Before the bombshell that is act three of A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, there is act two acting as the catalyst that leads to Nora leaving Torvald and their children. Nora’s primary motivation in act two is to maintain her image as a dainty, simple wife who follows the set rules society has for women in 1879 despite having completely broken that image by borrowing money from her husbands associate, Krogstad, to pay for her husbands medical care. In attempting to keep Nora’s loan from Krogstad secret she manipulates her husband Torvald and her close friends Doctor Rank and Mrs. Linde to do whatever Nora needs at the time. Nora’s husband Torvald, throughout the play, belittles her with pet names such as “goose” “squirrel” and “dove” that
…show more content…
Rank enters Nora and Torvald’s home speaking of how he will soon be “rotting in the churchyard” and despite the melancholy news Nora swoops in to yet again pull all she can from the situation. Since Rank is such a close friend of Torvald, and by association Nora, she already has a platonic influence upon him, but since he is revealed his love in act two as well as revealed himself as someone who she “can trust… beyond anyone else” and would “give up his life for [her]” allows himself to become venerability for Nora to come in and abuse these sentiments (page 682, lines 452-456). The feeling Rank has for Nora is obviously not mutual seeing as she claims his profession of emotion was entirely “unnecessary” despite viciously flirting with him prior to the grand profession (page 682, line 465). Nora devilishly taunts Doctor Rank with language suggesting emotional intimacy, calling Rank “naughty” and suggesting that she will be “dancing only for [him]” at the party her, her husband and Rank are to all attend (pages 681-682, lines 399,417). This faux intimacy gives Nora easy access to Ranks trust allowing her to use him as a decoy for her husband as she goes about the next phase in her scheme to keep herself from being …show more content…
Despite her childish behavior all of Nora’s actions have immense impact on those surrounding her while they remain clueless and mindlessly accomplish what Nora needs them to. Torvald continues to underestimate her, Doctor Rank willingly acts as a pawn in Nora’s game of keeping her husband distracted and Mrs. Linde comes to her rescue all resulting from Nora’s behavior. The first read of act two in A Doll House plays Nora as a simple housewife, mother, and woman who stays in her place and falls into very deep trouble after she has strayed, but Nora’s actions towards keeping her secret from her husband speak to her hidden intelligence and ingenuity that allow her to gain her freedom in the final
Rank enters Nora and Torvald’s home speaking of how he will soon be “rotting in the churchyard” and despite the melancholy news Nora swoops in to yet again pull all she can from the situation. Since Rank is such a close friend of Torvald, and by association Nora, she already has a platonic influence upon him, but since he is revealed his love in act two as well as revealed himself as someone who she “can trust… beyond anyone else” and would “give up his life for [her]” allows himself to become venerability for Nora to come in and abuse these sentiments (page 682, lines 452-456). The feeling Rank has for Nora is obviously not mutual seeing as she claims his profession of emotion was entirely “unnecessary” despite viciously flirting with him prior to the grand profession (page 682, line 465). Nora devilishly taunts Doctor Rank with language suggesting emotional intimacy, calling Rank “naughty” and suggesting that she will be “dancing only for [him]” at the party her, her husband and Rank are to all attend (pages 681-682, lines 399,417). This faux intimacy gives Nora easy access to Ranks trust allowing her to use him as a decoy for her husband as she goes about the next phase in her scheme to keep herself from being …show more content…
Despite her childish behavior all of Nora’s actions have immense impact on those surrounding her while they remain clueless and mindlessly accomplish what Nora needs them to. Torvald continues to underestimate her, Doctor Rank willingly acts as a pawn in Nora’s game of keeping her husband distracted and Mrs. Linde comes to her rescue all resulting from Nora’s behavior. The first read of act two in A Doll House plays Nora as a simple housewife, mother, and woman who stays in her place and falls into very deep trouble after she has strayed, but Nora’s actions towards keeping her secret from her husband speak to her hidden intelligence and ingenuity that allow her to gain her freedom in the final