The Role of Secondary Characters - Report | ENGL 122, Exams of English Language

Download The Role of Secondary Characters - Report | ENGL 122 and more Exams English Language in PDF only on Docsity! Student Name Professor Zammit English 122 29 April 2010 The Role of Secondary Characters When any form of literature is discussed the first characters mentioned and analyzed are the main players. Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House” is no exception. Countless articles, journals and reviews are written regarding “A Doll’s House” character’s Nora and Torvald Helmer. Their every move, gesture and comment are carefully analyzed and studied. According to Margaret D. Stetz, “Nora is one of the most fully dissected creations in literature”. What is missing when a writer evaluates only the main characters is the complexity and richness found in secondary characters. The secondary characters in Ibsen’s play give depth and contrast to offset the seemingly redundant plot of a woman who deceives her husband and the crime is eventually discovered. Although the main characters are the most exulted without the minor characters, Nils Krogstad, Mrs. Kristine Linde and Dr. Rank, acting as foils for Nora and Torvald the play would be one-dimensional and lack the substantial richness provided by the minor characters. One of the largest contributors to the illumination of Torvald is Nils Krogstad. Nils is portrayed as the dark version of Helmer to showcase the negative qualities of Torvald’s superiority throughout the play. When faced with financial difficulties Krogstad committed the crime of forgery in order to save his family from ruin. Torvald’s unrelenting ethics do not allow him to find sympathy for a childhood friend who made a mistake, even after Krogstad worked very hard to redeem himself. He stated, “This man Krogstad has been consistently poisoning his own children with his lies and deception. That is why I say that he is a moral degenerate” (Ibsen 354). Torvald further berates Krogstad by saying people like Krogstad make him physically ill (Ibsen 354). Ibsen also capitalizes on Nils to showcase Torvald’s quest for power and his reaction to the threat of his superiority ending (Yuehua). Torvald confesses to Nora it is not Krogstad’s criminal history that bothers him the most; rather it is the fact that Nils displays familiarity toward Helmer at the bank. Torvald laments, “He thinks our past friendship gives him the right to be on familiar terms with me. ... It is extremely difficult for me” (Ibsen 360). Although Torvald can overlook the forgery, Helmer despises the thought Nils would not show proper respect for Torvald’s position of authority. Helmer’s entire self-esteem hinges on how he is perceived by his peers. Sheri Metzger explains, “It is his social stature, his professional image, and not his private life which concern him most”. Therefore, he would never contemplate offering to help with Krogstad’s moral rehabilitation. By illustrating Torvald’s unbending stance toward a childhood friend, Ibsen facilitates Torvald’s character flaws of narcissism and self-righteousness. Ibsen further uses Krogstad as a parallel and a catalyst for Nora’s character. Both Krogstad and Nora committed forgery to save their families and both contemplated suicide as a means to escape their problems. Krogstad eloquently explains to Nora that opportunities are no longer available to him and that Nora would suffer the same fate if her crime was revealed (Ibsen 349). Ibsen deliberately uses Nils to portray what Nora’s Lastly, the author incorporates Dr. Rank and his illness to emphasize the moral corruption present in the Helmer’s relationship. This corruption is exemplified when Torvald learns Dr. Rank is expected to die shortly. Helmer remarked to Nora, “He was like a cloud, a dark background to our sunlit happiness. Well, perhaps it’s for the best. For him anyway. And perhaps it is for us too, Nora. We have only ourselves now” (Ibsen 380). Ibsen deliberately uses Torvald’s callous attitude toward his self-proclaimed best friend to showcase the seemingly morally polluted environment in which the Helmer’s live. Dr. Rank’s ailment is a replication of the dark corruption present in Nora and Torvald’s relationship. He is dying of an insidious disease, just as Nora and Torvald’s relationship is quickly perishing from an unmentioned crime. The author notably has both characters suffer a final degradation, Rank’s death and the death of Torvald’s public image. Dr. Rank chooses to die in private thus marking the end to the corruption in the Helmer household. Torvald, meanwhile, tries to maintain his public façade at all costs, until he too realizes its demise. Dr. Rank is also used as a catalyst for Nora’s decision to reveal her crime to Torvald. “(B)y expressing his love for her, implicitly making a claim on her, Rank prevents Nora from asking for his help” (Shideler). After Dr. Rank declared his love for Nora, she replied “I can’t tell you anything now” (Ibsen 365). Had Rank not proclaimed his love for her, Nora would have borrowed money from him to repay her debt. This decision would have prevented the truth from being revealed and kept Nora from finding her true self. Another example of the catalyst effect is in the third act when the death cards are received from Dr. Rank. Upon seeing the black cross Nora insists to her husband that he must read all the mail in the letter box. This indicates that his death gives Nora the momentum needed to confront her husband about the forgery (Rekdal). According to Anne Marie Rekdal, “it thus seems reasonable to link Rank's death to Nora's existential process of transformation”. Nora realizes that in honor of her dying friend she must tell Torvald the truth so that she might have the opportunity to live her life to the fullest. Throughout the play “A Doll’s House” the minor characters of Krogstad, Mrs. Linde and Dr. Rank allow the multifaceted aspects of the major characters, Nora and Torvald, to be illuminated. Without the secondary players the personalities of the Helmers would lack the necessary accentuation to be fluid and believable people. The secondary characters are perfect contrasts to Nora and Torvald and indispensible as catalysts to the dominant events throughout the play. Torvald’s utter concern for appearances comes out in stark relief to Krogstad’s dark and corrupt behavior. Krogstad is regarded as a “moral cripple” (Ibsen 344) while Torvald is “aboveboard . . . and honorable” (Ibsen 337). Moreover, what is Nora without the foil of Mrs. Linde? She is just a young, naïve wife and mother who is happily playing the part of a doll in her husband’s house. Additionally, Dr. Rank’s character is the ultimate catalyst. His death announcement is the final prompting Nora needs to reveal her crime and commence to live as an adult. Although minor characters in the play “A Doll’s House” are not analyzed and evaluated to the extent principal characters are, without their augmentation to the major players the play would lack substantial depth and realism. Work Cited Ibsen, Henrik. “A Doll’s House.” Literature and Ourselves. 6th ed. Ed. Gloria Henderson. Pearson Longman: New York, 2009. 332-389. Metzger, Sheri. "An overview of A Doll's House." Drama for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Lansing Community Coll. Lib. Web. 22 Apr. 2010. Rekdal, Anne Marie. "The female jouissance: an analysis of Ibsen's Et dukkehjem (1)." Scandinavian Studies 74.2 (2002): 149+. General OneFile. Lansing Community Coll. Lib.Web. 3 Apr. 2010. Shideler, Ross. "Ibsen and the name-of-the-father." Scandinavian Studies 69.3 (1997): 277+. General OneFile. Lansing Community Coll. Lib. Web. 3 Apr. 2010. Stetz, Margaret D. "Mrs. Linde, Feminism, and Women's Work, Then and Now." Ibsen Studies 7.2 (2007): 150-168. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Lansing Community Coll. Lib.Web. 16 Apr. 2010. Yuehua, Guo. "Gender struggle over ideological power in Ibsen's A Doll's House/La lutte des sexes sur le pouvoir ideologique Dans Maison de poupee d'Ibsen." Canadian Social Science 5.1 (2009): 79+. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Apr. 2010.