Then there is only one
possible
explanation.
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
)
_Helmer. _ Nora--what is this? --this cold, set face?
_Nora. _ Sit down. It will take some time; I have a lot to talk over with
you.
_Helmer_ (_sits down at the opposite side of the table_). You alarm me,
Nora! --and I don't understand you.
_Nora. _ No, that is just it. You don't understand me, and I have never
understood you either--before tonight. No, you mustn't interrupt me. You
must simply listen to what I say. Torvald, this is a settling of
accounts.
_Helmer. _ What do you mean by that?
_Nora_ (_after a short silence_). Isn't there one thing that strikes you
as strange in our sitting here like this?
_Helmer. _ What is that?
_Nora. _ We have been married now eight years. Does it not occur to you
that this is the first time we two, you and I, husband and wife, have
had a serious conversation?
_Helmer. _ What do you mean by serious?
_Nora. _ In all these eight years--longer than that--from the very
beginning of our acquaintance, we have never exchanged a word on any
serious subject.
_Helmer. _ Was it likely that I would be continually and forever telling
you about worries that you could not help me to bear?
_Nora. _ I am not speaking about business matters. I say that we have
never sat down in earnest together to try and get at the bottom of
anything.
_Helmer. _ But, dearest Nora, would it have been any good to you?
_Nora. _ That is just it; you have never understood me. I have been
greatly wronged, Torvald--first by papa and then by you.
_Helmer. _ What! By us two--by us two, who have loved you better than
anyone else in in the world?
_Nora_ (_shaking her head_). You have never loved me. You have only
thought it pleasant to be in love with me.
_Helmer. _ Nora, what do I hear you saying?
_Nora. _ It is perfectly true, Torvald. When I was at home with papa, he
told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions;
and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not
have liked it. He called me his doll-child, and he played with me just
as I used to play with my dolls. And when I came to live with you--
_Helmer. _ What sort of an expression is that to use about our marriage?
_Nora_ (_undisturbed_). I mean that I was simply transferred from papa's
hands into yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste,
and so I got the same tastes as you--or else I pretended to, I am really
not quite sure which--I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other.
When I look back on it, it seems to me as if I had been living here like
a poor woman--just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely to perform
tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and papa have
committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made
nothing of my life.
_Helmer_. How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have you
not been happy here?
_Nora_. No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never
really been so.
_Helmer_. Not--not happy!
_Nora_. No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our
home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just
as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my
dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they
thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage
has been, Torvald.
_Helmer_. There is some truth in what you say--exaggerated and strained
as your view of it is. But for the future it shall be different.
Playtime shall be over, and lesson-time shall begin.
_Nora_. Whose lessons? Mine, or the children's?
_Helmer_. Both yours and the children's, my darling Nora.
_Nora_. Alas, Torvald, you are not the man to educate me into being a
proper wife for you.
_Helmer_. And you can say that!
_Nora_. And I--how am I fitted to bring up the children?
_Helmer_. Nora!
_Nora_. Didn't you say so yourself a little while ago--that you dare not
trust me to bring them up?
_Helmer_. In a moment of anger! Why do you pay any heed to that?
_Nora_. Indeed, you were perfectly right. I am not fit for the task.
There is another task I must undertake first. I must try and educate
myself--you are not the man to help me in that. I must do that for
myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now.
_Helmer_ (_springing up_). What do you say?
_Nora_. I must stand quite alone, if I am to understand myself and
everything about me. It is for that reason that I cannot remain with you
any longer.
_Helmer_. Nora, Nora!
_Nora_. I am going away from here now, at once. I am sure Christine will
take me in for the night--
_Helmer_. You are out of your mind! I won't allow it! I forbid you!
_Nora_. It is no use forbidding me anything any longer. I will take with
me what belongs to myself. I will take nothing from you, either now or
later.
_Helmer_. What sort of madness is this!
_Nora_. Tomorrow I shall go home--I mean to my old home. It will be
easiest for me to find something to do there.
_Helmer_. You blind, foolish woman!
_Nora_. I must try and get some sense, Torvald.
_Helmer_. To desert your home, your husband and your children! And you
don't consider what people will say!
_Nora_. I cannot consider that at all. I only know that it is necessary
for me.
_Helmer_. It's shocking. This is how you would neglect your most sacred
duties.
_Nora_. What do you consider my most sacred duties?
_Helmer_. Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your
husband and your children?
_Nora_. I have other duties just as sacred.
_Helmer_. That you have not. What duties could those be?
_Nora_. Duties to myself.
_Helmer_. Before all else, you are a wife and mother.
_Nora_. I don't believe that any longer. I believe that before all else
I am a reasonable human being, just as you are--or, at all events, that
I must try and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people
would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in
books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say, or
with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get
to understand them.
_Helmer_. Can you not understand your place in your own home? Have you
not a reliable guide in such matters as that? --have you no religion?
_Nora_. I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what religion is.
_Helmer_. What are you saying?
_Nora_. I know nothing but what the clergyman said, when I went to be
confirmed. He told us that religion was this, and that, and the other.
When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter
too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if
it is true for me.
_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 to-night.
_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 any more.
_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 any more.
_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 to-night, when the wonderful thing did
not happen; then I saw you were not the man I had thought you.
_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 till 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_. ) Good-bye, 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 and 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. Good-bye. (_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_. )
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_Helmer. _ Nora--what is this? --this cold, set face?
_Nora. _ Sit down. It will take some time; I have a lot to talk over with
you.
_Helmer_ (_sits down at the opposite side of the table_). You alarm me,
Nora! --and I don't understand you.
_Nora. _ No, that is just it. You don't understand me, and I have never
understood you either--before tonight. No, you mustn't interrupt me. You
must simply listen to what I say. Torvald, this is a settling of
accounts.
_Helmer. _ What do you mean by that?
_Nora_ (_after a short silence_). Isn't there one thing that strikes you
as strange in our sitting here like this?
_Helmer. _ What is that?
_Nora. _ We have been married now eight years. Does it not occur to you
that this is the first time we two, you and I, husband and wife, have
had a serious conversation?
_Helmer. _ What do you mean by serious?
_Nora. _ In all these eight years--longer than that--from the very
beginning of our acquaintance, we have never exchanged a word on any
serious subject.
_Helmer. _ Was it likely that I would be continually and forever telling
you about worries that you could not help me to bear?
_Nora. _ I am not speaking about business matters. I say that we have
never sat down in earnest together to try and get at the bottom of
anything.
_Helmer. _ But, dearest Nora, would it have been any good to you?
_Nora. _ That is just it; you have never understood me. I have been
greatly wronged, Torvald--first by papa and then by you.
_Helmer. _ What! By us two--by us two, who have loved you better than
anyone else in in the world?
_Nora_ (_shaking her head_). You have never loved me. You have only
thought it pleasant to be in love with me.
_Helmer. _ Nora, what do I hear you saying?
_Nora. _ It is perfectly true, Torvald. When I was at home with papa, he
told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions;
and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not
have liked it. He called me his doll-child, and he played with me just
as I used to play with my dolls. And when I came to live with you--
_Helmer. _ What sort of an expression is that to use about our marriage?
_Nora_ (_undisturbed_). I mean that I was simply transferred from papa's
hands into yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste,
and so I got the same tastes as you--or else I pretended to, I am really
not quite sure which--I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other.
When I look back on it, it seems to me as if I had been living here like
a poor woman--just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely to perform
tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and papa have
committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made
nothing of my life.
_Helmer_. How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have you
not been happy here?
_Nora_. No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never
really been so.
_Helmer_. Not--not happy!
_Nora_. No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our
home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just
as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my
dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they
thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage
has been, Torvald.
_Helmer_. There is some truth in what you say--exaggerated and strained
as your view of it is. But for the future it shall be different.
Playtime shall be over, and lesson-time shall begin.
_Nora_. Whose lessons? Mine, or the children's?
_Helmer_. Both yours and the children's, my darling Nora.
_Nora_. Alas, Torvald, you are not the man to educate me into being a
proper wife for you.
_Helmer_. And you can say that!
_Nora_. And I--how am I fitted to bring up the children?
_Helmer_. Nora!
_Nora_. Didn't you say so yourself a little while ago--that you dare not
trust me to bring them up?
_Helmer_. In a moment of anger! Why do you pay any heed to that?
_Nora_. Indeed, you were perfectly right. I am not fit for the task.
There is another task I must undertake first. I must try and educate
myself--you are not the man to help me in that. I must do that for
myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now.
_Helmer_ (_springing up_). What do you say?
_Nora_. I must stand quite alone, if I am to understand myself and
everything about me. It is for that reason that I cannot remain with you
any longer.
_Helmer_. Nora, Nora!
_Nora_. I am going away from here now, at once. I am sure Christine will
take me in for the night--
_Helmer_. You are out of your mind! I won't allow it! I forbid you!
_Nora_. It is no use forbidding me anything any longer. I will take with
me what belongs to myself. I will take nothing from you, either now or
later.
_Helmer_. What sort of madness is this!
_Nora_. Tomorrow I shall go home--I mean to my old home. It will be
easiest for me to find something to do there.
_Helmer_. You blind, foolish woman!
_Nora_. I must try and get some sense, Torvald.
_Helmer_. To desert your home, your husband and your children! And you
don't consider what people will say!
_Nora_. I cannot consider that at all. I only know that it is necessary
for me.
_Helmer_. It's shocking. This is how you would neglect your most sacred
duties.
_Nora_. What do you consider my most sacred duties?
_Helmer_. Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your
husband and your children?
_Nora_. I have other duties just as sacred.
_Helmer_. That you have not. What duties could those be?
_Nora_. Duties to myself.
_Helmer_. Before all else, you are a wife and mother.
_Nora_. I don't believe that any longer. I believe that before all else
I am a reasonable human being, just as you are--or, at all events, that
I must try and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people
would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in
books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say, or
with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get
to understand them.
_Helmer_. Can you not understand your place in your own home? Have you
not a reliable guide in such matters as that? --have you no religion?
_Nora_. I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what religion is.
_Helmer_. What are you saying?
_Nora_. I know nothing but what the clergyman said, when I went to be
confirmed. He told us that religion was this, and that, and the other.
When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter
too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if
it is true for me.
_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 to-night.
_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 any more.
_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 any more.
_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 to-night, when the wonderful thing did
not happen; then I saw you were not the man I had thought you.
_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 till 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_. ) Good-bye, 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 and 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. Good-bye. (_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_. )
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