NORA
I assure you, Torvald, that is not an easy question to answer. I really don’t know. The thing perplexes me altogether. I only know that you and I look at it in quite a different light. I am learning, too, that the law is quite another thing from what I supposed; but I find it impossible to convince myself that the law is right. According to it a woman has no right to spare her old dying father, or to save her husband’s life. I can’t believe that.
HELMER
You talk like a child. You don’t understand the conditions of the world in which you live.
NORA
No, I don’t. But now I am going to try. I am going to see if I can make out who is right, the world or I.
HELMER
You are ill, Nora; you are delirious; I almost think you are out of your mind.
NORA
I have never felt my mind so clear and certain as tonight.
HELMER
And is it with a clear and certain mind that you forsake your husband and your children?
NORA
Yes, it is.
HELMER
Then there is only one possible explanation.
NORA
What is that?
HELMER
You do not love me anymore.
NORA
No, that is just it.
HELMER
Nora!—and you can say that?
NORA
It gives me great pain, Torvald, for you have always been so kind to me, but I cannot help it. I do not love you anymore.
HELMER
(Regaining his composure.) Is that a clear and certain conviction too?
NORA
Yes, absolutely clear and certain. That is the reason why I will not stay here any longer.
HELMER
And can you tell me what I have done to forfeit your love?
NORA
Yes, indeed I can. It was tonight, when the wonderful thing did not happen; then I saw you were not the man I had thought you were.
HELMER
Explain yourself better. I don’t understand you.
NORA
I have waited so patiently for eight years; for, goodness knows, I knew very well that wonderful things don’t happen every day. Then this horrible misfortune came upon me; and then I felt quite certain that the wonderful thing was going to happen at last. When Krogstad’s letter was lying out there, never for a moment did I imagine that you would consent to accept this man’s conditions. I was so absolutely certain that you would say to him: Publish the thing to the whole world. And when that was done—
HELMER
Yes, what then?—when I had exposed my wife to shame and disgrace?
NORA
When that was done, I was so absolutely certain, you would come forward and take everything upon yourself, and say: I am the guilty one.
HELMER
Nora—!
NORA
You mean that I would never have accepted such a sacrifice on your part? No, of course not. But what would my assurances have been worth against yours? That was the wonderful thing which I hoped for and feared; and it was to prevent that, that I wanted to kill myself.
HELMER
I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora—bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves.
NORA
It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.
HELMER
Oh, you think and talk like a heedless child.
NORA
Maybe. But you neither think nor talk like the man I could bind myself to. As soon as your fear was over—and it was not fear for what threatened me, but for what might happen to you—when the whole thing was past, as far as you were concerned it was exactly as if nothing at all had happened. Exactly as before, I was your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile. (Getting up.) Torvald—it was then it dawned upon me that for eight years I had been living here with a strange man, and had borne him three children—Oh, I can’t bear to think of it! I could tear myself into little bits!
HELMER
(Sadly.) I see, I see. An abyss has opened between us—there is no denying it. But, Nora, would it not be possible to fill it up?
NORA
As I am now, I am no wife for you.
HELMER
I have it in me to become a different man.
NORA
Perhaps—if your doll is taken away from you.
HELMER
But to part!—to part from you! No, no, Nora, I can’t understand that idea.
NORA
(Going out to the right.) That makes it all the more certain that it must be done. (She comes back with her cloak and hat and a small bag which she puts on a chair by the table.)
HELMER
Nora, Nora, not now! Wait until tomorrow.
NORA
(Putting on her cloak.) I cannot spend the night in a strange man’s room.
HELMER
But can’t we live here like brother and sister—?
NORA
(Putting on her hat.) You know very well that would not last long. (Puts the shawl round her.) Goodbye, Torvald. I won’t see the little ones. I know they are in better hands than mine. As I am now, I can be of no use to them.
HELMER
But some day, Nora—some day?
NORA
How can I tell? I have no idea what is going to become of me.
HELMER
But you are my wife, whatever becomes of you.
NORA
Listen, Torvald. I have heard that when a wife deserts her husband’s house, as I am doing now, he is legally freed from all obligations towards her. In any case, I set you free from all your obligations. You are not to feel yourself bound in the slightest way, any more than I shall. There must be perfect freedom on both sides. See, here is your ring back. Give me mine.
HELMER
That too?
NORA
That too.
HELMER
Here it is.
NORA
That’s right. Now it is all over. I have put the keys here. The maids know all about everything in the house—better than I do. Tomorrow, after I have left her, Christine will come here and pack up my own things that I brought with me from home. I will have them sent after me.
HELMER
All over! All over!—Nora, shall you never think of me again?
NORA
I know I shall often think of you, the children, and this house.
HELMER
May I write to you, Nora?
NORA
No—never. You must not do that.
HELMER
But at least let me send you—
NORA
Nothing—nothing—
HELMER
Let me help you if you are in want.
NORA
No. I can receive nothing from a stranger.
HELMER
Nora—can I never be anything more than a stranger to you?
NORA
(Taking her bag.) Ah, Torvald, the most wonderful thing of all would have to happen.
HELMER
Tell me what that would be!
NORA
Both you and I would have to be so changed that. . . . Oh, Torvald, I don’t believe any longer in wonderful things happening.
HELMER
But I will believe in it. Tell me! So changed that—?
NORA
That our life together would be a real wedlock. Goodbye. (She goes out through the hall.)
HELMER
(Sinks down o
n a chair at the door and buries his face in his hands.) Nora! Nora! (Looks round, and rises.) Empty. She is gone. (A hope flashes across his mind.) The most wonderful thing of all—?
(The sound of a door shutting is heard from below.)
About the Author
Born in 1828, Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and poet, often associated with the early Modernist movement in theatre. Determined to become a playwright from a young age, Ibsen began writing while working as an apprentice pharmacist to help support his family. Though his early plays were largely unsuccessful, Ibsen was able to take employment at a theatre where he worked as a writer, director, and producer. Ibsen’s first success came with Brand and Peter Gynt, and with later plays like A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and The Master Builder he became one of the most performed playwrights in the world, second only to William Shakespeare. Ibsen died in his home in Norway in 1906 at the age of 78.
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Copyright
HarperPerennial Classics
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EPub Edition MARCH 2014 ISBN: 9781443435505
This title is in Canada’s public domain and is not subject to any licence or copyright.
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