing to happen to a human, Dr. Rank should have either come clean with Torvald, or not been such close friends with Nora. That being said, Dr. Rank does show virtue in the fact that he loves Nora for who she is and how she acts, not just for how she looks. Dr. Rank is the only person Nora opens up with, “When I sit here together with you like this, completely at ease and open” (Ibsen 908). So perhaps he was wrong to keep such a thing from his friends, but then again perhaps he was more right for Nora than Torvald ever

Show More
Related
666 Words | 3 Pages

Nora is a married woman and has children to take care of. She really has little freedom because of the way Torvald treats her. She is not even I feel as if deep down she knows she is not free and wants something more in her life then to be a entertaining puppet for Torvald. She realizes at the end of the story that Torvald is not good to her because of the way he acted when she told him about forging the signature. When Torvald called her a criminal and other harsh words she realized that she had no true love from Torvald and wanted to be free from him.

Read More
1418 Words | 6 Pages

Torvald tells her that Nora has a duty as a mother and a wife but Nora tells him that “she is an individual”, showing that she is finally putting herself on par with Torvald, and no longer allowing Torvald to control her, but instead she is trying to gain independence and liberation from social norms in order to break free from the “Doll’s House.” She tells him that she must leave him, because “for eight years [she’d] been living with a stranger”, emphasising how there was never any proper communication and mutual understanding between them, and hence no proper marriage, as she didn’t actually know what his true character was like up until that night, as she was convinced all along that Torvald would be the man to take everything upon

Read More
2066 Words | 9 Pages

But listen to this, Kristine - I got something to be proud and happy for.” (Ibsen, 1256), This statement by Nora changes the conversation from Kristine’s troubles and accomplishments and turns everything around so that Nora can brag about what she has done. We also see Nora’s selfishness in the last act of the play when Nora leaves her family. It is understandable for Nora to leave Torvald if she no longer feels loved, but Nora decides to leave her kids

Read More
928 Words | 4 Pages

Nora and Torvald are both victims of societal expectations and pressure of the nineteenth century. Despite this, Torvald is still both an antagonist and a misogynist through his treatment and views of Nora. One can be a victim of society and still perpetuate every expectation of it, just like one can overcome the societal norms and be their own person. Torvald conforms into the misogyny of the 1800’s while Nora fights against

Read More
744 Words | 3 Pages

At the beginning of the play, Nora appears to be a dutifully obedient and honest wife, however it is quickly revealed that she is hiding a serious secret from him—the fact that she borrowed money from Krogstad to finance a trip to Italy that she claims saved Torvald’s life (Metzger). This renders all of her statements about never disobeying him or hiding anything from him deceitful. When she reveals her dishonesty to Mrs. Linde, she insists that she ought to confess to Torvald immediately, insisting that a marriage cannot succeed when husband and wife are not completely honest with each other (Metzger). A literary “foil” occurs between Nora and Krogstad when it is revealed that both committed the same crime. Their acts of deception spark the unravelling of both their lives.

Read More
802 Words | 4 Pages

Analyzing Nora’s both enriching and alienating experience with exile further reveals the ideas Ibsen intended to convey. From a broad perspective, Torvald represents the traditional, patriarchal structure that makes men the head of the household and women subservient to men. His character also signifies such a society’s insecurity toward the threats of woman empowerment. Having the antagonist symbolize society at the time the play was written was Ibsen’s way of challenging such established social values including but not limited to the confining gender roles, evident in Nora and Torvald’s relationship. Moreover, the latter also portrays the importance of reputation, which was the last straw in Nora’s abandonment of her marriage.

Read More
1172 Words | 5 Pages

'Human being', the easiest word to spell until it holds a significance. The human being is typically defined as any individual of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished from the other organisms by their superior abilities to do different tasks. But does this definition really differs from a man and woman. “Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.” ―Simone de Beauvoir After reading the play, “A doll’s House”, I came across through many concepts or opinions of being human.

Read More
1283 Words | 6 Pages

The representation of the doll is symbolically significant as Nora is compared to a beautiful feminine figure, being the doll, but also someone who is treated as a toy and as someone who is disrespected. An example of Torvald’s thoughts about Nora is clear in Act three as a conversation between the pair highlights his true feelings towards his wife, “Torvald: It's shocking. This is how you would neglect your most sacred duties. Nora: What do you consider my most sacred duties? Torvald: Do I need to tell you that?

Read More
614 Words | 3 Pages

A Doll’s House: Character Comparison and Contrast Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House contains a cast of deeply complex characters that emulate the 1800’s societal norms that they belong to. Two characters that compare and contrast each other throughout the play are Nora Helmer and Kristine Linde. Nora and Kristine are similar because they both display a sense of independence. Their personalities differ as Nora presents herself as inexperienced, while Kristine is more grounded in reality.

Read More
1329 Words | 6 Pages

Nora acts how Torvald has primed her to, she stays out of his business, and as a reader of the book, it seems as though he sees her solely for her physical appearance, and their attraction is only physical, which could have contributed to the fall of their

Read More
820 Words | 4 Pages

A Psychoanalytical Approach to A Doll’s House Sigmund Freud, a well known psychologist, argues that childhood experience influences adult life in the pursuit of happiness. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a prime example of Freud’s theory as the protagonist, Nora, regresses to her past childlike habits of happiness within a voiceless marriage. Nora is limited to mental developmental growth because she is fixated in an adolescent state. In order for Nora to truly find her identity in the end, her illusions of happiness must be shattered.

Read More
1062 Words | 5 Pages

Torvald treats Nora as his little doll, like a plaything, whereas Nora treats Torvald as the man she will love forever that she can even sacrifice herself for him. In the beginning of the play, Torvald always calls Nora by different

Read More
828 Words | 4 Pages

First, Nora is treated like a child by her husband Torvald. Torvald had nicknames for Nora like squirrel or skylark that was often accompanied by demenors like sweet or little. At the end of the play, Nora tells her husband that he treated her like a weak, fragile doll just like her father. Nora’s feelings about Torvald’s attitude is evident in the quote from Nora and Torvald’s conversation ”I was your little songbird just as before- your doll whom henceforth you would take particular care to protect from the world because she was so weak and fragile. ”(Pg.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

During act III, Nora asked to speak to Torvald after her performance of the tarantella dance. The following conversation demonstrated her quest for autonomy and freedom, as well as Torvald’s inadequate responses to her arguments and demands; it also showed how deeply connected her unhappy situation is with society’s regulation of the relationship between the sexes. She asserts that she is “...first and foremost a human being”, and her strong conviction that her womanhood, and the expectations associated with it, are secondary, strengthens her resolve to make a radical choice: A break with both husband and, with necessity due to her legal position, her children (Ibsen, 184). During her conversation with Torvald, she proclaims, “I have other sacred duties... The duties to myself (Ibsen, 184).”

Read More
958 Words | 4 Pages

Torvald exhibits patriarchy in his relationship with Nora as he calls her pet names and controls her eating. Nora’s demeanor is ditzy, carefree

Read More

More about Dr Rank In A Doll's House

Related Topics

Open Document