Doll's House (9781443435505) (11 page)

HELMER

This is unheard of in a girl of your age! But if religion cannot lead you aright, let me try and awaken your conscience. I suppose you have some moral sense? Or—answer me—am I to think you have none?

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 on 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
.)

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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