A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

  MRS LINDE: Well, good night, Nora, and don’t be obstinate any more now.

  HELMER: Well said, Mrs Linde!

  MRS LINDE: Good night, Mr Helmer.

  HELMER [seeing her to the door]: Good night, good night; you’ll get home all right, I hope? I’d have liked to –44 but you haven’t got far to go, have you? Good night, good night.

  She leaves; he closes the door behind her and comes back in.

  HELMER: There; at last we’ve got her out of the door. She’s a frightful bore, that woman.

  NORA: Aren’t you very tired, Torvald?

  HELMER: No, not in the least.

  NORA: Or sleepy?

  HELMER: Absolutely not; on the contrary, I feel tremendously exhilarated. But you? Yes, you certainly look both tired and sleepy.

  NORA: Yes, I’m very tired. I want to sleep soon.

  HELMER: You see! You see! It was absolutely right of me that we didn’t stay longer.

  NORA: Oh, every single thing you do is right.

  HELMER [kisses her on the forehead]: Now my skylark is talking as though it were a person. But did you notice how cheerful Rank was this evening?

  NORA: Oh? Was he? I didn’t get to talk to him.

  HELMER: I hardly did either; but I haven’t seen him in such good spirits for a long time. [Looks at her for a moment, then comes closer.] Mmm – it’s glorious to be home again; to have you to myself, alone. – Oh, you entrancingly lovely young woman!

  NORA: Don’t look at me like that, Torvald!

  HELMER: Shouldn’t I look at my most precious possession? At all the glory that is mine, mine alone, mine completely and utterly.

  NORA [goes over to the other side of the table]: You’re not to talk like that to me tonight.

  HELMER [follows her]: You’ve still got the tarantella in your blood, I note. And it makes you even more alluring. Listen! The guests are starting to leave now. [More quietly] Nora – soon the whole house will be quiet.

  NORA: Yes, I hope so.

  HELMER: Yes, isn’t that right, my own darling Nora? Oh, do you know – when I’m out in company with you – do you know why I talk to you so little, keep such a distance from you, just send you the occasional stolen glance – do you know why I do that? It’s because I’m imagining that you’re my secret love, my young secret fiancée, and that nobody has any idea there’s something between us.

  NORA: Oh, yes, yes, yes; I do know that all your thoughts are with me.

  HELMER: And then, when we’re about to leave and I put the shawl round your fine, youthful shoulders – round that miraculous curve of your neck – then I pretend to myself that you’re my young bride, that we’ve just come away from our wedding, that I’m leading you into my abode for the first time – that I’m alone with you for the first time – utterly alone with you – my young, trembling beauty! All this evening I’ve had no other desire but for you. As I watched you chasing and teasing in the tarantella – my blood fired up; I couldn’t hold out any longer; that’s why I took you back down with me so early –

  NORA: Leave now, Torvald! You will leave me. I don’t want all this.

  HELMER: What are you saying? I think you’re playing joker-bird with me now, my little Nora. Want, want? Aren’t I your husband –?

  There is a knock on the front door.

  NORA [gives a start]: Did you hear –?

  HELMER [towards the hall]: Who is it?

  RANK [outside]: It’s me. Might I come in for a moment?

  HELMER [quietly, annoyed]: Oh, what does he want now? [Loud] Wait a second. [He goes and unlocks the door.] Well, how nice of you not to go past our door.45

  RANK: I thought I heard your voice, so I wanted to look in. [Lets his gaze travel fleetingly around] Ah me, these dear, familiar rooms. The two of you have everything so cosy and comfortable in here.

  HELMER: You seemed to make yourself very comfortable upstairs too.

  RANK: Absolutely. Why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t we take from this world what it offers? As much as we can at least, and for as long as we can. The wine was excellent –

  HELMER: The champagne in particular.

  RANK: Noticed that too, did you? It’s quite unbelievable how much I managed to swill down.

  NORA: Torvald drank lots of champagne tonight too.

  RANK: Really?

  NORA: Yes; and then he’s always so amusing afterwards.

  RANK: Well, why shouldn’t a man allow himself a merry evening after a day well spent?

  HELMER: Well spent? That’s not, I’m afraid, something I can boast of.

  RANK [slaps him on the shoulder]: But I can, you see!

  NORA: Dr Rank, I take it you conducted a scientific investigation today.

  RANK: Correct.

  HELMER: I say, my little Nora talking about scientific investigations!

  NORA: And may I congratulate you on the result?

  RANK: Yes, you certainly may.

  NORA: So it was good?

  RANK: The best possible for both doctor and patient – certainty.

  NORA [quickly and searchingly]: Certainty?

  RANK: Absolute certainty. So shouldn’t I allow myself a cheerful evening afterwards?

  NORA: Yes, you were right to, Dr Rank.

  HELMER: I’d second that; as long as you don’t end up suffering for it in the morning.

  RANK: Well, you don’t get anything for nothing in this life, you know.

  NORA: Dr Rank – you’re rather fond of these little masquerades, aren’t you?

  RANK: Yes, when there are plenty of amusing disguises –

  NORA: Listen; what shall the two of us be at the next masquerade?

  HELMER: You frivolous little thing – you’re already thinking about the next!

  RANK: The two of us? Ah, yes, I’ll tell you; you must come as the child of joy and good fortune –46

  HELMER: Yes, but find a costume that can represent that.

  RANK: Let your wife attend exactly as she walks through this world –

  HELMER: How brilliantly put. But about you, what will you be?

  RANK: Well, my dear friend, of that I am absolutely certain.

  HELMER: Well?

  RANK: At the next masquerade I shall be invisible.

  HELMER: That’s a quaint idea.

  RANK: There’s a big black hat – haven’t you heard tell of the cap of invisibility?47 You put it over you, and then nobody can see you.

  HELMER [with a suppressed smile]: Right, I see your point.

  RANK: But I’m completely forgetting what I came for; Helmer, give me a cigar, one of those dark Havanas.

  HELMER: With the greatest pleasure. [Offers him the box.]

  RANK [takes a cigar and cuts off the end]: Thank you.

  NORA [strikes a match]: Let me give you a light.

  RANK: Thank you. [She holds the match for him; he lights up.] And now goodbye!

  HELMER: Goodbye, goodbye, my dear friend!

  NORA: Sleep well, Dr Rank.

  RANK: Thank you for that kind wish.

  NORA: Wish me the same.

  RANK: You? Well, if you want me to –. Sleep well. And thank you for the light.

  He nods to them both and goes.

  HELMER [subdued]: He’d had a lot to drink.

  NORA [absently]: Perhaps.

  HELMER takes his bunch of keys out of his pocket and goes out into the hall.

  NORA: Torvald – what are you doing out there?

  HELMER: I have to empty the letterbox; it’s pretty full; there’ll be no room for the newspapers in the morning –

  NORA: Will you be working tonight?

  HELMER: You know very well I won’t. – What’s this? Someone’s been at the lock.

  NORA: At the lock –?

  HELMER: Yes, most definitely. How can that be? I can’t believe the maids –? Here’s a broken hairpin. Nora, it’s yours –

  NORA [quickly]: Then it must be the children –

  HELMER: You really must break them of that habit. Hm, hm
–. There now, I’ve got it open anyway. [Takes the contents out and calls out into the kitchen] Helene? – Helene, put out the lamp in the hall.

  He comes back into the room and closes the door to the hall.

  HELMER [with the letters in his hand]: Look at this. Just look how they’ve piled up. [Leafs through them.] Whatever’s this?

  NORA [by the window]: The letter! Oh no, no, Torvald!

  HELMER: Two visiting cards – from Rank.

  NORA: From Dr Rank?

  HELMER [looking at them]: Dr Rank MD. They were lying on top; he must have stuck them in as he left.

  NORA: Is there anything on them?

  HELMER: There’s a black cross over his name. Look. What a sinister idea. It’s as though he were announcing his own death.

  NORA: And so he is.

  HELMER: What? Do you know something? Has he told you something?

  NORA: Yes. When these cards come, he’s taken his leave of us. He wants to shut himself away and die.

  HELMER: My poor friend. I knew, of course, that I wouldn’t keep him for long. But so soon –. And then to hide away like a wounded animal.

  NORA: When it has to happen, then it’s best it happens without words. Don’t you think, Torvald?

  HELMER [pacing up and down]: He’d grown so much a part of us. I don’t think I can imagine him gone. With all his sufferings and his loneliness, he somehow offered a cloudy backdrop to our sunlit happiness. – Ah well, perhaps it’s best this way. For him at least. [Stops.] And maybe for us too, Nora. Now you and I will have to look to each other alone. [Puts his arms around her.] Oh, my darling wife; I don’t think I can hold you tightly enough. You know, Nora – many a time I’ve wished that some impending danger might threaten you, so I could risk life and limb and everything, everything, for your sake.

  NORA [tears herself free and says firmly and decisively]: You should read your letters now, Torvald.

  HELMER: No, no, not tonight. I want to be with you, my darling wife.

  NORA: With the thought of your friend dying –?

  HELMER: You’re right. This has shaken us both; something unlovely has entered between us; thoughts of death and decay. From which we must seek to be absolved. Until then –. We’ll go to our separate rooms.

  NORA [with her arms round his neck]: Torvald – good night! Good night!

  HELMER [kisses her on the forehead]: Good night, my little songbird. Sleep well, Nora. I’ll read through my letters now.

  He takes the bundle into his room and shuts the door after him.

  NORA [wild-eyed, fumbling around, grabs HELMER’s cloak, throws it around herself and speaks rapidly and jerkily in a hoarse whisper]: Never see him again. Never. Never. Never. [Throws her shawl over her head.] Never see the children again. Not them either. Never. Never. – Oh, the ice-cold black water. Oh, the bottomless – this –. Oh, if only this were over. – He’s got it now; he’s reading it. Oh no, no; not yet. Torvald, goodbye to you and the children –

  She is about to rush out through the hall; at that moment HELMER tears his door open and stands there with an open letter in his hand.

  HELMER: Nora!

  NORA [lets out a loud scream]: Ah –!

  HELMER: What is this? Do you know what’s in this letter?

  NORA: Yes, I do. Let me leave! Let me get out!

  HELMER [holds her back]: Where are you going?

  NORA [tries to tear herself free]: You’re not to rescue me, Torvald!

  HELMER [stumbles backwards]: What! Is it true what he writes here? Terrible! No, no; it can’t possibly be true.

  NORA: It is true. I’ve loved you above all else in the world.

  HELMER: Don’t come here with your pathetic evasions.

  NORA [takes a step towards him]: Torvald –!

  HELMER: You creature of ill-fortune – what have you been up to!

  NORA: Let me go away. You shan’t carry this for my sake. You shan’t take it upon yourself.

  HELMER: No playacting, now. [Locks the front door.] You will stay and you will stand accountable to me. Do you understand what you’ve done? Answer me! Do you understand?

  NORA [looks fixedly at him, her face tensing as she speaks]: Yes, I am certainly beginning to understand.

  HELMER [walks around the room]: Oh, how terribly I’ve been awakened. All these eight years – the woman who was my pleasure, my pride – a hypocrite, a liar – worse, worse – a criminal! – Oh, the depths of ugliness in all this! Shame, shame!

  NORA remains silent and continues to look fixedly at him.

  HELMER [stops in front of her]: I should have sensed that something like this would happen. I should have foreseen it. All your father’s frivolous attitudes. – Be quiet! You’ve inherited all your father’s frivolous attitudes: no religion, no morals, no sense of duty –. Oh, how I’ve been punished for turning a blind eye to him. I did it for your sake; and this is how you repay me.

  NORA: Yes, this is how.

  HELMER: You’ve wrecked my entire happiness now. You’ve gambled away my entire future for me. Oh, it’s too terrible to contemplate. I’m in the power of a man without conscience; he can do whatever he wants with me, demand anything at all of me, order me about as he pleases – I daren’t breathe a word. And this is how miserably I must sink and be ruined for the sake of a frivolous woman!

  NORA: When I’m out of this world, you’ll be free.

  HELMER: Oh, spare the gestures. Your father always had such phrases ready to hand too. What use would it be to me if you were out of the world, as you put it? It wouldn’t be of the slightest use. He can make it public just the same; and if he does, I’ll perhaps be suspected of having known about your criminal act. People will perhaps believe that I was behind it – that I was the one who incited you to it! And all this I can thank you for, you, whom I’ve borne in my arms48 throughout our married life. Do you understand now what you’ve done against me?

  NORA [coldly and calmly]: Yes.

  HELMER: This is so unbelievable, I can’t grasp it. But we’ll have to come to some arrangement. Take your shawl off. Take it off, I say! I’ll have to try to placate him in some way. This business must be hushed up at all costs. – And as far as you and I are concerned, it must look as though everything were the same as before between us. But obviously only in the eyes of the world. You’ll go on living here; that goes without saying. But you won’t be allowed to bring up the children; I daren’t entrust them to you –. Oh, to have to say this to the woman I once loved so highly, and whom I still –! Well, that must be put in the past. From today it’s no longer a question of happiness; it’s merely a question of rescuing the remains, the scraps, the outer shell –

  The doorbell rings.

  HELMER [starts]: What’s that? So late. Could the most terrible thing –? Could he –? Hide, Nora! Say you’re ill.

  NORA stands motionless. HELMER goes over and opens the door to the hall.

  MAID [half undressed, in the hall]: A letter’s arrived for madam.

  HELMER: Give it to me.49 [Grabs the letter and closes the door.] Yes, it’s from him. You’re not having it; I’ll read it myself.

  NORA: Yes, read it.

  HELMER [by the lamp]: I scarcely have the courage. Perhaps we are lost, both you and I. No; I must know. [Tears open the letter hurriedly; skims through some lines; looks at a piece of paper that is enclosed; a cry of joy] Nora!

  NORA looks at him questioningly.

  HELMER: Nora! – No; I must read it over again. – Yes, yes; it’s true. I’m saved! Nora, I’m saved!

  NORA: And me?

  HELMER: You too, naturally; we’re both saved, both you and I. Look. He’s sent you back your bond. He writes that he regrets and is sorry – that a happy change in his life – oh it makes no odds what he writes. We’re saved, Nora! Nobody can do anything to you. Oh, Nora, Nora –. No, first get this repulsive thing out of the way. Let me see – [Glances at the bond.] No, I don’t want to see it; this will be nothing more to me than a dream, this whole thin
g. [Tears the bond and both letters into pieces, throws the whole lot into the stove and watches as it burns.] There now, it’s gone. – He wrote that since Christmas Eve you’ve –. Oh, they must have been three dreadful days for you, Nora.

  NORA: I’ve fought a hard battle these three days.

  HELMER: And been in anguish, and seen no other way out except to –. No; we’ll forget this whole hideous thing. We’ll just rejoice and repeat: it’s over; it’s over! Listen to me now, Nora; you don’t seem to comprehend: it’s over. But what’s all this – this steely expression? Oh my poor little Nora, I understand of course; you don’t feel you can believe I’ve forgiven you. But I have, Nora; I swear to you: I’ve forgiven you everything. I know, of course, that what you did, you did out of love for me.

  NORA: That’s true.

  HELMER: You’ve loved me as a wife should love her husband. It was just the means that you lacked the insight to make a judgement on. But do you think you are any less dear to me because you don’t know how to act independently? No; just you lean on me; I’ll advise you; I’ll guide and instruct you.50 I wouldn’t be a man if this feminine helplessness didn’t make you doubly attractive in my eyes. You mustn’t pay any attention to the harsh words I said to you in my initial shock, when I thought everything might crash down over me. I’ve forgiven you, Nora; I swear to you, I’ve forgiven you.

  NORA: I thank you for your forgiveness.

  She goes out through the door on the right.

  HELMER: No, stay – [Looks in.] What are you doing there in the alcove?

  NORA [from within]: Taking off my masquerade costume.

  HELMER [by the open door]: Yes, you do that; be calm now, gather your mind once more into balance, my terrified little songbird. Rest safe now; I have broad wings to cover you with. [Walks about near to the door.] Oh, our home is so cosy and perfect, Nora. There’s shelter for you here; I will hold you here like a hunted dove that I’ve rescued unscathed out of the hawk’s claws; I’ll calm the clapping of your heart. Little by little it’ll happen, Nora; believe me. Tomorrow this will all look entirely different to you; soon everything will be just as it was; before long I won’t need to repeat how I’ve forgiven you; you will feel unshakeably that I have done so. How can you think it would cross my mind to reject you, or even to reproach you for anything? Oh, you don’t know the stuff of a real man’s heart, Nora. For a man there’s something so indescribably sweet and gratifying in knowing that he’s forgiven his wife – that he has forgiven her with a full and honest heart. Yes, in a way, she has become his property in a double sense; in a way, he has brought her into the world afresh; she is, in a sense, not only his wife but also his child. That’s how you’ll be for me from today, you helpless, confused little creature. Don’t worry about anything, Nora; just be honest of heart with me, and I will be both your will and your conscience. – What’s this? Not going to bed? You’ve changed clothes?