Look carefully at the play’s graphic images of death. Rank describes himself ‘   up there in the churchyard’ (Act 2, p. 65).

Ask yourself: How does Ibsen use death imagery in relation to social and personal change?

Possible answer: Rank’s awareness of his own terminal illness makes him determined to tell Nora of his love. Nora herself rejects her fantasies of suicide to embrace the role of a New Woman.