The Doll S House
The Doll S House
The Doll S House
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VERI
TAS
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"
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
SEP 1 9 1989
ど
The
Doll's House
A play
BY
HENRIK IBSEN
TRANSLATED FROM
THE NORWEGIAN
BY
HENRIETTA FRANCES LORD
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
INTER
SEP 1 9 1989
DA
&C
FOLIA
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON & CO.
1890
7682.1
Scan 2.12
LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN.
other poetry ; and we feel thankful that a singer who can make
himself gladly heard is singing of freedom, openness, true and
conscious devotion , conscience responsible to itself alike in man
and woman. Ibsen sees the world deluged by masculine quali
ties ; he approves them if, by devotion to a distinct plan and its
execution, they touch heroism, otherwise he chases lovers of self.
mercilessly about with scorn or laughter. He sees womanly
qualities hidden, fled away, or misunderstood. He does not
construct some purely harmonious circumstances, and show
Woman attaining a seeming equilibrium, and becoming all that
her nature is capable of. He either shows her driven to crime
or eccentricity by cramped or misdirected development (as Nora
was), or losing her womanliness by being reared in a wrong state
of society (like Helen in Emperor and Galilean) ; or finally he
opens all the great gates of his poetry to noble, pure-hearted,
loving, disappointed women, who move about among reckless
men as the natural centers for conversion and reconciliation, but
either lack courage to seize the occasion, or, if they have much
courage, happen to have such a pig-headed, one-sided manhood
to deal with, that the inspired woman, the heavenly herald of
nature and conscience, is trampled under foot, or passed by, the
man regretting it, but when it is too late.
Such are most of Ibsen's women. He considers they are to
be found everywhere, a latent force whose accession humanity
needs, and that his task is to release the Sleeping Beauty, as the
prince did in our childish fable. The thorny wood has grown
all round. Meanwhile, unwomanliness flaunts outside ; the
thorns are blooming. Men dream away life amid this injury to
womanhood ; at any rate they forget to break their way in to
reality-they are ready for any deed rather than that. Ibsen
approaches the thorn-girt home ; he knows that every expression
crushes thousands of conventionality's roses ; and on his plain
but trusty sword are these words only- Love and Understand.
Expanded, the words mean-The union between two people is
only true according as they love and understand each other in
thought, feeling, and will, tasks of duty and sources of joy, and
are consequently able to fight life's battles, bear its pains, and
6 LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN,
wholly ignores her, or makes her a mere listener, puts her out
side the real action of the poem, and in the same position as a
listless and ignorant person occupies during brilliant conversa
tion among intelligent people, so that the reader or the onlooker
is obliged to ask himself how a being thus spiritually defective
could ever have got a place amid the awakened life of human
work and human will.
Thinking Frenchmen seem to wish to treat such women not
as exceptions to womanhood, but as characteristic of it ; but
whether the woman be cunning or simple, coquette or prude,
she never arrives at any development through the action ofthe
piece, and there is nothing to show whether she will end in
being like her surroundings, or be educated by life into real
womanhood. Ibsen, on the contrary, handles the question of
development seriously, as being for woman the question of
awakening in the end to being able to love devotedly and
really.
It is not only as an idealist that Ibsen knows this is the
highest thing ; he knows as a realist, as a friend to the modern
philosophy of development or “ evolution, ” that every return to
an earlier or ruder view of life, when a more human one has
already entered the general consciousness, is unnatural. With
these two convictions he plans his work and carries it out ; he
feels he is the messenger of nature and the spirit, and therefore,
amid the moral anachronisms in the rest of European poetry,
he bursts in like a storm from the North to clear the air. So
far as he is concerned he will contribute nothing to justify anti
quated habits of thought.
Ibsen considers that the womanly life that is available for
dramatic purposes, all the conditions for passionate action among
her virtues and sins, together with the events arising out of
them, are different from what they were in past times, because
the sort of influence it is now natural for her to strive after is
different.
Woman of course exercises influence in all possible ways ;
but if it be not that of a free and loving being, it drags down,
it is an influence of somnambulism, death, and retrogression, a
8 LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN.
his title " Woman's Poet " is in question, for there is no mis
taking its meaning in an author powerful as he is ; it can not
arise from any want of power to choose or manage material.
It means neither more nor less than that Ibsen will not depict a
woman using power when this power is based on hampered de
velopment ; he considers that idea has had its day, and must
now be consigned to the tomb, though in all his plays he allows
for difference of historical period, and for individual strength or
weakness.
Ibsen's women are generally beings with a power to accom
plish an entire and distinct task in life, such women as, when
life at any time offers them a share in action, put their mark on
it, in the same way as women like them will when more sensible
manners shall prevail in the world, and earth's face grow young
once more with springs of blessing that are now sealed up.
Even the wives who were not their husbands' choice, and there
fore never had anything of a real wife's lot, even the disap
pointed old maids or the spoiled girls, do their best in their dis
torted position ; when a moment for action or liberty comes
they show that their heart is still in the right place, even though
it be not a wholly fresh, courageous heart.
And of the powerful women, who pioneer their own way,
and whose career is easier to follow, because it is more dramatic,
it may be said that their very crime does but show the obverse
side of the devotedness that could have made them thorough
women.
The strength of Isben's drawing of men's character has never
been questioned ; men recognize past times and themselves
through them ; nor can these impressions ever be forgotten.
But these chiefly negative representations are not his most
beautiful. His most beautiful things are his positive pictures of
womanhood, and they only are (like Shakespeare's) clearly
marked and completely carried out. The friendly hopeful
light they shed only strikes our eyes, perhaps, when thrown
into a strong contrast with the view man has hitherto held as
to the position of the sexes. The poet has cut his way right
through the thorny wood to the dwelling where womanliness is
LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN. II
to the person who set them going. If only no one can be made
personally responsible as the cause, they think the evils can be
borne with meekness, and they accustom themselves to calling
them " natural " evils. No small part of the poet's task is to
rouse men from this opiate comfort. He does it not by deny
ing the existence of these evils, but by painting them in all
their far-reaching consequences, and making all men collectively
responsible for them. The poet, like the thinker, does not con
sider that it is a part of the world's scheme that it is out of evil
good should arise, but knows that it is we ourselves who futilize
our common life, and therefore he regards it as no crime to
disturb us in our sleepy or pious disregard of bad conditions
and false views of life. He sees that the struggle against evil
is quite serious enough without our refusing our support to
good by retaining habits that unconsciously and irresponsibly
work evil. He believes, in short, that the full development of
all healthy forces can only lead to good.
The trivial social view against which Ibsen protests is, that
for two to become one and blessed is a mere dream, but that
D
marriage is something practical ; that while parents alone chose
for their children, marriage was on too narrow a basis, but that
the happy mean has been found now the approval of all rela
tives and friends is sought. Against all such shallowness and
cynicism Ibsen protests that human passions can not be con
trolled by locks or by opiates, and that the only possible help is
for passion and duty to go the same way.
There are two ways of working for reform : the politician
waits and steers his course, the poet compromises nothing. To
illustrate these two ways let us take an example from the physi
cal world.
Human beauty is an exception, whercas it should be the
rule. People set to work to attack wrong clothing and food,
bad habits at home and at school. Doubtless all this is in the
right direction, and some are convinced. But one day, by ac
cident, one of those who have listened and assented opens a
book of engravings from Greek sculpture, and seeing perfect
beauty, he learns more from that single glance than from all the
LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN. 13
all the conditions for a moral marriage laid down. They may
be summed up in the one word , Love. But at present Love is
an idea to which no clear meaning attaches. Love presumes
youth as a rule, but is not the same thing as youth, or even as
youth with warm and mutual liking into the bargain. Youth is
a glorious thing, but it has its own dangers, and the chief of
them is self-deception . It is only too easy for two young people
to rock themselves in dreams of bliss without real love, in which
case all relation between them is according to Western notions
immoral, a point to which marriage makes no difference what
ever. Love is confidence ; and Mrs. Linden and Krogstad,
shipwrecked folks as they were, had better prospects of it in
their union than Nora and Helmer had, because they meant to
live in future with mutual understanding. For marriage is
really a state of being awake to life and activity ; at least nine
tenths of it is active ; and every piece of activity either mate
excludes the other from is a piece of robbery from the marriage
winnings or the mutual development marriage is intended to
bring about for both, and therefore for humanity, quite apart
from whether the activity itself fails or succeeds. It will gener
ally be found that that those who dislike The Doll's House are
those whose view of marriage the play utterly destroys ; while
those who like the play are those who, with Ibsen himself, would
rejoice with all their hearts to see that past ideal of marriage
crushed, against which every word in the play quietly strikes a
certain death-blow.
If you lose sight of the play's great human interest you come
to petty.considerations, such as whether Nora had a really large
nature and Helmer a stupid one, or that Ibsen means very little
in it after all, or as to the effect it is likely to have in making
foolish young people neglect their duties and turn from Chris
tianity to Nihilism .
A poctical work reveals an idea, a truth that has a perfect
right to its place among the truths of the world ; a truth that is
so permanent and indestructible, that if the time has come for
that truth, it can not be injured by neglect, or evaded or turned
aside, though he who attempts to injure it may thereby injure
LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN. 15
and this time it is the children's turn to go with her and get
soiled. Thus Boredom will settle down on that home as on
thousands of other homes. But that was not the air that was
wafted toward us when the curtain first rose. The air was rest
less perhaps, but one felt there were possibilities.
Is Helmer a bad man, then ; coarse, dilatory, or boisterous
and domineering at times ? No, he is quoted everywhere as a
model husband, and not without reason. He is merely color
blind in one direction , educated into color-blindness.
One thing is certain, that amid all this new order of things
he yearns for the lark and the squirrel, the careless gayety of the
Nora that used to be, and that is sometimes now when she
makes an effort. Then it strikes him that it is unnatural to shut
up a young and beautiful woman ; so he takes her into society
to obliterate the past that perhaps preys on her mind, and to
" draw out the child in her nature." For wise men think a
woman never grows, or that it is happier for her not to grow,
and that she can be stunted in her growth, as it used to be
thought puppies could by brandy.
A glance around us shows us many women arrested thus,
many rich young souls prevented from ever becoming real
women. It is a social murder whose results are most disastrous
for human destiny. It means that homes can get amiable host
esses without husbands getting loving wives, or children loving
mothers. Will this succeed in Nora's case ? She is not a doll,
but will Society's stupefying agencies make her into one-a
model doll, a splendid example of self-satisfied, undeveloped
humanity, who will be described as perfectly comme ilfaut?
Readers who desire this say, " We can not see into each
others' hearts, and Nora's inner life may be anything she pleases ;
but a well-bred woman should always seem at ease, and make it
possible for us to have dealings with her." Nora will never
come up to their expectations. There is something untamed in
her that will make her sin continually against worldly rules. She
might dress as becomingly as any one, but there her likeness to
others would end. She does not belong to the class of women
whose two sections are the coquette and the prude, both being
LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN. 21
the Doll grown to full stature. Such women are her only ene
mies. They can lay aside conscience and ideality without loss
of charm, they can never be free nor make others free, never
love. They point in the opposite direction -to rule and be
ruled ; they use freedom's means in the service of slavery. It
is useless to expect this of Nora. Her power of freedom , her
need to love and live really are too strong to allow it, and will
lead her to break up life again and again if Helmer continues
unawakened from his idea that conscience, will, personality, de
velopment, human dignity are notions that concern man only,
and this not for himself alone, but for woman as represented by
him.
The associates Helmer would summon to help him in draw
ing out Nora by society would find their pupil too hard to
manage, too individual, too inscrutable for them. She would
win no friends among women of the world. And although she
is one of those to whom men feel drawn, she will never secure
one thorough friend among them . She does not wish to, since
she found out Dr. Rank thought she had been making advances
to him. She will behave in a strikingly unsuitable manner in
society ; either too full of herself or too indifferent. In either
case she will wound Helmer's fine sense of what is fitting.
Sometimes she will show unrestrained feeling, as she did in the
Tarantella, because she is secretly worried about something ;
at another she will take no interest in what is going on around
her. And if anybody in society turns specially to her as though
to draw a little nearer to her real self, nothing will be got out
of her except some utterly unsuitable answer ; an answer to the
thing instead of an answer that conveys an agreeable recogni
tion of the questioner's polite attention .
So Nora will get no recompense in society for her losses at
home-her husband's growing precision , or the children's mixt
ure of affection and disrespect, when at one time she is able
behind their father's back to give them what they want, and at
another can not do what she promised them.
A few glimpses of happiness for Nora, and a sort of sad rest
for Helmer, may, however, come into their ruined home ; not
22 LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN.
when the family is alone, for then the tension is only too plain,
but when they give small parties, and the hostess is able to lay
down her own rules for etiquette, and charms herself into a
fancied self-guidance and liberty for a few hours. Young peo
ple will feel particularly happy on these occasions, and Nora
will flash out for a few moments and seem young again. When
all this is over, Torvald , who is still in love with her, will spend
long hours in painfully pondering what it is that he has done,
that his young, happy, warm world has been cut away from
under him , that he, though he has continued master in his own
home, really has no home now ?
Need we follow them further ?-into the critical years when
the absence of ideality has made them grotesque, when young
people laugh in Helmer's face at his way of playing le pere
noble ; when Nora is middle-aged, and some chance opening
of the box where a pair of silk stockings has lain " ever since
that night " tempts from mamma's lips a neat little description
of her triumphs at the costume ball, ending with the remark
that Emmy has her mother's foot and ankle, but she " must not
think of putting on that charming dress and dancing with the
tambourine, poor little Emmy ! or let out that she has even
seen them ; papa can't bear such things, you know. "
Such, then, is what in the most favorable circumstances a
mere "warning " must have brought Nora and Helmer to,
being what they were by nature and education . We should
see Nora selfish, but with the selfishness that is more or less in
every natural woman s heart, which unchecked and suppressed
destroys either her whole woman's personality or the happiness
and honor of all around her, but raised to the moral plane of
freedom would, on the contrary, have saved both. And we
should see Helmer selfish, in a certain sense more so than
Nora ; but selfish with the egoism of his sex, with satisfaction
that he is a man, and not a woman, rather than with any very
exaggerated individual egoism. He is typical of the class of
men on whom the punishment falls most heavily of women not
getting a true human education, but being brought up to self
deception instead, and it is rather the punishment of his whole
LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN. 23
sex that he bears than any tragic fate of his own in bearing the
consequences of not having promoted his wife's human devel
opment.
Let us now see what prospect there is of reconciliation be
tween the Adam and Eve whom Ibsen drives out of their
Paradise into the world of consciousness. Everything in the
play strengthens our perception of the bare truth that these two
people have by their life together brought matters to such a
pass, that before anything good can come to them, Helmer
must try to come to himself, and Nora to herself. And at the
last moment there seems a prospect that they will achieve it
some day. And earthly life offers no truer ground for recon
ciliation than this, if we believe development to be the end of
our existence. Every right-thinking person must feel com
pelled to admit that Nora's fight for existence as it faces her
in all its cruelty deserves our love a thousand times more than
any return to the doll's house conditions of ruining herself, her
husband, and her children ; but this by no means prevents his
feeling painfully affected by the idea of Helmer's petted wife,
Ivar's, Bob's, and Emmy's merry little mother, going away and
shutting the door between herself and them. It is the only
violent action in the last scene, and it makes us feel all the
indescribable pain that must weigh on that undeveloped, newly
roused being on the threshold between her past and her future.
What is the outlook for him who is left behind on the stage,
between his certainty of crushed happiness and the hope of
higher things arising ? He thought himself so pure-hearted and
justifiable in everything ; he finds he only possessed a favorite
slave. Is it only mechanically that he repeats her words, " the
greatest miracle," or does a new hope arise within him ? The
poet bids us think he has some new hope. Is it that Nora will
repent and return ? Her last words are too clear ; she expects
a radical change in him. Through all the mist of his senses
and prejudices has he not caught a glimpse of the real Nora,
the higher Eros, whom Socrates calls the oldest of all the gods,
and, bowed to the earth with blushes, yet thankful he has
learned to blush, does he not say to himself, " A woman, too, is
24 LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN.
ment are wanting, and that the breaking up of the doll's house
is only a question of time.
But it might have lasted a lifetime, as so many false mar
riages do, and in that case it would not have been a suitable
subject for a play. The dramatist did not need for his object a
strong character, such as could have set the wrong right, and
kept the home together ; or a “ passive " woman, whose will is
dead ; or one with " a broken heart " ; or a superficial person,
who ends in being satisfied with trifles ; or one who suffers, and
weeps, and sighs ; or one of those who combine any of these
characters with that of a prude or a coquette. Any one of these
women would have delayed the climax, so as to destroy dra
matic possibilities ; nor would a large and highly religious
womanly figure have been suitable ; still less would one already
exhausted by homage to propriety and custom.
Ibsen needed a young creature, loving but undisciplined ;
full of life, but lacking all principle in thought and action ;
blind to all but what is nearest at hand, but ready to love with
her whole strength, that is, to devote all her happiness to what
is nearest her ; otherwise, cruel with indifferent carelessness, but
only because no notion of the rights of others, of " strangers, "
has ever been presented to her ; capable as a child of nature is
of stealing on behalf of her own dear ones, but not capable as
an artificialized nature is of stealing from them in order to
gratify her private vanity before strangers with what she has
thus stolen ; gentle to those nearest her, but not to others or to
herself ; an uneducated girl who never had a mother ; one who
as a daughter and a growing girl had to get what poor little ex
change of thought she could in the maids' room ; a wife who is
obliged to choose as her confidential friend her husband's friend,
and not her husband himself; a beautiful, attractive young
woman , who feels she is independent, placed in the high posi
tion of head of a house, but who, none the less, has come to
tricking her husband by lie after lie in daily life, half-conscious
ly longing, and waiting outside in the darkness, for some change
that is to come suddenly, “the miracle, " she does not exactly
know what, but its effect is to be that the activity of her soul
25 LIFE OF HENRIK IBSEN.
ACT I.
NORA. Yes.
-2
will soon pull them all to pieces. And here I've got
dresses and neckties for Ellen and Mary Ann. Only
I ought to have got something better for Mary Ann .
HELMER. And what is that in the other parcel ?
NORA (crying out ) . No, Torvald, you're not to see
that before this evening.
HELMER. Oh ! ah. But now tell me, you little
spendthrift, what you have got for yourself.
NORA. Never mind me. I don't want anything
for myself.
HELMER. But I am sure you do. Just tell me
something sensible you would like to have.
NORA. No ; I really know of nothing . . . Yes ;
listen, Torvald.
HELMER. Well ?
NORA (playing with his coat buttons, without looking
him in the face). If you want to give me something,
you might, you know, you might . . .
HELMER. Well, well ? Out with it !
NORA (quickly) . You might give me the money,
Torvald. Only just as much as you think you can
spare ; then I will buy myself something with it later
on.
HELMER. But, Nora
NORA. Oh, please do, dear Torvald, I beg and
implore you. Then I would hang the money in
lovely gilt paper on the Christmas tree. Wouldn't
that be funny ?
HELMER. What do people call the bird who al
ways spends everything?
NORA. Yes, I know : a spendthrift, of course.
3
34 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE III.
NORA. MRS. LINDEN .
MRS. LINDEN (timidly and slowly). How do you
do, Nora ?
NORA (uncertain who she is) . How do you do ?
38 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE III.
NORA. MRS. LINDEN.
MRS. LINDEN (timidly and slowly) . How do you
do, Nora ?
NORA (uncertain who she is) . How do you do ?
L 'S SE
38 THE DOL HOU .
SCENE IV.
THE PRECEding. ELLEN. Then KROGSTAD.
SCENE V.
NORA. MRS. LINDEN.
SCENE IV.
THE PRECEDING. ELLEN. Then KROGStad.
SCENE V.
SCENE VII.
SCENE VIII.
DEN go. MARY ANN enters the room with the chil
dren, NORA also, and shuts the door.)
SCENE IX.
SCENE X.
SCENE VII.
SCENE VIII.
DEN go. MARY ANN enters the room with the chil
dren, NORA also, and shuts the door.)
SCENE IX.
SCENE X.
SCENE XI.
SCENE XII.
SCENE XIII.
HELMER. H- m. ...
NORA. (leaning further over the chair, strokes his
hair). If your work were not so pressing I should
ask you a great, great favor, Torvald.
HELMER. Let's hear it. What can it be ?
NORA. Nobody has such refined taste as you
have. Now I should so love to look well at the cos
tume ball. Torvald, dear, couldn't you take me in
hand and settle what character I am to appear in,
and how my costume ought to be arranged ?
HELMER. Is that obstinate little head of yours
puzzled at last, and looking about for somebody to
save it from destruction ?
NORA. Yes, Torvald. Without you I am utterly
helpless.
HELMER. Well, well ; I'll think it over ; we will
soon hit upon something together.
NORA. Oh, how kind and good that is of you
(goes to the tree again ; pause) . How pretty the red
flowers look. But, by the by, was the . . . thing
which Krogstad got into trouble about years ago
really so bad ?
HELMER. Forged a name, that's all. Have you
any notion what that means ?
NORA. Mustn't he have done it from need ?
HELMER. Yes, or as so many others do it, from
heedlessness. I am not so heartless as to judge any
body absolutely from such a transaction alone.
NORA. No ; that's just what I thought you would
say, Torvald.
HELMER. Many a man can lift himself up again
THE DOLL'S HOUSE. 75
SCENE XIV.
ACT II.
(In the corner beside the piano stands the Christmas tree,
stripped, shabby, and with the candles burned out.
On the sofa Nora's walking things.)
SCENE I.
SCENE II.
قول
80 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE III.
SCENE IV.
NORA. HELMER.
SCENE V.
THE PRECEDING. ELLEN.
HELMER (to ELLEN ) . There, take the letter. Give
it to a messenger. But see that he takes it at once.
The address is on it. Here is the money for him.
SCENE VI.
NORA. HElmer.
HELMER (putting his papers in order). There, my
obstinate little wife.
NORA (as though out of her mind ) . Torvald, what
letter was that ?
HELMER. Krogstad's dismissal.
NORA. Fetch it back again, Torvald . There is
still time. Oh, Torvald, get it back again. Do it
for my sake- for your own sake- for our children's
sake. Do you hear ? Torvald, do it. You don't
know what that letter has the power to bring upon
us all.
HELMER. Too late.
NORA. Yes, too late.
HELMER. Dear Nora, I forgive you your anxiety,
although it is founded upon what is wounding to me.
Yes, that is what it really is. Or perhaps it is no
offense to me for you to believe I should be afraid
of the revenge of a disgraced newspaper scribbler ?
But I forgive it you, because it is all the time a
charming proof of your great love for me (takes her
in his arms).It must be so, my dear, darling Nora.
90 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE VII.
NORA. Then RANK. Later ELLEN.
NORA (shaken with anxiety, stands as though rooted
to theground, and whispers) . He had it in his power
to do it. Yes ; he did it. He did it in spite of all
and everything I said. No ; never that, to all Eter
nity. Rather anything than that ! Save me ! Oh ,
for some way out of it. ( The hall-door bell rings.)
Doctor Rank ! Rather anything than that, whatever
it may be. (She drags herself slowly along, with her
hand over herface, goes to the door and opens it. RANK
THE DOLL'S HOUSE. 91ཌ
SCENE III.
ال
84 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE IV.
NORA. HElmer.
SCENE V.
THE PRECEDING. ELLEN.
HELMER (to ELLEN ) . There, take the letter. Give
it to a messenger. But see that he takes it at once.
The address is on it. Here is the money for him.
SCENE VI.
NORA. HELMER.
HELMER (putting his papers in order). There, my
obstinate little wife.
NORA (as though out of her mind) . Torvald, what
letter was that ?
HELMER. Krogstad's dismissal.
NORA. Fetch it back again, Torvald . There is
still time. Oh, Torvald, get it back again . Do it
for my sake-for your own sake- for our children's
sake. Do you hear ? Torvald, do it. You don't
know what that letter has the power to bring upon
us all.
HELMER. Too late.
NORA. Yes, too late.
HELMER. Dear Nora, I forgive you your anxiety,
although it is founded upon what is wounding to me.
Yes, that is what it really is. Or perhaps it is no
offense to me for you to believe I should be afraid
of the revenge of a disgraced newspaper scribbler ?
But I forgive it you, because it is all the time a
charming proof of your great love for me (takes her
in his arms). It must be so, my dear, darling Nora.
90 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE VII.
NORA . Then RANK. Later ELLEN.
NORA (shaken with anxiety, stands as though rooted
to theground, and whispers) . He had it in his power
to do it. Yes ; he did it. He did it in spite of all
and everything I said . No ; never that, to all Eter
nity. Rather anything than that ! Save me ! Oh,
for some way out of it. (The hall-door bell rings.)
Doctor Rank ! Rather anything than that, whatever
it may be. (She drags herself slowly along, with her
hand over herface, goes to the door and opens it. RAnk
THE DOLL'S HOUSE. 91
7
'S SE
98 THE DOLL HOU .
SCENE VIII.
NORA. KROGSTAD.
SCENE IX.
SCENE X.
SCENE XI.
NORA. HELMER. Then RANK. Later MRS. LIN
DEN and ELLEN.
HELMER (in the back room). Well, now may one
come back into one's own room ? Come, Rank, now
we'll just have a look (in the door) . But what is
that ?
NORA. What is what, Torvald, dear ?
HELMER. Rank led me to expect a grand dress
transformation scene.
RANK (in the door) . So I understood ; I was mis
taken too .
NORA. No ; before to-morrow evening you will
neither of you get any opportunity of admiring me.
HELMER. But, dear Nora, you look so tired.
Have you been practicing too hard ?
NORA. No, I haven't practiced at all yet.
HELMER. But you really must.
NORA. Yes, it is quite indispensable, Torvald.
But without your help it won't go on well ; I have
forgotten everything.
HELMER. Oh, we'll soon freshen it all up again.
NORA. Yes, do help me, Torvald. You promised
me you would, didn't you ? Oh ! I am so anxious
about it. Before such a large party . . this even
ing you must devote to me exclusively. No work
allowed, no pen touched ! Say " yes. " Am I not
right, Torvald ?
HELMER. I promise you : all this evening I will
be at your entire disposal. You little helpless thing
THE DOLL'S HOUSE. 109
SCENE XII.
NORA. Then HELMER.
NORA (stands a while as though collecting her
thoughts. Then looks at her watch). Five- seven hours
before midnight. Then twenty-four hours before
the next midnight. Then the tarantella will be over.
Twenty-four and seven. Still thirty-one hours to
live.
HELMER (in the right-hand door). But where is
my little lark ?
NORA (runs with open arms toward him). Here
she is.
THE DOLL'S HOUSE. 113
ACT III.
MRS. LINDEN sits by the table and turns the pages ofa
book absently. She tries to read, but seems unable to
fix her attention ; she frequently listens and looks
anxiously toward the hall door. Then enter Krog
STAD.
MRS. LINDEN (looking at her watch). Not here
yet. And it is the latest time I mentioned. If he
only doesn't ... (listens again) . Oh, there he is !
(She goes into the hall and opens the corridor-door care
fully ; a light tread is heard on the steps. She whis
pers.) Come in. Nobody is here.
KROGSTAD (in the door-way) . I found a note from
you at my house. What does that mean ?
MRS. LINDEN. It is absolutely necessary I should
speak with you.
KROGSTAD. Indeed ? And was it absolutely
necessary the interview should take place here ?
MRS. LINDEN. It was impossible at my lodgings.
I have no sitting-room to myself. Come in ; we are
quite alone. The servants are asleep, and the Hel
mers are at the ball next door.
8
114 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE II.
MRS. LINDEN. Then HELMER and NORA.
MRS. LINDEN (sets the furniture a little straight
andputs her walking things together). What a change !
what a happy change, to have somebody to work for,
to live for ! to bring loving order into a deserted
home ! Yes, that is what I will do. • • • If they
came soon (listens). Ah, here they are ! Where are
my things ? ( Takes bonnet and cloak. HELMER'S and
NORA's voices are heard ; a key is turned in the lock,
and HELMER drags NORA almost violently into the hall.
She wears the Italian costume with a large black shawl
over it. He is in evening dress, with an open black
domino.)
NORA (still in the door, struggling with him). No,
no, no ; I won't go in ; I want to go up-stairs again.
I don't want to leave the ball so early . . .
120 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE XII.
NORA. Then HELMER.
NORA (stands a while as though collecting her
thoughts. Then looks at her watch). Five- seven hours
before midnight. Then twenty-four hours before
the next midnight. Then the tarantella will be over.
Twenty-four and seven. Still thirty-one hours to
live.
HELMER (in the right-hand door) . But where is
my little lark ?
NORA (runs with open arms toward him) . Here
she is.
THE DOLL'S HOUSE. 113
ACT III.
SCENE II.
MRS. LINDEN. Then HELMER and NORA .
MRS. LINDEN (sets the furniture a little straight
andputs her walking things together) . What a change !
what a happy change, to have somebody to work for,
to live for ! to bring loving order into a deserted
home ! Yes, that is what I will do. · .. If they
came soon (listens). Ah, here they are ! Where are
my things ? ( Takes bonnet and cloak. HELMER'S and
NORA's voices are heard ; a key is turned in the lock,
and HELMER drags NORA almost violently into the hall.
She wears the Italian costume with a large black shawl
over it. He is in evening dress, with an open black
domino.)
NORA (still in the door, struggling with him). No,
no, no ; I won't go in ; I want to go up-stairs again.
I don't want to leave the ball so early
120 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE III.
HELMER . NORA.
HELMER. There, now we've shut the door on her.
She is an awful bore.
NORA. Aren't you very tired, Torvald ?
HELMER. No, not in the least.
NORA. Nor sleepy?
HELMER. Not a bit. On the contrary, I feel
most lively. But you ? Yes, you look really tired
and sleepy.
NORA. Yes, I am very tired. I shall soon be
asleep now.
HELMER. There now, you see. I was right,
after all, in not stopping longer with you at the
ball.
NORA. Oh, all is right that you do.
HELMER (kisses her on the forehead) . That is my
dear little lark speaking like a human being. Did
you happen to notice, too, how merry Rank was this.
evening ?
NORA. Oh, was he really ? I had no opportunity
of speaking with him.
HELMER. Nor had I, much ; but I have not seen
him in such good spirits for a long time. (Looks at
her for a little while, then comes nearer to her. ) Hm
... but it is quite too supremely delightful to be
back in our own home, for me to be quite alone with
you. Oh, you enchanting, glorious woman !
NORA. Don't look at me in that way, Torvald.
HELMER. I am not to look at my dearest treas
124 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
SCENE IV.
SCENE V.
HELMER. NORA. Later ELLEN.
SCENE V.
HELMER. NORA. Later ELLEN.
THE END.
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148 THE DOLL'S HOUSE.
THE END.
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
S. BARING-GOULD'S NOVELS.
RED SPIDER. A NOVEL. 12mo, paper. 50 cents.
"A well-told and neatly-contrived story, with several excellent
figures exhibiting broad traits of human character with vivacity and
distinctness."-London Athenæum.
LITTLE TU’PENNY. A TALE. 12mo, paper. 25 cents.
This charming novelette is reprinted by arrangement from the
London Graphic, appearing here in advance of its completion in Lon
don.
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