A Doll's house. How would you perform the role of Doctor Rank during his exchanges with Nora in act two in order to achieve your preferred audience resopnse(s) to the character?
by
lmckay1 (student)
How would you perform the role of Doctor Rank during his exchanges with Nora in act two in order to achieve your preferred audience resopnse(s) to the character?
A doll's house was written in 1879 by Henrick Ibsen it was written in the style of naturalism, A doll's house is sharply critical of 19th century marriage norms. The play is about a mother and wife named Nora Helmer she has an extremely strong character as she leaves her husband and children to find her own personal freedom which in the 19th century was unacceptable therefore you had to be strong in order to carry something like this out.
In the 19 century it would ruin a women's reputation if a married women had an affair with another man, Nora and Dr Rank were not having an affair but they were happy to flirt with each other and have a close relationship, this shows Nora's independence in the fact that she would do whatever she wanted and push the boundaries.
When Rank enters the scene Nora says "I recognised your ring" This implies to Dr Rank that he is special to Nora because she recognises his ring amongst anyone else's, she follows this with "Don't disturb Torvald he is busy" Torvald is most likely not busy Nora just wants Rank to sit and talk to her and keep her company because she enjoys his company. Nora's flirtatious ways leads Dr Rank to admit that he loves her, Nora didn't specifically plan for this to happen she wanted Rank to be in a good mood so that she could ask for some money but instead Rank is in a rubbish mood as he tells Nora he is going to die shortly. As Rank tells Nora this, the audiences response should be that they feel pathos for Dr rank as he says "No point lying to oneself. Mrs Helmer I am in the worst state of all my patients. I've spent the last few days reviewing my own case. Terminal. In a month I'll be rotting in the churchyard." He expresses his death in a sudden way, he knows he will die and this is what makes the audience sympathise for Rank, that he is an old man knowing he will die and just waiting.
