by Henrik Ibsen
NORA: I think I’ve heard something of the sort.
KROGSTAD: The matter didn’t go to court; but it meant all avenues were somehow closed to me. So I struck out into the line of business you know about. I had to grab on to something after all; and I think I can say I’ve not been amongst the worst. But now I must get out of all this. My sons are growing older; for their sake I must try to reclaim all the social respectability I can. This post in the Bank was to be the first step on the ladder for me. And now your husband wants to kick me off that ladder, so I’ll end up down in the dirt again.
NORA: But, for God’s sake, Mr Krogstad, it really isn’t in my power to help you.
KROGSTAD: That’s because you don’t have the will; but I have the means to force you.
NORA: You wouldn’t tell my husband that I owe you money, surely?
KROGSTAD: Hm; and if I did tell him?
NORA: It would be a shameful thing to do. [Tears rising in her throat] That secret, my pride and joy, to think he should find out about it in such a hideous, clumsy way – get to know about it from you! You’d expose me to the most fearful unpleasantness –
KROGSTAD: Merely unpleasantness?
NORA [vehemently]: Well, just do it then; you’ll be the one to come off worst, because then my husband will really get to see what a despicable individual you are, and then you certainly won’t keep your job.
KROGSTAD: I was asking if it was merely domestic unpleasantness you feared?
NORA: If my husband finds out, he will, of course, pay whatever’s outstanding immediately; and then we’ll have nothing more to do with you.
KROGSTAD [a step closer]: Listen, Mrs Helmer – either you have a rather weak memory, or then again, perhaps you don’t have much understanding of business. I’d better explain the situation to you in a little more depth.
NORA: How do you mean?
KROGSTAD: When your husband was ill, you came to me to borrow twelve hundred speciedalers.
NORA: I knew nobody else.
KROGSTAD: So I promised to get you that sum –
NORA: And you did.
KROGSTAD: I promised to get you that sum on certain conditions. You were so preoccupied at the time with your husband’s illness, and so keen to get the travel money, that I don’t think you gave much consideration to all the incidental circumstances. It would not, therefore, be inappropriate to remind you of this. Now: I promised to find you the money against an IOU, which I drew up.
NORA: Yes, and which I signed.
KROGSTAD: Correct. But beneath that I added a few lines in which your father stood as guarantor for the debt. It was these lines that your father was supposed to sign.
NORA: Supposed to –? He did sign them.
KROGSTAD: I’d left the date blank; that is, your father himself was supposed to enter the date on which he signed the document. Do you remember this, Mrs Helmer?25
NORA: Yes, I believe –
KROGSTAD: I then handed the IOU over to you, so that you could send it by post to your father. Isn’t that so?
NORA: Yes.
KROGSTAD: And of course you did so immediately; since no more than five or six days later you brought me the bond with your father’s signature. The sum was then paid out to you.
NORA: Well, yes; haven’t I made all my payments properly?
KROGSTAD: Reasonably, yes. But – to come back to what we were discussing – it must have been a difficult time for you, Mrs Helmer?
NORA: Yes, it was.
KROGSTAD: Your father was extremely ill, I believe.
NORA: He was dying.
KROGSTAD: Died shortly afterwards?
NORA: Yes.
KROGSTAD: Tell me, Mrs Helmer, you wouldn’t happen to remember the day your father died? The day of the month, I mean.
NORA: Daddy died on the 29th of September.
KROGSTAD: That’s quite right; I’ve verified it for myself. Which is why there’s a peculiarity here [takes a document out] that I simply can’t explain.
NORA: What peculiarity? I don’t know –
KROGSTAD: The peculiarity is this, madam, that your father signed this IOU three days after his death.
NORA: How? I don’t understand –
KROGSTAD: Your father died on the 29th of September. But look at this. Here your father has dated his signature the 2nd of October. Isn’t that peculiar, Mrs Helmer?
NORA is silent.
KROGSTAD: Can you explain that to me?
NORA remains silent.
KROGSTAD: It’s rather curious too that the words ‘2nd of October’ and the year are not written in your father’s hand, but in a hand I seem perhaps to recognize. Well, that can be explained, of course: your father may have forgotten to date his signature, and then someone or other has done it at random, before knowing about his death. There’s no harm in that. It’s the person’s signature it comes down to. And that is authentic, isn’t it, Mrs Helmer? It is your father, of course, who has written his name here?
NORA [after a short silence, tosses her head and looks defiantly at him]: No, it isn’t. I’m the one who wrote Daddy’s name.
KROGSTAD: Listen, Mrs Helmer – you do realize that this is a dangerous admission?
NORA: Why? You’ll have your money soon.
KROGSTAD: May I put a question to you – why didn’t you send the document to your father?
NORA: It was impossible. With Daddy being ill. If I’d asked him for his signature, I’d have had to tell him what the money was to be used for. But I couldn’t tell him, of course, when he was so ill, that my husband’s life was in danger. That was impossible.
KROGSTAD: Then it would have been better for you to have abandoned this trip abroad.
NORA: No, that was impossible. That trip was to save my husband’s life. I couldn’t abandon it.
KROGSTAD: But didn’t you consider the fact that you were committing fraud against me –?
NORA: I couldn’t take that into account. I wasn’t the least bothered about you. I couldn’t stand you and the coldness with which you put obstacles in my way, when you knew the danger my husband was in.
KROGSTAD: Mrs Helmer, you obviously have no clear understanding of what it is you are actually guilty of. But let me tell you, the thing I once did was neither something greater nor something worse, and it wrecked my entire social standing.
NORA: You? You’d have me believe that you did something brave to save your wife’s life?
KROGSTAD: The law doesn’t ask about motives.
NORA: Then it must be an extremely bad law.
KROGSTAD: Bad or not – if I produce this document in court, you will be condemned according to the law.
NORA: I don’t believe that for a moment. Hasn’t a daughter the right to protect her old and mortally ill father from worries and anxieties? Hasn’t a wife the right to save her husband’s life? I don’t know the law too well; but I’m certain it must say somewhere that such things are permitted. And you have no knowledge of this – you, as a lawyer? You must be a very bad lawyer, Mr Krogstad.
KROGSTAD: That may be. But business agreements – the kind you and I have with one another – you must surely believe I have an understanding of those? Very well. Do whatever you please. But this much I tell you: if I find myself pushed out a second time, you’ll be keeping me company.
He makes a farewell gesture and goes out through the hall.
NORA [thoughtful for a moment; then tosses her head]: What nonsense! – Trying to frighten me! I’m not that gullible. [Busies herself with gathering up the CHILDREN’s clothes; soon stops.] But –? – No, but it’s impossible! I did it out of love after all.
THE CHILDREN [in the doorway to the left]: Mummy, that man just went out of the door downstairs.
NORA: Yes, yes, I know. But you’re not to tell anyone about the man. You hear? Not even Daddy!
THE CHILDREN: No, Mummy, but will you play with us again now?
NORA: No, no; not now.
THE CHILDREN: Oh but, Mummy
, you promised.
NORA: Yes, but I can’t right now. Go inside; I’ve got so much to do. Go in, go in, my dear, sweet children.
She hurries them gently back into the room and closes the door after them.
NORA [sits on the sofa, picks up some embroidery and does a few stitches but soon stops]: No! [Throws the embroidery aside, gets up, goes to the hall door and shouts] Helene! Let me have the tree in here. [Goes to the table on the left and opens the drawer; stops again.] No, but it’s utterly impossible, surely!
MAID [with the Christmas tree]: Where shall I put it, madam?
NORA: There; in the middle of the room.
MAID: Shall I fetch anything else?
NORA: No thank you; I’ve got what I need.
The MAID has put the tree down, she goes out again.
NORA [busy decorating the tree]: Candles here – and flowers here. – That despicable person! Oh, nonsense, nonsense! There’s nothing the matter. The Christmas tree is going to be lovely. I’ll do whatever you want, Torvald – I’ll sing for you, dance for you –
HELMER, with a bundle of papers under his arm, comes in from outside.
NORA: Ah – are you back already?
HELMER: Yes. Has anybody been here?
NORA: Here? No.
HELMER: That’s peculiar. I saw Krogstad come out of the downstairs door.
NORA: Really? Oh yes, that’s right, Krogstad was here for a moment.
HELMER: Nora, I can see it in your face: he’s been here and asked you to put in a good word for him.
NORA: Yes.
HELMER: And you were meant to do it as if of your own accord? You were meant to conceal it from me that he’d been here. He asked that of you too, didn’t he?
NORA: Yes, Torvald; but –
HELMER: Nora, Nora, how could you go along with something like that? Engage in conversation with a man of that sort, and then give him a promise! And then to top it, tell me an untruth!
NORA: An untruth –?
HELMER: Didn’t you say nobody had been here? [Wags a stern finger.] My little songbird must never do that again. A songbird needs a clean beak to chirrup with; never a false note. [Holds her round her waist.] Isn’t that how it should be? Yes, that’s what I thought. [Lets her go.] And now, no more about it. [Sits down in front of the stove.] Ah, how cosy and comfortable it is in here. [Leafs through his papers a little.]
NORA [busy with the Christmas tree, after a short pause]: Torvald!
HELMER: Yes.
NORA: I’m looking forward so tremendously to the fancy dress ball at the Stenborgs’ the day after tomorrow.
HELMER: And I’m tremendously curious to see what you’re going to surprise me with.
NORA: Ah, that stupid idea.
HELMER: Oh?
NORA: I can’t think of anything that’ll do; everything seems so pathetic, so meaningless.
HELMER: Has my little Nora come to that realization?
NORA [behind his chair, leaning with her arms on the back of it]: Are you very busy, Torvald?
HELMER: Well –
NORA: What sort of papers are those?
HELMER: Bank matters.
NORA: Already?
HELMER: I got the outgoing management to give me authority to undertake the necessary changes in the staff and business plan. I’ll have to spend Christmas week on it. I want to have everything in order by New Year.
NORA: So that’s why this poor Krogstad –
HELMER: Hm.
NORA [still leaning on the back of his chair and slowly running her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck]: If you’d not been so busy, I’d have asked you for a tremendously big favour, Torvald.
HELMER: Tell me. What could that be?
NORA: Nobody has such excellent taste as you. And I do so want to look good at the ball. Torvald, couldn’t you take me in hand and decide what I should be, and how my costume should be arranged?
HELMER: Aha, is little Miss Wilful out looking for a man to rescue her?
NORA: Yes, Torvald, I can’t get anywhere without your help.
HELMER: Very well. I’ll give it some thought; we’ll manage something.
NORA: Oh, how kind of you. [Goes back to the Christmas tree; pause.] How pretty these red flowers look. – But tell me, is it really so bad, whatever it was that this Krogstad was guilty of?
HELMER: Falsifying signatures. Have you any idea what that means?
NORA: Mightn’t he have done it out of necessity?
HELMER: Indeed, or, as so many do, in a moment of imprudence. I’m not so heartless as to condemn a man categorically for the sake of one such isolated act.
NORA: No, isn’t that so, Torvald!
HELMER: Many may rise and redeem themselves morally, if only they confess their misdeeds openly and take their punishment.
NORA: Punishment –?
HELMER: But that wasn’t the path Krogstad chose; he managed to slip away with tricks and manoeuvres; and that’s what has eroded him morally.
NORA: You think that would –?
HELMER: Just imagine how such a guilt-ridden person has to lie and dissemble and pretend to all and sundry, has to wear a mask even for those closest to him, yes, even for his own wife and his own children. And the children, well, that really is the worst of it, Nora.
NORA: Why?
HELMER: Because such an atmosphere26 of lies brings contagion and disease into the very life of a home. Every breath the children take in such a house is filled with the germs of something ugly.
NORA [closer behind him]: Are you sure of that?
HELMER: My dear, I’ve experienced it often enough as a lawyer. Almost all those who are corrupt from an early age have had mothers who were liars.
NORA: Why precisely – mothers?
HELMER: It’s mostly ascribable to the mothers; but fathers, of course, have the same effect; every lawyer knows that. And yet, this Krogstad has gone about his home, year in year out, poisoning his own children with lies and hypocrisy; that’s why I say he is morally destitute. [Holds his hands out to her.] And that’s why my sweet little Nora must promise me not to plead his cause. Your hand on it. Now, now, what’s this? Give me your hand. There now. That’s settled. It would, I assure you, have been impossible for me to work with him; I literally feel physically ill in the proximity of such individuals.
NORA [pulls her hand back and goes round to the other side of the Christmas tree]: How hot it is in here. And I’ve got so much to do.
HELMER [gets up and gathers his papers together]: Yes, and I should think about getting some of this read before dinner. Your costume – I’ll give some thought to that as well. And something to hang in gold wrapping on the Christmas tree; I might just perhaps have that in store too. [Puts his hand on her head.] Oh, my darling little songbird. [Goes into his room and closes the door behind him.]
NORA [quietly, after a silence]: Oh, surely! It isn’t true. It’s impossible. It must be impossible.
NANNY [in the doorway on the left]: The little ones are asking so prettily if they can come in to their mummy.
NORA: No, no, don’t let them come in here to me! You stay with them, Anne-Marie.
NANNY: Very well, madam. [Closes the door.]
NORA [pale with fear]: Corrupt my little children –! Poison our home? [Brief pause; she lifts her head high.] It isn’t true. It can’t ever possibly be true.
Act Two
The same room. Up in the corner by the piano stands the Christmas tree, stripped, dishevelled and with its candles burned down to the stubs. Nora’s outdoor clothes are lying on the sofa.
NORA, alone in the room, walks about anxiously; finally she stops at the sofa and picks up her coat.
NORA [dropping her coat again]: Someone’s coming! [Goes to the door, listens.] No – nobody’s there. Of course – nobody will come today, Christmas Day;27 – and not tomorrow either. – But perhaps – [opens the door and looks out] No; nothing in the letterbox; quite empty. [Moves forward across the room.] Oh,
it’s ludicrous! Of course he won’t actually do it. Something like that can’t happen. It’s impossible. I’ve got three young children, after all.
The NANNY, carrying a large cardboard box, comes in from the room on the left.
NANNY: There now, I’ve finally found the box of fancy dress costumes.
NORA: Thank you; put it on the table.
NANNY [does so]: But they’re in rather a bad way, I’m afraid.
NORA: Oh, I wish I could rip them into a hundred thousand pieces!
NANNY: Heavens; they can easily be put right; just a little patience.
NORA: Yes, I’ll go over and get Mrs Linde to help me.
NANNY: Out again? In this foul weather? Miss Nora28 will catch a chill – get sick.
NORA: Well, that wouldn’t be the worst. – How are the children?
NANNY: The poor little mites are playing with their Christmas presents, but –
NORA: Are they asking for me a lot?
NANNY: Well, they are very used to having Mummy around.
NORA: Yes but, Anne-Marie, from now on I can’t be with them as much as before.
NANNY: Well, little ones get used to all sorts.
NORA: Do you believe that? Do you believe they’d forget their mummy if she was gone altogether?
NANNY: Heavens; gone altogether!
NORA: Listen, tell me, Anne-Marie – I’ve often thought – how could you overrule your heart and place your child with strangers?
NANNY: But I had to, of course, when I was going to be wet-nurse for little Nora.
NORA: Yes, but that you’d want to?
NANNY: When I could get such a good job? A penniless girl who’s got herself into trouble29 has to be grateful for whatever she gets. After all, that scoundrel did nothing for me.
NORA: But your daughter must have forgotten you.
NANNY: Oh no, she most certainly hasn’t. She wrote to me, you know, both when she was confirmed and after she was married.
NORA [caresses her neck]: Dear old Anne-Marie, you were a good mother to me, when I was little.
NANNY: Little Nora, poor thing, didn’t have any other mother but me.
NORA: And if my little ones didn’t have any other, I know that you’d –. Oh, nonsense, nonsense. [Opens the box.] Go in to them. Now, I must –. Tomorrow you’ll see how lovely I’ll be.