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Dr. Rank

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Dr. Rank
A Doll’s House is a play written by Henrik Ibsen. The play was set in the 1800s. This essay will convey the significant role of Dr. Rank in A Doll’s House.. Dr. Rank is a secondary character who is overshadowed by the main characters Torvald and Nora Helmer. Dr. Rank gets easily overshadowed in A Doll’s House because his few actions in the play do not affect the outcome. Nora is by far the most significant character in the novel. Nora is the main character who famously leaves her children and her husband at the end to find herself. She left Torvald after he read the letter and saw that the only thing he cared about was his own image and not really Nora. Torvald became angry and kept saying he was ruined and then after he saw he was saved then …show more content…
“Dr. Rank’s illness serves as a physical counterpart to the moral illness of Krogstad and Torvald” (SparkNotes Editorial Team). In a way Dr. Rank was almost similar to Torvald because he, just as torvald, was concerned about maintaining his image. After admitting to Nora that he loves her and sending the cards with the black crosses he says his farewells to his friends and prepares to die in private, but he only tells Nora about his death and not his own friend torvald who has a horror and disgust of ugliness. Instead, he only says goodbye and leaves a card with black crosses symbolizing his death. Another function of Dr. Rank in A Doll’s House is to provide exposition on Krogstad. Rank informs Nora and Christine about the criminal background and history of Krogstad. Dr. Rank’s talk of moral disease was symbolic. “He had tuberculosis in his spine so that could be used to represent the diseased backbone of unenlightened society” (SparkNotes Editorial Team). This was a society where men and women were not viewed as equals. In this society the men dominated …show more content…
Rank are crucial to the reader’s understanding of the plot. The functions of Dr. Rank helps the story move along and provide the reader a deeper understanding of the plot. He makes connections that makes the reader think about the appearance and reality of the major characters. “The biggest accomplishment in the play was breaking down the walls of society” (Shmoop). Nora did this in multiple ways. She loaned money from Krogstad to save her own husband's life and famously leaving her husband and her own children after she saw the true nature of Torvald, which during this time period, women were not allowed to do this but Nora did. After the play multiple riots occurred about the ending of the

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