Source Text: DOLL1.3Nora: Come over here. Yes, Christine -- I too have done something to be happy and proud about. It was I who saved Torvald's life.
Mrs. Linde: Saved his -- ? How did you save it?
Nora: I told you about our trip to Italy. Torvald couldn't have lived if he hadn't managed to get down there --
Mrs. Linde: Yes, well -- your father provided the money --
Nora: So Torvald and everyone else thinks. But --
Mrs. Linde: Yes?
Nora: Papa didn't give us a penny. It was I who found the money?
Mrs. Linde: You? All of it?
Nora: Two hundred and fifty pounds. What do you say to that?
Mrs. Linde: But Nora, how could you? Did you win a lottery or something?
Nora: Lottery? What would there be to be proud of in that?
Mrs. Linde: But where did you get it from, then?
Nora: Hm; tra-la-la-la!
Mrs. Linde: You couldn't have borrowed it.
Nora: Oh? Why not?
Mrs. Linde: Well, a wife can't borrow money without her husband's consent.
Nora: Ah, but when a wife has a little business sense, and knows how to be clever --
Mrs. Linde: But Nora, I simply don't understand --
Nora: You don't have to. No one has said I borrowed the money. I could have got it in some other way. I could have got it from an admirer. When a girl's as pretty as I am --
Mrs. Linde: Nora, you're crazy!
Nora: You're dying of curiosity now, aren't you, Christine?
Mrs. Linde: Nora dear, you haven't done anything foolish?
Nora: Is it foolish to save one's husband's life?
Mrs. Linde: I think it's foolish if without his knowledge you --
Nora: But the whole point was that he mustn't know! Great heavens, don't you see? He hadn't to know how dangerously ill he was. I was the one they told that his life was in danger and that only going to a warm climate could save him. Do you suppose I didn't try to think of other ways of getting him down there? I told him how wonderful it would be for me to go abroad like other young wives; I cried and prayed; I asked him to remember my condition, and said he ought to be nice and tender to me; and then I suggested he might quite easily borrow the money. But then he got almost angry with me, Christine. He said I was frivolous, and that it was his duty as a husband not to pander to my moods and caprices -- I think that's what he called them. Well, well, I thought, you've got to be saved somehow. And then I thought of a way --
Mrs. Linde: But didn't your husband find out from your father that the money hadn't come from him?
Nora: No, never. Papa died just then. I'd thought of letting him into the plot and asking him not to tell. But since he was so ill -- ! And as things turned out, it didn't become necessary.
Mrs. Linde: And you've never told your husband about this?
Nora: For heaven's sake, no! What an idea! He's frightfully strict about such matters. And besides -- he's so proud of being a man -- it'd be so painful and humiliating for him to know that he owed anything to me. It'd completely wreck our relationship. This life we have built together would no longer exist.
Mrs. Linde: Will you never tell him?
Nora: Yes -- some time, perhaps. Years from now, when I'm no longer pretty. You mustn't laugh! I mean of course, when Torvald no longer loves me as he does now; when it no longer amuses him to see me dance and dress up and play the fool for him. Then it might be useful to have something up my sleeve. Stupid, stupid, stupid! That time will never come. Well, what do you think of my big secret, Christine? I'm not completely useless, am I? Mind you, all this has caused me a frightful lot of worry. It hasn't been easy for me to meet my obligations punctually. In case you don't know, in the world of business there are things called quarterly instalments and interest, and they're a terrible problem to cope with. So I've had to scrape a little here and save a little there as best I can. I haven't been able to save much on the housekeeping money, because Torvald likes to live well; and I couldn't let the children go short of clothes -- I couldn't take anything out of what he gives me for them. The poor little angels!
Mrs. Linde: So you've had to stint yourself, my poor Nora?
Nora: Of course. Well, after all, it was my problem. Whenever Torvald gave me money to buy myself new clothes, I never used more than half of it; and I always bought what was the cheapest and plainest. Thank heaven anything suits me, so that Torvald's never noticed. But it made me a bit sad sometimes, because it's lovely to wear pretty clothes. Don't you think?
Mrs. Linde: Indeed it is.
Nora: And then I've found one or two other sources of income. Last winter I managed to get a lot of copying to do. So I shut myself away and wrote every evening, late into the night. Oh, I often got so tired, so tired. But it was great fun, though, sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man.
Mrs. Linde: But how much have you managed to pay off like this?
Nora: Well, I can't say exactly. It's awfully difficult to keep an exact check on these kind of transactions. I only know I've paid everything I've managed to scrape together. Sometimes I really didn't know where to turn. Then I'd sit here and imagine some rich old gentleman had fallen in love with me --
Mrs. Linde: What! What gentleman?
Nora: Silly! And that now he'd died and when they opened his will it said in big letters: "Everything I possess is to be paid forthwith to my beloved Mrs. Nora Helmer in cash."
Mrs. Linde: But, Nora dear, who was this gentleman?
Nora: Great heavens, don't you understand? There wasn't any old gentleman; he was just something I used to dream up as I sat here evening after evening wondering how on earth I could raise some money. But what does it matter? The old bore can stay imaginary as far as I'm concerned, because now I don't have to worry any longer! Oh, Christine, isn't it wonderful? I don't have to worry any more! No more troubles! I can play all day with the children, I can fill the house with pretty things, just the way Torvald likes. And, Christine, it'll soon be spring, and the air'll be fresh and the skies blue, -- and then perhaps we'll be able to take a little trip somewhere. I shall be able to see the sea again. Oh, yes, yes, it's a wonderful thing to be alive and happy!
Mrs. Linde: You've a visitor. Perhaps I'd better go.
Nora: No, stay. It won't be for me. It's someone for Torvald --
Maid: Excuse me, madam, a gentleman's called who says he wants to speak to the master. But I didn't know -- seeing as the doctor's with him --
Nora: Who is this gentleman?
Krogstad: It's me, Mrs. Helmer.
Nora: You? What is it? What do you want to talk to my husband about?
Krogstad: Business -- you might call it. I hold a minor post in the bank, and I hear your husband is to become our new chief --
Nora: Oh -- then it isn't -- ?
Krogstad: Pure business, Mrs. Helmer. Nothing more.
Nora: Well, you'll find him in his study.
Mrs. Linde: Nora, who was that man?
Nora: A lawyer called Krogstad.
Mrs. Linde: It was him, then.
Nora: Do you know that man?
Mrs. Linde: I used to know him -- some years ago. He was a solicitor's clerk in our town, for a while.
Nora: Yes, of course, so he was.
Mrs. Linde: How he's changed!
Nora: He was very unhappily married, I believe.
Mrs. Linde: Is he a widower now?
Nora: Yes, with a lot of children. Ah, now it's alight.
Mrs. Linde: He does -- various things now, I hear?
Nora: Does he? It's quite possible -- I really don't know. But don't let's talk about business. It's so boring.
Rank: No, no, my dear chap, don't see me out. I'll go and have a word with your wife. Oh, I beg your pardon. I seem to be de trop here too.
Nora: Not in the least. Dr. Rank. Mrs. Linde.
Rank: Ah! A name I have often heard in this house. I believe I passed you on the stairs as I came up.
Mrs. Linde: Yes. Stairs tire me; I have to take them slowly.
Rank: Oh, have you hurt yourself?
Mrs. Linde: No, I'm just a little run down.
Rank: Ah, is that all? Then I take it you've come to town to cure yourself by a round of parties?
Mrs. Linde: I have come here to find work.
Rank: Is that an approved remedy for being run down?
Mrs. Linde: One has to live, Doctor.
Rank: Yes, people do seem to regard it as a necessity.
Nora: Oh, really, Dr. Rank. I bet you want to stay alive.
Rank: You bet I do. However miserable I sometimes feel, I still want to go on being tortured for as long as possible. It's the same with all my patients; and with people who are morally sick, too. There's a moral cripple in with Helmer at this very moment --
Mrs. Linde: Oh!
Nora: Whom do you mean?
Rank: Oh, a lawyer fellow called Krogstad -- you wouldn't know him. He's crippled all right; morally twisted. But even he started off by announcing, as thought it were a matter of enormous importance, that he had to live.
Nora: Oh? What did he want to talk to Torvald about?
Rank: I haven't the faintest idea. All I heard was something about the bank.
Nora: I didn't know that Krog -- that this man Krogstad had any connection with the bank.
Rank: Yes, he's got some kind of job down there. I wonder if in your part of the world you too have a species of human being that spends its time fussing around trying to smell out moral corruption? And when they find a case they give him some nice, comfortable position so that they can keep a good watch on him. The healthy ones just have to lump it.
Mrs. Linde: But surely it's the sick who need care most?
Rank: Well, there we have it. It's that attitude that's turning human society into a hospital.
Rank: Why are you laughing? Do you really know what society is?
Nora: What do I care about society? I think it's a bore. I was laughing at something else -- something frightfully funny. Tell me, Dr. Rank -- will everyone who works at the bank come under Torvald now?
Rank: Do you find that particularly funny?
Nora: Never you mind! Never you mind! Yes, I find it very amusing to think that we -- I mean, Torvald -- has obtained so much influence over so many people. Dr. Rank, would you like a small macaroon?
Rank: Macaroons! I say! I thought they were forbidden here.
Nora: Yes, well, these are some Christine gave me.
Mrs. Linde: What? I -- ?
Nora: All right, all right, don't get frightened. You weren't to know Torvald had forbidden them. He's afraid they'll ruin my teeth. But, dash it -- for once -- ! Don't you agree, Dr. Rank? Here! You too, Christine. and I'll have one too. Just a little one. Two at the most. Yes, now I feel really, really happy. Now there's just one thing in the world I'd really love to do.
Rank: Oh? And what is that?
Nora: Just something I'd love to say to Torvald.
Rank: Well, why don't you say it?
Nora: No, I daren't. It's too dreadful.
Mrs. Linde: Dreadful?
Rank: Well, then, you'd better not. But you can say it to us. What is it you'd love so to say to Torvald?
Nora: I've the most extraordinary longing to say: "Bloody hell!"
Rank: Are you mad?
Mrs. Linde: My dear Nora -- !
Rank: Say it. Here he is.
Nora: Ssh! Ssh!