THEME 1: SECRECY, DECEIT AND THE REVEAL OF THE TRUTH
‘We all have secrets’
P1 AO4: Both writers explore secrecy as a tool for power and self-preservation.
AO1: Ibsen presents how Nora uses her secrecy to maintain agency. Her small
deceptions of her indulgences in “macaroons” at the start of the play foreshadow
her larger secret of her illegal loan. She refers to this secret as her “pride and my
joy”, reflecting Soloman’s argument Nora represents the ‘artificiality of the well-
made woman’. She keeps it a secret in order to protect Torvald’s masculinity, as she
knows it would be “painful and humiliating for him” to find out that he “owed”
anything to Nora.
AO3: This reflects the limited financial agency women had during this period, as
under Norwegian law during the mid 1800s due to the Napoleonic Code – a legal
framework preventing women from engaging in financial transactions without a
husband’s consent. This restriction forced women intro deceptive resourcefulness.
AO1&AO5: Similarly, Rosetti portrays other ways secrecy gives female agency, as
critic Burke notes offers a ‘sly dissent’ against male authority. In ‘Winter: My
secret’: the poem’s speaker tantalises her listener stating, “my secret’s mine, and I
won’t tell”. This suggests that the speaker uses their secrecy as a survival tactic, by
using their “mask for warmth” = idea of ‘sly dissent’ against male authority by
withholding herself.
AO3: This could reflect the Victorian notions of female purity, by seeking
protection through refusing yourself to romantic relationships as a way to protect
your own reputation. Rossetti herself refused 2 marriage proposals = suggests
women gaining agency through keeping yourself reserved.
AO1&AO4: In both ‘Twice’ the speaker withdraws their love once their private
emotional truths are judged and rejected as an act of self-preservation. In ‘Twice’
the speaker’s heart is “scanned” with a “critical eye” by a romantic interest. She
later withdraws her romantic secret towards the pursuit of Godly love. This
mirrors Nora withdrawal of romantic love once her private truths are revealed in
pursuit of her “sacred” duties.
P2 AO4: Both writers explore the corruptive nature of secrets. In ADH Ibsen explores
how they can cause the physical decline of the individual and destroying the
moral foundation of the home. Whereas Rossetti illustrates how indulging in
secret desires can result in physical decline.
AO3: Ibsen was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, which popularised
ideas of inherited traits, Ibsen presents secrecy as a form of moral inheritance –
through suggesting the corruptive nature of secrets on children.
AO1&AO4: Torvald views secrecy as moral contagion: “atmosphere of lies
contaminates and poisons every corner of the home”, and links secrecy to the
destruction of the family claiming that “nearly all young criminals” have “mothers
, who are constitutional liars”. This is reflected in Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’, where
her secret indulgence of the fruit are depicted as morally and physically
destructive: as “honey to the throat / But poison in the blood” and are the cause of
her “swift decay”. This suggests how her secret indulgence corrodes her, mirroring
how lies in ADH “contaminates” the home.
AO3: Some critics argue that ‘Goblin Market’ serves as an allegory for addiction, as
Rossetti’s brother Dante Rossetti suffered with addiction. The repetitive cycle of
drug reliance mirrors Laura’s damaging reliance on the fruits – demonstrating
how indulgences in secret desires lead to downfall.
AO1 &AO4: Dr. Rank also serves as Bradford asserts a ‘symbol of moral
corruption’. He serves as an example of how parent’s secret moral failings can
physically corrupt the next generation, he suffers from “spinal tuberculosis” which
he describes as a consequence of his father’s excesses as a “gay young lieutenant”.
This is reflected in ‘Soeur Louise de la Miséricordé’, where the speaker asserts
regret of her past secret role as a mistress to Louis XIV: “Oh vanity of vanities,
desire!”
AO5: Woolf argues that Rossetti ‘represented very fully the internal struggles of
women’.
AO3: Rossetti volunteered at St Mary Magdelene Penitentiary in Highgate for
‘fallen women’ (often prostitutes), this suggests that she had first-hand experience
with the vulnerability of these secret female figures in society and understands
their ‘internal struggles’.
P3 Both writers explore how secrets must be revealed – but Ibsen shows this as
destructive, Rossetti explores a potential compromise.
AO3&AO5: Ibsen reworks melodramatic tropes: a fatal secret threatens to be
revealed. When it is, it exposes not just Nora’s secret about the loan – but Torvald’s
true nature: a coward who only cares for his reputation. He states that no man can
“sacrifice his honour” for love. Toril Moi ‘moment of high melodrama’
AO1: The impact of the revelation is Nora’s total transformation. She realises her
marriage to have been a “playroom” in which she has played Torvald’s “doll wife”.
She must leave the marriage as her “duty towards myself”. This rejection of false
romantic secrets is reflected in ‘No, thank you, John’. She states that she would
rather answer “‘No’ to fifty Johns / Than answer ‘Yes’ to you” – mirroring Nora’s
sudden blunt revelation of her feelings causing her to leave to stand on her “own
feet”.
AO3: Nora’s discovery of her husband’s true nature and the speaker’s rejection of
romance in ‘No, thank you, John’ stimulates their transition to independence,
reflecting the emergence of the New Woman through their rejection of the
traditional, domestic marriage with its secrecy and illusion. 1882 marriage act –
separate entities
AO4: Ibsen shows revelations destroy the marriage; Rossetti shows how preserving
secrets can sustain this as Strinberg notes ‘far from divine institution’.
‘We all have secrets’
P1 AO4: Both writers explore secrecy as a tool for power and self-preservation.
AO1: Ibsen presents how Nora uses her secrecy to maintain agency. Her small
deceptions of her indulgences in “macaroons” at the start of the play foreshadow
her larger secret of her illegal loan. She refers to this secret as her “pride and my
joy”, reflecting Soloman’s argument Nora represents the ‘artificiality of the well-
made woman’. She keeps it a secret in order to protect Torvald’s masculinity, as she
knows it would be “painful and humiliating for him” to find out that he “owed”
anything to Nora.
AO3: This reflects the limited financial agency women had during this period, as
under Norwegian law during the mid 1800s due to the Napoleonic Code – a legal
framework preventing women from engaging in financial transactions without a
husband’s consent. This restriction forced women intro deceptive resourcefulness.
AO1&AO5: Similarly, Rosetti portrays other ways secrecy gives female agency, as
critic Burke notes offers a ‘sly dissent’ against male authority. In ‘Winter: My
secret’: the poem’s speaker tantalises her listener stating, “my secret’s mine, and I
won’t tell”. This suggests that the speaker uses their secrecy as a survival tactic, by
using their “mask for warmth” = idea of ‘sly dissent’ against male authority by
withholding herself.
AO3: This could reflect the Victorian notions of female purity, by seeking
protection through refusing yourself to romantic relationships as a way to protect
your own reputation. Rossetti herself refused 2 marriage proposals = suggests
women gaining agency through keeping yourself reserved.
AO1&AO4: In both ‘Twice’ the speaker withdraws their love once their private
emotional truths are judged and rejected as an act of self-preservation. In ‘Twice’
the speaker’s heart is “scanned” with a “critical eye” by a romantic interest. She
later withdraws her romantic secret towards the pursuit of Godly love. This
mirrors Nora withdrawal of romantic love once her private truths are revealed in
pursuit of her “sacred” duties.
P2 AO4: Both writers explore the corruptive nature of secrets. In ADH Ibsen explores
how they can cause the physical decline of the individual and destroying the
moral foundation of the home. Whereas Rossetti illustrates how indulging in
secret desires can result in physical decline.
AO3: Ibsen was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, which popularised
ideas of inherited traits, Ibsen presents secrecy as a form of moral inheritance –
through suggesting the corruptive nature of secrets on children.
AO1&AO4: Torvald views secrecy as moral contagion: “atmosphere of lies
contaminates and poisons every corner of the home”, and links secrecy to the
destruction of the family claiming that “nearly all young criminals” have “mothers
, who are constitutional liars”. This is reflected in Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’, where
her secret indulgence of the fruit are depicted as morally and physically
destructive: as “honey to the throat / But poison in the blood” and are the cause of
her “swift decay”. This suggests how her secret indulgence corrodes her, mirroring
how lies in ADH “contaminates” the home.
AO3: Some critics argue that ‘Goblin Market’ serves as an allegory for addiction, as
Rossetti’s brother Dante Rossetti suffered with addiction. The repetitive cycle of
drug reliance mirrors Laura’s damaging reliance on the fruits – demonstrating
how indulgences in secret desires lead to downfall.
AO1 &AO4: Dr. Rank also serves as Bradford asserts a ‘symbol of moral
corruption’. He serves as an example of how parent’s secret moral failings can
physically corrupt the next generation, he suffers from “spinal tuberculosis” which
he describes as a consequence of his father’s excesses as a “gay young lieutenant”.
This is reflected in ‘Soeur Louise de la Miséricordé’, where the speaker asserts
regret of her past secret role as a mistress to Louis XIV: “Oh vanity of vanities,
desire!”
AO5: Woolf argues that Rossetti ‘represented very fully the internal struggles of
women’.
AO3: Rossetti volunteered at St Mary Magdelene Penitentiary in Highgate for
‘fallen women’ (often prostitutes), this suggests that she had first-hand experience
with the vulnerability of these secret female figures in society and understands
their ‘internal struggles’.
P3 Both writers explore how secrets must be revealed – but Ibsen shows this as
destructive, Rossetti explores a potential compromise.
AO3&AO5: Ibsen reworks melodramatic tropes: a fatal secret threatens to be
revealed. When it is, it exposes not just Nora’s secret about the loan – but Torvald’s
true nature: a coward who only cares for his reputation. He states that no man can
“sacrifice his honour” for love. Toril Moi ‘moment of high melodrama’
AO1: The impact of the revelation is Nora’s total transformation. She realises her
marriage to have been a “playroom” in which she has played Torvald’s “doll wife”.
She must leave the marriage as her “duty towards myself”. This rejection of false
romantic secrets is reflected in ‘No, thank you, John’. She states that she would
rather answer “‘No’ to fifty Johns / Than answer ‘Yes’ to you” – mirroring Nora’s
sudden blunt revelation of her feelings causing her to leave to stand on her “own
feet”.
AO3: Nora’s discovery of her husband’s true nature and the speaker’s rejection of
romance in ‘No, thank you, John’ stimulates their transition to independence,
reflecting the emergence of the New Woman through their rejection of the
traditional, domestic marriage with its secrecy and illusion. 1882 marriage act –
separate entities
AO4: Ibsen shows revelations destroy the marriage; Rossetti shows how preserving
secrets can sustain this as Strinberg notes ‘far from divine institution’.
