Source Text: DOLL3.3Nora: Perhaps.
Nora: Torvald, what do you want out there?
Helmer: I must empty the letter-box. It's absolutely full. There'll be no room for the newspapers in the morning.
Nora: Are you going to work tonight?
Helmer: You know very well I'm not. Hullo, what's this? Someone's been at the lock.
Nora: At the lock -- ?
Helmer: Yes, I'm sure of it. Who on earth -- ? Surely not one of the maids? Here's a broken hairpin. Nora, it's yours --
Nora: Then it must have been the children.
Helmer: Well, you'll have to break them of that habit. Hm, hm. Ah, that's done it. Helen! Helen! Put out the light on the staircase. Look at this! You see how they've piled up? What on earth's this?
Nora: The letter! Oh, no, Torvald, no!
Helmer: Two visiting cards -- from Rank.
Nora: From Dr. Rank?
Helmer: Peter Rank, M.D. They were on top. He must have dropped them in as he left.
Nora: Has he written anything on them?
Helmer: There's a black cross above his name. Look. Rather gruesome, isn't it? It looks just as though he was announcing his death.
Nora: He is.
Helmer: What? Do you know something? Has he told you anything?
Nora: Yes. When these cards come, it means he's said goodbye to us. He wants to shut himself up in his house and die.
Helmer: Ah, poor fellow. I knew I wouldn't be seeing him for much longer. But so soon -- ! And now he's going to slink away and hide like a wounded beast.
Nora: When the time comes, it's best to go silently. Don't you think so, Torvald?
Helmer: He was so much a part of our life. I can't realize that he's gone. His suffering and loneliness seemed to provide a kind of dark background to the happy sunlight of our marriage. Well, perhaps it's best this way. For him, anyway. And perhaps for us too, Nora. Now we have only each other. Oh, my beloved wife -- I feel as though I could never hold you close enough. Do you know, Nora, often I wish some terrible danger might threaten you, so that I could offer my life and my blood, everything, for your sake.
Nora: Read your letters now, Torvald.
Helmer: No, no. Not tonight. Tonight I want to be with you, my darling wife --
Nora: When your friend is about to die -- ?
Helmer: You're right. This news has upset us both. An ugliness has come between us; thoughts of death and dissolution. We must try and forget them. Until them -- you go to your room; I shall go to mine.
Nora: Good night, Torvald! Good night!
Helmer: Good night, my darling little songbird. Sleep well, Nora. I'll go and read my letters.
Nora: Never see him again. Never. Never. Never. Never see the children again. Them too. Never. Never. Oh -- the icy black water! Oh -- that bottomless -- that -- ! Oh, it only it were all over! Now he's got it -- he's reading it. Oh, no, no! Not yet! Goodbye, Torvald! Goodbye, my darlings!
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 go!
Helmer: Go? Where?
Nora: You mustn't try to save me, Torvald!
Helmer: Is it true? Is it true, what he writes? Oh, my God! No, no -- it's impossible, it can't be true!
Nora: It is true. I've loved you more than anything else in the world.
Helmer: Oh, don't try to make silly excuses.
Nora: Torvald --
Helmer: Wretched woman! What have you done?
Nora: Let me go! You're not going to suffer for my sake. I won't let you!
Helmer: Stop being theatrical. You're going to stay here and explain yourself. Do you understand what you've done? Answer me! Do you understand?
Nora: Yes. Now I am beginning to understand.
Helmer: Oh, what a dreadful awakening? For eight whole years -- she who was my joy and my pride -- a hypocrite, a liar -- worse, worse -- a criminal! Oh, the hideousness of it! Shame on you, shame!
Helmer: I ought to have guessed that something of this sort would happen. I should have foreseen it. All your father's recklessness and instability -- be quiet! -- I repeat, all your father's recklessness and instability he has handed on to you. No religion, no morals, no sense of duty! Oh, how I have been punished for closing my eyes to his faults! I did it for your sake. And now you reward me like this.
Nora: Yes. Like this.
Helmer: Now you have destroyed all my happiness. You have ruined my whole future. Oh, it's too dreadful to contemplate! I am in the power of a man who is completely without scruples. He can do what he likes with me, demand what he pleases, order me to do anything -- I dare not disobey him. I am condemned to humiliation and ruin simply for the weakness of a woman.
Nora: When I am gone from this world, you will be free.
Helmer: Oh, don't be melodramatic. Your father was always ready with that kind of remark. How would it help me it you were "gone from this world," as you put it? It wouldn't assist me in the slightest. He can still make all the facts public; and if he does, I may quite easily be suspected of having been an accomplice in your crime. People may think that I was behind it -- that it was I who encouraged you! And for all this I have to thank you, you whom I have carried on my hands through all the years of our marriage! Now do you realize what you've done to me?
Nora: Yes.
Helmer: It's so unbelievable I can hardly credit it. But we must try to find some way out. Take off that shawl. Take it off, I say! I must try to buy him off somehow. This thing must be hushed up at any price. As regards our relationship -- we must appear to be living together just as before. Only appear, of course. You will therefore continue to reside here. That is understood. But the children shall be taken out of your hands. I dare no longer entrust them to you. Oh, to have to say this to the woman I once loved so dearly -- and whom I still -- ! Well, all that must finished. Henceforth there can be no question of happiness; we must merely strive to save what shreds and tatters -- What can that be? At this hour? Surely not -- ? He wouldn't -- ? Hide yourself, Nora. Say you're ill.
Maid: A letter for madam.
Helmer: Give it me. Yes, it's from him. You're not having it. I'll read this myself.
Nora: Read it.
Helmer: I hardly dare to. This may mean the end for us both. No. I must know. Nora! Nora! No -- I must read it once more. Yes, yes, it's true! I am saved! Nora, I am saved!
Nora: What about me?
Helmer: You too, of course. We're both saved, you and I. Look! He's returning your I.O.U. He writes that he is sorry for what has happened -- a happy accident has changed his life -- oh, what does it matter what he writes? We are saved, Nora! No one can harm you now. Oh, Nora, Nora -- no, first let me destroy this filthy thing. Let me see -- ! No, I don't want to look at it. I shall merely regard the whole business as a dream. There. Now they're destroyed. He wrote that ever since Christmas Eve you've been -- oh, these must have been three dreadful days for you, Nora.
Nora: Yes. It's been a hard fight.
Helmer: It must have been terrible -- seeing no way out except -- no, we'll forget the whole sordid business. We'll just be happy and go on telling ourselves over and over again: "It's over! It's over!" Listen to me, Nora. You don't seem to realize. It's over! Why are you looking so pale? Ah, my poor little Nora, I understand. You can't believe that I have forgiven you. But I have, Nora. I swear it to you. I have forgiven you everything. I know that what you did you did for your love of me.
Nora: That is true.
Helmer: You have loved me as a wife should love her husband. It was simply that in your inexperience you chose the wrong means. But do you think I love you any the less because you don't know how to act on your own initiative? No, no. Just lean on me. I shall counsel you. I shall guide you. I would not be a true man if your feminine helplessness did not make you doubly attractive in my eyes. You mustn't mind the hard words I said to you in those first dreadful moments when my whole world seemed to be tumbling about my ears. I have forgiven you, Nora. I swear it to you; I have forgiven you.
Nora: Thank you for your forgiveness.
Helmer: No, don't go -- What are you doing there?
Nora: Taking off my fancy dress.
Helmer: Yes, do that. Try to calm yourself and get your balance again, my frightened little songbird. Don't be afraid. I have broad wings to shield you. How lovely and peaceful this little home of ours is, Nora. You are safe here; I shall watch over you like a hunted dove which I have snatched unharmed from the claws of the falcon. Your wildly beating little heart shall find peace with me. It will happen, Nora; it will take time, but it will happen, believe me. Tomorrow all this will seem quite different. Soon everything will be as it was before. I shall no longer need to remind you that I have forgiven you; your own heart will tell you that it is true. Do you really think I could ever bring myself to disown you, or even to reproach you? Ah, Nora, you don't understand what goes on in a husband's heart. There is something indescribably wonderful and satisfying for a husband in knowing that he has forgiven his wife -- forgiven her unreservedly, from the bottom of his heart. It means that she has become his property in a double sense; he has, as it were, brought her into the world anew; she is now not only his wife but also his child. From now on that is what you shall be to me, my poor, helpless, bewildered little creature. Never be frightened of anything again, Nora. Just open your heart to me. I shall be both your will and your conscience. What's this? Not in bed? Have you changed?