[Takes her in his arms.]

  My darling wife! I feel as if I could never hold you close enough.

  Do you know, Nora, I often wish some danger might threaten

  you, that I might risk body and soul, and everything, everything,

  for your dear sake.

  NORA [Tears herself from him and says firmly:]

  Now you shall read your letters, Torvald.

  HELMER

  No, no; not to-night. I want to be with you, my sweet wife.

  NORA

  With the thought of your dying friend——?

  HELMER

  You are right. This has shaken us both. Unloveliness has come

  between us—thoughts of death and decay. We must seek to cast

  them off. Till then—we will remain apart.

  NORA [Her arms round his neck.]

  Torvald! Good-night! good-night!

  HELMER [Kissing her forehead.]

  Good-night, my little song-bird. Sleep well, Nora. Now I shall go

  and read my letters.

  [He goes with the letters in his hand into his room and shuts the door.]

  NORA [With wild eyes, gropes about her, seizes HELMER’s domino, throws it 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 he 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 un

  derstanding. 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 something 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.