by Henrik Ibsen
NORA [looks anxiously at him]: You think so?
RANK: One forms new bonds, and then –
NORA: Who forms new bonds?
RANK: You and Helmer both will, when I’m gone. You’ve already made a good start, I’d say. What was this Mrs Linde doing here yesterday evening?
NORA: Aha – you’re not jealous of poor Kristine, are you?
RANK: Yes, I am. She’ll be my successor here in this house. When I’ve got my final leave of absence, perhaps that woman will –
NORA: Hush; don’t talk so loud; she’s in there.
RANK: Today too? You see.
NORA: Only to sew my costume. Good Lord, you’re so unreasonable. [Sits down on the sofa.] Be nice now, Dr Rank; tomorrow you’ll see how prettily I shall dance; and then you’ll imagine that I’m doing it just for your sake – well, and for Torvald’s too, of course – that goes without saying. [Takes various things out of the box.] Dr Rank, sit down here, and I’ll show you something.
RANK [sits down]: What is it?
NORA: Look here. Look!
RANK: Silk stockings.
NORA: Flesh-coloured. Aren’t they lovely? Well, it’s dark in here now; but tomorrow –. No, no, no; you’re only to see the foot. Oh all right then, of course you can look higher up39 too.
RANK: Hm –
NORA: Why are you looking so critical? You think perhaps they won’t fit me?
RANK: Well, on that I couldn’t possibly have an informed opinion.
NORA [looks at him for a moment]: Shame on you! [Hits him lightly on the ear with the stockings.] Take that. [Puts them back in the box.]
RANK: And what other glorious things am I to see?
NORA: You shan’t see a scrap more, because you’re naughty.
She hums to herself a little, and searches among the things.
RANK [after a brief silence]: When I sit here like this with you in such close confidence, then I can’t imagine – no, I can’t conceive – what would have become of me if I’d never come into this house.
NORA [smiles]: Yes, I do believe you actually enjoy yourself here with us.
RANK [more quietly, looking straight in front of him]: And then to have to leave it all –
NORA: Oh stuff and nonsense. You’re not leaving it.
RANK [as before]: – without being able to leave behind even a humble token of gratitude; scarcely a fleeting sense of loss – nothing but a vacant place that can be filled by the first person to come along.
NORA: And if I were to ask you for –? No –
RANK: For what?
NORA: For a great proof of your friendship –
RANK: Yes, yes?
NORA: No, I mean – for a tremendously big favour –
RANK: Would you really, just this one time, make me so happy?
NORA: Oh, but you don’t have any idea what it is.
RANK: All right; so tell me.
NORA: No, but really I can’t, Dr Rank; it’s so unreasonably much: advice, and help and a favour too –
RANK: The more the better. It’s a mystery to me what you might mean. Well, speak out. Haven’t I your confidence?
NORA: Yes, you have, like nobody else. You’re my truest and best friend, I know that. And that’s also why I shall tell you. You see, Dr Rank: there’s something you must help me to prevent. You know how deeply, how indescribably Torvald loves me; he wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to give his life for my sake.
RANK [leaning towards her]: Nora – do you think he’s the only one –?
NORA [with a slight start]: Who would –?
RANK: Who would gladly give his life for your sake.
NORA [sadly]: I see.
RANK: I swore to myself that you’d know it before I went away. I’ll never find a better opportunity. – Yes, Nora, now you know. And now you also know that you can confide in me as in nobody else.
NORA [gets up; steadily and calmly]: Let me pass.
RANK [makes room for her, but remains seated]: Nora –
NORA [in the doorway to the hall]: Helene, bring in the lamp. – [Walks over towards the stove.] Oh, my dear Dr Rank, that was really horrid of you.
RANK [gets up]: To have loved you as deeply as anyone else? Was that horrid?
NORA: No, but that you should go and tell me. That was absolutely unnecessary –
RANK: What do you mean? Did you know –?
The MAID comes in with the lamp, puts it on the table and goes out again.
RANK: Nora – Mrs Helmer – I’m asking you: did you know something?
NORA: Oh, how do I know what I knew or didn’t know? I really can’t say –. That you could be so clumsy, Dr Rank! Everything was so good a moment ago.
RANK: Well, at least you can be quite sure now that I’m here at your disposal, body and soul. So if you do want to speak out –
NORA [looks at him]: After this?
RANK: I beg you, let me know what it is.
NORA: I can’t tell you anything now.
RANK: Oh please. You mustn’t punish me like this. Let me do whatever’s humanly possible for you.
NORA: You can’t do anything for me now. – Anyway, I probably don’t need any help. You’ll see, the whole thing is just a figment of my imagination. Of course it is! Naturally. [Sits down in the rocking-chair, looks at him, smiles.] Well, you really are a fine gentleman, Dr Rank! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, now that the lamp’s come in?
RANK: No, not really. But perhaps I should go – for ever?
NORA: No, you certainly mustn’t do that. Naturally you’ll come here as before. You know very well Torvald can’t do without you.
RANK: Yes, but you?
NORA: Oh, I always think it’s tremendously amusing here when you come by.
RANK: Yes, it was that that led me astray. You’re an enigma to me. I’ve often had the sense that you’d almost as soon be with me as with Helmer.
NORA: Well, you know, there are certain people one loves most, and others one might almost prefer to be with.
RANK: Indeed, there’s something in that.
NORA: When I was at home, I loved Daddy best, of course. But I always thought it was tremendous fun when I could steal down to the maids’ room; they never ever tried to guide or instruct40 me; and they always talked so amusingly among themselves.
RANK: Aha. So it’s them I’ve replaced.
NORA [jumps up and goes over to him]: Oh, dear, kind Dr Rank, that’s not what I meant at all. But you can understand, surely, that with Torvald it’s the same as with Daddy –
The MAID comes in from the hall.
MAID: Madam! [Whispers and hands her a card.]
NORA [glances at the card]: Ah! [Stuffs it in her pocket.]
RANK: Something wrong?
NORA: No, no, not at all; it’s just – it’s my new costume –
RANK: Really? But your costume’s over there.
NORA: Oh, yes, that one; but this is another; I’ve ordered it – Torvald mustn’t know –
RANK: Aha, so there we have the big secret.
NORA: Yes, quite so; just go in to him; he’s sitting in the inner room; keep him busy for a bit –
RANK: Don’t worry; he shan’t escape me.
He goes into HELMER’s room.
NORA [to the MAID] And he’s waiting in the kitchen?
MAID: Yes, he came up the back stairs41 –
NORA: But didn’t you tell him there was somebody here?
MAID: Yes, but it was no good.
NORA: He won’t go away?
MAID: No, he won’t go until he’s spoken with you, madam.
NORA: Well, let him come in; but quietly. Helene, you mustn’t tell anybody; it’s a surprise for my husband.
MAID: Yes, yes, I understand, of course –
She goes out.
NORA: It’s happening – the most terrible thing.42 It’s coming after all. No, no, no, it can’t be happening; it shan’t happen. [She goes over and bolts HELMER’s door.]
The MAID opens th
e door to the hallway for KROGSTAD and closes it after him. He is wearing a fur travel coat, boots and a fur hat.
NORA [going towards him]: Talk quietly; my husband’s at home.
KROGSTAD: What of it?
NORA: What do you want from me?
KROGSTAD: To get some answers.
NORA: Then hurry up. What is it?
KROGSTAD: You know presumably that I’ve had my dismissal.
NORA: I couldn’t prevent it, Mr Krogstad. I fought my utmost on your behalf, but it was no use.
KROGSTAD: Does your husband have so little love for you? He’s aware of what I can expose you to, and yet he dares –
NORA: How could you think he’d know anything?
KROGSTAD: Well, no, I didn’t actually think he did. It didn’t seem the least bit like dear old Torvald Helmer to show that much manly courage –
NORA: Mr Krogstad, I demand respect for my husband.
KROGSTAD: Oh, absolutely, all due respect. But since madam is so anxious to keep all this hidden, I dare to presume you’re a little better informed than yesterday about what it is you’ve actually done.
NORA: More than you could ever teach me.
KROGSTAD: Yes, such a bad lawyer as I am –
NORA: What do you want from me?
KROGSTAD: Just to see how things stood with you, Mrs Helmer. I’ve been thinking about you all day. A debt-collector, a hack lawyer, a – well, even someone of my sort has a little of what’s called compassion, you see.
NORA: Show it then; think of my young children.
KROGSTAD: Have you and your husband thought of mine? But that makes no odds now. All I wanted to tell you was this: you needn’t take this affair too seriously. There won’t, for the present, be any charges brought from my side.
NORA: No; that’s so, isn’t it; I knew it.
KROGSTAD: This entire affair can be sorted out amicably; there’s absolutely no need for it to come out; it’ll stay between the three of us.
NORA: My husband must never get to know about this.
KROGSTAD: How are you going to prevent it? Can you pay off what’s outstanding perhaps?
NORA: No, not straight away.
KROGSTAD: Or do you perhaps have some way of raising the money over the next few days?
NORA: Not a way I want to make use of.
KROGSTAD: No, it would be of no help to you now anyway. Even if you stood here with the biggest pile of cash in your hand, you’d not get your bond from me.
NORA: Then explain to me what you want to use it for.
KROGSTAD: I just want to hold on to it – have it in my safekeeping. Nobody else at all will get the least hint of this. So if you were going about here with some desperate solution or other –
NORA: I am.
KROGSTAD: – thinking of running away from your house and home –
NORA: I am!
KROGSTAD: – or thinking of something worse still –
NORA: How can you know?
KROGSTAD: – then forget it.
NORA: How can you know I’m thinking of that?
KROGSTAD: Most of us think of that in the beginning. I thought of it too; but I honestly didn’t have the courage –
NORA [in a dull tone]: Neither do I.
KROGSTAD [relieved]: No, that’s quite right; you don’t have the courage for it either, do you?
NORA: No, I haven’t; I haven’t.
KROGSTAD: And a very foolish mistake it would be. Once the initial domestic storm is over –. I have in my pocket here a letter for your husband –
NORA: And it says everything?
KROGSTAD: Expressed as delicately as possible.
NORA [quickly]: He mustn’t get that letter. Rip it up again. I’ll find a way out, I’ll get the money.
KROGSTAD: I’m sorry, Mrs Helmer, but I believe I just told you –
NORA: Oh, I’m not talking about what I owe you. Let me know exactly how much you’re demanding from my husband, and I’ll get the money.
KROGSTAD: I’m not demanding any money from your husband.
NORA: So what are you demanding?
KROGSTAD: I’ll tell you. I want to get back on my feet, Mrs Helmer; I want to rise in the world; and your husband will help me. For a year and a half I’ve been guilty of nothing dishonest; I have, in all that time, battled in the most straitened circumstances; I was content to work my way up step by step. Now I’ve been chased out and I refuse to be content with merely being taken back into the fold. I want to rise in the world, I tell you. I want to be back in the Bank – in a higher position; your husband will create a position for me –
NORA: He’ll never do that!
KROGSTAD: He will do it; I know him; he won’t dare breathe a word. And once I’m in there with him, then you’ll see! Within a year I shall be the director’s right-hand man. It’ll be Nils Krogstad and not Torvald Helmer running the Commercial Bank.
NORA: That’s something you’ll never see!
KROGSTAD: You might perhaps –?
NORA: I have the courage for it now.
KROGSTAD: Oh, you don’t frighten me. A fine, cosseted lady like you –
NORA: You’ll see; you’ll see!
KROGSTAD: Under the ice perhaps? Down in the cold, coal-black water? And then to float up in the spring, hideous, unrecognizable, with your hair fallen out –
NORA: You don’t frighten me.
KROGSTAD: Nor do you frighten me. People don’t do such things, Mrs Helmer. Besides, what purpose would it serve? I’d have him in my pocket all the same.
NORA: Afterwards? When I’m no longer –?
KROGSTAD: Are you forgetting that I would then have control over the reputation you leave behind?
NORA looks at him, speechless.
KROGSTAD: Well, I’ve prepared you now. Don’t go doing anything silly. As soon as Helmer’s got my letter, I expect to hear from him. And remember, it’s your husband himself who’s forced me back on to such a path. And for that I shall never forgive him. Goodbye, Mrs Helmer.
He goes out through the hall.
NORA [going to the door leading to the hall, opens it a crack and listens]: Going. Isn’t dropping the letter off. Oh no, no, of course, that would be impossible surely. [Opens the door wider and wider.] What’s happening? He’s standing outside. Isn’t going down the stairs. Is he changing his mind? Might he –?
A letter falls into the letterbox; then KROGSTAD’s steps are heard as they fade down the stairwell.
NORA [with a stifled cry, runs across the room and towards the sofa table; brief pause]: In the letterbox. [Sneaks nervously over to the hall door.] There it is. – Torvald, Torvald – we’re beyond rescue now!
MRS LINDE [comes in with the costume, from the room on the left]: Well, I don’t think there’s more to put right. Should we perhaps try it on –?
NORA [hoarsely and quietly]: Kristine, come here.
MRS LINDE [throws the dress on the sofa]: What’s wrong? You look quite distraught.
NORA: Come here. Do you see that letter? There; look – through the glass in the letterbox.
MRS LINDE: Yes, yes; I can see it.
NORA: That letter is from Krogstad –
MRS LINDE: Nora – it’s Krogstad who lent you the money!
NORA: Yes; and now Torvald will get to know everything.
MRS LINDE: Oh, believe me, Nora, it’s best for both of you.
NORA: There’s more to it than you know. I forged a signature –
MRS LINDE: But for heaven’s sake –?
NORA: Now, there’s just one thing I want to tell you, Kristine; you’ve got to be my witness.
MRS LINDE: What do you mean witness? What am I to –?
NORA: In case I were to go insane – and that could well happen –
MRS LINDE: Nora!
NORA: Or if something else were to happen to me – something that meant I couldn’t be around –
MRS LINDE: Nora, Nora, you seem quite out of your mind!
NORA: If there were s
omeone who wanted to take everything upon themselves, all the blame, you understand –
MRS LINDE: Yes, yes; but how can you think –?
NORA: Then you’ll be a witness to it not being true, Kristine. I am not out of my mind at all; I have full powers of reasoning in this moment; and I am telling you: nobody else knew about this; I did the whole thing on my own. Remember that.
MRS LINDE: Of course I will. But I don’t understand any of this.
NORA: Well, how could you understand? After all, it’s the most miraculous thing that’s about to happen now.
MRS LINDE: Miraculous?
NORA: Yes, miraculous. But it’s so terrible, Kristine – it mustn’t happen, not for anything in the world.
MRS LINDE: I’ll go straight to Krogstad and talk to him.
NORA: Don’t go to him; he’ll only do you harm!
MRS LINDE: There was a time when he’d gladly have done absolutely anything for my sake.
NORA: Krogstad?
MRS LINDE: Where does he live?
NORA: Oh, how do I know –? Wait, [feels in her pocket] here’s his card. But the letter, the letter –!
HELMER [in his room, knocking on the door]: Nora!
NORA [screams in terror]: Oh, what is it? What do you want of me?
HELMER: Now, now, don’t be so scared. We’re not coming in; you’ve locked the door anyway; trying your dress on perhaps?
NORA: Yes, yes; I’m trying it on. I’ll be so pretty, Torvald.
MRS LINDE [who has read the card]: He lives just round the corner.
NORA: Yes; but it’s useless. We’re beyond rescue. The letter’s lying there in the box.
MRS LINDE: And your husband has the key?
NORA: Yes, always.
MRS LINDE: Krogstad must ask for his letter back unread; he must find an excuse –
NORA: But it’s usually around now that Torvald –
MRS LINDE: Stall him; go in to him for now. I’ll come back as quickly as I can.
She hurries out through the door to the hall.
NORA [goes over to HELMER’s door, opens it and peeps in]: Torvald!
HELMER [in the inner room]: Well, is one finally allowed back into one’s own living room? Come on, Rank, now we’ll get to see – [In the doorway] But what’s this?
NORA: What, Torvald dear?
HELMER: Rank prepared me for a scene of splendid disguise.
RANK: That’s what I understood, but I was clearly mistaken.
