round her, and whispers quickly, hoarsely, and brokenly._] Never to see
him again. Never, never, never. [_Throws her shawl over her head._]
Never to see the children again. Never, never.—Oh that black, icy water!
Oh that bottomless——! If it were only over! Now he has it; he’s reading
it. Oh, no, no, no, not yet. Torvald, good-bye——! Good-bye, my little
ones——!
[_She is rushing out by the hall; at the same moment_ HELMER
_flings his door open, and stands there with an open letter
in his hand._
HELMER.
Nora!
NORA.
[_Shrieks._] Ah——!
HELMER.
What is this? Do you know what is in this letter?
NORA.
Yes, I know. Let me go! Let me pass!
HELMER.
[_Holds her back._] Where do you want to go?
NORA.
[_Tries to break away from him._] You shall not save me, Torvald.
HELMER.
[_Falling back._] True! Is what he writes true? No, no, it is impossible
that this can be true.
NORA.
It is true. I have loved you beyond all else in the world.
HELMER.
Pshaw—no silly evasions!
NORA.
[_A step nearer him._] Torvald——!
HELMER.
Wretched woman—what have you done!
NORA.
Let me go—you shall not save me! You shall not take my guilt upon
yourself!
HELMER.
I don’t want any melodramatic airs. [_Locks the outer door._] Here you
shall stay and give an account of yourself. Do you understand what you
have done? Answer! Do you understand it?
NORA.
[_Looks at him fixedly, and says with a stiffening expression._] Yes;
now I begin fully to understand it.
HELMER.
[_Walking up and down._] Oh! what an awful awakening! During all these
eight years—she who was my pride and my joy—a hypocrite, a liar—worse,
worse—a criminal. Oh, the unfathomable hideousness of it all! Ugh! Ugh!
[NORA _says nothing, and continues to look fixedly at him._
HELMER.
I ought to have known how it would be. I ought to have foreseen it. All
your father’s want of principle—be silent!—all your father’s want of
principle you have inherited—no religion, no morality, no sense of duty.
How I am punished for screening him! I did it for your sake; and you
reward me like this.
NORA.
Yes—like this.
HELMER.
You have destroyed my whole happiness. You have ruined my future. Oh,
it’s frightful to think of! I am in the power of a scoundrel; he can do
whatever he pleases with me, demand whatever he chooses; he can domineer
over me as much as he likes, and I must submit. And all this disaster
and ruin is brought upon me by an unprincipled woman!
NORA.
When I am out of the world, you will be free.
HELMER.
Oh, no fine phrases. Your father, too, was always ready with them. What
good would it do me, if you were “out of the world,” as you say? No good
whatever! He can publish the story all the same; I might even be
suspected of collusion. People will think I was at the bottom of it all
and egged you on. And for all this I have you to thank—you whom I have
done nothing but pet and spoil during our whole married life. Do you
understand now what you have done to me?
NORA.
[_With cold calmness._] Yes.
HELMER.
The thing is so incredible, I can’t grasp it. But we must come to an
understanding. Take that shawl off. Take it off, I say! I must try to
pacify him in one way or another—the matter must be hushed up, cost what
it may.—As for you and me, we must make no outward change in our way of
life—no _outward_ change, you understand. Of course, you will continue
to live here. But the children cannot be left in your care. I dare not
trust them to you.—Oh, to have to say this to one I have loved so
tenderly—whom I still——! But that must be a thing of the past.
Henceforward there can be no question of happiness, but merely of saving
the ruins, the shreds, the show—— [_A ring;_ HELMER _starts._] What’s
that? So late! Can it be the worst? Can he——? Hide yourself, Nora; say
you are ill.
[NORA _stands motionless._ HELMER _goes to the door and opens
it._
ELLEN.
[_Half dressed, in the hall._] Here is a letter for you, ma’am.
HELMER.
Give it to me. [_Seizes the letter and shuts the door._] Yes, from him.
You shall not have it. I shall read it.
NORA.
Read it!
HELMER.
[_By the lamp._] I have hardly the courage to. We may both be lost, both
you and I. Ah! I _must_ know. [_Hastily tears the letter open; reads a
few lines, looks at an enclosure; with a cry of joy._] Nora!
[NORA _looks inquiringly at him._
HELMER.
Nora!—Oh! I must read it again.—Yes, yes, it is so. I am saved! Nora, I
am saved!
NORA.
And I?
HELMER.
You too, of course; we are both saved, both of us. Look here—he sends
you back your promissory note. He writes that he regrets and apologises,
that a happy turn in his life——Oh, what matter what he writes. We are
saved, Nora! No one can harm you. Oh, Nora, Nora——; but first to get rid
of this hateful thing. I’ll just see—— [_Glances at the I.O.U._] No, I
will not look at it; the whole thing shall be nothing but a dream to me.
[_Tears the I.O.U. and both letters in pieces. Throws them into the fire
and watches them burn._] There! it’s gone!—He said that ever since
Christmas Eve——Oh, Nora, they must have been three terrible days for
you!
NORA.
I have fought a hard fight for the last three days.
HELMER.
And in your agony you saw no other outlet but——No; we won’t think of
that horror. We will only rejoice and repeat—it’s over, all over! Don’t
you hear, Nora? You don’t seem able to grasp it. Yes, it’s over. What is
this set look on your face? Oh, my poor Nora, I understand; you cannot
believe that I have forgiven you. But I have, Nora; I swear it. I have
forgiven everything. I know that what you did was all for love of me.
NORA.
That is true.
HELMER.
You loved me as a wife should love her husband. It was only the means
that, in your inexperience, you misjudged. But do you think I love you
the less because you cannot do without guidance? No, no. Only lean on
me; I will counsel you, and guide you. I should be no true man if this
very womanly helplessness did not make you doubly dear in my eyes. You
mustn’t dwell upon the hard things I said in my first moment of terror,
when the world seemed to be tumbling about my ears. I have forgiven you,
Nora—I swear I have forgiven you.
NORA.
I thank you for your forgiveness.
[_Goes out, to the right._
HELMER.
No, stay——! [_Looking through the doorway._] What are you going to do?
NORA.
[_Inside._] To take off my masquerade dress.
HELMER.
[_In the doorway._] Yes, do, dear. Try to calm down, and recover your
balance, my scared little song-bird. You may rest secure. I have broad
wings to shield you. [_Walking up and down near the door._] Oh, how
lovely—how cosy our home is, Nora! Here you are safe; here I can shelter
you like a hunted dove whom I have saved from the claws of the hawk. I
shall soon bring your poor beating heart to rest; believe me, Nora, very
soon. To-morrow all this will seem quite different—everything will be as
before. I shall not need to tell you again that I forgive you; you will
feel for yourself that it is true. How could you think I could find it
in my heart to drive you away, or even so much as to reproach you? Oh,
you don’t know a true man’s heart, Nora. There is some thing
indescribably sweet and soothing to a man in having forgiven his
wife—honestly forgiven her, from the bottom of his heart. She becomes
his property in a double sense. She is as though born again; she has
become, so to speak, at once his wife and his child. That is what you
shall henceforth be to me, my bewildered, helpless darling. Don’t be
troubled about anything, Nora; only open your heart to me, and I will be
both will and conscience to you. [NORA _enters in everyday dress._] Why,
what’s this? Not gone to bed? You have changed your dress?
NORA.
Yes, Torvald; now I have changed my dress.
HELMER.
But why now, so late——?
NORA.
I shall not sleep to-night.
HELMER.
But, Nora dear——
NORA.
[_Looking at her watch._] It’s not so late yet. Sit down, Torvald; you
and I have much to say to each other. [_She sits at one side of the
table._
HELMER.
Nora—what does this mean? Your cold, set face——
NORA.
Sit down. It will take some time. I have much to talk over with you.
[HELMER _sits at the other side of the table._
HELMER.
You alarm me, Nora. I don’t understand you.
NORA.
No, that is just it. You don’t understand me; and I have never
understood you—till to-night. No, don’t interrupt. Only listen to what I
say.—We must come to a final settlement, Torvald.
HELMER.
How do you mean?
NORA.
[_After a short silence._] Does not one thing strike you as we sit here?
HELMER.
What should strike me?
NORA.
We have been married eight years. Does it not strike you that this is
the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have talked together
seriously?
HELMER.
Seriously! What do you call seriously?
NORA.
During eight whole years, and more—ever since the day we first met—we
have never exchanged one serious word about serious things.
HELMER.
Was I always to trouble you with the cares you could not help me to
bear?
NORA.
I am not talking of cares. I say that we have never yet set ourselves
seriously to get to the bottom of anything.
HELMER.
Why, my dearest Nora, what have you to do with serious things?
NORA.
There we have it! You have never understood me.—I have had great
injustice done me, Torvald; first by father, and then by you.
HELMER.
What! By your father and me?—By us, who have loved you more than all the
world?
NORA
[_Shaking her head._] You have never loved me. You only thought it
amusing to be in love with me.
HELMER.
Why, Nora, what a thing to say!
NORA.
Yes, it is so, Torvald. While I was at home with father, he used to tell
me all his opinions, and I held the same opinions. If I had others I
said nothing about them, because he wouldn’t have liked it. He used to
call me his doll-child, and played with me as I played with my dolls.
Then I came to live in your house——
HELMER.
What an expression to use about our marriage!
NORA.
[_Undisturbed._] I mean I passed from father’s hands into yours. You
arranged everything according to your taste; and I got the same tastes
as you; or I pretended to—I don’t know which—both ways, perhaps;
sometimes one and sometimes the other. When I look back on it now, I
seem to have been living here like a beggar, from hand to mouth. I lived
by performing tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and
father have done me a great wrong. It is your fault that my life has
come to nothing.
HELMER.
Why, Nora, how unreasonable and ungrateful you are! Have you not been
happy here?
NORA.
No, never. I thought I was; but I never was.
HELMER.
Not—not happy!
NORA.
No; only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our house
has been nothing but a play-room. Here I have been your doll-wife, just
as at home I used to be papa’s doll-child. And the children, in their
turn, have been my dolls. I thought it fun when you played with me, just
as the children did when I played with them. That has been our marriage,
Torvald.
HELMER.
There is some truth in what you say, exaggerated and overstrained though
it be. But henceforth it shall be different. Play-time is over; now
comes the time for education.
NORA.
Whose education? Mine, or the children’s?
HELMER.
Both, my dear Nora.
NORA.
Oh, Torvald, you are not the man to teach me to be a fit wife for you.
HELMER.
And you can say that?
NORA.
And I—how have I prepared myself to educate the children?
HELMER.
Nora!
NORA.
Did you not say yourself, a few minutes ago, you dared not trust them to
me?
HELMER.
In the excitement of the moment! Why should you dwell upon that?
NORA.
No—you were perfectly right. That problem is beyond me. There is another
to be solved first—I must try to educate myself. You are not the man to
help me in that. I must set about it alone. And that is why I am leaving
you.
HELMER.
[_Jumping up._] What—do you mean to say——?
NORA.
I must stand quite alone if I am ever to know myself and my
surroundings; so I cannot stay with you.
HELMER.
Nora! Nora!
NORA.
I am going at once. I daresay Christina will take me in for to-night——
HELMER.
You are mad! I shall not allow it! I forbid it!
NORA.
It is of no use your forbidding me anything now. I shall take with me
what belongs to me. From you I will accept nothing, either now or
afterwards.
HELMER.
What madness this is!
NORA.
To-morrow I shall go home—I mean to what was my home. It will be easier
for me to find some opening there.
HELMER.
Oh, in your blind inexperience——
NORA.
I must try to _gain_ experience, Torvald.
HELMER.
To forsake your home, your husband, and your children! And you don’t
consider what the world will say.
NORA.
I can pay no heed to that. I only know that I must do it.
HELMER.
This is monstrous! Can you forsake your holiest duties in this way?
NORA.
What do you consider my holiest duties?
HELMER.
Do I need to tell you that? Your duties to your husband and your
children.
NORA.
I have other duties equally sacred.
HELMER.
Impossible! What duties do you mean?
NORA.
My duties towards myself.
HELMER.
Before all else you are a wife and a mother.
NORA.
That I no longer believe. I believe that before all else I am a human
being, just as much as you are—or at least that I should try to become
one. I know that most people agree with you, Torvald, and that they say
so in books. But henceforth I can’t be satisfied with what most people
say, and what is in books. I must think things out for myself, and try
to get clear about them.
HELMER.
Are you not clear about your place in your own home? Have you not an
infallible guide in questions like these? Have you not religion?
NORA.
Oh, Torvald, I don’t really know what religion is.
HELMER.
What do you mean?
NORA.
I know nothing but what Pastor Hansen told me when I was confirmed. He
explained that religion was this and that. When I get away from all this
and stand alone, I will look into that matter too. I will see whether
what he taught me is right, or, at any rate, whether it is right for me.
HELMER.
Oh, this is unheard of! And from so young a woman! But if religion
cannot keep you right, let me appeal to your conscience—for I suppose
you have some moral feeling? Or, answer me: perhaps you have none?
NORA.
Well, Torvald, it’s not easy to say. I really don’t know—I am all at sea
about these things. I only know that I think quite differently from you
about them. I hear, too, that the laws are different from what I
thought; but I can’t believe that they can be right. It appears that a
woman has no right to spare her dying father, or to save her husband’s
life! I don’t believe that.
HELMER.
You talk like a child. You don’t understand the society in which you
live.
NORA.
No, I do not. But now I shall try to learn. I must make up my mind which
is right—society or I.
HELMER.
Nora, you are ill; you are feverish; I almost think you are out of your
senses.
NORA.
I have never felt so much clearness and certainty as to-night.
HELMER.
You are clear and certain enough to forsake husband and children?
NORA.
Yes, I am.
HELMER.
Then there is only one explanation possible.
NORA.
What is that?
HELMER.
You no longer love me.
NORA.
No; that is just it.
HELMER.
Nora!—Can you say so!
NORA.
Oh, I’m so sorry, Torvald; for you’ve always been so kind to me. But I
can’t help it. I do not love you any longer.
HELMER.
[_Mastering himself with difficulty._] Are you clear and certain on this
point too?
NORA.
Yes, quite. That is why I will not stay here any longer.
HELMER.
And can you also make clear to me how I have forfeited your love?
NORA.
Yes, I can. It was this evening, when the miracle did not happen; for
then I saw you were not the man I had imagined.
HELMER.
Explain yourself more clearly; I don’t understand.
NORA.
I have waited so patiently all these eight years; for of course I saw
clearly enough that miracles don’t happen every day. When this crushing
blow threatened me, I said to myself so confidently, “Now comes the
miracle!” When Krogstad’s letter lay in the box, it never for a moment
occurred to me that you would think of submitting to that man’s
conditions. I was convinced that you would say to him, “Make it known to
all the world”; and that then——
HELMER.
Well? When I had given my own wife’s name up to disgrace and shame——?
NORA.
Then I firmly believed that you would come forward, take everything upon
yourself, and say, “I am the guilty one.”
HELMER.
Nora——!
NORA.
You mean I would never have accepted such a sacrifice? No, certainly
not. But what would my assertions have been worth in opposition to
yours?—_That_ was the miracle that I hoped for and dreaded. And it was
to hinder _that_ that I wanted to die.
HELMER.
I would gladly work for you day and night, Nora—bear sorrow and want for
your sake. But no man sacrifices his honour, even for one he loves.
NORA.
Millions of women have done so.
HELMER.
Oh, you think and talk like a silly child.
NORA.
Very likely. But you neither think nor talk like the man I can share my
life with. When your terror was over—not for what threatened me, but for
yourself—when there was nothing more to fear—then it seemed to you as
though nothing had happened. I was your lark again, your doll, just as
before—whom you would take twice as much care of in future, because she
was so weak and fragile. [_Stands up._] Torvald—in that moment it burst
upon me that I had been living here these eight years with a strange
man, and had borne him three children.—Oh, I can’t bear to think of it!
I could tear myself to pieces!
HELMER.
[_Sadly._] I see it, I see it; an abyss has opened between us.—But,
Nora, can it never be filled up?
NORA.
As I now am, I am no wife for you.
HELMER.
I have strength to become another man.
NORA.
Perhaps—when your doll is taken away from you.
HELMER.
To part—to part from you! No, Nora, no; I can’t grasp the thought.
NORA.
[_Going into room on the right._] The more reason for the thing to
happen.
[_She comes back with out-door things and a small
travelling-bag, which she places on a chair._
HELMER.
Nora, Nora, not now! Wait till to-morrow.
NORA.
[_Putting on cloak._] I can’t spend the night in a strange man’s house.
HELMER.
But can we not live here, as brother and sister——?
NORA.
[_Fastening her hat._] You know very well that wouldn’t last long.
[_Puts on the shawl._] Goodbye, Torvald. No, I won’t go to the children.
I know they are in better hands than mine. As I now am, I can be nothing
to them.
HELMER.
But some time, Nora—some time——?
NORA.
How can I tell? I have no idea what will become of me.
HELMER.
But you are my wife, now and always!
NORA.
Listen, Torvald—when a wife leaves her husband’s house, as I am doing, I
have heard that in the eyes of the law he is free from all duties
towards her. At any rate, I release you from all duties. You must not
feel yourself bound, any more than I shall. There must be perfect
freedom on both sides. There, I give you back your ring. Give me mine.
HELMER.
That too?
NORA.
That too.
HELMER.
Here it is.
NORA.
Very well. Now it is all over. I lay the keys here. The servants know
about everything in the house—better than I do. To-morrow, when I have
started, Christina will come to pack up the things I brought with me
from home. I will have them sent after me.
HELMER.
All over! all over! Nora, will you never think of me again?
NORA.
Oh, 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.
HELMER.
But I must send you——
NORA.
Nothing, nothing.
HELMER.
I must help you if you need it.
NORA.
No, I say. I take nothing from strangers.
HELMER.
Nora—can I never be more than a stranger to you?
NORA.
[_Taking her travelling-bag._] Oh, Torvald, then the miracle of miracles
would have to happen——
HELMER.
What is the miracle of miracles?
NORA.
Both of us would have to change so that——Oh, Torvald, I no longer
believe in miracles.
HELMER.
But _I_ will believe. Tell me! We must so change that——?
NORA.
That communion between us shall be a marriage. Good-bye.
[_She goes out by the hall door._
HELMER.
[_Sinks into a chair by the door with his face in his hands._] Nora!
Nora! [_He looks round and rises._] Empty. She is gone. [_A hope springs
up in him._] Ah! The miracle of miracles——?!
[_From below is heard the reverberation of a heavy door
closing._
THE END
GHOSTS
(1881)
CHARACTERS.
MRS. HELEN ALVING, _widow of Captain Alving, late Chamberlain[10]
to the King_.
OSWALD ALVING, _her son, a painter._
PASTOR MANDERS.
JACOB ENGSTRAND, _a carpenter_.
REGINA ENGSTRAND, _Mrs. Alving’s maid_.
_The action takes place at Mrs. Alving’s country
house, beside one of the large fjords in
Western Norway._
-----
Footnote 10:
Chamberlain (Kammerherre) is the only title of honour now existing in
Norway. It is a distinction conferred by the King on men of wealth and
position, and is not hereditary.
GHOSTS:
A FAMILY-DRAMA IN THREE ACTS.
ACT FIRST.
_A spacious garden-room, with one door to the left, and two doors to the
right. In the middle of the room a round table, with chairs about
it. On the table lie books, periodicals, and newspapers. In the
foreground to the left a window, and by it a small sofa, with a
work-table in front of it. In the background, the room is
continued into a somewhat narrower conservatory, the walls of
which are formed by large panes of glass. In the right-hand wall
of the conservatory is a door leading down into the garden.
Through the glass wall a gloomy fjord-landscape is faintly
visible, veiled by steady rain._
_ENGSTRAND, the carpenter, stands by the garden door. His left leg is
somewhat bent; he has a clump of wood under the sole of his boot.
REGINA, with an empty garden syringe in her hand, hinders him from
advancing._
REGINA.
[_In a low voice._] What do you want? Stop where you are. You’re
positively dripping.
ENGSTRAND.
It’s the Lord’s own rain, my girl.
REGINA.
It’s the devil’s rain, _I_ say.
ENGSTRAND.
Lord, how you talk, Regina. [_Limps a step or two forward into the
room._] It’s just this as I wanted to say——
REGINA.
Don’t clatter so with that foot of yours, I tell you! The young master’s
asleep upstairs.
ENGSTRAND.
Asleep? In the middle of the day?
REGINA.
It’s no business of yours.
ENGSTRAND.
I was out on the loose last night——
REGINA.
I can quite believe that.
ENGSTRAND.
Yes, we’re weak vessels, we poor mortals, my girl——
REGINA.
So it seems.
ENGSTRAND.
——and temptations are manifold in this world, you see. But all the same,
I was hard at work, God knows, at half-past five this morning.
REGINA.
Very well; only be off now. I won’t stop here and have
_rendezvous’s_[11] with you.
ENGSTRAND.
What do you say you won’t have?
REGINA.
I won’t have any one find you here; so just you go about your business.
ENGSTRAND.
[_Advances a step or two._] Blest if I go before I’ve had a talk with
you. This afternoon I shall have finished my work at the school-house,
and then I shall take to-night’s boat and be off home to the town.
REGINA.
[_Mutters._] Pleasant journey to you!
ENGSTRAND.
Thank you, my child. To-morrow the Orphanage is to be opened, and then
there’ll be fine doings, no doubt, and plenty of intoxicating drink
going, you know. And nobody shall say of Jacob Engstrand that he can’t
keep out of temptation’s way.
REGINA.
Oh!
ENGSTRAND.
You see, there’s to be heaps of grand folks here to-morrow. Pastor
Manders is expected from town, too.
REGINA.
He’s coming to-day.
ENGSTRAND.
There, you see! And I should be cursedly sorry if he found out anything
against me, don’t you understand?
REGINA.
Oho! is that your game?
ENGSTRAND.
Is what my game?
REGINA.
[_Looking hard at him._] What are you going to fool Pastor Manders into
doing, this time?
ENGSTRAND.
Sh! sh! Are you crazy? Do _I_ want to fool Pastor Manders? Oh no! Pastor
Manders has been far too good a friend to me for that. But I just wanted
to say, you know—that I mean to be off home again to-night.
REGINA.
The sooner the better, say I.
ENGSTRAND.
Yes, but I want you with me, Regina.
REGINA.
[_Open-mouthed._] You want me——? What are you talking about?
ENGSTRAND.
I want you to come home with me, I say.
REGINA.
[_Scornfully._] Never in this world shall you get me home with you.
ENGSTRAND.
Oh, we’ll see about that.
REGINA.
Yes, you may be sure we’ll see about it! Me, that have been brought up
by a lady like Mrs. Alving! Me, that am treated almost as a daughter
here! Is it _me_ you want to go home with you?—to a house like yours?
For shame!
ENGSTRAND.
What the devil do you mean? Do you set yourself up against your father,
you hussy?
REGINA.
[_Mutters without looking at him._] You’ve said often enough I was no
concern of yours.
ENGSTRAND.
Pooh! Why should you bother about _that_——
REGINA.
Haven’t you many a time sworn at me and called me a——? _Fi donc!_
ENGSTRAND.
Curse me, now, if ever I used such an ugly word.
REGINA.
Oh, I remember very well what word you used.
ENGSTRAND.
Well, but that was only when I was a bit on, don’t you know? Temptations
are manifold in this world, Regina.
REGINA.
Ugh!
ENGSTRAND.