Please read Act 2, and respond in this blog space. Please consider the following ways to respond:
* Choose a direct quotation from Act 2 and couple it with a quotation from Act 1.
* Can you explain what is going on in the minds of Nora and Dr. Rank in the "silk stocking" scene?
* Do you have any questions for our class discussion (I'd like to begin with these tomorrow).
In the “silk stocking scene” Nora and Doctor Rank have very different things going on within their minds. My interpretation of this moment is that Nora is flirting with Doctor Rank so that she can ask him for a favor. Nora taunts Doctor Rank by saying things like, “No, no, no! You must only look at the feet. Oh well, you may have a look at the legs too” (39). This entices Doctor Rank as he responds, “And what other nice things am I allowed to see?” However, Nora no longer feels comfortable with Doctor Rank when he begins to speak like this to her. He then confesses his undying love for her and she is greatly offended by his statements. So, the intimacy of the stockings that Nora shows Doctor Rank lead to the overall reveal of Doctor Rank’s true feelings. Nora seems absurdly surprised by his feelings although she is the one who constantly leads him on. The stockings seem like a symbol of seduction and secrecy that Ibsen purposefully includes.
ReplyDeleteQuestions: Has Doctor Rank never been married/ had no children? What was Krogstad’s relationship with Mrs. Linde? Do we know anymore information about Nora’s father/ what he was like?
Cat Weiner
I think during the encounter between Nora and Dr. Rank during the silk stocking scene there were many similarities. Both Nora and Dr. Rank were flirtatious, trying to use that as a way of manipulation. Through this flirtatious behavior, both hoped to convey a message to one another. In Dr. Rank’s mind, he was struggling to confess his love to Nora, while Nora was hoping to get a favor from him. Dr. Rank appears to be more straightforward than Nora, for his way of behaving had a direct relation to his intentions and feelings. Nora’s clever and cunning ways are clearly depicted in this scene as she turns a playful conversation into a conversation of manipulation.
ReplyDeleteQuestions from Act 2
1) Why does Helmer hate sewing?
2) Nora expresses herself in a flirtatious way when manipulating people, such as Helmer and Dr. Rank, will this form of expression be carried out during her encounters with Krogstad?
3) Does Dr. Rank prioritize his relationship with Helmer or Nora as the greatest?
Kaby Maheswaran
I think that in the stocking scene, Nora was about to ask Dr. Rank to ask Helmer to allow Krogstad to keep his job. She knows that Dr. Rank is good friends with Helmer, and thinks that he might be able to convince Helmer to let Krogstad remain at the bank. By acting flirtatious, she is trying to get close to him and convince him to lend her this favor. However, after Dr. Rank confesses his love for her, she stops trying. I would argue this shows her developing moral character- She didn’t want to take advantage of his feelings for her, so she stopped asking for the favor.
ReplyDeleteI found a parallel between Dr. Rank’s illness that he inherited from his father and Nora’s fear that she will “ruin” her children by lying and being deceitful. Dr. Rank explains that, “In every single family, in one way or another, some such inexorable retribution is being exacted” (38), and complains that his, “poor innocent spine has to suffer for my father’s youthful amusements” (38). This can be paralleled to Torvald’s quote that “Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother” (27). I am sure that when Dr. Rank was talking about his inherited disease and how he blamed his father, Nora was thinking about her own situation, as she immediately tried to stop him and wanted him to “talk of something cheerful”.
Questions: When Torvald asks Nora if she’s “afraid of that fellow” after she asks him not to open any letters, does he mean Krogstad? When she confesses that she is afraid, and that he cannot open his letter, why does he comply? Isn’t he worried about her being deceitful, and wouldn’t it seem to him that she knows something he doesn’t?
Sosha
Act 1:
ReplyDeleteNora: “But come here and let me show you what I have bought… Look, here is a new suit for Ivar and a sword, and a horse and a trumpet for Bob, and a doll and dolly’s bedstead for Emmy…” (3).
Act 2:
Nora: “It is sad that all these nice things should take revenge on our bones.”
I coupled these two quotes because in Act 1, Nora was spending money recklessly and buying all these nice things and clothes while in Act 2, she states how these nice things may not be there for much longer if her secret about forging her father’s name is found out because it is against the law and would destroy her relationship with her husband and children.
I interpreted the “silk stocking” scene as Nora manipulating Doctor Rank into doing a favor for her by flirting with him. I thought that the stockings caused Doctor Rank to admit his feelings towards Nora and which in turn causes Nora to stop because she had not expected Doctor Rank to feel this way about her as she “had no idea of this” (41). The stockings are what evoked Doctor Rank to share his feelings which caused Nora to not quite know how to react. Ibsen cleverly included the stockings for this scene as they also connect to Nora’s obsession of spending money.
Questions: What is Doctor Rank’s background? Are there more things we will find out about him later in the play?
ReplyDelete“But I suppose your daughter has quite forgotten you” (30).
“Poor Christine, you are a widow” (6).
Sometime what Nora says just make me go facepalm. The things she say don’t go through her mind.
The “silk stocking” scene made me really uncomfortable. Nora feels uncomfortable as well, and a little surprised when Dr. Rank responds to her flirts. But she does decide to stop and not ask him for the favor because she understands that Dr. Rank is a good family friend to both her and Torvald.
Act One: Torvald: "Is it my little squirrel bustling about?"
ReplyDeleteAct Two: Nora: "Surely you can understand that being with Torvald is a little like being with papa."
I coupled these quotes because they show the unusual relationship between Nora and Torvald. I thought Nora did'nt realize how weird it is, but the second quote shows she does.
During the silk stocking scene Nora’s personality is again shown as childlike. She seems to not really know what she is doing by showing Doctor Rank her stockings. However, when he asks to see more she realizes the severity of the situation and becomes uncomfortable. Doctor Rank is reminded of his love for Nora and lead to him confessing his feelings for her.
Some Questions I have for class tomorrow are
-Does Nora think there is no way she can get the letter?
-Does Dr. Rank know something is going on?
-Is Nora really uncomfortable with the attention of Dr. Rank or is it just an act?
Throughout Act I, a common device of Nora’s that we started to notice wast he way of deceiving her husband by playing to his egotistical and patronizing ways. He does not think of her as very smart and capable, so she uses his narrow view of her to her advantage to distract from the daring and big problems she is creating behind his back. We see her using this technique to get information about Krogstad from him by saying “There is no one has such good taste as you… couldn’t you take me in hand and decide what I shall go as and what sort of dress I shall wear?” (26). This effectively draws the information she wanted out of him without blatantly asking him. In Act I, she only uses this as a crutch, but in Act II she completely relies on her method of playing helpless, to keep life as she knows it from crashing down. She uses this again when she wanted to distract him from checking their mailbox and seeing the letter from Krogstad, “I can’t get on a bit without you… Sit down and play for me, Torvald dear; criticize me and correct me as you play” (47-48). This is only so effective because of the lack of knowledge of her actual capabilities. This act is almost like her only way to have any sort of balance, she is not able to hold power in a career or in the eyes of her husband, but she can hold power in herself through subterfuge. When she is thinking over how long she has to keep this up, she say, “Then the tarantella will be over. Twenty-four and seven? Thirty-one hours to live” (50). This is her way to survive and is as vital to her as her husbands career is to him.
ReplyDeleteAn unexplored part of the silk stocking scene in this blog is what Dr. Rank is thinking at its end when he goes into Torvald’s room promising to distract Torvald. This is a man near his deathbed who knows that he has just missed out on an opportunity to get closer to someone he loves and thinks that his new purpose in going to distract Torvald is trivial-so Nora can put on a dress. He must feel a fair amount of despair for professing his love love to Nora so early that he is not able to hear what favor he can do for Nora. Concurrently, his eagerness to distract Torvald is likely out of self-comfort to be able to tell himself that he is doing something of service to Nora. What is interesting is how even after Dr. Rank comes back and realizes that his distraction was not so Nora could put on a dress- she is still not wearing one- he still willingly goes with Nora’s story and even tells Torvald that he “mustn't contradict her.” (49) In this way, it is shown that he is willing to do whatever Nora needs at however little notice and that these feelings have likely been going on for a while. Reading his description, I thought to how often Disney kills the mother- an unfailing benefactor who had previously played a major role in protecting the protagonist- as an introduction to the conflict. By mentioning Dr. Rank’s impending death, Ibsen is characterizing Nora as losing another one of her past protections both from the outside world and Torvald, helping to set up the conflict in Act 3.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
Given how Ibsen is trying to critique the balance of power in marriages back then, why does he portray Nora as someone who i sporadic and not very smart?
Is Nora really able to manipulate Torvald so easily or is he just playing along?
“Yes- but, Nurse, I shall not be able to be so much with them now as I was before” (30)
ReplyDelete“There they are. There they are! [he runs to open the door. The Nurse comes in with the children.] Come in! Come in! Look at them, Christine! Aren’t they darlings?” (18)
I couples these two quotes because they show how much influence Torvald has on her despite her constant efforts to gain the upper hand and manipulate him into giving her what she wants. Although she looks for autonomy and enjoys feeling as though she has power over her husband, her interactions (or lack of) with her children show how much she values his opinion and how she takes his words to the heart. He told her that the children of deceitful mothers typically are not good people, and she stops letting herself be near her children afterwards because she believes that his words are the absolute truth. Nora likes to imagine that she has influence over Torvald, and she does, but she neglects to acknowledge the influence he has over her actions as well; she is dependent on him for money, and she knows this, but I don’t think that she realizes how much she relies on his treatment of her, and how much she wants him to think of her positively.
Act1 : “Nonsense! Trying to frighten me like that! I am not so silly as he thinks!” (24)
ReplyDeleteAct 2: “Then the Tarantella will be over. Twenty-four and seven? Thirty-one hours to live.” (50)
The “Silk Stocking” is a personal and flirtatious encounter between Dr. Rank and Nora. Nora wants to gain Dr. Rank’s trust by flirting with him and teasing him with her body. It is only natural that Dr. Rank would assume that she is leading him on and shares the same love for him that he has for her. However, she immediately becomes hostile towards Dr. Rank when he confesses his love for her and shuts him off completely because she feels uncomfortable. It seems that even given Dr. Rank’s horrible disease, Nora does not pity him in the slightest and is too loyal to Torvald. Maybe Dr. Rank thought that if he shared the details of his bleak life, Nora would feel bad for him and love him more than a friend. Maybe Dr. Rank simply thought he could take advantage of Nora.
What is the favor that Nora was going to ask Dr. Rank?
Why does Nora get so offended when Dr. Rank professes his love for her?
Is Krogstad actually going to kill Nora over such a relatively small amount of money?
Act 1:
ReplyDeleteMrs Linde: No, a wife cannot borrow without her husband's consent
Nora: Oh, if it is a wife who has any head for business- a wife who has the wit to be a little clever-
Act 2: Nora: A man can put a thing like that straight much easier than a woman.
In these two quotes, there are a couple of ways in which an audience member could interpret Nora's conflicting lines. The first would be that in Act 2, Nora is frustrated with the role she is forced to play in society as a woman in a way that she had not previously experienced. Another way to interpret the change of mind that Nora goes through between these two quotes is that Nora is panicking. Since Krogstad visited Torvald in the first act, Nora has appeared nervous, but she has remained confident in that she will be able to pull off paying the loan without her husband finding out, and she will make sure that both Krogstad and Mrs. Linde will have jobs at the bank. However, in the second quotation, Nora is clearly distressed by the situation. In this conversation with Mrs. Linde during Act 2, Nora has lost the self-confidence that had kept her sane and able to continue to act silly and childish in front of her husband. Without putting up the front that she always does with Torvald, she loses her secrets and Torvald becomes the one with control in the relationship. In Act 1, Nora considered herself clever for taking out the loan, and thought that the obstacles women faced in trying to take matters of business into their own hands were easily overcome with a few lies and hard work. In Act 2, the audience can see her frustration at the complexity of her problem and her inability to influence Torvald like she usually does. Now, Nora is experiencing the dilemma of being controlled by her husband. It's interesting how, in the first act, Nora pitied Mrs. Linde for her obvious misfortune, and thought that there was no way she could ever be happy without a husband and children and a comfortable way of life. Now, Nora is trying to stay away from her children, considered running away from her "perfect" life altogether, and is in a deceitful relationship with her husband.
As we were saying in class, I find it interesting that in this time period people didn't think much of "nature vs. nurture", they sort of just assumed people were who they were from birth. However Ibsen alludes to the impact one's parents can have on them throughout both Act I and Act II (and I'm assuming Act III as well). In Act II Mrs. Linde tells Nora that she is "not [her] father's daughter for nothing" in regards to the way she and Torvalt keep their house and status so pristine and beautiful. Mrs. Linde says this almost sarcastically, which makes me wonder what Mrs. Linde's life is like now compared to before her husband died? I'm also curious to see whether or not Nora's secret about borrowing money illegally from Krogstad is ever discovered, and how the idea of parents impacting their children is explored throughout the rest of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Steven on his interpretation of the "Silk Stockings" scene with Nora and Dr. Rank. Nora is using her flirtatious nature, as we can assume she has been for a while now, in order to persuade Dr. Rank to trust her and ensure that she can safely confide in him. Once he returns the flirting with a more deep and intimate conversation, Nora is completely taken aback and puts an end to the whole affair. While I do think that she puts a stop to the matter because of her loyalty to Torvald and their family name, I also think that if there are even some true feelings Nora has for Dr. Rank, even platonically, someone speaking to her as an equal and as if they are the ones who ought to be pleasing her must be sort of overwhelming. She seems to be someone who is easily taken advantage of, and in this moment Dr. Rank is soooort of taking advantage of her and the situation, but he is also (I think) genuinely confessing feelings for her on a level far deeper than just the usual harmless flirting.
In the silk stocking scene, it seems like Nora is almost trying to seduce Dr Rank so that he will help her with her problem. In her own mind, Nora may have thought she was just enjoying an intimate moment with her friend. She may have been realizing her own feelings of trust for Dr Rank, and that she wanted him to help her. Dr Rank was likely thinking about his feelings for Nora, and how he has gone through their entire relationship with each other without her understanding how he feels. Perhaps he felt regret, remorse, or feelings of sadness that his time on Earth, and with Nora, will be cut off so soon. Both of them seem to be realizing that they truly enjoy each other’s company, though for Dr Rank, his feelings go beyond that.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
I’m a little bit confused about all of the details of Krogstad’s plan
Does Mrs. Linde only exist to be Nora’s foil? Or does she have another purpose in the story
Nora seems to have a plan that she will execute if Torvald finds out what she did. Is she going to run away? Or cause harm to herself or others? Does Krogstad actually plan to kill Nora? When she says she has 31 hours to live, does she mean that literally?
-Anna Vrountas
A big part of our class discussion today was about whether Nora is deliberately manipulative or just has dumb luck and doesn't quite know what she is doing. This definitely comes into play during the silk stocking scene as her flirtatious nature towards Dr. Rank is obvious to the reader. However she seems genuinely shocked when he reciprocates this behavior and confesses his interest in her. As a woman who is aware of her status and beauty and willingly putting herself out there to Dr. Rank why is she so shocked to find he is fond of her? This leads me to believe that maybe she isn’t completely aware of her inappropriate flirting and thinks more of it as teasing, making me also wonder what else she isn’t aware of doing. Nora is proving to be a more complicated character as the story goes on. Their are some things like distracting Helmer away from the mailbox by her dancing at the end of the scene that I know she does on purpose but other things I am not so sure of. It is interesting to see a character display the duality of being highly intelligent in her ability to manipulate but dumb enough to sign her father’s name on a legal document and write the date for after he died.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Considering the role of women in the 19th century, why is Helmer even thinking about giving Mrs. Linde a job as she is not only a women but most likely does not have the skills required to fulfill Krogstad job?
Act I: Nora: “Trying to frighten me like that! I am not so silly as he thinks.”
ReplyDeleteAct II: Nora: “Call her back, Torvald! There is still time. Oh, Torvald, call her back! Do it for my sake- for your own sake- for the children’s sake!”
I paired these two quotes together because they portray two different sides of Nora. In the quote taken from Act I, the reader sees that Nora does not fear Krogstad’s threat to expose her act of forging her father's signature. Antithetically in Act II, Nora is seen panicking and scared as Torvald sends the letter detailing Krogstad’s dismissal.
In the “silk stocking” scene, we see Nora flirting with Dr. Rank in an attempt to gain his trust. Although her actions entice him, her only incentive in being flirtatious is to request a favor, but when Dr. Rank confesses his love for her, she becomes extremely uncomfortable and offended by his gesture. This further suggests that Nora is manipulative, and will do anything in her ability to use others as a means of getting what she wants.
Questions:
Is Nora serious when she exclaims that she will be killed?
Will Krogstad go so far as to kill Nora?
Questions:
ReplyDeleteIs Nora just really ignorant to the consequences of her actions, or does she simply just not care?
Was Nora seriously considering suicide?
What was the relationship between Mrs Linde and Krogstad?
Something I found interesting in the Silk Stocking scene was when Nora said "To think you would be so clumsy" as if she is not only taken aback by his confession of love but also by his honesty. I think Nora has become so used to manipulation and lying that honesty surprises her.
"It is perfectly glorious to think that we have -- that Torvald has so much power over so many people." (Nora, 16)
ReplyDelete"Have you forgotten that it is I who have the keeping of your reputation?" (Krogstad, 45)
I paired these two quotes together because they show Nora's change in mental state. At the beginning of Act I, she's excited to have power through Torvald's new position and she thinks they can't be taken down but Krogstad's visit in Act II confirms that he's the one holding the strings. She's his subordinate, and, in turn, so is Torvald.
The "silk stocking" scene is filled with sexual tension between Nora and Dr. Rank. She describes them as "flesh-colored" and tells him he can only look at the feet but then changes her mind and gives him permission to look at the knees. Nora is looking at Dr. Rank with new eyes after Mrs. Linde's comment about their relationship. She begins to wonder if there's actually anything there between them and the fact that the natural light in the room is dimming adds to the intimate mood. Dr. Rank perceives her flirting, through the use of stockings, and verbal affection, in response to his comments about death, as a permission to speak freely of his love for her. Overall, the scene and the characters exude sexuality, desire, and romance.
Questions:
What did Torvald mean by being man enough to take everything upon himself?
Did Nora return the confession to Dr. Rank or did she just avoid answering?
What's going to happen with the money Nora has already given Krogstad now that he doesn't want money, just a job?
Ms. L: I only feel my life unspeakably empty. No one to live for any more. (9)
ReplyDeleteHelmer: Come what will, you (Nora) may be sure I shall have both courage and strength if they be needed. You will see I am a man enough to take everything upon himself. (36)
The reason I chose these two quotes is that I thought they helped highlight a concept about relationships with in “A Doll’s House.” An important question raised in the story is, “is our conception of love selfish and unfulfilling?” Take Ms Linde, who has spent most of her life taking care of her family and then attaching herself to a man who she didn’t really love deeply, only for him to die and leave her with nothing, empty and searching for a purpose. For Linde, living for others, her mother, her brothers, her late husband, has left her unfulfilled and worse for wear. Now take Helmer, for whom Nora lives for. Even though he may think he loves his wife, in reality he only cares about himself and uses Nora as an accessory to his own life, an object that makes him feel loved, important, and as he says “strong and courageous.” So here are the two sides of “love”; you either live for others which leave you unfulfilled (like Linde) or you have others live for you which makes you selfish (like Helmer). While one can say this is just how twisted and broken love works, these elements exist in all true connections with other people. Think about it, why do we seek out love and connections with other people? Because feeling loved and wanted and having that connection makes us happy, it gives us something, it serves our needs. All love, no matter how deep true or meaningful it is, is at least in definition, a little selfish, because it makes us feel better about ourselves. That may be a cold and heartless outlook on life, but I am a cold heartless person so… yeh.
I believe there are a variety of emotions and desires taking place between Nora and Dr Rank in the “Silk Stocking” scene. For Nora, her actions in the scene originate in the dysfunctions of her own marriage. With Torvald’s sending of the letter, Nora feels more powerless than ever within her marriage, unable to control her husband's actions and soon enough she will lose all of the emotional power she has over him when he finds out her deception. Given the impending collapse of her marriage, she is driven closer to Rank, the only person who she can really be herself around, for the emotional connection and closeness she knows she will lose with Torvald. She is also trying to reestablish some sort of emotional control or power over the people in her life, trying to use her body to earn the greater love and power from Rank. There is also fear in her actions, fear that with the loss of Rank, she will have nobody in her life with whom she can actually have an emotional connection with, so she uses her body to make him want to stay in her life. For Rank there is relief and happiness in this brief moment, as he is despairing in his impending death and Nora’s actions make him feel loved and wanted.
Questions:
-Does Nora really love Rank or only love him as a friend for the emotional connection they have?
-Does Nora actually love Torvald? She has convinced herself she has at least but does she really?
-Why does Linde keep coming to Kristine and doing stuff for her? Nora literally forgot who she was yesterday.
The “silk-stockings” scene in the book was an uncomfortable one to read and an even more uncomfortable one to watch. This scene was one of subtle seduction. Dr. Rank bought Nora a pair of silk-stockings which she graciously accepts. However, their interpretations of this encounter are very different. Nora is only flirting with Dr. Rank so she can ask him for money. She is hoping that he will do her a favor and lend her the money to pay her debt. In Dr. Rank’s mind he thinks that Nora feels the same way that he does. He thinks that she returns the feelings that he has for her. Dr. Rank reveals two things to Nora in this scene: one, that he is in love with her and two, that he is dying. This scene was very uncomfortable. I was confused about why he grouped these two confessions into one talk. The symbol of the stockings was one of seduction and love. However, these affections were misplaced as Nora did not reciprocate the love that Dr. Rank felt for her.
ReplyDeleteColleen
In my mind, the silk stocking scene is just another example of Nora knowingly and unknowingly using her sexuality to manipulate the men around her. She takes an object of such desire it has been focused on as the quintessential symbol of sex and seduction in other works (such as "Death of a Salesman" and "White Noise"), making it the focal point for her interaction with Dr Rank. She bats him with it as one might while playing with a cat, tantalizing him with the attraction that is unspoken between the both of them. But what might simply look like an interaction full of unrequited and forbidden love is colored by her previous interaction with Mrs Linde, which gives Nora the idea to try to solve her Krogstad problem through Dr Rank. This creates dramatic irony; the reader knows that Nora is attempting to take advantage of Dr Rank, while the witless Rank simply thinks that his emotional affair with Nora is coming to a head in the wake of the news about his impending death.
ReplyDeleteIn the scene between Nora and Dr. Rank, there is an obvious flirtation between the two. However the length at which the two characters want to take the flirting is very different. Nora thinks that the discussion is only harmless flirting with no reprocusions, however Dr. Rank takes it further. I’m glad that Nora was able to stop the situation where she did because if it had gone any further it would have turned into a much darker scene. This scene also somewhat parallels the recent outbreak of sexual assult accusations in the entertainment and news industries. Women are just now standing up forthemselves because it is a topic that has been in the dark for such a long time. Nora mirrors the women who have been able to put a stop to unwanted advances and represents those who are part of the #metoo stand as well. The play in general mirrors many different current subjects, from money related reputations to the role of women in society. I’m excited to see where this will go and how it will shape the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteWill nora involve torvald in this incident?
How will she react to the new feelings from Dr. Rank?
The scene between Nora and Dr. Rank seemed quite unusual to me. Nora loves her husband and was going to immense lengths to hide the truth so that she could hide the hurt Torvald would receive if he ever found out. The thing is Nora in the first place took the loan from Krogstad in order to save the life of her husband. Nora did everything for her husband because she loved him. Nora hid the truth so that Torvald could go on living stress-free while she took on the stress of the couple because of her love for Torvald. So when she started flirting with Dr. Rank it greatly surprised me. My question is why would Nora flirt with another man so that she could save the man that she “loves”. In my opinion, this foreshadows the true relationship Nora actually has with her husband Torvald. Instead of being a relationship of love it is more like a relationship of fear and appeasement which I think is somewhat strange.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the first act, Torvald can be quoted multiple times "affectionately" calling and teasing Nora with phrases like "Is it my little squirrel bustling about?" and so on. In fact, when we read Act I together in class, a lot of students, myself included, did not immediately catch that Nora and Torvald were married, since the way that Torvald addressed Nora, as well as the way he micromanages her for the silliest of ordeals, such as "paying a visit to the confectioner's," was so condescending that many of us automatically presumed this to be a father-daughter relationship. However, it startled us all when we discovered this was not the case. I'm sure this was delierate on Ibsen's part, as in the next act, Nora, in dialogue, says, "surely you can understand that being with Torvald is a little like being with papa." A lot of readers, I presume, echo this thought. It brought up a lot of questions for me. It seems, firstly, that Nora views Torvald as more of an authoritarian figure than her love, and thus it seems almost natural for her to try and find this "love" elsewhere. I agree with some of the other students in the above comments on Nora's unusual behavior with Doctor Rank, and the entire scene with the stockings.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Doctor Rank is at all suspicious of Nora's activity, and the same with Torvald. I also wonder if Nora genuinely believes she can keep up this charade, especially since there are so many variables to consider, and so many different ways to act towards different people. I'm interested in reading on.
Nora is used to the diseased nature of the house, and in a way her coping mechanism is to act like a fawning puppy dog to her husband Torvald. Like I've said before, from the outside looking in it's blatant and creepy, but to be subjected to such abuse over a long period of time, especially from someone you thing you trust, the result is more underhanded. I think that Nora confused how much trust she puts into Dr. Rank, thinking that he is as trustworthy in her eyes as Torvald. But, as Rank has no knowledge of the circumstances of their marriage, he mistakes Nora's request for help and light flirting for a declaration of love. The silk stocking served only to push him over the edge of uncertainty to make Rank think that, yes, indeed, Nora DOES love me!
ReplyDeleteAct I: "Surely you can understand that being with Torvald is a little like being with Papa." - Nora
Act II: "I cannot imagine for a moment what would have become of me if I had never come into this house." - Rank
With these two quotes we can see a clear discrepancy. Whereas Rank sees the house as an oasis of comfort away from the outside, Nora knows it only as the home of her overbearing husband, who took the place of her equally overbearing father. The experience of being in the home is cathartic for Rank but sickening for Nora, a difference that meant neither character could truly understand the intentions or troubles of the other.
Dr. Rank's confession seems a little too hasty for the rest of the book's pacing. Why did Ibsen drop it out of nowhere?
Act 1:
ReplyDeleteNora: Well, do it, then!--and it will be the worse for you. My husband will see for himself what a blackguard you are, and you certainly won't keep your post then.
Act 2:
Nora: He is going. He is not putting the letter in the box. Oh no, no! that's impossible... What is that? He is standing outside. He is not going downstairs. Is he hesitating? Can he--?
Within the lines of dialogue with Krogstad in Act 1, the overconfidence that Nora has inherently exacerbates the notion that she can tell her husband about how she truly obtained the money to save Torvald when his life was in danger. In contrast to the behavior she emitted in the first act towards Krogstad, Nora now possesses a rather weak attempt to still have an influence over the situation between Krogstad and Nora despite Krogstad clearly having the upper hand within this mini-conflict.
Nora, within the “silk-stocking” scene, is making frail attempts to request of Dr. Rank to act upon a favor regarding the financial problem she has incurred. She does this through flirting with her body which evidently works, as the reader sees Rank suddenly confess his love to Nora at a time where he has also told Nora that he is soon to die. Dr. Rank knows that he is soon to be dead which makes his irrational spurt of confession something that is understandable but still somewhat strange due to his abruptness.
If Nora asked the favor that she truly wanted Rank to do, would that have drastically changed the outcome of the ending?