Nora Helmer

“ She was leaving Arthur Vibert after a brief year of marriage for another man. Yet her pulse fluttered not, and before she reached the open doorway a mocking humor possessed her.
Her active brain pictured herself in the person of Ibsen's Nora Helmer. But Nora left children behind, and deserted them in hot blood; no woman could be cold after such a night in the Doll's House—the champagne, the tarantella, the letter and the scene with Torvald! No, she was not quite Nora Helmer; and Paul, her young husband, was hardly a Scandinavian bureaucrat. ”

“ Helmer. But to part!—to part from you! No, no, Nora, I can't understand that idea.
Nora (going out to the right) . That makes it all the more certain that it must be done. (She comes back with her cloak and hat and a small bag which she puts on a chair by the table.)
Helmer. Nora, Nora, not now! Wait till tomorrow.
Nora (putting on her cloak) . I cannot spend the night in a strange man's room.
Helmer. But can't we live here like brother and sister—?
Nora (putting on her hat) . You know very well that would not last long. (Puts the shawl round her.) Good-bye, Torvald. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You've no notion how they've grown! Yes, Nora, our marriage will be a true marriage now. You will come back to the Doll's-House, won't you?
Hilda-Nora-Helmer-Wangel (hesitates) . Will you let me forge cheques if I do, Torvald?
Helmer (ardently) . All day. And at night, Nora, we will falsify the accounts—together!
H. N. H. W. (throws herself into his arms, and helps herself to macaroons) . That will be fearfully thrilling! My—my Manager!
Dr. Herd. (comes out, very pale, from Dispensary) . Hilda, I did take the——I'm afraid I interrupt you? ”

“ 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! Goodnight! 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.] ”

“ You haven't any idea how many expenses we skylarks and squirrels have, Torvald.
Helmer. You are an odd little soul. Very like your father. You always find some new way of wheedling money out of me, and, as soon as you have got it, it seems to melt in your hands. You never know where it has gone. Still, one must take you as you are. It is in the blood; for indeed it is true that you can inherit these things, Nora.
Nora. Ah, I wish I had inherited many of papa's qualities.
Helmer. And I would not wish you to be anything but just what you are, my sweet little skylark. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nora. No, indeed you mustn’t. Of course you must come and go as you’ve always done. You know very well that Torvald can’t do without you.
Rank. Yes, but you?
Nora. Oh, you know I always like to have you here.
Rank. That is just what led me astray. You are a riddle to me. It has often seemed to me as if you liked being with me almost as much as being with Helmer.
Nora. Yes; don’t you see? There are people one loves, and others one likes to talk to. ”

“ Do you know, Nora, I have often wished that you [pg 98] might be threatened by some great danger, so that I might risk my life's blood, and everything, for your sake.
Nora (disengages herself, and says firmly and decidedly) . Now you must read your letters, Torvald.
Helmer. No, no; not tonight. I want to be with you, my darling wife.
Nora. With the thought of your friend's death—
Helmer. You are right, it has affected us both. Something ugly has come between us—the thought of the horrors of death. We must try and rid our minds of that. Until then—we will each go to our own room. ”

“ Ibsen is never happier, and never is his scalpel more skilful, than when he is laying bare the hollowness of shams like these. Never is his touch more delicate or more caressing than when he is delineating a character like Bernick's sister Martha, with her tender devotion and her self-effacing simplicity. Not even Helmer's wife, Nora, is more truthfully conceived. Nora is veraciously feminine in never fathoming Dr. Rank's love for her, or at least in her refusal to formulate it, content to take his friendship and ask herself no questions. ”

“ Nora. You can't frighten me.
Krogstad. Nor you me. People don't do such things, Mrs. Helmer. Besides, what use would it be? I should have him completely in my power all the same.
Nora. Afterwards? When I am no longer—
Krogstad. Have you forgot that it is I who have the keeping of your reputation? (Nora stands speechlessly looking at him.) Well, now, I have warned you. Do not do anything foolish. When Helmer has had my letter, I shall expect a message from him. And be sure you remember that it is your husband himself who has forced me into such ways as this again. ”

“ Helmer. But some day, Nora—some day?
Nora. How can I tell? I have no idea what is going to become of me.
Helmer. But you are my wife, whatever becomes of you.
Nora. Listen, Torvald. I have heard that when a wife deserts her husband's house, as I am doing now, he is legally freed from all obligations towards her. In any case I set you free from all your obligations. You are not to feel yourself bound in the slightest way, any [pg 115] more than I shall. There must be perfect freedom on both sides. ”

“ Nora. Yes, you have been awfully kind about that; but you could just as well dismiss some other clerk instead of Krogstad.
Helmer. This is simply incredible obstinacy! Because you chose to give him a thoughtless promise that you would speak for him, I am expected to—
Nora. That isn't the reason, Torvald. It is for your own sake. This fellow writes in the most scurrilous newspapers; you have told me so yourself. He can do you an unspeakable amount of harm. I am frightened to death of him—
Helmer. Ah, I understand; it is recollections of the past that scare you. ”

“ 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 149you 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. ”

“ It is delightful to be at home by ourselves again, to be all alone with you—you fascinating, charming little darling!
Nora. Don't look at me like that, Torvald.
[pg 92]
Helmer. Why shouldn't I look at my dearest treasure?—at all the beauty that is mine, all my very own?
Nora (going to the other side of the table) . You mustn't say things like that to me tonight.
Helmer (following her) . You have still got the Tarantella in your blood, I see. And it makes you more captivating than ever. Listen—the guests are beginning to go now. (In a lower voice.) ”

“ Helmer. Well, out with it!
Nora (speaking quickly) . You might give me money, Torvald. Only just as much as you can afford; and then one of these days I will buy something with it.
Helmer. But, Nora—
Nora. Oh, do! dear Torvald; please, please do! Then I will wrap it up in beautiful gilt paper and hang it on the Christmas Tree. Wouldn't that be fun?
Helmer. What are little people called that are always wasting money?
Nora. Spendthrifts—I know. Let us do as you suggest, Torvald, and then I shall have time to think what I am most in want of. That is a very sensible plan, isn't it? ”

“ You and father have done me a great wrong."
In vain Helmer uses the old philistine arguments of wifely duty and social obligations. Nora has grown out of her doll's dress into full stature of conscious womanhood. She is determined to think and judge for herself. She has realized that, before all else, she is a human being, owing the first duty to herself. She is undaunted even by the possibility of social ostracism. She has become sceptical of the justice of the law, the wisdom of the constituted. Her rebelling soul rises in protest against the existing. ”

“ There is Nora, for instance, who has become the platform woman. I do not think that anyone has ever explained in what Nora’s sacrifice for her husband consisted. It rests upon Heyse’s fundamental principle—the incommensurable, i.e., that which cannot be measured by the common standard. In the essay upon Heyse I have enlarged upon this. In Nora’s eyes love is the great miracle, the gift that one receives without having done anything to deserve it. In her eyes there is nothing above or below that can be compared to love. That is how she loves her Helmer. ”

“ Nora. Nobody has such perfect taste as you; and I should so love to look well at the fancy ball. Torvald, dear, couldn’t you take me in hand, and settle what I’m to be, and arrange my costume for me?
Helmer. Aha! So my wilful little woman is at a loss, and making signals of distress.
Nora. Yes, please, Torvald. I can’t get on without your help.
Helmer. Well, well, I’ll think it over, and we’ll soon hit upon something.
Nora. Oh, how good that is of you! [Goes to the tree again; pause.] How well the red flowers show.—Tell me, was it anything so very dreadful this Krogstad got into trouble about? ”

“ In "A Doll's House" Ibsen returns to the subject so vital to him,—the Social Lie and Duty,—this time as manifesting themselves in the sacred institution of the home and in the position of woman in her gilded cage.
Nora is the beloved, adored wife of Torvald Helmer. He is an admirable man, rigidly honest, of high moral ideals, and passionately devoted to his wife and children. In short, a good man and an enviable husband. Almost every mother would be proud of such a match for her daughter, and the latter would consider herself fortunate to become the wife of such a man. ”

“ And what's to become of me and the eggs meanwhile?
Nora. That, TORVALD, is entirely your own affair. I have a higher duty than that towards you and the eggs. (Looking solemnly upward.) I mean my duty towards Myself!
Helmer. And all this because—in a momentary annoyance at finding myself in the power of a discharged Cashier who calls me "I say TORVALD," I expressed myself with ultra-Gilbertian frankness! You talk like a silly child!
Nora. Because my eyes are opened, and I see my position with the eyes of IBSEN. I must go away at once, and begin to educate myself. ”

“ Helmer. [Stops.] No, no, Nora—that will never do.
Nora. [Laughs and swings her tambourine.] Didn’t I tell you so!
Rank. Let me play for her.
Helmer. [Rising.] Yes, do—then I can direct her better.
[Rank sits down to the piano and plays; Nora dances more and more wildly. Helmer stands by the stove and addresses frequent corrections to her; she seems not to hear. Her hair breaks loose, and falls over her shoulders. She does not notice it, but goes on dancing. Mrs. Linden enters and stands spellbound in the doorway.
Mrs. Linden. Ah——!
Nora. [Dancing.] We’re having such fun here, Christina! ”

“ Nora. You never can tell what mischief these men may contrive. We ought to be so well off, so snug and happy here in our peaceful home, [pg 58] and have no cares—you and I and the children, Torvald! That is why I beg you so earnestly—
Helmer. And it is just by interceding for him that you make it impossible for me to keep him. It is already known at the Bank that I mean to dismiss Krogstad. Is it to get about now that the new manager has changed his mind at his wife's bidding—
Nora. ”

“ I can receive nothing from a stranger. HelmerNora—can I never be anything more than a stranger to you? Nora [taking her bag] Ah, Torvald, the most wonderful thing of all would have to happen. HelmerTell me what that would be! NoraBoth you and I would have to be so changed that—. Oh, Torvald, I don't believe any longer in wonderful things happening. HelmerBut I will believe in it. Tell me! So changed that—? NoraThat our life together would be a real wedlock. Goodbye. [She goes out through the hall.] Helmer [sinks down on a chair at the door and buries his face in his hands] Nora! Nora! ”