Source Text: DOLL1.5Krogstad: Excuse me, Mrs. Helmer --
Nora: Oh! What do you want?
Krogstad: I beg your pardon; the front door was ajar. Someone must have forgotten to close it.
Nora: My husband is not at home, Mr. Krogstad.
Krogstad: I know.
Nora: Well, what do you want here, then?
Krogstad: A word with you.
Nora: With -- ? Go inside to Anne-Marie. What? No, the strange gentleman won't do anything to hurt Mummy. When he's gone we'll start playing again.
Nora: You want to speak to me?
Krogstad: Yes.
Nora: Today? But it's not the first of the month yet.
Krogstad: No, it is Christmas Eve. Whether or not you have a merry Christmas depends on you.
Nora: What do you want? I can't give you anything today --
Krogstad: We won't talk about that for the present. There's something else. You have a moment to spare?
Nora: Oh, yes. Yes, I suppose so; though --
Krogstad: Good. I was sitting in the cafe down below and I saw your husband cross the street --
Nora: Yes.
Krogstad: With a lady.
Nora: Well?
Krogstad: Might I be so bold as to ask: was not that lady a Mrs. Linde?
Nora: Yes.
Krogstad: Recently arrived in town?
Nora: Yes, today.
Krogstad: She is a good friend of yours, is she not?
Nora: Yes, she is. But I still don't see --
Krogstad: I used to know her too once.
Nora: I know.
Krogstad: Oh? You've discovered that. Yes, I thought you would. Well then, may I ask you a straight question: is Mrs. Linde to be employed at the bank?
Nora: How dare you presume to cross-examine me, Mr. Krogstad? You, one of my husband's employees? But since you ask, you shall have an answer. Yes, Mrs. Linde is to be employed by the bank. And I arranged it, Mr. Krogstad. Now you know.
Krogstad: I guessed right, then.
Nora: Oh, one has a little influence, you know. Just because one's a woman it doesn't necessarily mean that -- When one is in a humble position, Mr. Krogstad, one should think twice before offending someone who -- hm --
Krogstad: -- who has influence?
Nora: Precisely.
Krogstad: Mrs. Helmer, will you have the kindness to use your influence on my behalf?
Nora: What? What do you mean?
Krogstad: Will you be so good as to see that I keep my humble position at the bank?
Nora: What do you mean? Who is thinking of removing you from your position?
Krogstad: Oh, you don't need to play the innocent with me. I realize it can't be very pleasant for your friend to risk bumping into me; and now I also realize whom I have to thank for being hounded out like this.
Nora: But I assure you --
Krogstad: Look, let's not beat about the bush. There's still time, and I'd advise you to use your influence to stop it.
Nora: But, Mr. Krogstad, I have no influence!
Krogstad: Oh? I thought you just said --
Nora: But I didn't mean it like that! I? How on earth could you imagine that I would have any influence over my husband?
Krogstad: Oh, I've known your husband since we were students together. I imagine he has his weaknesses like other married men.
Nora: If you speak impertinently of my husband, I shall show you the door.
Krogstad: You're a bold woman, Mrs. Helmer.
Nora: I'm not afraid of you any longer. Once the New Year is in, I'll soon be rid of you.
Krogstad: Now listen to me, Mrs. Helmer. If I'm forced to, I shall fight for my little job at the bank as I would fight for my life.
Nora: So it sounds.
Krogstad: It isn't just the money; that's the last thing I care about. There's something else -- well, you might as well know. It's like this, you see. You know of course, as everyone else does, that some years ago I committed an indiscretion.
Nora: I think I did hear something --
Krogstad: It never came into court; but from that day, every opening was barred to me. So I turned my hand to the kind of business you know about. I had to do something; and I don't think I was one of the worst. But now I want to give up all that. My sons are growing up; for their sake, I must try to regain what respectability I can. This job in the bank was the first step on the ladder. And now your husband wants to kick me off that ladder back into the dirt.
Nora: But my dear Mr. Krogstad, it simply isn't in my power to help you.
Krogstad: You say that because you don't want to help me. But I have the means to make you.
Nora: You don't mean you'd tell my husband that I owe you money?
Krogstad: And if I did?
Nora: That'd be a filthy trick! This secret that is my pride and my joy -- that he should hear about it in such a filthy, beastly way -- hear about it from you! It'd involve me in the most dreadful unpleasantness --
Krogstad: Only -- unpleasantness?
Nora: All right, do it! You'll be the one who'll suffer. It'll show my husband the kind of man you are, and then you'll never keep your job.
Krogstad: I asked whether it was merely domestic unpleasantness you were afraid of.
Nora: If my husband hears about it, he will of course immediately pay you whatever is owing. And then we shall have nothing more to do with you.
Krogstad: Listen, Mrs. Helmer. Either you've a bad memory or else you know very little about financial transactions. I had better enlighten you.
Nora: What do you mean?
Krogstad: When your husband was ill, you came to me to borrow two hundred and fifty pounds.
Nora: I didn't know anyone else.
Krogstad: I promised to find that sum for you --
Nora: And you did find it.
Krogstad: I promised to find that sum for you on certain conditions. You were so worried about your husband's illness and so keen to get the money to take him abroad that I don't think you bothered much about the details. So it won't be out of place if I refresh your memory. Well -- I promised to get you the money in exchange for an I.O.U., which I drew up.
Nora: Yes, and which I signed.
Krogstad: Exactly. But then I added a few lines naming your father as security for the debt. This paragraph was to be signed by your father.
Nora: Was to be? He did sign it.
Krogstad: I left the date blank for your father to fill in when he signed this paper. You remember, Mrs. Helmer?
Nora: Yes, I think so --
Krogstad: Then I gave you back this I.O.U. for you to post to your father. Is that not correct?
Nora: Yes.
Krogstad: And of course you posted it at once; for within five or six days you brought it along to me with your father's signature on it. Whereupon I handed you the money.
Nora: Yes, well. Haven't I repaid the instalments as agreed?
Krogstad: Mm -- yes, more or less. But to return to what we were speaking about -- that was a difficult time for you just then, wasn't it, Mrs. Helmer?
Nora: Yes, it was.
Krogstad: Your father was very ill, if I am not mistaken.
Nora: He was dying.
Krogstad: He did in fact die shortly afterwards?
Nora: Yes.
Krogstad: Tell me, Mrs. Helmer, do you by any chance remember the date of your father's death? The day of the month, I mean.
Nora: Papa died on the twenty-ninth of September.
Krogstad: Quite correct; I took the trouble to confirm it. And that leaves me with a curious little problem -- which I simply cannot solve.
Nora: Problem? I don't see --
Krogstad: The problem, Mrs. Helmer, is that your father signed this paper three days after his death.
Nora: What? I don't understand --
Krogstad: Your father died on the twenty-ninth of September. But look at this. Here your father has dated his signature the second of October. Isn't that a curious little problem, Mrs. Helmer? Can you suggest any explanation? And there's another curious thing. The words "second of October" and the year are written in a hand which is not your father's, but which I seem to know. Well, there's a simple explanation to that. Your father could have forgotten to write in the date when he signed, and someone else could have added it before the news came of his death. There's nothing criminal about that. It's the signature itself I'm wondering about. It is genuine, I suppose, Mrs. Helmer? It was your father who wrote his name here?
Nora: No, it was not. It was I who wrote Papa's name there.
Krogstad: Look, Mrs. Helmer, do you realize this is a dangerous admission?
Nora: Why? You'll get your money.
Krogstad: May I ask you a question? Why didn't you send this paper to your father?
Nora: I couldn't. Papa was very ill. If I'd asked him to sign this, I'd have had to tell him what the money was for. But I couldn't have told him in his condition that my husband's life was in danger. I couldn't have done that!
Krogstad: Then you would have been wiser to have given up your idea of a holiday.
Nora: But I couldn't! It was to save my husband's life. I couldn't put it off.
Krogstad: But didn't it occur to you that you were being dishonest towards me?
Nora: I couldn't bother about that. I didn't care about you. I hated you because of all the beastly difficulties you'd put in my way when you knew how dangerously ill my husband was.
Krogstad: Mrs. Helmer, you evidently don't appreciate exactly what you have done. But I can assure you that it is no bigger nor worse a crime than the one I once committed, and thereby ruined my whole social position.
Nora: You? Do you expect me to believe that you would have taken a risk like that to save your wife's life?
Krogstad: The law does not concern itself with motives.
Nora: Then the law must be very stupid.
Krogstad: Stupid or not, if I show this paper to the police, you will be judged according to it.
Nora: I don't believe that. Hasn't a daughter the right to shield her father from worry and anxiety when he's old and dying? Hasn't a wife the right to save her husband's life? I don't know much about the law, but there must be something somewhere that says that such things are allowed. You ought to know about that, you're meant to be a lawyer, aren't you? You can't be a very good lawyer, Mr. Krogstad.
Krogstad: Possibly not. But business, the kind of business we two have been transacting -- I think you'll admit I understand something about that? Good. Do as you please. But I tell you this. If I get thrown into the gutter for a second time, I shall take you with me.
Nora: What nonsense! He's trying to frighten me! I'm not that stupid. But -- ? No, it's impossible. I did it for love, didn't I?