necessary changes in personnel and procedure. I"ll need Christmas week for that. .
I want to have everything in order by New Year's.
(27) Nora: So that was the reason this poor Krogstad - .
(28) Helmer: Hm.
(29) Nora: (still leaning on the chair and slowly stroking the nape of his neck). If you .
weren"t so very busy, I would have asked you an enormous favor, Torvald.
(30) Helmer: Let's hear. What is it?.
(31) Nora: You know, there isn"t anyone who has your good taste - and I want so .
much to look well at the costume party. Torvald, couldn"t you take over and .
decide what I should be and plan my costume?.
(32) Helmer: Ah, is my stubborn little creature calling for a lifeguard?.
(33) Nora: Yes, Torvald, I can"t get anywhere without your help.
(34) Helmer: All right - I"ll think it over. We"ll hit on something.
(35) Nora: Oh, how sweet of you. (Goes to the tree again. Pause.) Aren"t the red .
flowers pretty - But tell me, was it really such a crime that this Krogstad .
committed?.
Text Analysis.
(1) Nora's words implicates that she hasn"t expected Helmer to come back that early which also implicates that there is something fishy going on.
(2) The question here implicates that Torvald believes that someone was there.
(3) Nora here is answering the question with a question using the last word in Torvald's utterance "here" which implicates that she hasn"t expected this question. .
Nora is violating the Quality Maxim when she says "No" as she is not telling the truth and misleading Helmer by making him think that nobody has been there. .
(4) Torvald here is observing the Maxim of Relation. He saw Krogstad leaving, consequently, he thought that he had been there. That's why he said , "That's odd." Thus, Helmer reached a conclusion by observing the Maxim of Relation, then he conveyed this conclusion to Nora by employing the hinting strategy through "That's odd." Here there is an illocutionary act in the underlying force with which Torvald is trying to urge Nora indirectly to confess.