Nora.Are you going to work tonight?
Helmer.You know quite well I'm not.What is this?Someone has been at the lock.
Nora.At the lock--?
Helmer.Yes,someone has.What can it mean?I should never have thought the maid--.Here is a broken hairpin.Nora,it is one of yours.
Nora (quickly).Then it must have been the children--Helmer.Then you must get them out of those ways.There,at last I have got it open.(Takes out the contents of the letter-box,and calls to the kitchen.)Helen!--Helen,put out the light over the front door.(Goes back into the room and shuts the door into the hall.He holds out his hand full of letters.)Look at that--look what a heap of them there are.(Turning them over.)What on earth is that?
Nora (at the window).The letter--No!Torvald,no!
Helmer.Two cards--of Rank's.
Nora.Of Doctor Rank's?
Helmer (looking at them).Doctor Rank.They were on the top.He must have put them in when he went out.
Nora.Is there anything written on them?
Helmer.There is a black cross over the name.Look there--what an uncomfortable idea!It looks as if he were announcing his own death.
Nora.It is just what he is doing.
Helmer.What?Do you know anything about it?Has he said anything to you?
Nora.Yes.He told me that when the cards came it would be his leave-taking from us.He means to shut himself up and die.
Helmer.My poor old friend!Certainly I knew we should not have him very long with us.But so soon!And so he hides himself away like a wounded animal.
Nora.If it has to happen,it is best it should be without a word--don't you think so,Torvald?
Helmer (walking up and down).He had so grown into our lives.Ican't think of him as having gone out of them.He,with his sufferings and his loneliness,was like a cloudy background to our sunlit happiness.Well,perhaps it is best so.For him,anyway.(Standing still.)And perhaps for us too,Nora.We two are thrown quite upon each other now.(Puts his arms round her.)My darling wife,I don't feel as if I could hold you tight enough.Do you know,Nora,I have often wished that you might be threatened by some great danger,so that I might risk my life's blood,and everything,for your sake.
Nora (disengages herself,and says firmly and decidedly).Now you must read your letters,Torvald.
Helmer.No,no;not tonight.I want to be with you,my darling wife.
Nora.With the thought of your friend's death--Helmer.You are right,it has affected us both.Something ugly has come between us--the thought of the horrors of death.
We must try and rid our minds of that.Until then--we will each go to our own room.
Nora (hanging on his neck).Goodnight,Torvald--Goodnight!
Helmer (kissing her on the forehead).Goodnight,my little singing-bird.Sleep sound,Nora.Now I will read my letters through.(He takes his letters and goes into his room,shutting the door after him.)Nora (gropes distractedly about,seizes HELMER'S domino,throws it round her,while she says in quick,hoarse,spasmodic whispers).Never to see him again.Never!Never!(Puts her shawl over her head.)Never to see my children again either--never again.Never!Never!--Ah!the icy,black water--the unfathomable depths--If only it were over!He has got it now--now he is reading it.Goodbye,Torvald and my children!(She is about to rush out through the hall,when HELMER opens his door hurriedly and stands with an open letter in his hand.)Helmer.Nora!
Nora.Ah!--Helmer.What is this?Do you know what is in this letter?
Nora.Yes,I know.Let me go!Let me get out!
Helmer (holding her back).Where are you going?
Nora (trying to get free).You shan't save me,Torvald!
Helmer (reeling).True?Is this true,that I read here?Horrible!
No,no--it is impossible that it can be true.
Nora.It is true.I have loved you above everything else in the world.
Helmer.Oh,don't let us have any silly excuses.
Nora (taking a step towards him).Torvald--!
Helmer.Miserable creature--what have you done?
Nora.Let me go.You shall not suffer for my sake.You shall not take it upon yourself.
Helmer.No tragic airs,please.(Locks the hall door.)Here you shall stay and give me an explanation.Do you understand what you have done?Answer me!Do you understand what you have done?
Nora (looks steadily at him and says with a growing look of coldness in her face).Yes,now I am beginning to understand thoroughly.
Helmer (walking about the room).What a horrible awakening!All these eight years--she who was my joy and pride--a hypocrite,a liar--worse,worse--a criminal!The unutterable ugliness of it all!--For shame!For shame!(NORA is silent and looks steadily at him.He stops in front of her.)I ought to have suspected that something of the sort would happen.I ought to have foreseen it.
All your father's want of principle--be silent!--all your father's want of principle has come out in you.No religion,no morality,no sense of duty--.How I am punished for having winked at what he did!
I did it for your sake,and this is how you repay me.
Nora.Yes,that's just it.
Helmer.Now you have destroyed all my happiness.You have ruined all my future.It is horrible to think of!I am in the power of an unscrupulous man;he can do what he likes with me,ask anything he likes of me,give me any orders he pleases--I dare not refuse.
And I must sink to such miserable depths because of a thoughtless woman!
Nora.When I am out of the way,you will be free.
Helmer.No fine speeches,please.Your father had always plenty of those ready,too.What good would it be to me if you were out of the way,as you say?Not the slightest.He can make the affair known everywhere;and if he does,I may be falsely suspected of having been a party to your criminal action.Very likely people will think I was behind it all--that it was I who prompted you!
And I have to thank you for all this--you whom I have cherished during the whole of our married life.Do you understand now what it is you have done for me?
Nora (coldly and quietly).Yes.