No More Learning

_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_. )



***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DOLL'S HOUSE***


******* This file should be named 15492. txt or 15492. zip *******


This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www. gutenberg. org/dirs/1/5/4/9/15492



Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you! ) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.



*** START: FULL LICENSE ***

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg. net/license).


Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works

1. A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1. E. 8.

1. B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1. C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1. E below.

1. C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.

1. D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.

1. E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1. E. 1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www. gutenberg. net

1. E. 2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1. E. 1
through 1. E. 7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1. E. 8 or
1. E. 9.

1. E. 3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1. E. 1 through 1. E. 7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.

1. E. 4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.

1. E. 5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1. E. 1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.

1. E. 6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.