Latest / Rediscover the Classics - Fiction You’ll Love / A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: A Doll's House a play by Henrik Ibsen. Act one
- 0:07Speaker 1: scene a room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly.
- 0:12Speaker 1: At the back, a door to the right leads to
- 0:14Speaker 1: the entrance hall. Another to the left leads to Helmer's study.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Between the doors stands a piano. In the middle of
- 0:22Speaker 1: the left hand wall is a door, and beyond it
- 0:25Speaker 1: a window. Near the window are a round table, arm chairs,
- 0:30Speaker 1: and a small sofa. In the right hand wall. At
- 0:33Speaker 1: the farther end another door, and on the same side
- 0:37Speaker 1: nearer the footlights, a stove, two easy chairs, and a
- 0:40Speaker 1: rocking chair. Between the stove and the door, a small table,
- 0:46Speaker 1: engravings on the walls, a cabinet with china and other
- 0:50Speaker 1: small objects, a small bookcase with well bound books. The
- 0:54Speaker 1: floors are carpeted, and a fire burns in the stove.
- 0:59Speaker 1: It is winter. A bell rings in the hall. Shortly
- 1:02Speaker 1: afterwards the door is heard to open. Enter Nora, humming
- 1:06Speaker 1: a tune and in high spirits. She is an outdoor
- 1:09Speaker 1: dress and carries a number of parcels. These she lays
- 1:13Speaker 1: on the table to the right. She leaves the outer
- 1:16Speaker 1: door open after her, and through it is seen a
- 1:19Speaker 1: porter who is carrying a Christmas tree in a basket,
- 1:21Speaker 1: which he gives to the maid who has opened the door.
- 1:25Speaker 2: Hide the Christmas tree carefully, Helen, be sure the children
- 1:28Speaker 2: do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed.
- 1:31Speaker 1: To the porter taking out her purse.
- 1:33Speaker 3: How much sixpence?
- 1:36Speaker 2: There is a shilling. No, keep the change.
- 1:39Speaker 1: The porter thanks her and goes out. Norah shuts the door.
- 1:44Speaker 1: She is laughing to herself as she takes off her
- 1:46Speaker 1: hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from
- 1:49Speaker 1: her pocket and eats one or two, then goes cautiously
- 1:53Speaker 1: to her husband's door and listens. Yes, he is in
- 1:57Speaker 1: still humming. She goes to the table on the right
- 2:00Speaker 1: calls out from his room.
- 2:02Speaker 4: Is that my little lock twittering out there?
- 2:05Speaker 1: Busy opening some of the parcels?
- 2:07Speaker 2: Yes it is.
- 2:09Speaker 4: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
- 2:11Speaker 2: Yes?
- 2:12Speaker 4: When did my squirrel come home?
- 2:14Speaker 5: Just now?
- 2:15Speaker 1: Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes
- 2:18Speaker 1: her mouth.
- 2:19Speaker 2: Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
- 2:22Speaker 4: Don't disturb me a little.
- 2:24Speaker 1: Later, he opens the door and looks into the room.
- 2:27Speaker 1: Pen in hand.
- 2:28Speaker 4: Boy, did you say all these things. Has my little
- 2:32Speaker 4: spendthrift been wasting money again?
- 2:34Speaker 5: Yes?
- 2:35Speaker 2: But Torvald, this year we really can let ourselves go
- 2:38Speaker 2: a little. This is the first Christmas that we have
- 2:40Speaker 2: not needed to economize.
- 2:42Speaker 4: Still, you know we can't spend money recklessly.
- 2:45Speaker 2: Yes, Torvald, we may be a wee bit more reckless now,
- 2:49Speaker 2: mayn't we just a tiny wee bit. You are going
- 2:53Speaker 2: to have a big salary and earn lots and lots
- 2:55Speaker 2: of money, yes, after.
- 2:57Speaker 4: The new year. But then he will be a whole
- 2:59Speaker 4: call before salary is due.
- 3:01Speaker 2: Pooh, we can borrow until then.
- 3:05Speaker 1: Norah goes up to her and takes her playfully by the.
- 3:08Speaker 4: Ear, the same little featherhead. Suppose now that I borrowed
- 3:13Speaker 4: fifty pounds to day, and you spent it all in
- 3:16Speaker 4: the Christmas week, and then on New Year's Eve a
- 3:19Speaker 4: slate fell on my head and.
- 3:20Speaker 1: Killed me and putting her hands over his mouth.
- 3:22Speaker 2: Oh, don't say such horrid things.
- 3:25Speaker 4: Still, suppose that happened.
- 3:27Speaker 2: What then if that were to happen? I don't suppose
- 3:30Speaker 2: I should care whether I owed money or not?
- 3:33Speaker 4: Yes, but what about the people who had lent it?
- 3:35Speaker 2: They who would bother about them. I should not know
- 3:39Speaker 2: who they were.
- 3:40Speaker 4: That is like a woman. But seriously, Nora, you know
- 3:44Speaker 4: what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing. There
- 3:48Speaker 4: can be no freedom or beauty about a home life
- 3:50Speaker 4: that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept
- 3:54Speaker 4: bravely on the straight road so far, and we will
- 3:57Speaker 4: go on the same way for the short time, longer
- 4:00Speaker 4: that there needs to be any struggle.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Moving towards the stove.
- 4:05Speaker 2: As you please, Torvald, following.
- 4:07Speaker 4: Her, Come, come, my little skylark must not droop her wings.
- 4:12Speaker 4: What is this? Is? My little squirrel out of.
- 4:14Speaker 1: Temper taking out his purse.
- 4:17Speaker 4: Nora, what do you think I've got here?
- 4:20Speaker 1: Turning round quickly?
- 4:22Speaker 5: Money there you are?
- 4:24Speaker 1: Gives her some money?
- 4:26Speaker 4: Do you think I don't know what a lot is
- 4:28Speaker 4: wanted for house? Give me a Christmas.
- 4:29Speaker 2: Time counting ten shillings a pound, two pounds. Thank you,
- 4:36Speaker 2: thank you, Torvald. That will keep me going for a
- 4:39Speaker 2: long time. Indeed it must, yes, yes it will. But
- 4:44Speaker 2: come here and let me show you what I have bought,
- 4:46Speaker 2: and all so cheap. Look, here's a new suit for Ivar,
- 4:50Speaker 2: and a sword and a horse and a trumpet for Bob,
- 4:53Speaker 2: and a doll in Dolly's bedstead for Emmy. They are
- 4:57Speaker 2: very plain, but anyway she will soon break them in pieces.
- 5:00Speaker 2: Had here dressed lengths and handkerchiefs for the maids. Old
- 5:04Speaker 2: Anne ought really to have something.
- 5:05Speaker 6: Better, and this parcel crying out.
- 5:09Speaker 2: No, no, you mustn't see that until this evening.
- 5:13Speaker 4: Very well, but tell me, you extravagant little person, what
- 5:17Speaker 4: would you like for yourself?
- 5:19Speaker 2: For myself? Oh, I'm sure I don't want anything.
- 5:22Speaker 4: But you must tell me something reasonable that you would
- 5:26Speaker 4: particularly like to have.
- 5:27Speaker 2: No, I really can't think of anything unless Torvald well.
- 5:33Speaker 1: Playing with his coat buttons and without raising her eyes
- 5:37Speaker 1: to his.
- 5:37Speaker 2: If you really want to give me something, you might you.
- 5:42Speaker 1: Might well out with it, speaking quickly.
- 5:46Speaker 2: You might give me money, Torvald, only just as much
- 5:48Speaker 2: as you can afford, and then one of these days
- 5:51Speaker 2: I will buy something with it.
- 5:52Speaker 4: But norah, oh do.
- 5:54Speaker 2: Dear Torvald, please please do? Then I will wrap it
- 5:58Speaker 2: up in beautiful guilt pain and hang it on the
- 6:01Speaker 2: Christmas tree. Wouldn't that be fun?
- 6:04Speaker 4: What a little people called that are always wasting money
- 6:07Speaker 4: spend thrifts?
- 6:08Speaker 5: I know?
- 6:10Speaker 2: Let us do as you suggest, Torvald, and then I
- 6:13Speaker 2: shall have time to think what I am most in
- 6:14Speaker 2: want of. That is a very sensible plan, isn't it, Smiling.
- 6:19Speaker 4: Indeed it is. That is to say, if you really
- 6:23Speaker 4: were to save out of the money I give you
- 6:25Speaker 4: and then buy something for yourself, But if you spend
- 6:28Speaker 4: it all on housekeeping and any number of unnecessary things,
- 6:31Speaker 4: then I nearly have to pay up again. Oh but Torvald,
- 6:35Speaker 4: you can't deny it.
- 6:36Speaker 1: My little Nora puts his arm around her waist.
- 6:40Speaker 4: It's a sweet of spendthrift, but she uses up a
- 6:43Speaker 4: deal of money. One could hardly believe how expensive such
- 6:46Speaker 4: little persons are.
- 6:48Speaker 2: It's a shame to say that I do really save
- 6:51Speaker 2: all I can, laughing.
- 6:54Speaker 4: Very true, all you can, But you can't save anything.
- 6:58Speaker 2: Smiling quietly and happily, you haven't any idea how many
- 7:02Speaker 2: expenses we skylarks and squirrels have.
- 7:05Speaker 4: Torvald, you are an odd little soul, very like your father.
- 7:10Speaker 4: You always find some new way of wheedling money out
- 7:12Speaker 4: of me, And as soon as you've got it, it
- 7:15Speaker 4: seems to melt in your hands. You never know where
- 7:18Speaker 4: it's gone. Still, one must take you as you are.
- 7:22Speaker 4: It is in the blood for indeed, it is true
- 7:24Speaker 4: that you can inherit these things.
- 7:26Speaker 2: Norah huh, I wish I had inherited many of Papa's qualities.
- 7:31Speaker 4: And I would not wish you to be anything but
- 7:33Speaker 4: just what you are, my little skylark. But do you
- 7:36Speaker 4: know it strikes me that you are looking rather what
- 7:39Speaker 4: shall I say, rather uneasy today?
- 7:42Speaker 7: Do I?
- 7:44Speaker 4: You do really look straight at me?
- 7:47Speaker 1: Looks at him well, wagging his finger at her.
- 7:52Speaker 4: Hasn't miss Sweetooth been breaking rules in town today?
- 7:55Speaker 7: No?
- 7:56Speaker 2: What makes you think that?
- 7:58Speaker 4: Hasn't she paid a visit to the confectioners?
- 8:01Speaker 2: No, I assure you, Torvald.
- 8:04Speaker 4: Not being nibbling sweets.
- 8:06Speaker 2: No, certainly, not not even taking a bite at a
- 8:10Speaker 2: macaroon or two. No, Torvald, I assure you really they're there.
- 8:15Speaker 4: Of course, I was only.
- 8:16Speaker 1: Joking going to the table on the right.
- 8:19Speaker 2: I should not think of going against your wishes.
- 8:22Speaker 4: No, I am sure of that. Besides, you gave me
- 8:25Speaker 4: your word going up to her. Keep your little Christmas
- 8:28Speaker 4: secrets to yourself, my darling. They will all be revealed
- 8:31Speaker 4: tonight when the Christmas tree is lit. No doubt.
- 8:35Speaker 2: Did you remember to invite doctor Rank?
- 8:38Speaker 4: No, but there is no need. As a matter of course,
- 8:42Speaker 4: he will come to dinner with us. However, I will
- 8:45Speaker 4: ask him when he comes in the morning. I have
- 8:47Speaker 4: ordered some good wine. Nora. You can't think how I
- 8:51Speaker 4: am looking forward to this evening, so.
- 8:53Speaker 2: Am I, and how the children will enjoy themselves.
- 8:56Speaker 4: Torvald, it is splendid to feel that one has perfectly
- 8:59Speaker 4: safe and appointment and a big enough incomes. Delightful to
- 9:03Speaker 4: think of it, isn't it.
- 9:05Speaker 2: It's wonderful.
- 9:06Speaker 4: Do you remember last Christmas? For a full three weeks beforehand,
- 9:10Speaker 4: you shut yourself up every evening long after midnight, making
- 9:14Speaker 4: ornaments for the Christmas tree and all the other fine
- 9:17Speaker 4: things that were to be a surprise to us. It
- 9:19Speaker 4: was the dullest three weeks I ever spent.
- 9:22Speaker 2: I didn't find it dull, smiling, but.
- 9:26Speaker 4: There was precious little result.
- 9:27Speaker 2: Nora, Oh, you shouldn't tease me about that again. How
- 9:31Speaker 2: can I help the cats going in and tearing everything
- 9:34Speaker 2: to pieces?
- 9:36Speaker 4: Of course you couldn't, poor little girl. You had the
- 9:38Speaker 4: best intentions to please us, Aul, and that's the main thing.
- 9:42Speaker 4: But it's a good thing that our hard times are over.
- 9:44Speaker 2: Yes, it is really wonderful.
- 9:47Speaker 4: This time I needn't sit here and be dull all alone,
- 9:50Speaker 4: and you needn't ruin your dear eyes and pretty little hands.
- 9:54Speaker 1: Clapping her hands.
- 9:56Speaker 2: No, Torvald, I needn't any longer need I. It's wonderful,
- 10:00Speaker 2: lovely to hear you say so.
- 10:02Speaker 1: Taking his arm.
- 10:03Speaker 2: Now, I will tell you how I have been thinking.
- 10:06Speaker 2: We ought to arrange things, Torvald. As soon as Christmas.
- 10:09Speaker 1: Is over, a bell rings in the hall.
- 10:11Speaker 2: There's the bell.
- 10:13Speaker 1: She tidies the room a little.
- 10:15Speaker 2: There's someone at the door.
- 10:16Speaker 4: What a nuisense if you're to caller, Remember I'm not
- 10:19Speaker 4: at home.
- 10:21Speaker 6: In the doorway a lady to see you, ma'am, a stranger.
- 10:24Speaker 2: Ask her to come in to Helmer.
- 10:27Speaker 6: The doctor came at the same time, sir.
- 10:29Speaker 4: Did he go straight into my room?
- 10:31Speaker 6: Yes, sir.
- 10:32Speaker 1: Helmer goes into his room. The maid ushers in missus Lynde,
- 10:36Speaker 1: who is in traveling dress, and shuts the door in
- 10:39Speaker 1: a dejected and timid voice. How do you do, Nora, doubtfully.
- 10:45Speaker 2: How do you do?
- 10:47Speaker 5: You don't recognize me? I suppose no, I don't know.
- 10:52Speaker 2: Yes, to be sure, I seem to suddenly, Yes, Christine,
- 10:59Speaker 2: is it really you?
- 11:01Speaker 5: Yes, it is I oh.
- 11:03Speaker 2: Christine, to think of my not recognizing you. And yet
- 11:08Speaker 2: how could I, in a gentle voice, how you have altered? Christine?
- 11:14Speaker 5: Yes, I have indeed in nine ten long years we sit.
- 11:17Speaker 2: So long since we met. I suppose it is the
- 11:22Speaker 2: last eight years have been a happy time for me,
- 11:24Speaker 2: I can tell you. And so now you have come
- 11:26Speaker 2: into the town and have taken this long journey in winter.
- 11:30Speaker 2: That was plucky of you.
- 11:31Speaker 5: I arrived by steamer this morning to.
- 11:34Speaker 2: Have some fun at Christmas time. Of course, how delightful
- 11:38Speaker 2: we will have such fun together. But take off your things.
- 11:42Speaker 2: You are not cold, I hope helps her. Now we
- 11:45Speaker 2: will sit down by the stove and be cozy. No,
- 11:48Speaker 2: take the armchair. I will sit here in the rocking chair.
- 11:51Speaker 1: Takes her hands.
- 11:52Speaker 2: Now you look like your old self again. It was
- 11:55Speaker 2: only the first moment. You are a little paler, Christine,
- 11:59Speaker 2: and perhaps a little thinner.
- 12:02Speaker 5: And much much older, Nora.
- 12:04Speaker 2: Perhaps a little older, very very little, certainly not much.
- 12:09Speaker 1: Stop suddenly and speak seriously.
- 12:11Speaker 2: What a thoughtless creature I am chattering away like this,
- 12:16Speaker 2: My poor dear Christine. Do forgive me?
- 12:19Speaker 5: What do you mean? Norah?
- 12:21Speaker 2: Gently, poor Christine, you are a widow yes, it is
- 12:26Speaker 2: three years ago. Now, Yes, I knew. I saw it
- 12:30Speaker 2: in the papers, I assure you, Christine. I meant ever
- 12:34Speaker 2: so often to write to you at the time, but
- 12:36Speaker 2: I always put it off, and something always prevented me.
- 12:41Speaker 5: I quite understand, dear.
- 12:43Speaker 2: It was very bad of me, Christine, poor thing, how
- 12:47Speaker 2: you must have suffered, and he left you nothing, no
- 12:52Speaker 2: and no children, No, nothing at all then.
- 12:57Speaker 5: Not even any sorrow or grief to live upon.
- 13:00Speaker 1: Looking incredulously at her, But Christine, is that possible? Smiles
- 13:06Speaker 1: sadly and strokes her hair.
- 13:07Speaker 5: It sometimes happens, Nora.
- 13:09Speaker 2: So you are quite alone, How dreadfully sad that must be.
- 13:15Speaker 2: I have three lovely children. You can't see them just now,
- 13:18Speaker 2: for they are out with their nurse. But now you
- 13:21Speaker 2: must tell me all about it.
- 13:23Speaker 5: No, no, I want to hear about you.
- 13:25Speaker 2: No, you must begin. I mustn't be selfish to day
- 13:29Speaker 2: to day. I must only think of your affairs. But
- 13:32Speaker 2: there is one thing I must tell you. Do you
- 13:34Speaker 2: know we have just had a great piece of good luck?
- 13:37Speaker 5: No, what is it?
- 13:39Speaker 2: Just fancy? My husband has been made manager of the bank.
- 13:44Speaker 5: Your husband? What good luck?
- 13:47Speaker 2: Yes, tremendous a barrister's profession is such an uncertain thing,
- 13:52Speaker 2: especially if he won't undertake unsavory cases. And naturally Torvald
- 13:56Speaker 2: has never been willing to do that, and I quite
- 13:57Speaker 2: agree with him. You may imagine how how pleased we
- 14:00Speaker 2: are he is to take up his work in the
- 14:02Speaker 2: bank at the new year, and then he will have
- 14:04Speaker 2: a big salary and lots of commissions for the future.
- 14:08Speaker 2: We can live quite differently, We can do just as
- 14:10Speaker 2: we like. I feel so relieved and so happy, Christine.
- 14:15Speaker 2: It will be splendid to have heaps of money and
- 14:17Speaker 2: not need to have any anxiety, won't it?
- 14:20Speaker 5: Yes, anyhow, I think it would be delightful to have
- 14:22Speaker 5: what one needs.
- 14:24Speaker 2: No, not only what one needs, but heaps and heaps
- 14:27Speaker 2: of money.
- 14:28Speaker 5: Smiling Nora, Nora, haven't you learned since yet? In our
- 14:34Speaker 5: school days you were all was a great spendthrift.
- 14:37Speaker 2: Laughing, Yes, that is what Torvald says.
- 14:40Speaker 1: Now, waggs her finger at her.
- 14:43Speaker 2: But Nora, Nora is not so silly as you think.
- 14:47Speaker 2: We have not been in a position for me to
- 14:49Speaker 2: waste money. We have both had to work, you too, yes,
- 14:54Speaker 2: odds and ends, needlework, crochet work, embroidery in.
- 14:57Speaker 1: That kind of thing, dropping her voice and.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Other things as well. You know, Torvald left his office
- 15:04Speaker 2: when we were married. There was no prospect of promotion
- 15:07Speaker 2: there and he had to try and earn more than before.
- 15:11Speaker 2: But during the first year he overworked himself dreadfully.
- 15:15Speaker 5: You see.
- 15:15Speaker 2: He had to make money every way he could, and
- 15:17Speaker 2: he worked early and late. But he couldn't stand it
- 15:20Speaker 2: and fell dreadfully ill. And the doctor said it was
- 15:23Speaker 2: necessary for him to go south.
- 15:25Speaker 5: You spent a whole year in Italy, didn't you.
- 15:28Speaker 2: Yes, it was no easy matter to get away. I
- 15:31Speaker 2: can tell you. It was just after Ivar was born,
- 15:34Speaker 2: but naturally we had to go. It was a wonderfully
- 15:37Speaker 2: beautiful journey and it saved Torvald's life. But it cost
- 15:42Speaker 2: a tremendous lot of money, Christine, So I should think
- 15:46Speaker 2: it cost about two hundred and fifty pounds. That's a lot,
- 15:50Speaker 2: isn't it.
- 15:51Speaker 7: Yes?
- 15:52Speaker 5: And in emergencies like that it is lucky to have
- 15:54Speaker 5: the money.
- 15:55Speaker 2: I ought to tell you that we had it from Papa.
- 15:58Speaker 5: Oh. I see it was just about that time that
- 16:01Speaker 5: he died, wasn't it.
- 16:03Speaker 2: Yes, And just think of it. I couldn't go and
- 16:06Speaker 2: nurse him. I was expecting little Ivar's birth every day,
- 16:10Speaker 2: and I had my poor sick Torvald to look after,
- 16:14Speaker 2: my dear kind father. I never saw him again, Christine,
- 16:19Speaker 2: that was the saddest time I have known since our marriage.
- 16:23Speaker 5: I know how fond you were of him. And then
- 16:25Speaker 5: you went off to Italy.
- 16:26Speaker 2: Yes, you see, we had money then, and the doctors
- 16:30Speaker 2: insisted on our going. So we started a month later.
- 16:33Speaker 5: And your husband came back quite well, as sound as
- 16:36Speaker 5: a bell. But the doctor, what doctor, I thought, your
- 16:41Speaker 5: maid said, The gentleman who arrived here just as I
- 16:43Speaker 5: did was the doctor.
- 16:45Speaker 2: Oh yes, that was doctor Rank. But he doesn't come
- 16:47Speaker 2: here professionally. He is our greatest friend and comes in
- 16:51Speaker 2: at least once every day. No, Torvald has not had
- 16:54Speaker 2: an hour's illness since then, and our children are strong
- 16:57Speaker 2: and healthy, and so am.
- 16:59Speaker 1: I jumps up and claps her hands.
- 17:02Speaker 2: Oh Christine, Christine, it's good to be alive and happy. Oh,
- 17:07Speaker 2: but how horrid of me. I'm talking of nothing but
- 17:10Speaker 2: my own affairs.
- 17:12Speaker 1: Sits on a stool near her and wrests her arms
- 17:14Speaker 1: on her knees.
- 17:15Speaker 2: You mustn't be angry.
- 17:16Speaker 5: With me.
- 17:17Speaker 2: Tell me, is it really true that you did not
- 17:20Speaker 2: love your husband? Why did you marry him?
- 17:24Speaker 5: My mother was alive then and was bedridden and helpless,
- 17:26Speaker 5: and I had to provide for my two younger brothers.
- 17:29Speaker 5: So I did not think I was justified in refusing
- 17:32Speaker 5: his offer.
- 17:33Speaker 2: No, perhaps you were quite right. He was rich at
- 17:37Speaker 2: that time.
- 17:37Speaker 7: Then.
- 17:38Speaker 5: I believe he was quite well off, but his business
- 17:41Speaker 5: was a precarious one, and when he died it all
- 17:43Speaker 5: went to pieces and there was nothing left. And then well,
- 17:47Speaker 5: I had to turn my hand to anything I could find.
- 17:49Speaker 5: First a small shop, then a small school, and so on,
- 17:53Speaker 5: the last three years have seemed like one long working
- 17:56Speaker 5: day with no rest. Now it is at Nora. My
- 18:01Speaker 5: poor mother needs me no more, for she is gone,
- 18:05Speaker 5: and the boys do not need me either. They have
- 18:07Speaker 5: got situations and can shift for themselves.
- 18:09Speaker 2: What a relief you must feel if no?
- 18:12Speaker 5: Indeed, I only feel my life unspeakably empty, no one
- 18:17Speaker 5: to live for any.
- 18:18Speaker 1: More, gets up restlessly.
- 18:20Speaker 5: That is why I could not stand the life in
- 18:22Speaker 5: my little backwater any longer. I hope it may be
- 18:25Speaker 5: easier here to find something which will busy me and
- 18:28Speaker 5: occupy my thoughts. If only I could have the good
- 18:31Speaker 5: luck to get some regular work, office work of some kind.
- 18:35Speaker 2: But Christine, that is so frightfully tiring, and you look
- 18:39Speaker 2: tired out now. You had far better go away to
- 18:41Speaker 2: some watering place.
- 18:43Speaker 5: Walking to the window, I have no father to give
- 18:46Speaker 5: me money for a journey, Nora.
- 18:48Speaker 2: Rising, Oh, don't be angry with me.
- 18:52Speaker 1: Going up to her.
- 18:53Speaker 5: It is you that must not be angry with me, dear.
- 18:56Speaker 5: The worst of a position like mine is that it
- 18:58Speaker 5: makes one so bitter no one to work for, and
- 19:01Speaker 5: yet obliged to be always on the lookout for chances
- 19:05Speaker 5: one must live, and so one becomes selfish. When you
- 19:08Speaker 5: told me of the happy turn your fortunes have taken,
- 19:11Speaker 5: you will hardly believe it. I was delighted, not so
- 19:15Speaker 5: much on your account as on my own.
- 19:17Speaker 2: How do you mean, Oh, I understand. You mean that
- 19:22Speaker 2: perhaps Torbald could get you something to do.
- 19:25Speaker 5: Yes, that was what I was thinking of.
- 19:27Speaker 2: He must, Christine, just leave it to me. I will
- 19:30Speaker 2: broach the subject very cleverly. I will think of something
- 19:33Speaker 2: that will please him very much. It will make me
- 19:36Speaker 2: so happy to be of some use to you.
- 19:38Speaker 5: How kind you are, Nora, to be so anxious to
- 19:40Speaker 5: help me. It is doubly kind in you, for you
- 19:43Speaker 5: know so little of the burdens and troubles of life.
- 19:47Speaker 2: I I know so little of them.
- 19:51Speaker 5: Smiling, my dear, small household cares and that sort of thing.
- 19:56Speaker 1: You are a child, Nora tosses her head and crosses
- 20:00Speaker 1: the stage.
- 20:01Speaker 2: You ought not to be so superior. No, you are
- 20:04Speaker 2: just like the others. They all think that I am
- 20:07Speaker 2: incapable of anything really serious. Come come, that I have
- 20:11Speaker 2: gone through nothing in this world of cares.
- 20:13Speaker 5: But my dear Nora, you have just told me all
- 20:16Speaker 5: your troubles.
- 20:17Speaker 2: Pooh, those were trifles, lowering her voice, I have not
- 20:21Speaker 2: told you the important thing, the important thing.
- 20:24Speaker 5: What do you mean?
- 20:26Speaker 2: You look down upon me altogether? Christine? But you ought
- 20:29Speaker 2: not to. You are proud, aren't you, of having worked
- 20:32Speaker 2: so hard and so long for your mother.
- 20:35Speaker 5: Indeed, I don't look down on any one. But it
- 20:38Speaker 5: is true that I am both proud and glad to
- 20:40Speaker 5: think that I was privileged to make the end of
- 20:42Speaker 5: my mother's life almost free from care.
- 20:44Speaker 2: And you are proud to think of what you have
- 20:46Speaker 2: done for your brothers.
- 20:47Speaker 5: I think I have the right to be I.
- 20:49Speaker 2: Think so too. But now listen to this, I too
- 20:53Speaker 2: have something to be proud and glad of.
- 20:56Speaker 5: I have no doubt you have. But what do you
- 20:58Speaker 5: refer to?
- 21:00Speaker 2: Speak low? Suppose Torbald were to hear. He mustn't on
- 21:03Speaker 2: any account. No one in the world must know, Christine
- 21:06Speaker 2: except you.
- 21:07Speaker 5: But what is it?
- 21:09Speaker 1: Come here, pulls her down on the sofa beside her.
- 21:13Speaker 2: Now, I will show you that I too have something
- 21:15Speaker 2: to be proud and glad of. It was I who
- 21:19Speaker 2: saved Torbald's life, saved how I told you about our
- 21:24Speaker 2: trip to Italy. Torbald would never have recovered if he
- 21:27Speaker 2: had not gone there.
- 21:28Speaker 5: Yes, but your father gave you the necessary.
- 21:30Speaker 2: Funds smiling, Yes, that is what Torvald and the others think.
- 21:35Speaker 2: But but Papa didn't give us a shilling. It was
- 21:39Speaker 2: I who procured the money.
- 21:41Speaker 5: You all that large sum.
- 21:44Speaker 2: Two hundred and fifty pounds? What do you think of that?
- 21:48Speaker 5: But Nora, how could you possibly do it? Did you
- 21:51Speaker 5: wint a prize in the lottery?
- 21:53Speaker 1: Contemptuously in the lottery?
- 21:56Speaker 2: There would have been no credit in that.
- 21:58Speaker 5: But where did you get it from? Then?
- 22:00Speaker 1: Humming and smiling with an air of mystery?
- 22:03Speaker 5: H maha, Because you couldn't have borrowed it, couldn't I
- 22:10Speaker 5: why not? No, a wife cannot borrow without her husband's consent.
- 22:15Speaker 1: Tossing her head.
- 22:16Speaker 2: Oh, if it is a wife who has any head
- 22:18Speaker 2: for business, a wife who has the wit to be
- 22:20Speaker 2: a little bit clever.
- 22:22Speaker 5: I don't understand at all, Nora.
- 22:24Speaker 2: There is no need you should. I never said I
- 22:27Speaker 2: had borrowed the money. I may have got it some
- 22:29Speaker 2: other way.
- 22:31Speaker 1: Lies back on the sofa.
- 22:34Speaker 2: Perhaps I got it from some other admirer. When any
- 22:37Speaker 2: one is as attractive as I am.
- 22:39Speaker 5: You are a mad creature.
- 22:41Speaker 2: Now you know you're full of curiosity, Christine.
- 22:45Speaker 5: Listen to me, Nora, dear, haven't you been a little
- 22:48Speaker 5: bit imprudent?
- 22:50Speaker 1: Sits up straight?
- 22:52Speaker 2: Is it imprudent to save your husband's life?
- 22:55Speaker 5: It seems to me imprudent without his knowledge too.
- 22:57Speaker 2: But it was absolutely necessary that he should not know,
- 23:01Speaker 2: My goodness, can't you understand that it was necessary he
- 23:05Speaker 2: should have no idea what a dangerous condition he was in.
- 23:08Speaker 2: It was to me that the doctors came and said
- 23:11Speaker 2: that his life was in danger, and that the only
- 23:13Speaker 2: thing to save him was to live in the south.
- 23:16Speaker 2: Do you suppose I didn't try, first of all to
- 23:18Speaker 2: get what I wanted, as if it were for myself.
- 23:21Speaker 2: I told him how much I should love to travel
- 23:23Speaker 2: abroad like other young wives. I tried tears and entreaties
- 23:26Speaker 2: with him. I told him that he ought to remember
- 23:28Speaker 2: the condition I was in, and that he ought to
- 23:30Speaker 2: be kind and indulgent to me. I even hinted that
- 23:33Speaker 2: he might raise alone. That nearly made him angry Christine.
- 23:38Speaker 2: He said I was thoughtless, and that it was his
- 23:40Speaker 2: duty as my husband not to indulge me in my
- 23:42Speaker 2: whims and caprices, as I believe he called them very well.
- 23:46Speaker 2: I thought you must be saved, and that was how
- 23:50Speaker 2: I came to devise a way out of the difficulty.
- 23:53Speaker 5: And did your husband never get to know from your
- 23:55Speaker 5: father that the money had not come from him? No? Never.
- 24:00Speaker 2: Papa died just at that time. I had meant to
- 24:03Speaker 2: let him into the secret and beg him never to
- 24:05Speaker 2: reveal it. But he was so ill then alas there
- 24:09Speaker 2: was never any need to tell him.
- 24:11Speaker 5: And since then you have never told your secret to
- 24:13Speaker 5: your husband.
- 24:14Speaker 2: Good heavens, no, how could you think so a man
- 24:18Speaker 2: who has such strong opinions about these things? And besides
- 24:22Speaker 2: how painful and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with
- 24:25Speaker 2: his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything.
- 24:29Speaker 2: It would upset our mutual relations altogether, Our beautiful, happy
- 24:33Speaker 2: home would be no longer what it is now?
- 24:35Speaker 5: Do you mean never to tell him about it.
- 24:38Speaker 1: Meditatively and with a half smile?
- 24:41Speaker 2: Yes, some day, perhaps after many years, when I am
- 24:46Speaker 2: no longer as nice looking as I am now, don't
- 24:50Speaker 2: laugh at me. I mean, of course, when Torvald is
- 24:53Speaker 2: no longer as devoted to me as he is now,
- 24:56Speaker 2: when my dancing and dressing up and reciting have palled
- 24:59Speaker 2: on him, then it may be a good thing to
- 25:01Speaker 2: have something in reserve, breaking off what nonsense that time
- 25:07Speaker 2: will never come?
- 25:08Speaker 3: Now?
- 25:09Speaker 2: What do you think of my great secret, Christine? Do
- 25:11Speaker 2: you still think I am of no use? I can
- 25:14Speaker 2: tell you too that this affair has caused me a
- 25:16Speaker 2: lot of worry. It has been by no means easy
- 25:19Speaker 2: for me to meet my engagements punctually. I may tell
- 25:22Speaker 2: you that there is something that is called in business
- 25:25Speaker 2: quarterly interest, and another thing called payment in installments, and
- 25:30Speaker 2: it is always so dreadfully difficult to manage them. I
- 25:33Speaker 2: have had to save a little here and there where
- 25:35Speaker 2: I could you understand I have not been able to
- 25:38Speaker 2: put aside much from my housekeeping money, for Torvald must
- 25:41Speaker 2: have a good table. I couldn't let my children be
- 25:44Speaker 2: shabbily dressed. I have felt obliged to use up all
- 25:47Speaker 2: he gave me for them, the sweet little darlings.
- 25:50Speaker 5: So it has all had to come out of your
- 25:52Speaker 5: own necessaries of life, poor Nora.
- 25:54Speaker 2: Of course, besides, I was the one responsible for it.
- 25:59Speaker 2: Whenever Torvos has given me money for new dresses and
- 26:01Speaker 2: such things, I have never spent more than half of it.
- 26:04Speaker 2: I have always bought the simplest and cheapest things. Thank Heaven,
- 26:08Speaker 2: any clothes look well on me, and so Torvald has
- 26:11Speaker 2: never noticed it. But it was often very hard on me, Christine,
- 26:15Speaker 2: because it is delightful to be really well dressed, isn't
- 26:18Speaker 2: it quite so?
- 26:19Speaker 5: Well?
- 26:20Speaker 2: Then I have found other ways of earning money. Last
- 26:22Speaker 2: winter I was lucky enough to get a lot of
- 26:24Speaker 2: copying to do, so I locked myself up and sat
- 26:27Speaker 2: writing every evening until quite late at night. Many a
- 26:30Speaker 2: time I was desperately tired, but all the same it
- 26:33Speaker 2: was a tremendous pleasure to sit there working and earning money.
- 26:37Speaker 2: It was like being a man.
- 26:39Speaker 5: How much have you been able to pay off in
- 26:41Speaker 5: that way?
- 26:42Speaker 2: I can't tell you exactly. You see, it is very
- 26:45Speaker 2: difficult to keep an account of a business matter of
- 26:48Speaker 2: that kind. I only know that I have paid every
- 26:50Speaker 2: penny that I could scrape together. Many a time I
- 26:53Speaker 2: was at my wits end smiles. Then I used to
- 26:57Speaker 2: sit here and imagine that a rich old gentleman had
- 27:00Speaker 2: fallen in love with me.
- 27:01Speaker 5: What who was?
- 27:02Speaker 7: It?
- 27:03Speaker 2: Be quiet that he had died, and that when his
- 27:06Speaker 2: will was opened, it contained written in big letters, the
- 27:09Speaker 2: instruction the lovely missus Nora Helmer, is to have all
- 27:13Speaker 2: I possess paid over to her at once in cash.
- 27:17Speaker 5: Pass my dear Nora. Who could the man be?
- 27:20Speaker 7: Good?
- 27:20Speaker 2: Gracious? Can't you understand? There was no old gentleman at all.
- 27:24Speaker 2: It was only something that I used to sit here
- 27:26Speaker 2: and imagine when I couldn't think of any way of
- 27:28Speaker 2: procuring money. But it's all the same Now. The tiresome
- 27:32Speaker 2: old person can stay where he is as far as
- 27:34Speaker 2: I'm concerned. I don't care about him or his will either,
- 27:38Speaker 2: for I am free from care.
- 27:40Speaker 5: Now.
- 27:41Speaker 2: Jumps up my goodness. It's delightful to think of Christine
- 27:45Speaker 2: free from care, to be able to be free from care,
- 27:49Speaker 2: quite free from care, to be able to play and
- 27:52Speaker 2: romp with the children, to be able to keep the
- 27:54Speaker 2: house beautifully and have everything just as Torvald likes it.
- 27:58Speaker 2: And think of it. Soon the spring will come at
- 28:01Speaker 2: the big blue sky. Perhaps I shall be able to
- 28:04Speaker 2: take a little trip. Perhaps I shall see the sea again. Oh,
- 28:08Speaker 2: it's a wonderful thing to be alive and be happy.
- 28:11Speaker 1: A bell is heard in the hall rising.
- 28:14Speaker 5: There's the bell. Perhaps I had better go.
- 28:17Speaker 2: No, don't go, No one will come in here. It
- 28:19Speaker 2: is sure to be for Torvald at the hall door.
- 28:24Speaker 6: Excuse me, ma'am. There's a gentleman to see the master,
- 28:27Speaker 6: and as a doctor is with him.
- 28:28Speaker 1: Who is it at the door?
- 28:31Speaker 3: It is I, Miss Helmer.
- 28:33Speaker 1: Missus Lynne starts trembles and turns to the window, takes
- 28:37Speaker 1: a step toward him, and speaks in a strained, low voice.
- 28:40Speaker 5: You what is it?
- 28:42Speaker 2: What do you want to see my husband?
- 28:44Speaker 5: About?
- 28:44Speaker 3: Big business? In a way, I have a small post
- 28:48Speaker 3: in the bank, and I hear your husband is to
- 28:49Speaker 3: be our chief. Now then it is nothing but dry
- 28:53Speaker 3: business matters. Miss Helmer absolutely nothing else.
- 28:57Speaker 2: Be so good as to go into the study, then.
- 29:00Speaker 1: Indifferently to him and shuts the door into the hall,
- 29:02Speaker 1: then comes back and makes up the fire in the stove.
- 29:05Speaker 5: Norah, who was that man?
- 29:08Speaker 2: A lawyer of the name of Crogstad?
- 29:10Speaker 5: Then it really was he? Do you know the man
- 29:13Speaker 5: I used to many years ago? At one time he
- 29:18Speaker 5: was a solicitor's clerk in our town. Yes he was.
- 29:22Speaker 5: He is greatly altered.
- 29:23Speaker 2: He made a very unhappy marriage. He is a widower, now,
- 29:26Speaker 2: isn't he with several children.
- 29:30Speaker 1: Shuts the door of the stove and moves the rocking
- 29:32Speaker 1: chair aside.
- 29:34Speaker 2: There now it is burning up.
- 29:35Speaker 5: They say he carries on various kinds of business.
- 29:39Speaker 2: Really, perhaps he does. I don't know anything about it.
- 29:43Speaker 2: But don't let us think of business. It is so tiresome.
- 29:47Speaker 1: Comes out of Helmer's study. Before he shuts the door,
- 29:50Speaker 1: he calls to.
- 29:51Speaker 7: Him, No, my dear fellow, I won't disturb you. I'd
- 29:55Speaker 7: rather go into your wife for a little while.
- 29:58Speaker 1: Shuts the door and sees missus l I.
- 30:01Speaker 7: Beg your pardon. I'm a freid. I am disturbing you.
- 30:04Speaker 2: Too, No, not at all. Introducing him doctor Rank, Missus Lynde.
- 30:10Speaker 7: I have often heard Missus Lynde's name mentioned here. I
- 30:15Speaker 7: think I passed you on the stairs when I arrived,
- 30:18Speaker 7: Missus Lynde.
- 30:19Speaker 5: Yes, I go up very slowly. I can't manage stairs well.
- 30:23Speaker 7: Ah, some slight internal weakness.
- 30:27Speaker 5: Now the fact is I have been overworking myself.
- 30:30Speaker 7: Nothing more than that. Then I suppose you have come
- 30:34Speaker 7: to town to amuse yourself with our entertainments.
- 30:38Speaker 5: I have come to look for work.
- 30:40Speaker 7: Is that a good cure for overwork?
- 30:42Speaker 5: One must live, doctor Rank?
- 30:44Speaker 7: Yes, the general opinion seems to be that it is necessary.
- 30:49Speaker 2: Look here, doctor Rank. You know you want to.
- 30:52Speaker 7: Live, certainly, however wretched I may feel. I want to
- 30:56Speaker 7: prolong the agony as long as possible. All my patients
- 31:00Speaker 7: so like that, and so are those who are morally diseased.
- 31:04Speaker 7: One of them in a bad case too. Is At
- 31:06Speaker 7: this very moment was Helmer sadly?
- 31:09Speaker 2: Ah, whom do you mean?
- 31:11Speaker 7: A lawyer by the name of Cogstad, A fellow you
- 31:14Speaker 7: don't know at all. He suffers from a diseased moral character,
- 31:19Speaker 7: Missus Helmer. But even he began talking of its being
- 31:22Speaker 7: highly important that he should live.
- 31:24Speaker 2: Did he what did he want to speak to Torbald about.
- 31:27Speaker 7: I have no idea. I only heard that it was
- 31:31Speaker 7: something about the bank.
- 31:34Speaker 2: I didn't know this. What's his name, Krogstad had anything
- 31:37Speaker 2: to do with the bank?
- 31:39Speaker 7: Yes, he has some sort of appointment there to missus, Lynde.
- 31:44Speaker 7: I don't know whether you find also in your part
- 31:46Speaker 7: of the world that there are certain people who go
- 31:49Speaker 7: zealously snuffing about to smell out moral corruption, and as
- 31:54Speaker 7: soon as they have found some put the person concern
- 31:57Speaker 7: into some lucrative position where they can keep him healthy.
- 32:02Speaker 7: Natures are left out in the cold still.
- 32:04Speaker 5: I think the sick are those who most need taken.
- 32:07Speaker 1: Care of, shrugging his shoulders.
- 32:10Speaker 7: Yes, there you are. That is the sentiment that is
- 32:14Speaker 7: turning society into a seck house.
- 32:17Speaker 1: Nora, who has been absorbed in her thoughts, breaks out
- 32:20Speaker 1: into smothered laughter and claps her hands.
- 32:23Speaker 7: Why do you laugh at that? Have you any notion
- 32:26Speaker 7: what society really is?
- 32:28Speaker 2: What do I care about tiresome society? I am laughing
- 32:32Speaker 2: at something quite different, something extremely amusing. Tell me, doctor Rank,
- 32:38Speaker 2: are all the people who are employed in the bank
- 32:40Speaker 2: dependent upon Torvald?
- 32:41Speaker 5: Now?
- 32:42Speaker 7: Is that what you find so extremely amusing.
- 32:45Speaker 1: Smiling and humming. That's my affair walking about the room.
- 32:50Speaker 2: It's perfectly glorious to think that we have that Torvald
- 32:54Speaker 2: has so much power over so many people.
- 32:57Speaker 1: Takes the packet from her pocket.
- 32:59Speaker 2: Doctor Rank, What do you say to a macaroon?
- 33:02Speaker 7: Macaroons? I thought they were forbidden.
- 33:05Speaker 2: Here, Yes, but these are some Christine gave me what
- 33:09Speaker 2: I Oh, well, don't be alarmed. You couldn't know that
- 33:11Speaker 2: Torbald had forbidden them. I must tell you that he
- 33:14Speaker 2: is afraid they will spoil my teeth. But bah, once
- 33:18Speaker 2: in a way, that's so, isn't it, Doctor Rank, by your.
- 33:21Speaker 1: Leave, puts a macaroon into his mouth.
- 33:24Speaker 2: You must have one too, Christine, and I shall have one,
- 33:27Speaker 2: just a little one, or at most too.
- 33:30Speaker 1: Walking about, I.
- 33:31Speaker 2: Am tremendously happy. There is just one thing in the
- 33:35Speaker 2: world now that I should dearly love to do.
- 33:37Speaker 7: Well, what is that?
- 33:39Speaker 2: It's something I should dearly love to say? If Torvald could.
- 33:42Speaker 7: Hear me, Well, why can't you say it?
- 33:45Speaker 2: No, I daren't. It's so shocking shocking.
- 33:49Speaker 7: Well, I should not advise you to say it. Still
- 33:53Speaker 7: with us, you might What is it? You would so
- 33:57Speaker 7: much like to say, if Torvald could hear you.
- 34:00Speaker 2: I should just love to say, well, I'm damned?
- 34:04Speaker 3: Are you mad?
- 34:05Speaker 5: Norah, Dear?
- 34:07Speaker 7: Say it?
- 34:07Speaker 1: Here he is hiding the packet.
- 34:10Speaker 2: Hush, hush, hush.
- 34:12Speaker 1: Helmer comes out of his room with his coat over
- 34:14Speaker 1: his arm and his hat in his hand.
- 34:17Speaker 2: Well, Torvald, dear, have you got rid of him?
- 34:20Speaker 4: Yes, he has just gone.
- 34:22Speaker 2: Let me introduce you. This is Christine who has come
- 34:24Speaker 2: to town.
- 34:25Speaker 4: Christine an excuse me, but I don't.
- 34:27Speaker 2: Know missus Lynde. Dear Christine Lynde.
- 34:30Speaker 4: Of course a school friend of my wife's oppresume.
- 34:33Speaker 2: Yes, we have known each other since then, and just
- 34:36Speaker 2: think she has taken a long journey in order to
- 34:38Speaker 2: see you.
- 34:39Speaker 4: What do you mean?
- 34:40Speaker 2: No, really, I Christine is tremendously clever at bookkeeping, and
- 34:44Speaker 2: she is frightfully anxious to work under some clever man
- 34:47Speaker 2: so as to perfect herself.
- 34:49Speaker 4: Very sensible, Missus Lynde.
- 34:51Speaker 2: And when she heard you had been appointed manager of
- 34:53Speaker 2: the bank, the news was telegraphed. You know, she traveled
- 34:56Speaker 2: here as quick as she could. Torvald. I am sure
- 34:59Speaker 2: you will be able to to do something for Christine
- 35:01Speaker 2: for my sake, won't you.
- 35:03Speaker 4: Well, it's not altogether impossible. I presume you are a widow,
- 35:07Speaker 4: missus Lynde, yes, and have had some experience of bookkeeping.
- 35:11Speaker 5: Yes, a fair amount.
- 35:13Speaker 4: Ah, well, it's very likely I may be able to
- 35:15Speaker 4: find something for you.
- 35:17Speaker 1: Clapping her hands, What did I tell you?
- 35:20Speaker 2: What did I tell you?
- 35:22Speaker 4: You have come at a very fortunate moment, Missus Lynde.
- 35:26Speaker 5: How am I to thank you?
- 35:27Speaker 7: There is no need puts on his coat?
- 35:31Speaker 4: But today you must excuse me.
- 35:33Speaker 7: Wait a minute, I will come with you.
- 35:35Speaker 1: Brings his fur coat from the hall and warms it
- 35:37Speaker 1: at the fire.
- 35:39Speaker 2: Don't be away long, Torvald, Dear about how not more?
- 35:43Speaker 2: Are you going to Christine.
- 35:45Speaker 1: Putting on her cloak?
- 35:47Speaker 5: Yes, I must go and look for a room.
- 35:49Speaker 4: Oh well then we can walk down the street together
- 35:51Speaker 4: helping her.
- 35:52Speaker 2: What a pity it is, we're so short of space here.
- 35:55Speaker 2: I am afraid it is impossible for us.
- 35:57Speaker 5: Please don't think of it. Goodbye, Nora dear, and many thanks.
- 36:01Speaker 2: Goodbye for the present. Of course you will come back
- 36:04Speaker 2: this evening, and you too, doctor Rank. What do you
- 36:07Speaker 2: say if you're well enough? Oh you must be wrap
- 36:11Speaker 2: yourself up.
- 36:11Speaker 1: Well, they go to the door, all talking together. Children's
- 36:15Speaker 1: voices are heard on the staircase.
- 36:19Speaker 2: There they are, there they are.
- 36:22Speaker 1: She runs to open the door. The nurse comes in
- 36:25Speaker 1: with the children.
- 36:26Speaker 2: Come in, come in.
- 36:28Speaker 1: Stoops and kisses them.
- 36:30Speaker 2: Oh, you sweet blessings. Look at them, Christine, aren't they darlings.
- 36:36Speaker 7: Don't let us stand here in the draft.
- 36:39Speaker 4: Come along, missus Lynde. The place will only be bearable
- 36:41Speaker 4: for a mother.
- 36:42Speaker 1: Now, ronk Helmer and Missus Lynde go downstairs. The nurse
- 36:47Speaker 1: comes forward with the children. Nora shuts the hall door.
- 36:51Speaker 2: How fresh and well you look, such red cheeks like
- 36:55Speaker 2: apples and roses.
- 36:57Speaker 1: The children all talk at once while she speaks to them.
- 37:00Speaker 2: Have you had great fun? Oh that's splendid. What you
- 37:04Speaker 2: pulled both Emmy and Bob along on the sledge, both
- 37:08Speaker 2: at once.
- 37:09Speaker 5: That was good.
- 37:10Speaker 2: You are a clever boy. Ivar. Let me take her
- 37:13Speaker 2: for a little, Anne, my sweet little baby doll.
- 37:17Speaker 1: Takes the baby from the maid and dances it up
- 37:19Speaker 1: and down.
- 37:20Speaker 2: Yes, yes, mother will dance with Bob too. What have
- 37:24Speaker 2: you been snowballing? I wish I had been there too. No, no,
- 37:28Speaker 2: I will take their things off. Anne. Please let me
- 37:31Speaker 2: do it. It is such fun. Go in now you
- 37:33Speaker 2: look half frozen. There are some hot coffee for you
- 37:36Speaker 2: on the stove.
- 37:37Speaker 1: The nurse goes into the room on the left. Nora
- 37:40Speaker 1: takes off to children's things and throws them about while
- 37:43Speaker 1: they all talked to her at once.
- 37:45Speaker 2: Really did a big dog run after you? But it
- 37:49Speaker 2: didn't bite you? No, dogs don't bite nice little dolly children.
- 37:55Speaker 2: You mustn't look at the parcels ivar. What are they? Ah,
- 37:59Speaker 2: dear you would like to know? No, no, it's something nasty.
- 38:04Speaker 2: Come let us have a game. What shall we play at?
- 38:07Speaker 2: Hide and seek? Yes, we'll play hide and seek. Bob
- 38:12Speaker 2: shall hide first? Must I hide very well? I'll hide first.
- 38:17Speaker 1: She and the children laugh and shout and romp in
- 38:20Speaker 1: and out of the room. At last, Nora hides under
- 38:23Speaker 1: the table. The children rush in and out for her,
- 38:25Speaker 1: but do not see her. They hear her smothered laughter,
- 38:28Speaker 1: run to the table, lift up the cloth, and find her.
- 38:32Speaker 1: Shouts of laughter. She crawls forward and pretends to frighten
- 38:36Speaker 1: them fresh laughter. Meanwhile, there has been a knock at
- 38:40Speaker 1: the hall door, but none of them has noticed it.
- 38:43Speaker 1: The door is half opened, and Cragstead appears lies wait
- 38:47Speaker 1: a little. The game goes on.
- 38:49Speaker 3: Excuse me, Miss Helmer.
- 38:52Speaker 1: With a stifled cry, turns round and gets up onto
- 38:55Speaker 1: her knees.
- 38:55Speaker 3: Excuse me, the outer door was ajar. I suppose someone
- 38:58Speaker 3: forgot to shut it rising.
- 39:01Speaker 2: My husband is out, Mister Krogstad, I know that. What
- 39:05Speaker 2: do you want here?
- 39:06Speaker 5: Then?
- 39:06Speaker 3: A word with you?
- 39:08Speaker 7: With me?
- 39:10Speaker 1: To the children?
- 39:10Speaker 2: Gently go in to nurse.
- 39:14Speaker 7: What.
- 39:15Speaker 2: No, this strange man won't do mother any harm. When
- 39:18Speaker 2: he is gone, we will have another game.
- 39:20Speaker 1: She takes the children into the room on the left
- 39:23Speaker 1: and shuts the door after them.
- 39:24Speaker 2: You want to speak to me, Yes, I do. Today
- 39:29Speaker 2: it is not the first of the month yet.
- 39:31Speaker 3: No, it's Christmas Eve and it will depend on yourself.
- 39:34Speaker 3: What sort of a Christmas Eve you will spend?
- 39:36Speaker 2: What do you mean today is absolutely impossible for me.
- 39:40Speaker 3: We won't talk about that until later on. This is
- 39:43Speaker 3: something different. I presume you could give me a moment.
- 39:46Speaker 2: Yes, yes I can, although good.
- 39:50Speaker 3: I was in missus Olsen's restaurant and I saw your
- 39:52Speaker 3: husband going down the street. Yes, with a lady. What
- 39:56Speaker 3: then may I make so bold as to ask if
- 39:59Speaker 3: it was a miss Lynde It was just arrived in town? Yes,
- 40:04Speaker 3: today she is a great friend of yours, isn't she?
- 40:08Speaker 7: She is?
- 40:09Speaker 3: But I don't see I know her too once upon.
- 40:12Speaker 2: A time I am aware of that.
- 40:14Speaker 3: Are you so you know all about that?
- 40:17Speaker 7: Now?
- 40:18Speaker 3: I thought as much. Then I can ask you without
- 40:22Speaker 3: beating around the bush, is missus Lynde to have an
- 40:25Speaker 3: appointment at the bank?
- 40:27Speaker 2: What right have you to question me, mister crog'sdad. You
- 40:30Speaker 2: one of my husband's subordinates. But since you ask, you
- 40:34Speaker 2: shall know. Yes, Missus Lynde is to have an appointment,
- 40:37Speaker 2: And it was I who pleaded her cause, mister crogsdad,
- 40:40Speaker 2: let me tell you that I.
- 40:41Speaker 1: Was right in what I thought then walking up and
- 40:44Speaker 1: down the stage.
- 40:45Speaker 2: Sometimes one has a tiny little bit of influence, I
- 40:48Speaker 2: should hope, because one is a woman. It does not
- 40:51Speaker 2: necessarily follow that when anyone is in a subordinate position,
- 40:55Speaker 2: mister Crog'sdad, they should really be careful to avoid offending
- 40:58Speaker 2: anyone who who who has influence.
- 41:01Speaker 1: Exactly changing his tone.
- 41:04Speaker 3: Miss Helmer, will you be so good as to use
- 41:08Speaker 3: your influence on my behalf?
- 41:10Speaker 2: What? What do you mean?
- 41:12Speaker 3: You will be so kind as to see that I
- 41:14Speaker 3: am allowed to keep my subordinate position at the bank?
- 41:17Speaker 2: What do you mean by that, who proposes to take
- 41:20Speaker 2: your post away from you?
- 41:21Speaker 3: Oh, there is no necessity to keep up the pretense
- 41:24Speaker 3: of ignorance. I can quite understand that your friend is
- 41:27Speaker 3: not very anxious to expose yourself to the chance of
- 41:30Speaker 3: rubbing shoulders with me. I quite understand too, whom I
- 41:33Speaker 3: have to thank for being turned off.
- 41:35Speaker 2: But I assure you very likely.
- 41:38Speaker 3: But to come to the point, the time has come
- 41:41Speaker 3: when I should advise you to use your influence to
- 41:44Speaker 3: prevent that.
- 41:45Speaker 2: But mister Crogstad, I have no influence, haven't you.
- 41:49Speaker 3: I thought you said yourself just now.
- 41:51Speaker 2: Naturally, I did not mean you to put that construction
- 41:54Speaker 2: on it. I what should make you think I have
- 41:57Speaker 2: any influence of that kind with my husband?
- 42:00Speaker 4: Oh?
- 42:00Speaker 3: I have known your husband from our student days. I
- 42:03Speaker 3: don't suppose he is any more unassailable than other husbands.
- 42:07Speaker 2: If you speak slightingly of my husband, I shall turn
- 42:09Speaker 2: you out of the house.
- 42:10Speaker 3: You are bold, Miss Helmer.
- 42:13Speaker 2: I am not afraid of you any longer. As soon
- 42:16Speaker 2: as the new year comes, I shall in a very
- 42:17Speaker 2: short time be free of the whole thing controlling himself.
- 42:22Speaker 3: Listen to me, Miss Helmer. If necessary, I am prepared
- 42:26Speaker 3: to fight for my small posts in the bank as
- 42:29Speaker 3: if I were fighting for my life.
- 42:31Speaker 2: So it seems it is not only.
- 42:33Speaker 3: For the sake of money. Indeed that weighs least on
- 42:36Speaker 3: me in this matter. There is another reason. Well, I
- 42:41Speaker 3: may as well tell you my position is this. I
- 42:44Speaker 3: dare say, you know, like everybody else, that once, many
- 42:48Speaker 3: years ago, I was guilty of an indiscretion.
- 42:52Speaker 2: I think I have heard something of the kind.
- 42:54Speaker 3: The matter never came to court, but every way seemed
- 42:58Speaker 3: to be closed to me after that. So I took
- 43:01Speaker 3: to the business that you know of. I had to
- 43:03Speaker 3: do something, and honestly, I don't think I've been one
- 43:06Speaker 3: of the worst. But now I must cut myself free
- 43:09Speaker 3: from all that. My sons are growing up. For their sake,
- 43:12Speaker 3: I must try and win back as much respect as
- 43:15Speaker 3: I can in this town. This post in the bank
- 43:18Speaker 3: was like a first step up for me. And now
- 43:20Speaker 3: your husband is going to kick me downstairs again into
- 43:23Speaker 3: the mud.
- 43:24Speaker 2: But you must believe me, mister Crogstad. It is not
- 43:27Speaker 2: in my power to help you at all.
- 43:30Speaker 3: Then it is because you haven't the will, but I
- 43:33Speaker 3: have means to compel you.
- 43:35Speaker 2: You don't mean that you will tell my husband that
- 43:37Speaker 2: I owe you money.
- 43:38Speaker 3: Hmmm, Suppose I were to tell him.
- 43:41Speaker 2: It would be perfectly infamous of you, sobbing to think
- 43:46Speaker 2: of his learning my secret, which has been my pride
- 43:49Speaker 2: and joy in such an ugly, clumsy way, that he
- 43:52Speaker 2: should learn it from you, and it would put me
- 43:55Speaker 2: in such a horribly disagreeable.
- 43:57Speaker 1: Position, only disagreeable, impetuously.
- 44:01Speaker 2: Well, do it then, and it will be the worse
- 44:03Speaker 2: for you. My husband will see for himself what a
- 44:06Speaker 2: blagguard you are, and you certainly won't keep your post.
- 44:09Speaker 3: Then, I asked you if it was only a disagreeable
- 44:12Speaker 3: scene at home that you were afraid of.
- 44:14Speaker 2: If my husband does get to know of it, of
- 44:16Speaker 2: course he will at once pay you what is still owing,
- 44:19Speaker 2: and we shall have nothing more to do with you.
- 44:21Speaker 1: Coming a step nearer, Listen to me, miss Helmer.
- 44:24Speaker 3: Either you have a very bad memory, or you know
- 44:27Speaker 3: very little of business. I shall be obliged to remind
- 44:31Speaker 3: you of a few details. What do you mean, when
- 44:33Speaker 3: your husband was ill you came to me to borrow
- 44:36Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty pounds.
- 44:38Speaker 2: I didn't know anyone else to go to.
- 44:40Speaker 3: I promised to get you that amount.
- 44:42Speaker 2: Yes, and you did so.
- 44:43Speaker 3: I promise to get you that amount on certain conditions.
- 44:47Speaker 3: Your mind was so taken up with your husband's illness,
- 44:49Speaker 3: and you were so anxious to get the money for
- 44:52Speaker 3: your journey, that you seem to have paid no attention
- 44:54Speaker 3: to the conditions of our bargain. Therefore, it will not
- 44:58Speaker 3: be amiss if I remind you of them now. I
- 45:01Speaker 3: promised to get the money on the security of a
- 45:03Speaker 3: bond which.
- 45:04Speaker 2: I drew up, yes, and which I signed good.
- 45:08Speaker 3: But below your signature there were a few lines constituting
- 45:11Speaker 3: your father as a surety for the money. Those lines
- 45:15Speaker 3: your father should have.
- 45:16Speaker 2: Signed, should he did sign.
- 45:18Speaker 3: Them, I had left the date blank, that is to say,
- 45:22Speaker 3: your father should himself have inserted the date on which
- 45:25Speaker 3: he signed the paper. Do you remember that?
- 45:28Speaker 2: Yes? I think I remember.
- 45:30Speaker 3: Then I gave you the bond to send by post
- 45:32Speaker 3: to your father. Is that not so?
- 45:35Speaker 2: Yes?
- 45:36Speaker 3: And naturally you did so at once, because five or
- 45:38Speaker 3: six days afterwards you bought me the bond with your
- 45:41Speaker 3: father's signature, and then I gave you the money.
- 45:44Speaker 2: Well, haven't I been paying it off regularly?
- 45:47Speaker 3: Fairly?
- 45:47Speaker 7: So?
- 45:48Speaker 3: Yes? But to come back to the matter at hand,
- 45:51Speaker 3: that must have been a very trying time for you,
- 45:54Speaker 3: Miss Helmer.
- 45:55Speaker 7: It was.
- 45:56Speaker 3: Indeed, your father was very ill, wasn't he?
- 45:59Speaker 2: He was very near his.
- 46:01Speaker 3: End and died soon afterwards. Yes, tell me, miss Helmer,
- 46:07Speaker 3: can you buy any chance remember the day your father
- 46:09Speaker 3: died on? What day of the month?
- 46:11Speaker 2: I mean, Papa died on the twenty ninth of September.
- 46:15Speaker 3: That is correct. I have ascertained it for myself. And
- 46:19Speaker 3: as that is so, there is a discrepancy which I
- 46:23Speaker 3: cannot account for.
- 46:25Speaker 2: What discrepancy I don't know.
- 46:27Speaker 3: This discrepancy exists, Miss Helmer, in the fact that your
- 46:30Speaker 3: father signed this bond three days after his death.
- 46:33Speaker 2: What do you mean? I don't understand.
- 46:36Speaker 3: Your father died on the twenty ninth of September. But
- 46:40Speaker 3: look here your father dated his signature the second of October.
- 46:45Speaker 3: It is a discrepancy, isn't it.
- 46:47Speaker 1: Nora is silent.
- 46:50Speaker 3: Can you explain it to me?
- 46:52Speaker 1: Nora is still silent.
- 46:54Speaker 3: It is a remarkable thing, too, that the words second
- 46:57Speaker 3: of October, as well as a year are not written
- 47:00Speaker 3: in your father's handwriting, but one that I think I
- 47:03Speaker 3: know well. Of course, it can be explained your father
- 47:08Speaker 3: may have forgotten to date his signature, and someone else
- 47:10Speaker 3: may have dated it haphazard before they knew of his death.
- 47:14Speaker 3: There's no harm in that. It all depends on the
- 47:18Speaker 3: signature of the name, and that is genuine. I suppose,
- 47:21Speaker 3: miss Helmer, it is your father himself who signed his
- 47:25Speaker 3: name here.
- 47:26Speaker 1: After a short pause, throws her head up and looks
- 47:29Speaker 1: defiantly at him.
- 47:31Speaker 2: No, it was not. It was I that wrote Papa's name.
- 47:35Speaker 3: Are you aware? That is a dangerous confession?
- 47:38Speaker 2: In what way you shall have your money soon?
- 47:41Speaker 3: Let me ask you a question. Why did you not
- 47:44Speaker 3: send the paper to your father?
- 47:46Speaker 2: It was impossible. Papa was so ill. If I had
- 47:49Speaker 2: asked him for his signature, I should have had to
- 47:51Speaker 2: tell him what the money was to be used for.
- 47:53Speaker 2: And when he was so ill himself, I couldn't tell
- 47:55Speaker 2: him that my husband's life was in danger. It was impossible.
- 47:59Speaker 3: It would have been better for you if you had
- 48:01Speaker 3: given up on your trip.
- 48:02Speaker 2: Broad No, that was impossible. That trip was to save
- 48:05Speaker 2: my husband's life. I couldn't give that up.
- 48:08Speaker 3: But did it never occur to you that you were
- 48:10Speaker 3: committing a fraud on me?
- 48:12Speaker 2: I couldn't take that into account. I didn't trouble myself
- 48:15Speaker 2: about you at all. Couldn't bear you because you put
- 48:18Speaker 2: so many heartless difficulties in my way. Although you knew
- 48:21Speaker 2: what a dangerous condition my husband was.
- 48:23Speaker 3: In, Miss Helmer, you evidently did not realize clearly what
- 48:28Speaker 3: it is you have been guilty of. But I can
- 48:30Speaker 3: assure you that my one false step, which lost me
- 48:34Speaker 3: all my reputation, was nothing more or nothing worse than
- 48:38Speaker 3: you have done.
- 48:39Speaker 2: You do you ask me to believe that you were
- 48:42Speaker 2: brave enough to run a risk to save your wife's life.
- 48:45Speaker 3: The law cares nothing about motives.
- 48:49Speaker 2: That it must be a very foolish law.
- 48:51Speaker 3: Foolish or not, it is the law by what you
- 48:54Speaker 3: will be judged if I produce this paper in court.
- 48:57Speaker 2: I don't believe it is a daughter to be allowed
- 49:00Speaker 2: to spare her dying father anxiety and care. Is a
- 49:04Speaker 2: wife not to be allowed to save her husband's life.
- 49:07Speaker 2: I don't know much about law, but I am certain
- 49:10Speaker 2: there must be laws permitting such things as that. Have
- 49:13Speaker 2: you no knowledge of such laws? You, who are a lawyer,
- 49:16Speaker 2: you must be a very poor lawyer, mister Crogsdad.
- 49:19Speaker 3: Maybe, But matters of business, such business as you and
- 49:24Speaker 3: I have had together, do you think I don't understand
- 49:27Speaker 3: that very well, as you please. But let me tell
- 49:34Speaker 3: you this. If I lose my position a second time,
- 49:37Speaker 3: you shall lose yours with me.
- 49:40Speaker 1: He bows and goes out through the hall, appears buried
- 49:44Speaker 1: in thought for a short time, then tosses her.
- 49:46Speaker 2: Head nonsense, trying to frighten me like that. I am
- 49:50Speaker 2: not so silly as he thinks.
- 49:52Speaker 1: Begins to busy herself, putting the children's things in order.
- 49:56Speaker 2: And yet, no, it's impossible. I did it for love's sake.
- 50:02Speaker 1: In the doorway on the left, mother, the strange man
- 50:06Speaker 1: has gone out through the gate.
- 50:08Speaker 2: Yes, DearS, I know, but don't tell anyone about the
- 50:12Speaker 2: stranger man, do you hear? Not even Papa.
- 50:16Speaker 1: No, mother, but will you come and play again?
- 50:20Speaker 2: No?
- 50:20Speaker 1: No, not now? But mother, you promised us.
- 50:25Speaker 2: Yes, but I can't now run away in I have
- 50:29Speaker 2: such a lot to do, run away in, my sweet darlings.
- 50:33Speaker 1: She gets them into the room by degrees and shuts
- 50:35Speaker 1: the door on them, then sits down on the sofa,
- 50:38Speaker 1: takes up a piece of needlework and sews a few stitches,
- 50:41Speaker 1: but soon stops. No, throws down the work, gets up,
- 50:46Speaker 1: goes to the hall door and calls.
- 50:47Speaker 2: Out Helen, bring the tree in.
- 50:51Speaker 1: Goes to the table on the left, opens a drawer
- 50:54Speaker 1: and stops again.
- 50:55Speaker 2: No, no, it is quite impossible.
- 50:58Speaker 1: Coming in with the tree.
- 51:00Speaker 6: Where shall I put it, ma'am?
- 51:02Speaker 2: Here in the middle of the floor.
- 51:04Speaker 6: Shall I get you anything else?
- 51:06Speaker 5: No?
- 51:06Speaker 2: Thank you, I have all I want.
- 51:09Speaker 1: Exit made, begins dressing the tree.
- 51:12Speaker 2: A candle here and flowers here. The horrible man, it's
- 51:18Speaker 2: all nonsense. There's nothing wrong. The tree shall be splendid.
- 51:24Speaker 2: I will do everything I can think of to please you, Torvald.
- 51:27Speaker 2: I will sing for you, dance for you.
- 51:30Speaker 1: Helmer comes in with some papers under his arm.
- 51:32Speaker 2: Oh are you back already?
- 51:35Speaker 4: Has anyone been here here? No, that is strange. I
- 51:39Speaker 4: saw Crocsut going out of the gate.
- 51:41Speaker 2: Did you. Oh? Yes, I forgot Krogsdad was here for
- 51:45Speaker 2: a moment.
- 51:46Speaker 4: Norah. I can see from your manner that he's been
- 51:48Speaker 4: begging you to say a good word for him. Yes,
- 51:52Speaker 4: and you were to appear to do it of your
- 51:53Speaker 4: own accord. You were to conceal from me the fact
- 51:56Speaker 4: of him having been here. Didn't he beg that of you.
- 51:59Speaker 2: Too, Yes, Torvald, But.
- 52:02Speaker 4: Norah, Norah, and you would be party to that sort
- 52:05Speaker 4: of thing, to have any talk with a man like that,
- 52:08Speaker 4: and to give him any sort of promise, and to
- 52:11Speaker 4: tell me a lie into the.
- 52:12Speaker 2: Bargain, a lie?
- 52:14Speaker 4: Didn't you tell me? No one had been here?
- 52:16Speaker 1: Shakes his finger at her.
- 52:19Speaker 4: My little songbird must never do that again. A songbird
- 52:22Speaker 4: must have a clean beak to choke with no false notes.
- 52:26Speaker 1: Puts his arm round her waist.
- 52:28Speaker 4: That is so, isn't it. Yes, I'm sure it is.
- 52:31Speaker 1: Let her go.
- 52:32Speaker 4: We will say no more about it.
- 52:34Speaker 1: Sits down by the stove.
- 52:36Speaker 4: How woman Snugget is here?
- 52:38Speaker 1: Turns over his papers after a short pause during which
- 52:43Speaker 1: she busies herself with the Christmas tree.
- 52:46Speaker 2: Torvald, Yes, I am looking forward tremendously to the fancy
- 52:51Speaker 2: dress ball at the Stenbourgs the day after tomorrow, and I.
- 52:54Speaker 4: Am tremendously curious to see what you are going to
- 52:57Speaker 4: surprise me with.
- 52:58Speaker 2: It was very silly of me to want to do that.
- 53:00Speaker 2: What do you mean, I can't hit upon anything that
- 53:03Speaker 2: will do everything I think of? Seems so silly and insignificant.
- 53:07Speaker 4: Does my little Nora acknowledge that?
- 53:09Speaker 1: At least standing behind his chair with her arms on
- 53:12Speaker 1: the back of it.
- 53:12Speaker 2: Are you very busy, Torvald? Well, what are all those papers?
- 53:17Speaker 4: Bank business?
- 53:18Speaker 2: Already?
- 53:20Speaker 4: I have got authority from the retiring manager to undertake
- 53:23Speaker 4: necessary changes in the staff and in the rearrangement of
- 53:26Speaker 4: the work. And I must make use of Christmas week
- 53:29Speaker 4: for that, so as to have everything in order for
- 53:32Speaker 4: the new year.
- 53:33Speaker 2: Then that was why this poor crogstad.
- 53:35Speaker 1: Leans against the back of his chair and strokes his hair.
- 53:39Speaker 2: If you hadn't been so busy, I should have asked
- 53:41Speaker 2: you a tremendously big favor, Torvald.
- 53:43Speaker 4: What is it?
- 53:44Speaker 2: Tell me there is no one has such good taste
- 53:46Speaker 2: as you, and I do so want to look nice
- 53:49Speaker 2: at the fancy dress ball, Torvald, couldn't you take me
- 53:52Speaker 2: in hand and decide what I shall go as and
- 53:54Speaker 2: what sort of dress I shall wear?
- 53:56Speaker 4: Ha ha, So my obstinate little woman is obliged to
- 54:00Speaker 4: get someone to come to her rescue.
- 54:02Speaker 2: Yes, Torvald, I can't get along a bit without your help.
- 54:06Speaker 4: Very well, I will think it over. We shall manage
- 54:09Speaker 4: to hit up on something.
- 54:10Speaker 2: That is nice of you.
- 54:12Speaker 1: Goes to the Christmas tree a short pause.
- 54:15Speaker 2: How pretty the red flowers look? But tell me was
- 54:21Speaker 2: it really something? Very bad that this Krogstad was guilty of.
- 54:25Speaker 4: He forged someone's name. Have you any idea what that means?
- 54:29Speaker 2: Isn't it possible that he was driven to do it
- 54:31Speaker 2: by necessity?
- 54:32Speaker 4: Yes, or, as in so many cases, by imprudence. I
- 54:37Speaker 4: am not so heartless as to condemn a man altogether
- 54:40Speaker 4: because of a single false step of that kind.
- 54:42Speaker 2: No, you wouldn't, would you, Torvald.
- 54:45Speaker 4: Many a man has been able to retrieve his character
- 54:48Speaker 4: if he has openly confessed his fault and taken his
- 54:51Speaker 4: punishment punishment. But Krogstad did nothing of that sort. He
- 54:56Speaker 4: got himself out of it by a cunning trick, and
- 54:59Speaker 4: that is why he is gone under altogether.
- 55:01Speaker 2: But do you think it would?
- 55:03Speaker 4: Just think how a guilty man like that has to
- 55:05Speaker 4: lie and play the hypocrite with everyone, How he has
- 55:09Speaker 4: to wear a mask in the presence of those near
- 55:11Speaker 4: and dear to him, even before his own wife and children.
- 55:14Speaker 4: And about the children, that is the most terrible part
- 55:17Speaker 4: of it all, Laura, How because such an atmosphere of
- 55:21Speaker 4: lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home.
- 55:25Speaker 4: Each breath, the children taking such a house will be
- 55:28Speaker 4: full of the germs of evil.
- 55:31Speaker 1: Coming nearer him.
- 55:33Speaker 2: Are you sure of that, my.
- 55:35Speaker 4: Dear, I have often seen it in the course of
- 55:38Speaker 4: my life as a lawyer. Almost everyone who has gone
- 55:42Speaker 4: too bad early in life has a deceitful mother.
- 55:46Speaker 2: Why do you say only mother?
- 55:49Speaker 4: It seems most commonly to be the mother's influence, though
- 55:52Speaker 4: naturally a bad father would have the same result. Every
- 55:56Speaker 4: lawyer is familiar with the fact this Krugstad now has
- 56:00Speaker 4: been persistently poisoning his own children with lies and dissimulation.
- 56:05Speaker 4: That is why I say he has lost all moral character.
- 56:09Speaker 1: Holds out his hands to her.
- 56:11Speaker 4: That is why, my little sweet Norah, you must promise
- 56:14Speaker 4: not to plead his cause. Give me your hand on it. Come, come,
- 56:19Speaker 4: what is this? Give me your hand there. Now that's settled,
- 56:25Speaker 4: I assure you it would be impossible for me to
- 56:27Speaker 4: work with him. I literally feel physically ill when I
- 56:31Speaker 4: am in the company of such people.
- 56:32Speaker 1: Takes her hand out of his and goes to the
- 56:34Speaker 1: opposite side of the Christmas tree.
- 56:37Speaker 2: How hot it is in here, and I have such
- 56:39Speaker 2: a lot.
- 56:40Speaker 5: To do.
- 56:42Speaker 1: Getting up and putting his papers in order.
- 56:45Speaker 4: Yes, I must try and read through some of these
- 56:48Speaker 4: before dinner. And I must think about your costume too,
- 56:52Speaker 4: and it is just possible. I may have something ready
- 56:54Speaker 4: in gold paper to hang up on the tree.
- 56:57Speaker 1: Puts his hand on her head.
- 56:59Speaker 4: My precious little singing bird.
- 57:02Speaker 1: He goes into his room and shuts the door after him.
- 57:05Speaker 1: After a pause, whispers.
- 57:08Speaker 2: No, it isn't true. It's impossible. It must be impossible.
- 57:14Speaker 1: The nurse opens the door on the left.
- 57:17Speaker 8: The little ones are begging so hard to be allowed
- 57:19Speaker 8: to come into Mama.
- 57:20Speaker 2: No, no, no, don't let them come in to me.
- 57:23Speaker 2: You stay with the man very.
- 57:25Speaker 1: Well, ma'am shuts the door, pale with terror, to.
- 57:31Speaker 2: Prave my little children poison my home.
- 57:35Speaker 1: A short pause, then she tosses her head.
- 57:39Speaker 2: It's not true. It can't possibly be true.
- 57:44Speaker 1: End of Act one, Act two. The same scene, the
- 57:50Speaker 1: Christmas tree is in the corner by the piano, stripped
- 57:53Speaker 1: of its ornaments and with burned down candle ends on
- 57:56Speaker 1: its disheveled branches. Nora's cloak and hat are lineying on
- 58:00Speaker 1: the sofa. She is alone in the room, walking about uneasily.
- 58:05Speaker 1: She stops by the sofa and takes up her cloak,
- 58:08Speaker 1: drops her cloak. Someone is coming now, goes to the
- 58:11Speaker 1: door and listens.
- 58:13Speaker 2: No, it is no one. Of course, no one will
- 58:16Speaker 2: come to day Christmas Day, nor tomorrow either.
- 58:20Speaker 1: But perhaps opens the door and looks out.
- 58:24Speaker 2: No, nothing in the letter box, it is quite empty.
- 58:28Speaker 1: Comes forward?
- 58:30Speaker 2: What rubbish? Of course, he can't be in earnest about it.
- 58:33Speaker 2: Such a thing couldn't happen. It is impossible. I have
- 58:37Speaker 2: three little children.
- 58:39Speaker 1: Enter the nurse from the room on the left carrying
- 58:41Speaker 1: a big cardboard box.
- 58:43Speaker 8: At last I've found the box with the fancy dress.
- 58:46Speaker 2: Thanks.
- 58:47Speaker 8: Put it on the table doing so, But it is
- 58:50Speaker 8: very much in want of mending.
- 58:52Speaker 2: I should like to tear it into a hundred thousand pieces.
- 58:55Speaker 8: What an idea. It can easily be put in order,
- 58:59Speaker 8: just a little patient us.
- 59:01Speaker 2: Yes, I will go out and get missus Lynde to
- 59:02Speaker 2: come and help me with it.
- 59:04Speaker 8: What out again, in this horrible weather, you will catch cold, ma'am,
- 59:08Speaker 8: and make yourself ill.
- 59:10Speaker 2: Well worse than that might happen. How are the children?
- 59:14Speaker 8: The poor little souls are playing with their Christmas presents?
- 59:17Speaker 2: But do they ask much for me?
- 59:19Speaker 8: You see, they're so accustomed to have their mama with them.
- 59:23Speaker 2: Yes, but Nurse I shall not be able to be
- 59:26Speaker 2: so much with them now as I was before.
- 59:29Speaker 8: Oh well, young children easily get accustomed to anything.
- 59:33Speaker 2: Do you think so? Do you think they would forget
- 59:36Speaker 2: their mother if she went away altogether?
- 59:39Speaker 8: Good heavens went away altogether.
- 59:42Speaker 2: Nurse, I want you to tell me something I have
- 59:44Speaker 2: often wondered about. How could you have the heart to
- 59:47Speaker 2: put your own child out among strangers?
- 59:50Speaker 8: I was obliged to if I wanted to be little Nora's.
- 59:54Speaker 2: Nurse, Yes, But how could you be willing to do it?
- 59:58Speaker 8: What? When I was going to get such a good
- 1:00:00Speaker 8: place by it? A poor girl who has gone into
- 1:00:02Speaker 8: trouble should be glad to. Besides, that wicked man didn't
- 1:00:06Speaker 8: do a single thing for me.
- 1:00:09Speaker 2: But I suppose your daughter has quite forgotten you.
- 1:00:11Speaker 8: No, indeed she hasn't. She wrote to me when she
- 1:00:14Speaker 8: was confirmed and when she was.
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: Married, putting her arms round her neck.
- 1:00:20Speaker 2: Dear old Anne, you were a good mother to me
- 1:00:22Speaker 2: when I.
- 1:00:23Speaker 8: Was little Little Nora, poor dear had no other mother
- 1:00:27Speaker 8: but me.
- 1:00:28Speaker 2: And if my little ones had no other mother, I
- 1:00:30Speaker 2: am sure you would. What nonsense I am talking?
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: Opens the box?
- 1:00:36Speaker 2: Go into them now, I must. You will see tomorrow
- 1:00:40Speaker 2: how charming I shall look.
- 1:00:42Speaker 8: I am sure there will be no one at the
- 1:00:43Speaker 8: ball so charming as you.
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: Ma'am goes into the room on the left, begins to
- 1:00:50Speaker 1: unpack the box, but soon pushes it away from her.
- 1:00:53Speaker 2: If only I dared go out, if only no one
- 1:00:56Speaker 2: would come, if only I could be sure nothing would
- 1:00:59Speaker 2: happen here in the meantime, stuff and nonsense, no one
- 1:01:04Speaker 2: will come. Only I mustn't think about it. I will
- 1:01:07Speaker 2: brush my muff, lovely, lovely gloves out of my thoughts,
- 1:01:13Speaker 2: out of my thoughts. One, two, three.
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: Four, five six screams, ha, there's someone coming, makes a
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: movement towards the door, but stands irresolute. Enter missus Lynde
- 1:01:30Speaker 1: from the hall, where she has taken off her cloak
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: and hat.
- 1:01:33Speaker 2: Oh it's you, Christine. There's no one else out there,
- 1:01:37Speaker 2: is there. How good of you to come. I heard
- 1:01:40Speaker 2: you were up asking for me. Yes, I was passing by.
- 1:01:45Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, it is something you could
- 1:01:47Speaker 2: help me with. Let us sit down here on the sofa.
- 1:01:50Speaker 2: Look here. Tomorrow evening there is to be a fancy
- 1:01:53Speaker 2: dress ball at the Stenborgs, who live above us, and
- 1:01:55Speaker 2: Torvald wants me to go as a Neapolitan fisher girl
- 1:01:58Speaker 2: and dance the tarantella that I learned, Capri.
- 1:02:01Speaker 5: I see you are going to keep up the character.
- 1:02:05Speaker 2: Yes, Torvald wants me to look. Here is the dress.
- 1:02:09Speaker 2: Torvald had it made for me there, but now it
- 1:02:11Speaker 2: is all so torn, and I haven't any idea.
- 1:02:14Speaker 5: We will easily put that right. It is only some
- 1:02:17Speaker 5: of the trimming come unsown here and there. Needle and thread, now,
- 1:02:21Speaker 5: then that's all we want. It is nice of you sewing,
- 1:02:25Speaker 5: so you going to be dressed up tomorrow, Nora. I
- 1:02:28Speaker 5: will tell you what. I shall come in for a
- 1:02:31Speaker 5: moment and see you in your fine feathers. But I
- 1:02:34Speaker 5: have completely forgotten to thank you for a delightful evening yesterday.
- 1:02:38Speaker 1: Gets up and crosses the stage.
- 1:02:40Speaker 2: Well, I don't think yesterday was as pleasant as usual.
- 1:02:43Speaker 2: You ought to have come to town a little earlier, Christine.
- 1:02:46Speaker 2: Certainly Torvald does understand how to make a house dainty
- 1:02:49Speaker 2: and attractive.
- 1:02:51Speaker 5: And so do you. It seems to me you are
- 1:02:53Speaker 5: not your father's daughter for nothing. But tell me, is
- 1:02:56Speaker 5: doctor rank Alls so depressed as he was yesterday?
- 1:03:00Speaker 2: No, yesterday it was very noticeable. I must tell you
- 1:03:04Speaker 2: that he suffers from a very dangerous disease. He has
- 1:03:07Speaker 2: consumption of the spine, poor creature. His father was a
- 1:03:11Speaker 2: horrible man who committed all sorts of excesses, and that
- 1:03:14Speaker 2: is why his son was sickly from childhood? Do you understand.
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: Dropping her sewing?
- 1:03:20Speaker 5: But my dearest Nora, how do you know anything about
- 1:03:23Speaker 5: such things.
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: Walking about pooh?
- 1:03:27Speaker 2: When you have three children, you get visits now and
- 1:03:29Speaker 2: then from from married women who know something of medical matters,
- 1:03:33Speaker 2: and they talk about one thing, and another.
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: Goes on sewing a short silence.
- 1:03:39Speaker 5: Does doctor Rank come here every day?
- 1:03:42Speaker 2: Every day regularly? He is Torvald's most intimate friend, and
- 1:03:46Speaker 2: a great friend of mine too. He is just like
- 1:03:49Speaker 2: one of the family.
- 1:03:50Speaker 5: But tell me this is he perfectly sincere? I mean,
- 1:03:55Speaker 5: isn't he the kind of man that is very anxious
- 1:03:57Speaker 5: to make himself agreeable?
- 1:04:00Speaker 2: Not in the least. What makes you think that?
- 1:04:03Speaker 5: When you introduced me to him yesterday, he declared he
- 1:04:05Speaker 5: had often heard my name mentioned in this house. But
- 1:04:09Speaker 5: afterwards I noticed that your husband hadn't the slightest idea
- 1:04:11Speaker 5: who I was. So how could this doctor Rank?
- 1:04:15Speaker 2: That is quite right, Christine, Torvald is so absurdly fond
- 1:04:19Speaker 2: of me that he wants me absolutely to himself, as
- 1:04:21Speaker 2: he says, at first, he used to seem almost jealous
- 1:04:24Speaker 2: if I mentioned any of the dear folk at home,
- 1:04:26Speaker 2: so naturally I gave up doing so. But I often
- 1:04:29Speaker 2: talk about such things with doctor Rank because he likes
- 1:04:32Speaker 2: hearing about them.
- 1:04:34Speaker 5: Listen to me, Nora, you are still very like a
- 1:04:37Speaker 5: child in many ways, and I am older than you
- 1:04:39Speaker 5: in many ways and have a little more experience. Let
- 1:04:43Speaker 5: me tell you this. You ought to make an end
- 1:04:46Speaker 5: of it, was Doctor Rank?
- 1:04:48Speaker 2: What ought I to make an end of?
- 1:04:50Speaker 5: Of two things? I think yesterday you talked some nonsense
- 1:04:54Speaker 5: about a rich admirer who was to leave you money.
- 1:04:56Speaker 2: That admirer who doesn't exist unfortunately.
- 1:05:00Speaker 5: But what then, is doctor Rank a man of means?
- 1:05:04Speaker 5: Yes he is, and has no one to provide for,
- 1:05:08Speaker 5: no no one, but and comes here every day.
- 1:05:11Speaker 2: Yes, I told you so.
- 1:05:13Speaker 5: But how can this well bred man be so tactless?
- 1:05:17Speaker 2: I don't understand you at all?
- 1:05:19Speaker 5: Don't prevaricate, norah, do you suppose I don't guess who
- 1:05:22Speaker 5: lent you the two hundred and fifty pounds?
- 1:05:25Speaker 2: Are you out of your senses? How can you think
- 1:05:28Speaker 2: of such a thing? A friend of ours who comes
- 1:05:31Speaker 2: here every day. Do you realize what a horribly painful
- 1:05:34Speaker 2: position that would be?
- 1:05:35Speaker 5: Then it really isn't he?
- 1:05:37Speaker 2: No, certainly not. It would never have entered into my
- 1:05:41Speaker 2: head for a moment. Besides, he had no money to lend.
- 1:05:44Speaker 2: Then he came into his money afterwards.
- 1:05:47Speaker 5: Well, I think that was lucky for you, my dear Nora.
- 1:05:50Speaker 2: No, it would never have come into my head to
- 1:05:52Speaker 2: ask doctor Rank, although I am quite sure that if
- 1:05:55Speaker 2: I had asked him, But of course you won't. I
- 1:05:57Speaker 2: have no reason to think it could possibly be necessary.
- 1:06:01Speaker 2: But I am quite sure that if I told doctor.
- 1:06:03Speaker 5: Rank behind your husband's back.
- 1:06:06Speaker 2: I must make an end of it with the other one,
- 1:06:08Speaker 2: and that will be behind his back too, I must
- 1:06:11Speaker 2: make an end of it with him.
- 1:06:13Speaker 5: Yes, that is what I told you yesterday.
- 1:06:15Speaker 2: But walking up and down, a man can put a
- 1:06:17Speaker 2: thing like that straight much easier than.
- 1:06:19Speaker 5: A woman one's husband.
- 1:06:21Speaker 2: Yes, nonsense.
- 1:06:23Speaker 1: Standing still, When you.
- 1:06:25Speaker 2: Pay off a debt, you get your bond back, don't.
- 1:06:27Speaker 5: You, Yes, as a matter of course, and.
- 1:06:30Speaker 2: Can tear it into a hundred thousand pieces and burn
- 1:06:33Speaker 2: it up. The nasty dirty.
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: Paper looks hard at her, lays down her sewing and
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: gets up slowly.
- 1:06:40Speaker 5: Nora, you are concealing something from me?
- 1:06:43Speaker 2: Do I look as if I were?
- 1:06:44Speaker 5: Something has happened to you since yesterday morning? Nora? What
- 1:06:48Speaker 5: is it?
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: Going nearer to her?
- 1:06:51Speaker 2: Christine listens, Hush, there's Torvald come home. Do you mind
- 1:06:58Speaker 2: going into the children for the present? Torvald can't bear
- 1:07:01Speaker 2: to see dressmaking going on? Let Anne help.
- 1:07:03Speaker 1: You gathering some of the things together.
- 1:07:07Speaker 5: Certainly, but I am not going away from here till
- 1:07:10Speaker 5: we have had it out with one another.
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: She goes into the room on the left as Helmer
- 1:07:14Speaker 1: comes in from the hall. Going up to Helmer, I have.
- 1:07:18Speaker 2: Wanted you so much, Torvald, dear, was that the dressmaker? No,
- 1:07:23Speaker 2: it was Christine. She's helping me to put my dress
- 1:07:25Speaker 2: in order. You will see I shall look quite smart.
- 1:07:29Speaker 4: Wasn't that a happy thought of mine?
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: Now?
- 1:07:31Speaker 2: Splendid? But don't you think it is nice of me
- 1:07:34Speaker 2: too to do as you wish?
- 1:07:36Speaker 4: Nice because you do as your husband wishes. Well, well,
- 1:07:41Speaker 4: you little rogue. I am sure you did not mean
- 1:07:43Speaker 4: it in that way, but I'm not going to disturb you.
- 1:07:47Speaker 4: You will want to be trying on your dress, I expect.
- 1:07:49Speaker 2: I suppose you are going to work.
- 1:07:52Speaker 1: Yes, shows her a bundle of papers.
- 1:07:55Speaker 4: Look at that. I have just been into the.
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: Bank, turns to go into his room.
- 1:08:00Speaker 2: Torvald. Yes, if your little squirrel were to ask you
- 1:08:04Speaker 2: for something, very very prettily, what then would you do it?
- 1:08:10Speaker 4: I should like to hear what it is. First.
- 1:08:13Speaker 2: Your squirrel would run about and do all her tricks
- 1:08:15Speaker 2: if you would be nice and do what she wants.
- 1:08:18Speaker 2: Speak plainly, Your skylark would chirp about in every room
- 1:08:22Speaker 2: with her song rising and falling.
- 1:08:24Speaker 4: Well, my little skylark does that anyhow?
- 1:08:27Speaker 2: I would play the fairy and dance for you in
- 1:08:29Speaker 2: the moonlight, Torvald, Nora, you.
- 1:08:32Speaker 4: Surely don't mean that request you made to me this morning.
- 1:08:35Speaker 1: Going near him.
- 1:08:36Speaker 2: Yes, Torvald, I beg you so earnestly.
- 1:08:40Speaker 4: Have you really the coage to open up that question again?
- 1:08:43Speaker 2: Yes, dear, you must do as I ask. You must
- 1:08:46Speaker 2: let Crogsdad keep his post in the bank.
- 1:08:48Speaker 4: My dear Nora, it is his post that I've arranged
- 1:08:51Speaker 4: missus Lynde shall have.
- 1:08:53Speaker 2: Yes, you have been awfully kind about that, but you
- 1:08:56Speaker 2: could just as well dismiss some other clerk instead of Crogsdad.
- 1:09:00Speaker 4: Simply incredible obstinacy because you chose to give him a
- 1:09:04Speaker 4: thoughtless promise that you would speak for him. I am
- 1:09:07Speaker 4: expected to.
- 1:09:08Speaker 2: That isn't the reason, Torvald. It is for your own sake,
- 1:09:12Speaker 2: this fellow writes in the most scurless newspapers. You have
- 1:09:14Speaker 2: told me so yourself. He can do you an unspeakable
- 1:09:17Speaker 2: amount of harm. I am frightened to death of him.
- 1:09:21Speaker 4: Ah, I understand it is recollections of the past that
- 1:09:25Speaker 4: scare you. What do you mean, naturally you are thinking
- 1:09:29Speaker 4: of your father?
- 1:09:30Speaker 2: Yes, yes, of course, just recall to your mind with
- 1:09:33Speaker 2: those malicious creatures wrote in the papers about Papa, and
- 1:09:36Speaker 2: how horribly they slandered him. I believe they would have
- 1:09:39Speaker 2: procured his dismissal if the department had not sent you
- 1:09:42Speaker 2: over to inquire into it, and if you had not
- 1:09:44Speaker 2: been so kindly disposed and helpful to him.
- 1:09:47Speaker 4: My little Nora, there is an important difference between your
- 1:09:51Speaker 4: father and me. Your father's reputation as a public official
- 1:09:55Speaker 4: was not above suspicion. Mine is, and I hope you
- 1:09:59Speaker 4: will continue to so for as long as I hold
- 1:10:01Speaker 4: my office.
- 1:10:02Speaker 2: You never can tell what mischief these men may contrive.
- 1:10:06Speaker 2: We ought to be so well off, so snug and
- 1:10:08Speaker 2: happy here in our peaceful home, and have no cares
- 1:10:12Speaker 2: you and I and the children, Torvald. That is why
- 1:10:15Speaker 2: I beg you so earnestly.
- 1:10:17Speaker 4: And it is just by interceding for him that you
- 1:10:20Speaker 4: make it impossible for me to keep him. It is
- 1:10:23Speaker 4: already known at the bank that I mean to dismiss Krogstadt.
- 1:10:27Speaker 4: Is it to get about now that the new manager
- 1:10:30Speaker 4: has changed his mind on his wife's bidding?
- 1:10:33Speaker 2: And what if it did?
- 1:10:35Speaker 4: Of course, if only this obstinate little person can get
- 1:10:39Speaker 4: her way. Do you suppose I am going to make
- 1:10:42Speaker 4: myself ridiculous before my whole staff to let people think
- 1:10:47Speaker 4: that I am a man to be swayed by all
- 1:10:49Speaker 4: sorts of outside influence. I should very soon feel the
- 1:10:54Speaker 4: consequences of it, I can tell you. And besides, there
- 1:10:57Speaker 4: is one thing that makes it quite impossible for me
- 1:11:00Speaker 4: to have Crogstad in the bank as long as I
- 1:11:02Speaker 4: am manager.
- 1:11:03Speaker 2: Whatever is that.
- 1:11:04Speaker 4: His moral failings I might perhaps have overlooked if necessary.
- 1:11:08Speaker 2: Yes, you could, couldn't you?
- 1:11:10Speaker 4: And I hear he is a good worker too. But
- 1:11:13Speaker 4: I knew him when we were boys. It was one
- 1:11:16Speaker 4: of those rash friendships that so often prove incubacy in
- 1:11:19Speaker 4: after life. I may as well tell you plainly. We
- 1:11:23Speaker 4: were once on very intimate terms with one another. But
- 1:11:26Speaker 4: this tactless fellow lays no restraint on himself when other
- 1:11:30Speaker 4: people are present. On the contrary, he thinks it gives
- 1:11:34Speaker 4: him the right to adopt a familiar tone with me
- 1:11:37Speaker 4: every minute it is, I say, Helm, the old fellow,
- 1:11:40Speaker 4: and that sort of thing. I assure you it is
- 1:11:42Speaker 4: extremely painful for me. He would make my position in
- 1:11:45Speaker 4: the back intolerable.
- 1:11:47Speaker 2: Torvald, I don't believe you mean.
- 1:11:48Speaker 4: That, don't you. Why not?
- 1:11:51Speaker 2: Because it is such a narrow minded way of looking
- 1:11:53Speaker 2: at things.
- 1:11:54Speaker 4: What are you saying? Narrow minded? Do you think I
- 1:11:58Speaker 4: am narrow minded?
- 1:11:59Speaker 2: No, just the opposite, dear, And it is exactly for
- 1:12:03Speaker 2: that reason.
- 1:12:04Speaker 4: It's the same thing you say. My point of view
- 1:12:07Speaker 4: is narrow minded, so I must be so too narrow minded.
- 1:12:11Speaker 4: Very well, I must put an end to this.
- 1:12:14Speaker 1: Goes to the hall door and calls Helen, what are
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: you going to do? Looking among his papers? Settle it,
- 1:12:22Speaker 1: enter maid.
- 1:12:23Speaker 4: Look here, take this letter and go downstairs with it
- 1:12:26Speaker 4: at once. Find a messenger and tell him to deliver it,
- 1:12:30Speaker 4: and be quick. The dress is on it, and here
- 1:12:32Speaker 4: is the money.
- 1:12:33Speaker 1: Very well, so exit with the letter, putting his papers together? Now, then,
- 1:12:38Speaker 1: little miss obstinate breathlessly, Torvald, what.
- 1:12:42Speaker 2: Was that letter?
- 1:12:43Speaker 4: Krocstad's dismissal?
- 1:12:45Speaker 2: Oh, call her back, Torvald. There's still time, Oh, Torvald,
- 1:12:49Speaker 2: call her back. Do it for my sake, for your
- 1:12:52Speaker 2: own sake, for the children's sake. Do you hear me, Torvald,
- 1:12:56Speaker 2: call her back. You don't know what that letter can
- 1:12:59Speaker 2: bring upon us.
- 1:13:00Speaker 4: It's too late, Yes.
- 1:13:03Speaker 5: It's too late, My dear Nora.
- 1:13:06Speaker 4: I can forgive the anxiety you are in, although really
- 1:13:09Speaker 4: it is an insult to me. It is indeed, isn't
- 1:13:12Speaker 4: it an insult to think that I should be afraid
- 1:13:14Speaker 4: of a starving quill driver's vengeance? But I forgive you nevertheless,
- 1:13:21Speaker 4: because it is such eloquent witness to your great love
- 1:13:23Speaker 4: for me.
- 1:13:25Speaker 1: Takes her in his arms, and that is.
- 1:13:28Speaker 4: As it should be, my own, darling, Nora, Come, I will.
- 1:13:32Speaker 4: You may be sure I shall have both courage and
- 1:13:34Speaker 4: strength if they be needed. You will see I am
- 1:13:38Speaker 4: man enough to take everything upon myself.
- 1:13:41Speaker 1: In a horror stricken voice, what do you mean by
- 1:13:44Speaker 1: that everything? I say, recovering herself.
- 1:13:48Speaker 2: You will never have to do that.
- 1:13:50Speaker 4: That's right. Well, we shall share it, Nora, as man
- 1:13:53Speaker 4: and wife should. That is how it.
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: Shall be caressing her.
- 1:13:56Speaker 4: Are you content now? There? There not these frightened dove's eyes.
- 1:14:02Speaker 4: The whole thing is only the wildest fancy. Now you
- 1:14:06Speaker 4: must go and play through the tarantella and practice with
- 1:14:09Speaker 4: your tambourine. I shall go into the inner office and
- 1:14:12Speaker 4: shut the door, and I shall hear nothing. You can
- 1:14:15Speaker 4: make as much noise as you please.
- 1:14:17Speaker 1: Turns back at the door.
- 1:14:19Speaker 4: And when Rank comes, tell him where he can find me.
- 1:14:23Speaker 1: Nods to her, takes his papers, and goes into his
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: room and shuts the door after him. Bewildered with anxiety,
- 1:14:29Speaker 1: stands as if rooted to the spot, and whispers.
- 1:14:32Speaker 2: He was capable of doing it. He will do it.
- 1:14:36Speaker 2: He will do it in spite of everything. No, not that, never, never,
- 1:14:44Speaker 2: anything rather than that, or for some help, some way
- 1:14:48Speaker 2: out of it.
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: The door bell rings, Doctor.
- 1:14:52Speaker 2: Rank, anything rather than that, anything, whatever it is.
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: She puts her hands over her face, pulls herself together,
- 1:15:00Speaker 1: goes to the door and opens it. Rank is standing
- 1:15:03Speaker 1: without hanging up his coat. During the following dialog, it
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: begins to grow dark.
- 1:15:09Speaker 2: Good day, doctor Rank. I knew your ring, but you
- 1:15:12Speaker 2: mustn't go into Torvald now. I think he is busy
- 1:15:15Speaker 2: with something.
- 1:15:16Speaker 1: And you brings him in and shuts the door after him.
- 1:15:19Speaker 2: Oh, you know very well. I always have time for you.
- 1:15:23Speaker 7: Thank you. I shall make use of as much of
- 1:15:26Speaker 7: it as I can.
- 1:15:28Speaker 2: What do you mean by that, as much of it
- 1:15:30Speaker 2: as you can?
- 1:15:31Speaker 7: Well? Does that alarm you?
- 1:15:33Speaker 2: It was such a strange way of putting It is
- 1:15:36Speaker 2: anything likely to happen.
- 1:15:38Speaker 7: Nothing but what I have long been prepared for. But
- 1:15:42Speaker 7: I certainly didn't expect it to happen so soon.
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: Gripping him by the arm, what have you found out,
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: doctor Rank? You must tell me sitting down by the stove.
- 1:15:53Speaker 7: It is all up with me, and it can't be helped.
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: With a sigh of relief.
- 1:15:58Speaker 2: Is it about yourself?
- 1:16:00Speaker 7: Who else? It is no use lying to oneself. I
- 1:16:03Speaker 7: am the most wretched of all my patients, missus Helmer.
- 1:16:07Speaker 7: Lately I have been taking stock of my internal economy,
- 1:16:10Speaker 7: the bankrupt. Probably within a month I shall lie rotting
- 1:16:15Speaker 7: in the churchyard.
- 1:16:17Speaker 2: What an ugly thing to say?
- 1:16:19Speaker 7: The thing itself is cursedly ugly, And the worst of
- 1:16:22Speaker 7: it is that I shall have to face so much
- 1:16:25Speaker 7: more that is ugly. Before that, I shall only make
- 1:16:29Speaker 7: one more examination of myself. When I have done that,
- 1:16:32Speaker 7: I shall know pretty certainly when it will be that
- 1:16:35Speaker 7: the horrors of dissolution will begin. There is something I
- 1:16:39Speaker 7: want to tell you. Helmer's refined nature gives him an
- 1:16:43Speaker 7: unconquerable disgusted everything that is ugly. I won't have him
- 1:16:48Speaker 7: in my sick room.
- 1:16:49Speaker 2: Oh but doctor Rank.
- 1:16:51Speaker 7: I won't have him there, not on any account. I
- 1:16:54Speaker 7: bar my door to him. As soon as I am
- 1:16:58Speaker 7: quite certain that the worst has come, I shall send
- 1:17:01Speaker 7: you my card with a black cross on it, and
- 1:17:05Speaker 7: then you will know that the loathsome end has begun.
- 1:17:08Speaker 2: You are quite absurd today, and I wanted you so
- 1:17:12Speaker 2: much to be in a really good humor.
- 1:17:14Speaker 7: With death stalking beside me. To have to pay this
- 1:17:17Speaker 7: penalty for another man's sin? Is there any justice in that?
- 1:17:22Speaker 7: And in every single family, in one way or another,
- 1:17:26Speaker 7: some such anexorable retribution is being exacted.
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: Putting her hands over her ears rubbish?
- 1:17:34Speaker 2: Do talk of something cheerful?
- 1:17:36Speaker 7: Oh, it's a mere laughing matter. The whole thing, my
- 1:17:41Speaker 7: pure innocent spine has to suffer for my father's youthful amusements.
- 1:17:47Speaker 1: Sitting at the table on the left.
- 1:17:50Speaker 2: I suppose you mean that he was too partial to
- 1:17:52Speaker 2: asparagus and pete de fois grade, don't you Yes?
- 1:17:56Speaker 7: And to truffles.
- 1:17:58Speaker 2: Truffles, yes, and oysters too.
- 1:18:01Speaker 7: I suppose oysters, of course, that goes without saying.
- 1:18:05Speaker 2: And heaps of port and champagne. It is sad that
- 1:18:09Speaker 2: all these nice things should take their revenge on our.
- 1:18:11Speaker 7: Bones, especially that they should revenge themselves on the unlucky
- 1:18:16Speaker 7: bones of those who have not had the satisfaction of
- 1:18:19Speaker 7: enjoying them.
- 1:18:20Speaker 2: Yes, that's the saddest part of all.
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: With a searching look at her, hmm, after a short pause.
- 1:18:28Speaker 2: Why did you smile?
- 1:18:30Speaker 7: No it was you that laughed.
- 1:18:32Speaker 2: No, it was you that smiled, Doctor Rank.
- 1:18:35Speaker 7: Rising, You are a greater rascal than I thought.
- 1:18:39Speaker 2: I am in a silly mood to day.
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: So it seems, putting her hands on his shoulders.
- 1:18:45Speaker 2: Dear, dear doctor Rank, Death mustn't take you away from Torvalden.
- 1:18:49Speaker 7: Me it does a loss you would easily recover from
- 1:18:55Speaker 7: those who are gone er soon forgotten.
- 1:18:58Speaker 1: Looking at him anxiously, do you.
- 1:19:00Speaker 7: Believe that people form new ties?
- 1:19:03Speaker 2: And then who will form new ties?
- 1:19:05Speaker 7: Both you and Helmer when I am gone, you yourself
- 1:19:08Speaker 7: are already on the high road to it. I think,
- 1:19:11Speaker 7: what did that missus Lynde want here last night?
- 1:19:15Speaker 2: Oh you don't mean to say you are jealous of
- 1:19:17Speaker 2: poor Christine?
- 1:19:18Speaker 7: Yes I am. She will be my successor in this
- 1:19:23Speaker 7: house when I am done for this woman will.
- 1:19:27Speaker 2: Hush, don't speak so loud.
- 1:19:28Speaker 7: She is in that room today again.
- 1:19:31Speaker 2: There you see, she has only come to sow my
- 1:19:34Speaker 2: dress for me. Bless my soul. How unreasonable you are.
- 1:19:38Speaker 1: Sits down on the sofa.
- 1:19:40Speaker 2: Be nice now, doctor Rank, And tomorrow you will see
- 1:19:42Speaker 2: how beautifully I shall dance, and you can imagine I
- 1:19:45Speaker 2: am doing it all for you and for Torvald too.
- 1:19:48Speaker 1: Of course takes various things out of the.
- 1:19:51Speaker 2: Box, doctor Rank. Come and sit down here and I
- 1:19:54Speaker 2: will show you something.
- 1:19:56Speaker 1: Sitting down?
- 1:19:57Speaker 7: What is it? Just look at the silk stockings.
- 1:20:02Speaker 2: Flesh colored, aren't they lovely? It is so dark here now?
- 1:20:06Speaker 2: But tomorrow, no, no, no, you must only look at
- 1:20:10Speaker 2: the feet. Oh well, you may have leave to look
- 1:20:13Speaker 2: at the legs too. Hmmm, why are you looking so critical?
- 1:20:19Speaker 2: Don't you think they will fit me?
- 1:20:20Speaker 7: I have no means of forming an opinion about that.
- 1:20:24Speaker 1: Looks at him for a moment for shame, hits him
- 1:20:27Speaker 1: lightly on the ear with the stockings. That's to punish you,
- 1:20:32Speaker 1: folds them up again.
- 1:20:34Speaker 7: And what other nice things am I to be allowed
- 1:20:37Speaker 7: to see?
- 1:20:38Speaker 2: Not a single thing more for being so naughty?
- 1:20:41Speaker 1: She looks among the things, humming to herself after a
- 1:20:45Speaker 1: short silence.
- 1:20:46Speaker 7: When I am sitting here talking to you as intimately
- 1:20:49Speaker 7: as this, I cannot imagine for a moment what would
- 1:20:52Speaker 7: have become of me if I had never come into this.
- 1:20:55Speaker 2: House smiling, I believe you do feel thoroughly at home
- 1:20:59Speaker 2: with us.
- 1:21:00Speaker 1: In a lower voice, looking straight in front of him.
- 1:21:04Speaker 7: And to be obliged to leave it all nonsense.
- 1:21:07Speaker 2: You are not going to leave it as.
- 1:21:09Speaker 7: Before, and not to be able to leave behind one
- 1:21:13Speaker 7: the slightest token of one's gratitude, scarce, leave in a
- 1:21:17Speaker 7: fleeting regret, nothing but an empty place which the first
- 1:21:21Speaker 7: comer can fill as well as any other.
- 1:21:24Speaker 2: And if I asked you now for a no for
- 1:21:28Speaker 2: what for a big proof of your friendship? Yes, yes,
- 1:21:34Speaker 2: I mean a tremendously big favor, would.
- 1:21:37Speaker 7: You really make me so happy for once.
- 1:21:40Speaker 2: But you don't know what it is yet? No, but
- 1:21:43Speaker 2: tell me, I really can't, doctor Rank. It is something
- 1:21:46Speaker 2: out of all reason. It means advice and help in
- 1:21:49Speaker 2: a favor.
- 1:21:50Speaker 7: The bigger thing it is, the better. I cannot conceive
- 1:21:55Speaker 7: what it is you mean? Do tell me? Haven't I
- 1:21:57Speaker 7: your confidence.
- 1:21:59Speaker 2: More than anyone else? I know you are my truest
- 1:22:02Speaker 2: and best friend, and so I will tell you what
- 1:22:06Speaker 2: it is, well, doctor Rank, it is something you must
- 1:22:10Speaker 2: help me to prevent. You know how devotedly, how inexpressibly
- 1:22:15Speaker 2: deeply Torvald loves me. He would never, for a moment
- 1:22:18Speaker 2: hesitate to give his life for.
- 1:22:19Speaker 7: Me, leaning towards her, Norah, do you think he is
- 1:22:25Speaker 7: the only one with.
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: A slight start, the only one.
- 1:22:30Speaker 7: The only one who would gladly give his life for
- 1:22:33Speaker 7: your sake?
- 1:22:34Speaker 1: Sadly is that it?
- 1:22:37Speaker 7: I was determined. You should know it before I went away,
- 1:22:40Speaker 7: And there will never be a better opportunity than this.
- 1:22:42Speaker 7: Now you know it, Norah, And now you know too
- 1:22:45Speaker 7: that you can trust me as you would trust no
- 1:22:47Speaker 7: one else.
- 1:22:48Speaker 2: Rises deliberately and quickly let me pass, makes room for
- 1:22:53Speaker 2: her to pass him, but sits still Nora at the
- 1:22:58Speaker 2: hall door. Helen bring in the lamp, goes over to
- 1:23:02Speaker 2: the stove. Doctor Rank, Dear doctor Rank, that was really
- 1:23:07Speaker 2: horrid of you to have loved you.
- 1:23:10Speaker 7: As much as anyone else does? Was that horrid?
- 1:23:13Speaker 2: No but to go and tell me?
- 1:23:15Speaker 3: So?
- 1:23:16Speaker 2: There was really no need.
- 1:23:17Speaker 7: What do you mean, did you know?
- 1:23:21Speaker 1: Maid enters with lamp, puts it down on the table
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: and goes out.
- 1:23:25Speaker 7: Norah, missus Helmer, tell me had you any idea of this? Oh?
- 1:23:30Speaker 2: How do I know whether I had or whether I hadn't.
- 1:23:33Speaker 2: I really can't tell you to think you could be
- 1:23:36Speaker 2: so clumsy, doctor Rank. We were getting on so nicely well.
- 1:23:40Speaker 7: At all events. You know now that you can command
- 1:23:43Speaker 7: me body and soul. So won't you speak out?
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: Looking at him?
- 1:23:48Speaker 7: After what happened, I beg you to let me know
- 1:23:51Speaker 7: what it is.
- 1:23:53Speaker 2: I can't tell you anything now.
- 1:23:54Speaker 7: Yes, yes, you mustn't punish me in that way. Let
- 1:23:57Speaker 7: me have permission to do for you whatever I may do.
- 1:24:01Speaker 2: You can do nothing for me now. Besides, I really
- 1:24:05Speaker 2: don't need any help at all. You will find that
- 1:24:08Speaker 2: the whole thing is merely fancy on my part. It
- 1:24:11Speaker 2: really is, so, of course.
- 1:24:13Speaker 1: It is sits down in the rocking chair and looks
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: at him with a smile.
- 1:24:17Speaker 2: You are a nice sort of man, doctor Rank. Don't
- 1:24:20Speaker 2: you feel ashamed of yourself?
- 1:24:21Speaker 7: Now?
- 1:24:22Speaker 2: The lamp has come not.
- 1:24:23Speaker 7: A bit, But perhaps I had better go forever.
- 1:24:28Speaker 2: No, indeed you shall not. Of course you must come
- 1:24:31Speaker 2: here just as before. You know very well Torvald can't
- 1:24:35Speaker 2: do without you.
- 1:24:37Speaker 6: Yes, but do you?
- 1:24:39Speaker 2: Oh? I am always tremendously pleased when you come.
- 1:24:42Speaker 7: It is just that that put me on the wrong track.
- 1:24:46Speaker 7: You're riddle to me. I have often thought that you
- 1:24:49Speaker 7: would almost as soon be in my company as in Helmer's.
- 1:24:52Speaker 2: Yes, you see, there are some people one loves best
- 1:24:56Speaker 2: and others whom one would almost always rather have as companions.
- 1:25:00Speaker 7: Yes, there is something in that.
- 1:25:03Speaker 2: When I was at home, of course I loved Papa best,
- 1:25:06Speaker 2: but I always thought it tremendous fun if I could
- 1:25:08Speaker 2: steal down into the maid's rooms, because they never moralized
- 1:25:11Speaker 2: at all and talk to each other about such entertaining things.
- 1:25:15Speaker 7: I see, it is their place I have taken jumping
- 1:25:19Speaker 7: up and going to him.
- 1:25:21Speaker 2: Oh, dear nice doctor Rank. I never meant that at all,
- 1:25:25Speaker 2: but surely you can understand that being with Torvald is
- 1:25:27Speaker 2: a little like being with Papa.
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: Enter maid from the hall, if you please, ma'am whispers
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: and hands her a card. Glancing at the card, oh,
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: puts it in her pocket.
- 1:25:40Speaker 7: Is there anything wrong?
- 1:25:41Speaker 2: No, no, not in the least. It is only something.
- 1:25:45Speaker 2: It is my new dress.
- 1:25:47Speaker 7: Thought your dress is lying there?
- 1:25:50Speaker 2: Oh, yes, that one. But this is another. I ordered it.
- 1:25:54Speaker 2: Dorvald mustn't know about it.
- 1:25:56Speaker 7: Oh, then that was the great secret.
- 1:26:00Speaker 5: Of course.
- 1:26:01Speaker 2: Just go in to him. He is sitting in the
- 1:26:02Speaker 2: inner room. Keep him as long as.
- 1:26:04Speaker 7: Make your mind easy. I won't let him escape.
- 1:26:07Speaker 2: Goes into Helmer's room to the maid, and he is
- 1:26:11Speaker 2: standing waiting in the kitchen.
- 1:26:13Speaker 6: Yes, he came up the beckstairs.
- 1:26:15Speaker 2: But didn't you tell him no one was in.
- 1:26:17Speaker 6: Yes, but it was no good. He won't go away, No,
- 1:26:21Speaker 6: he says, he won't until he has seen you. Ma'am.
- 1:26:24Speaker 2: Well, let him come in, but quietly, Helen. You mustn't
- 1:26:28Speaker 2: say anything about it to anyone. It is a surprise
- 1:26:31Speaker 2: for my husband.
- 1:26:32Speaker 6: Yes, ma'am, I quite understand.
- 1:26:34Speaker 2: Exit this dreadful thing is going to happen. It will
- 1:26:39Speaker 2: happen in spite of me. No, no, no, it can't happen.
- 1:26:45Speaker 2: It shan't happen.
- 1:26:47Speaker 1: She bolts the door of Helmer's room. The maid opens
- 1:26:50Speaker 1: the hall door for Krogstad and shuts it after him.
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: He is wearing a fur coat, high boots and a
- 1:26:55Speaker 1: fur cap. Advancing toward him.
- 1:26:59Speaker 2: Speak hello, oh, my husband is at home.
- 1:27:01Speaker 3: No matter about that.
- 1:27:03Speaker 2: What do you want of.
- 1:27:04Speaker 3: Me an explanation of something?
- 1:27:06Speaker 2: Make haste? Then? What is it?
- 1:27:08Speaker 3: You know? I suppose that I have got my dismissal.
- 1:27:12Speaker 2: I couldn't prevent it, mister Krog's dad. I thought as
- 1:27:15Speaker 2: hard as I could on your side, but it was
- 1:27:16Speaker 2: no good.
- 1:27:18Speaker 3: Does your husband love you so little? Then he knows
- 1:27:21Speaker 3: what I can expose you to? And yet he ventures?
- 1:27:24Speaker 2: How can you suppose that he has any knowledge of
- 1:27:26Speaker 2: the sort?
- 1:27:27Speaker 3: I didn't suppose so at all. It would not be
- 1:27:29Speaker 3: the least like our dear Torvald Helmer to show so
- 1:27:32Speaker 3: much courage.
- 1:27:33Speaker 2: Mister Krogstad, a little respect for my husband.
- 1:27:36Speaker 3: Please, certainly all the respect he deserves. But since you
- 1:27:41Speaker 3: have kept the matter so carefully to yourself, I make
- 1:27:44Speaker 3: bold to suppose that you have a little clear idea
- 1:27:47Speaker 3: than you had yesterday of what it actually is that
- 1:27:50Speaker 3: you have done.
- 1:27:50Speaker 2: More than you could ever teach me.
- 1:27:52Speaker 3: Yes, such a bad lawyer as I am.
- 1:27:56Speaker 2: What is it you want of me?
- 1:27:58Speaker 3: Only to see how you wor mis helmer. I've been
- 1:28:01Speaker 3: thinking about you all day long. A mere cashier, a
- 1:28:05Speaker 3: quill driver, a well a man like me, even he
- 1:28:08Speaker 3: has a little of what is called feeling, you know,
- 1:28:12Speaker 3: show it.
- 1:28:12Speaker 2: Then think of my little children?
- 1:28:15Speaker 3: Have you and your husband not thought of mine? Never
- 1:28:18Speaker 3: mind about that. I only want to tell you that
- 1:28:21Speaker 3: you need not take this matter too seriously. In the
- 1:28:24Speaker 3: first pace, there will be no accusation made on my part.
- 1:28:27Speaker 2: No, of course not. I was sure of that the whole.
- 1:28:31Speaker 3: Thing can be arranged amicably. There is no reason why
- 1:28:35Speaker 3: anyone should know anything about it. It remain a secret
- 1:28:39Speaker 3: between us three.
- 1:28:40Speaker 2: My husband must never get to know anything about it.
- 1:28:43Speaker 3: How will you be able to prevent it? Am I
- 1:28:46Speaker 3: to understand that you can pay the balance that is.
- 1:28:47Speaker 2: Owing, No, not just at present?
- 1:28:50Speaker 3: Or perhaps that you have made some expedient for raising
- 1:28:52Speaker 3: the money.
- 1:28:53Speaker 2: So soon, No expedient that I mean to make use of.
- 1:28:56Speaker 3: Well, in any case, it would have been no use
- 1:28:58Speaker 3: to you now. If you I stood there with ever
- 1:29:00Speaker 3: so much money as in your hand. I would never
- 1:29:03Speaker 3: part with your bond.
- 1:29:04Speaker 2: Tell me what purpose you mean to put it to.
- 1:29:07Speaker 3: I shall only preserve it, keep it in my possession.
- 1:29:11Speaker 3: No one who is not concerned in the matter shall
- 1:29:13Speaker 3: have the slightest hint of it, so that if the
- 1:29:16Speaker 3: thought of it has driven you to any desperate resolution,
- 1:29:19Speaker 3: it has if you had it in your mind to
- 1:29:21Speaker 3: run away from your home, I had, or even something worse.
- 1:29:26Speaker 2: How could you know that?
- 1:29:27Speaker 3: Give up the idea?
- 1:29:28Speaker 2: How did you know I had thought of that?
- 1:29:30Speaker 3: Most of us think of that first. I did too,
- 1:29:34Speaker 3: But I hadn't.
- 1:29:35Speaker 1: The courage faintly, no more, had I in a tone
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: of relief.
- 1:29:41Speaker 3: No, that's it, isn't it. You hadn't the courage either,
- 1:29:47Speaker 3: No I haven't.
- 1:29:49Speaker 2: I haven't.
- 1:29:51Speaker 3: Besides, it would have been a great piece of folly.
- 1:29:56Speaker 3: Once the storm at home is over, I have a
- 1:29:59Speaker 3: letter for your house.
- 1:30:00Speaker 2: In my pocket, telling him everything in as.
- 1:30:03Speaker 3: Leny, in a manner as I possibly could quickly.
- 1:30:06Speaker 2: He mustn't get the letter, tear it up. I will
- 1:30:09Speaker 2: find some means of getting money.
- 1:30:11Speaker 3: Excuse me, miss Helmer, but I thought I told you
- 1:30:13Speaker 3: just now.
- 1:30:14Speaker 2: I am not speaking of what I owe you. Tell
- 1:30:17Speaker 2: me what sum you are asking my husband for and
- 1:30:19Speaker 2: I will get the money.
- 1:30:21Speaker 3: I am not asking your husband for a penny.
- 1:30:24Speaker 2: What do you want then?
- 1:30:26Speaker 3: I will tell you. I want to rehabilitate myself, Miss Helmer.
- 1:30:30Speaker 3: I want to get on and in that your husband
- 1:30:33Speaker 3: must help me. For the last year and a half,
- 1:30:35Speaker 3: I've not had a hand in anything dishonorable. Amid all
- 1:30:38Speaker 3: that time, I'd been struggling in the most restricted circumstances.
- 1:30:42Speaker 3: I was content to work my way up step by step.
- 1:30:46Speaker 3: Now I am turned out and I am not going
- 1:30:48Speaker 3: to be satisfied with merely being taken into favor again.
- 1:30:51Speaker 3: I want to get on I tell you, I want
- 1:30:53Speaker 3: to get into the bank again, into a higher position.
- 1:30:56Speaker 3: Your husband must make a place for me that he
- 1:31:00Speaker 3: will never do. He will, I know him. He dare
- 1:31:04Speaker 3: not protest. And as soon as I am in there
- 1:31:07Speaker 3: again with him, then you will see. Within a year
- 1:31:11Speaker 3: I shall be the manager's right hand. It will be
- 1:31:13Speaker 3: Nils Krogstad and not tor Vaald Helmer who manages the bank.
- 1:31:18Speaker 2: That's a thing you will never see.
- 1:31:20Speaker 3: Do you mean that you will?
- 1:31:21Speaker 2: I have courage enough for it now.
- 1:31:24Speaker 3: Oh, you can't frighten me. Fine spoiled lady like you.
- 1:31:29Speaker 2: You will see. You will see.
- 1:31:31Speaker 3: Under the ice, perhaps down into the cold, cold black water,
- 1:31:37Speaker 3: and then in the spring float up to the surface,
- 1:31:40Speaker 3: all horrible and unrecognizable, with your hair fallen out.
- 1:31:45Speaker 2: You can't frighten me, nor you me.
- 1:31:49Speaker 3: People don't do such things, miss Helmer. Besides, what use
- 1:31:54Speaker 3: would it be? I would have him completely in my
- 1:31:57Speaker 3: power all the same.
- 1:31:59Speaker 2: After when I am no longer.
- 1:32:02Speaker 3: Have you forgotten that it is I who are the
- 1:32:04Speaker 3: keeping of your reputation?
- 1:32:06Speaker 1: Nora stands speechlessly, looking at him.
- 1:32:08Speaker 3: Well, now I have warned you do not do anything foolish.
- 1:32:13Speaker 3: When Helmer has had my letter, I shall expect a
- 1:32:16Speaker 3: message from him, and be sure you remember that it
- 1:32:18Speaker 3: is your husband himself who has forced me into such
- 1:32:21Speaker 3: ways as this. Again, I will never forgive him for that. Goodbye,
- 1:32:26Speaker 3: Miss Helmer.
- 1:32:28Speaker 1: Exit through the hall, goes to the hall door, opens
- 1:32:32Speaker 1: it slightly and listens.
- 1:32:34Speaker 2: He is going He is not putting the letter in
- 1:32:37Speaker 2: the box. Oh no, no, that's impossible.
- 1:32:41Speaker 1: Opens the door by degrees.
- 1:32:44Speaker 2: What is that he is standing outside? He is not
- 1:32:48Speaker 2: going downstairs? Is he hesitating? Can he?
- 1:32:52Speaker 1: A letter drops into the box. Then Krogstead's footsteps are
- 1:32:55Speaker 1: heard until they die away. As he goes downstairs, Nora
- 1:32:59Speaker 1: utters stifled cry and runs across the room to the
- 1:33:02Speaker 1: table by the sofa. A short pause in the letter
- 1:33:06Speaker 1: box steals across to the hall door.
- 1:33:10Speaker 2: There it lies Torvald. Torvald, there is no hope for us.
- 1:33:16Speaker 5: Now, missus.
- 1:33:18Speaker 1: Lynde comes in from the room on the left, carrying
- 1:33:20Speaker 1: the dress.
- 1:33:22Speaker 5: There. I can't see anything more to mend. Now would
- 1:33:25Speaker 5: you like to try it on?
- 1:33:26Speaker 1: In a hoarse whisper, Christine, come here, throwing the dress
- 1:33:31Speaker 1: down on the sofa.
- 1:33:32Speaker 5: What is the matter with you? You look so agitated?
- 1:33:36Speaker 2: Do you see that letter there? Look, you can see
- 1:33:40Speaker 2: it through the glass in the letter.
- 1:33:41Speaker 5: Box, Yes, I see it.
- 1:33:43Speaker 2: That letter is from Krogstad, Nora.
- 1:33:47Speaker 5: It was Crogstad who lent you the money.
- 1:33:49Speaker 2: Yes, and now Torvald will know all about it.
- 1:33:53Speaker 5: Believe me, Nora, that's the best thing for both of you.
- 1:33:57Speaker 2: You don't know all. I forged a name, good Heavens.
- 1:34:02Speaker 2: I only want to say this to you, Christine. You
- 1:34:04Speaker 2: must be my witness, your witness.
- 1:34:07Speaker 5: What do you mean?
- 1:34:08Speaker 2: What am I to If I should go out of
- 1:34:10Speaker 2: my mind and it might easily happen Laura, or if
- 1:34:14Speaker 2: anything else should happen to me, anything, for instance, that
- 1:34:17Speaker 2: might prevent my being here.
- 1:34:19Speaker 5: Laura, Lara, you are quite out of your mind.
- 1:34:22Speaker 2: And if it should happen that there were someone who
- 1:34:24Speaker 2: wanted to take all the responsibility, all the blame, you understand.
- 1:34:28Speaker 5: Yes, yes, but how can you suppose?
- 1:34:31Speaker 2: Then you must be my witness that it is not true. Christine.
- 1:34:35Speaker 2: I am not out of my mind at all. I
- 1:34:37Speaker 2: am in my right senses now. And I tell you
- 1:34:40Speaker 2: no one else has known anything about it. I and
- 1:34:43Speaker 2: I alone did the whole thing.
- 1:34:45Speaker 5: Remember that I will, indeed, but I don't understand all this.
- 1:34:51Speaker 2: How should you understand it? A wonderful thing is going
- 1:34:55Speaker 2: to happen, Yes, a wonderful thing, But it is so terrible, Christine,
- 1:35:01Speaker 2: it mustn't happen, not for all the world.
- 1:35:05Speaker 5: I will go at once and see Krogstad.
- 1:35:07Speaker 2: Don't go to him. He will do you some harm.
- 1:35:09Speaker 5: There was a time when he would gladly do anything
- 1:35:11Speaker 5: for my sake. He where does he live?
- 1:35:16Speaker 2: How should I know? Yes?
- 1:35:19Speaker 1: Feeling in her pocket, here is his card, But the letter.
- 1:35:24Speaker 1: The letter calls from his room, knocking at the door.
- 1:35:27Speaker 1: Nora cries out anxiously.
- 1:35:30Speaker 2: Oh, what's that? What do you want?
- 1:35:32Speaker 4: Don't be so frightened. We're not coming in. You've locked
- 1:35:35Speaker 4: the door. Are you trying on your dress?
- 1:35:37Speaker 5: Yes?
- 1:35:38Speaker 2: That's it? I look so nice, Torvald.
- 1:35:41Speaker 1: Missus Lynde, who has read the card?
- 1:35:43Speaker 5: I see he lives at the corner here.
- 1:35:45Speaker 2: Yes, but it's no use. It is hopeless. The letter
- 1:35:49Speaker 2: is lying there in the box.
- 1:35:51Speaker 5: And your husband keeps the key. Yes, always Krogsdad must
- 1:35:55Speaker 5: ask for his letter back unread. He must find some pretense.
- 1:35:58Speaker 2: But it is just at this time that Torvald generally.
- 1:36:01Speaker 5: You must delay him. Go into him in the meantime.
- 1:36:05Speaker 5: I will come back as soon as I can.
- 1:36:07Speaker 1: She goes out hurriedly through the hall door, goes to
- 1:36:10Speaker 1: Helmer's door, opens it, and peeps in Torvald from the
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: inner room.
- 1:36:15Speaker 4: Well, may I venture at last to come into my
- 1:36:17Speaker 4: own room again?
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: Go along, Rank, Now you will see halting in the doorway.
- 1:36:22Speaker 4: But what is this?
- 1:36:23Speaker 7: What is what?
- 1:36:24Speaker 4: Dear Rank led me to expect a splendid transformation.
- 1:36:28Speaker 1: In the doorway.
- 1:36:29Speaker 7: I understood so, but evidently I was mistaken.
- 1:36:34Speaker 2: Yes, nobody is to have the chance of admiring me
- 1:36:36Speaker 2: in my dress until tomorrow.
- 1:36:38Speaker 4: But my dear Nora, you look so worn out. Have
- 1:36:41Speaker 4: you been practicing too much?
- 1:36:44Speaker 2: No, I have not practiced at all.
- 1:36:46Speaker 4: But you will need to.
- 1:36:47Speaker 2: Yes, indeed I shall, Torvald. But I I can't get
- 1:36:50Speaker 2: on a bit without you to help me. I have
- 1:36:52Speaker 2: absolutely forgotten the whole thing.
- 1:36:55Speaker 4: Oh, we will soon work it up again.
- 1:36:57Speaker 2: Yes, help me, Torvald, promise that you will. I am
- 1:37:01Speaker 2: so nervous about it, all the people. You must give
- 1:37:04Speaker 2: yourself up to me entirely, this evening, not the tiniest
- 1:37:08Speaker 2: bit of business. You mustn't even take a pen in
- 1:37:10Speaker 2: your hand, will you promise, Torvald?
- 1:37:12Speaker 4: Dear, I promise this evening, I will be wholly and
- 1:37:16Speaker 4: absolutely at your service, you helpless little mortal. Oh, by
- 1:37:20Speaker 4: the way, first of all, I will just goes.
- 1:37:23Speaker 1: Toward the hall door.
- 1:37:24Speaker 2: What are you going to do there?
- 1:37:26Speaker 4: Only see if any letters have come?
- 1:37:28Speaker 2: No, No, don't do that, Torvald, Why not, Torvald, Please don't?
- 1:37:32Speaker 2: There is nothing there?
- 1:37:33Speaker 1: Well, let me look, turns to go to the letter box.
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: Nora at the piano plays the first bars of the Tarantella.
- 1:37:40Speaker 1: Helmer stops in the doorway.
- 1:37:42Speaker 2: Ha ha, I can't dance tomorrow if I don't practice
- 1:37:46Speaker 2: with you going up to her.
- 1:37:48Speaker 4: Are you really so afraid.
- 1:37:49Speaker 2: Of it, dear, Yes, so dreadfully afraid of it. Let
- 1:37:54Speaker 2: me practice at once. There is time now before we
- 1:37:56Speaker 2: go to dinner. Sit down and play for me, Torvald, dear,
- 1:38:00Speaker 2: criticize me and correct me.
- 1:38:02Speaker 4: As you play, with great pleasure if you wish me to.
- 1:38:05Speaker 1: Sits down at the piano, takes out of the box
- 1:38:08Speaker 1: a tambourine and a long variegated shawl. She hastily drops
- 1:38:12Speaker 1: the shawl round her. Then she springs to the front
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: of the stage and calls.
- 1:38:16Speaker 2: Out, Now, play for me. I'm going to dance.
- 1:38:19Speaker 1: Helmer plays, and Nora dances. Ronk stands by the piano
- 1:38:23Speaker 1: behind Helmer and looks on as he plays slower, slower.
- 1:38:28Speaker 2: I can't do it any other way, not.
- 1:38:30Speaker 4: So violently, Nora.
- 1:38:31Speaker 1: This is the way stops playing.
- 1:38:34Speaker 4: No, no, that he's not a bit right.
- 1:38:37Speaker 1: Laughing and swinging the tambourine.
- 1:38:39Speaker 2: Didn't I tell you?
- 1:38:40Speaker 7: So let me play for her.
- 1:38:43Speaker 4: Getting up, yes, do I can correct her better.
- 1:38:46Speaker 1: Then Ronk sits down at the piano and plays. Nora
- 1:38:49Speaker 1: dances more and more wildly. Helmer has taken up a
- 1:38:53Speaker 1: position beside the stove, and during her dance, gives her
- 1:38:56Speaker 1: frequent instructions. She does not seem to hear him. Her
- 1:39:00Speaker 1: comes down and falls over her shoulders. She pays no
- 1:39:03Speaker 1: attention to it, but goes on dancing. Enter missus Lynde,
- 1:39:08Speaker 1: standing as if spellbound in the doorway, Oh as she
- 1:39:13Speaker 1: dances such fun Christine.
- 1:39:16Speaker 4: My dear darling, Nora, you are dancing as if your
- 1:39:19Speaker 4: life depended on it. So it does stop, Rank, This
- 1:39:23Speaker 4: is sheer madness. Stop, I tell you.
- 1:39:26Speaker 1: Ronk stops playing, and Nora suddenly stands still. Helmer goes
- 1:39:30Speaker 1: up to her.
- 1:39:31Speaker 4: I could never have believed it. You've forgotten everything I told.
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: You, throwing away the tambourine.
- 1:39:37Speaker 4: There you see you will want a lot of coaching.
- 1:39:40Speaker 2: Yes, you see how much I need it. You must
- 1:39:43Speaker 2: coach me up to the last minute. Promise me that.
- 1:39:46Speaker 4: Torvald you can depend on me.
- 1:39:49Speaker 2: You must not think of anything but me, either today
- 1:39:51Speaker 2: or tomorrow. You mustn't open a single letter, not even
- 1:39:54Speaker 2: open the letter box.
- 1:39:56Speaker 4: Are you still afraid of that fellow?
- 1:39:58Speaker 2: Yes, indeed I am, Nora.
- 1:40:00Speaker 4: I can tell from your looks that there is a
- 1:40:02Speaker 4: letter from him lying there.
- 1:40:04Speaker 2: I don't know I think there is, but you must
- 1:40:08Speaker 2: not read anything of that kind.
- 1:40:09Speaker 7: Now.
- 1:40:10Speaker 2: Nothing horrid must come between us until this is all over.
- 1:40:13Speaker 1: Whispers to Helmer. You mustn't contradict her taking her in
- 1:40:18Speaker 1: his arms.
- 1:40:19Speaker 4: The child shall have a way. But tomorrow night, after
- 1:40:22Speaker 4: you have danced.
- 1:40:23Speaker 2: Then you will be free.
- 1:40:25Speaker 1: The maid appears in the doorway to the right.
- 1:40:28Speaker 6: Then are is served, ma'am.
- 1:40:29Speaker 2: We will have champagne, Helen, very.
- 1:40:32Speaker 6: Good, ma'am.
- 1:40:32Speaker 4: Exit, Hello, are we going to have a banquet?
- 1:40:36Speaker 2: Yes, a champagne banquet until the small hours calls out.
- 1:40:42Speaker 2: And if you macaroons, helen lots, just.
- 1:40:44Speaker 4: For once, come, come. Don't be so wild and nervous,
- 1:40:50Speaker 4: be my own little skylark as you used to be.
- 1:40:53Speaker 2: Yes, dear, I will but go in now, and you too,
- 1:40:56Speaker 2: Doctor rank Christine. You must help me to do up my.
- 1:40:59Speaker 1: Head, whispers to Helmer. As they go out.
- 1:41:04Speaker 7: I suppose there is nothing. She is not expecting anything.
- 1:41:08Speaker 4: Far from it, my dear fellow. It is simply nothing
- 1:41:11Speaker 4: more than this childish nervousness I was telling you of.
- 1:41:16Speaker 1: They go into the right handed room.
- 1:41:19Speaker 2: Well.
- 1:41:21Speaker 5: Gone out of town.
- 1:41:23Speaker 2: I could tell from your face he is coming.
- 1:41:25Speaker 5: Home tomorrow evening, I wrote a note for him.
- 1:41:28Speaker 2: You should have let it alone. You must prevent nothing.
- 1:41:33Speaker 2: After all, it is splendid to be waiting for a
- 1:41:35Speaker 2: wonderful thing to happen.
- 1:41:37Speaker 5: What is it that you were waiting for?
- 1:41:39Speaker 2: Oh, you wouldn't understand. Go into them, I will come
- 1:41:43Speaker 2: in a moment.
- 1:41:45Speaker 1: Missus Lynde goes into the dining room. Nora stands still
- 1:41:48Speaker 1: for a little while, as if to compose herself. Then
- 1:41:51Speaker 1: she looks at her watch.
- 1:41:53Speaker 2: Five o'clock, seven hours until midnight, and then four and
- 1:41:58Speaker 2: twenty hours until the next minute night. Then the tarantella
- 1:42:02Speaker 2: will be over twenty four and seven thirty one hours
- 1:42:07Speaker 2: to live.
- 1:42:09Speaker 1: From the doorway on the.
- 1:42:10Speaker 4: Right, where's my little skylock?
- 1:42:14Speaker 1: Going to him with her arms outstretched?
- 1:42:17Speaker 2: Here she is.
- 1:42:20Speaker 1: End of Act two, Act three, the same scene, the
- 1:42:27Speaker 1: table has been placed in the middle of the stage
- 1:42:29Speaker 1: with chairs around it. A lamp is burning on the table.
- 1:42:33Speaker 1: The door into the hall stands open. Dance music is
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: heard in the room above. Missus Lynde is sitting at
- 1:42:39Speaker 1: the table, idly turning over the leaves of a book.
- 1:42:42Speaker 1: She tries to read, but does not seem to be
- 1:42:45Speaker 1: able to collect her thoughts every now and then. She
- 1:42:48Speaker 1: listens intently for a sound at the outer door, looking
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: at her watch.
- 1:42:52Speaker 5: Not yet, and the time is nearly up. If only
- 1:42:56Speaker 5: he does.
- 1:42:57Speaker 1: Not listens again. Ah, there he is, goes into the
- 1:43:01Speaker 1: hall and opens the outer door carefully. Light footsteps are
- 1:43:04Speaker 1: heard on the stairs.
- 1:43:06Speaker 5: She whispers, come in.
- 1:43:08Speaker 1: There is no one here in the doorway.
- 1:43:11Speaker 3: I found a note from you at home. What does
- 1:43:13Speaker 3: this mean?
- 1:43:15Speaker 5: It is absolutely necessary that I should have a talk with.
- 1:43:17Speaker 3: You, really, and it is absolutely necessary that it should
- 1:43:22Speaker 3: be here.
- 1:43:23Speaker 5: It is impossible where I live. There is no private
- 1:43:26Speaker 5: entrance to my rooms. Come in. We are quite alone.
- 1:43:30Speaker 5: The maid us asleep, and the Helmers are at the
- 1:43:31Speaker 5: dance upstairs.
- 1:43:33Speaker 1: Coming into the room.
- 1:43:35Speaker 3: Are the Helmers really at a dance tonight?
- 1:43:38Speaker 5: Yes? Why not?
- 1:43:39Speaker 3: Certainly? Why not?
- 1:43:42Speaker 5: Now, Niels, let us have a talk.
- 1:43:44Speaker 3: Can we two have anything to talk about?
- 1:43:46Speaker 5: We have a great deal to talk about.
- 1:43:48Speaker 3: I shouldn't have thought so.
- 1:43:50Speaker 5: No, you have never properly understood me.
- 1:43:54Speaker 3: Was there anything else to understand except what was obvious
- 1:43:57Speaker 3: to all the world. A heartless woman jilts him in
- 1:44:00Speaker 3: And when a more lucrative chance turns off.
- 1:44:02Speaker 5: Do you believe I am as absolutely heartless as that,
- 1:44:05Speaker 5: And do you believe that I did it with a
- 1:44:07Speaker 5: light heart, didn't you? Niels? Do you really think that
- 1:44:12Speaker 5: if it.
- 1:44:12Speaker 3: Were as you say, why did you write to me
- 1:44:14Speaker 3: as you did that time?
- 1:44:15Speaker 5: I could do nothing else as I had to break
- 1:44:18Speaker 5: with you. It was my duty also to put an
- 1:44:20Speaker 5: end to all that you felt.
- 1:44:21Speaker 3: For me, wringing his hands, So that was it, and
- 1:44:26Speaker 3: all this only for the sake of money.
- 1:44:30Speaker 5: You must not forget that I had a helpless mother
- 1:44:32Speaker 5: and two little brothers. We couldn't wait for you, Nils.
- 1:44:36Speaker 5: Your prospects seemed hopeless.
- 1:44:38Speaker 3: Then that may be so, But you had no right
- 1:44:41Speaker 3: to throw me over for someone else's sake.
- 1:44:43Speaker 5: Indeed, I don't know many a time I did ask
- 1:44:46Speaker 5: myself if I had a right to do it more gently.
- 1:44:51Speaker 3: When I lost you, it was as if all the
- 1:44:53Speaker 3: solid ground went from under my feet. Look at me now,
- 1:44:57Speaker 3: I am a shipwrecked man clinging to a bit of wrecket.
- 1:45:00Speaker 5: Wh but help maybe near.
- 1:45:03Speaker 3: It was near, But you came and stood in my.
- 1:45:06Speaker 5: Way unintentionally, Nil's. It was only today that I learned
- 1:45:11Speaker 5: it was your place I was going to take in
- 1:45:12Speaker 5: the bank.
- 1:45:14Speaker 3: I believe you if you say so, But now that
- 1:45:18Speaker 3: you know it, are you not going to give it
- 1:45:20Speaker 3: up to me?
- 1:45:21Speaker 5: No? Because that would not benefit you in the least.
- 1:45:24Speaker 3: Oh benefit benefit I would have done whether or no.
- 1:45:28Speaker 5: I have learned to act prudently. Life and hard, bitter
- 1:45:32Speaker 5: necessity have taught me that.
- 1:45:34Speaker 3: And life has taught me not to believe in fine speeches.
- 1:45:38Speaker 5: Then life has taught you something very reasonable, but deeds
- 1:45:42Speaker 5: you must believe in.
- 1:45:43Speaker 3: What do you mean by that?
- 1:45:44Speaker 5: You said you were like a shipwrecked man clinging to
- 1:45:47Speaker 5: some wreckage.
- 1:45:48Speaker 3: I had good reason to say so, Well, I am like.
- 1:45:51Speaker 5: A shipwrecked woman clinging to some wreckage, no one to
- 1:45:55Speaker 5: mourn for, no one to care for.
- 1:45:57Speaker 3: It was your own choice.
- 1:45:59Speaker 5: There was, There's no other choice.
- 1:46:01Speaker 3: Then, well, what now.
- 1:46:03Speaker 5: Niels, How would it be if we two shipwrecked people
- 1:46:06Speaker 5: could join forces?
- 1:46:07Speaker 3: What are you saying two one.
- 1:46:09Speaker 5: The same piece of wreckage would stand a better chance
- 1:46:11Speaker 5: than each on their own? Christine, I, what do you
- 1:46:14Speaker 5: suppose brought me to town?
- 1:46:16Speaker 3: Do you mean that you gave me a thought?
- 1:46:19Speaker 5: I could not endure life without work. All my life,
- 1:46:22Speaker 5: as long as I can remember, I have worked, and
- 1:46:24Speaker 5: it has been my greatest and only pleasure. But now
- 1:46:27Speaker 5: I am quite alone in the world. My life is
- 1:46:30Speaker 5: so dreadfully empty, and I feel so forsaken. There is
- 1:46:34Speaker 5: not the least pleasure in working for one's self, Niels.
- 1:46:37Speaker 5: Give me someone and something to work for.
- 1:46:40Speaker 3: I don't trust that it is nothing but a woman's
- 1:46:42Speaker 3: overstrained sense of generosity that prompts you to make such
- 1:46:45Speaker 3: an offer of yourself.
- 1:46:47Speaker 5: Have you ever noticed anything of the sort in me?
- 1:46:50Speaker 3: Could you really do it? Tell me? Do you know
- 1:46:53Speaker 3: all about my past life?
- 1:46:56Speaker 5: Yes?
- 1:46:58Speaker 3: And do you know what they think of me?
- 1:46:59Speaker 7: Here?
- 1:47:00Speaker 5: You seem to imply that with me you might have
- 1:47:02Speaker 5: been quite another man?
- 1:47:05Speaker 3: I am certain of it. Is it too late now, Christine?
- 1:47:10Speaker 3: Are you saying this deliberately?
- 1:47:12Speaker 4: Yes?
- 1:47:13Speaker 3: I am sure that you are. I see it in
- 1:47:15Speaker 3: your face. Have you really the courage?
- 1:47:18Speaker 7: Then?
- 1:47:18Speaker 5: I want to be a mother to someone, and your
- 1:47:20Speaker 5: children need a mother. We two need each other, Niels.
- 1:47:25Speaker 5: I have faith in your real character. I can dare
- 1:47:28Speaker 5: anything together with you.
- 1:47:30Speaker 1: Grasps her hands.
- 1:47:32Speaker 3: Thanks, Thanks Christine. Now I shall find a way to
- 1:47:35Speaker 3: clear myself in the eyes of the world. Ah, but
- 1:47:39Speaker 3: I forgot listening.
- 1:47:41Speaker 5: Hush the tarantella go go?
- 1:47:45Speaker 3: Why what is it?
- 1:47:47Speaker 5: Do you hear them up there. When that is over,
- 1:47:49Speaker 5: we may expect them back.
- 1:47:51Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I will go, But it is all of
- 1:47:55Speaker 3: no use. Of course, you are not aware what steps
- 1:47:57Speaker 3: I have taken in the matter of the Helmers.
- 1:47:59Speaker 5: Yes, I know all about that.
- 1:48:01Speaker 3: And in spite of that, you have the courage to I.
- 1:48:03Speaker 5: Understand very well to what lengths a man like you
- 1:48:06Speaker 5: might be driven by despair.
- 1:48:08Speaker 3: If only I could undo what I have done.
- 1:48:11Speaker 5: You cannot. Your letter is lying in the letter.
- 1:48:14Speaker 3: Box, now are you sure of that?
- 1:48:17Speaker 5: Quite sure?
- 1:48:17Speaker 1: But with a searching look.
- 1:48:19Speaker 3: At her, is that what it all means? That you
- 1:48:21Speaker 3: want to save your friend at any cost? Tell me, frankly,
- 1:48:25Speaker 3: is that it?
- 1:48:27Speaker 5: Niels? A woman who has once sold herself for another's
- 1:48:29Speaker 5: sake doesn't do it a second time.
- 1:48:32Speaker 3: I will ask for my letter back. No, no, yes,
- 1:48:39Speaker 3: of course I will. I will wait here until Helmer comes.
- 1:48:43Speaker 3: I will tell him he must give me my letter back,
- 1:48:46Speaker 3: that it concerns only my dismissal, and that he is
- 1:48:48Speaker 3: not to read it.
- 1:48:49Speaker 5: No, Niels, you must not recall your letter.
- 1:48:52Speaker 3: But tell me, wasn't it for that very purpose that
- 1:48:56Speaker 3: you asked to meet me here?
- 1:48:59Speaker 5: In my first moment of fright it was, But twenty
- 1:49:02Speaker 5: four hours have elapsed since then, and in that time
- 1:49:04Speaker 5: I have witnessed incredible things in this house. Helmer must
- 1:49:09Speaker 5: know all about it. This unhappy secret must be disclosed.
- 1:49:13Speaker 5: They must have a complete understanding between them, which is
- 1:49:15Speaker 5: impossible with all this concealment and falsehood going on.
- 1:49:19Speaker 3: Very well, if you will take the responsibility. But there
- 1:49:22Speaker 3: is one thing I can do in any case, and
- 1:49:24Speaker 3: I shall do it at once.
- 1:49:26Speaker 5: Listening, you must be quick and go. The dance is over.
- 1:49:29Speaker 5: We are not safe a moment longer.
- 1:49:31Speaker 3: I will wait for you below.
- 1:49:33Speaker 5: Yes, do you must see me back to my door.
- 1:49:37Speaker 3: I have never had such an amazing piece of good
- 1:49:39Speaker 3: fortune in my life.
- 1:49:41Speaker 1: Goes out through the outer door. The door between the
- 1:49:43Speaker 1: room and the hall remains open. Tidying up the room
- 1:49:48Speaker 1: and laying her hat on cloak.
- 1:49:49Speaker 5: Ready, what a difference, What a difference someone to work
- 1:49:55Speaker 5: for and live for a home, to bring comfort into that,
- 1:50:00Speaker 5: I will do. Indeed, I wish they would be quick
- 1:50:03Speaker 5: and come. Listens, Ah, there they are now. I must
- 1:50:07Speaker 5: put on my things.
- 1:50:09Speaker 1: Takes up her hat and cloak. Helmer's and Nora's voices
- 1:50:12Speaker 1: are heard outside. A key is turned and Helmer brings
- 1:50:16Speaker 1: Nora almost by force, into the hall. She is in
- 1:50:19Speaker 1: an Italian costume with a large black shawl around her.
- 1:50:22Speaker 1: He is an evening dress and a black domino which
- 1:50:25Speaker 1: is flying open. Hanging back in the doorway and struggling
- 1:50:29Speaker 1: with him.
- 1:50:30Speaker 2: No, no, no, don't take me in. I want to
- 1:50:33Speaker 2: go upstairs again. I don't want to leave so early.
- 1:50:36Speaker 4: But my dearest Nora.
- 1:50:38Speaker 2: Please, Torvald, dear, please please only an hour.
- 1:50:41Speaker 4: More, not a single minute. My sweet Nora, you know
- 1:50:45Speaker 4: that was our agreement. Come along into the room. You
- 1:50:49Speaker 4: are catching cold standing here.
- 1:50:51Speaker 1: He brings her gently into the room in spite of
- 1:50:53Speaker 1: her resistance.
- 1:50:55Speaker 5: Good evening, Christine.
- 1:50:58Speaker 4: You're here so late, missus Lynde.
- 1:51:00Speaker 5: Yes, you must excuse me. I was so anxious to
- 1:51:02Speaker 5: see Nora in her dress.
- 1:51:04Speaker 2: Have you been sitting here waiting for me?
- 1:51:07Speaker 7: Yes?
- 1:51:07Speaker 5: Unfortunately I came too late. You had already gone upstairs,
- 1:51:11Speaker 5: and I thought I couldn't go away again without having
- 1:51:13Speaker 5: seen you taking off Nora's shawl.
- 1:51:16Speaker 4: Yes, take a good look at her. I think she
- 1:51:19Speaker 4: is worth looking at. Isn't she charming, Missus Lynde? Yes,
- 1:51:23Speaker 4: indeed she is, doesn't she look remarkably pretty, everyone thought
- 1:51:27Speaker 4: her at the dance. But she is terribly self willed,
- 1:51:31Speaker 4: this sweet little person. What are we to do with her?
- 1:51:34Speaker 4: You will hardly believe that I almost had to bring
- 1:51:37Speaker 4: her away by force, Torvald.
- 1:51:40Speaker 2: You will repent not having let me stay, even if
- 1:51:42Speaker 2: it were only for half an hour.
- 1:51:44Speaker 4: Listen to her, Missus Lynde. She had danced her tarantella,
- 1:51:48Speaker 4: and it had been a tremendous success, as it deserved,
- 1:51:51Speaker 4: although possibly the performance was a trifle too realistic, a
- 1:51:55Speaker 4: little more so, I mean, than was strictly compatible with
- 1:51:59Speaker 4: the limitations of heart. But never mind about that. The
- 1:52:02Speaker 4: chief thing is she made a success. She made a
- 1:52:06Speaker 4: tremendous success. Do you think I was going to let
- 1:52:09Speaker 4: her remain there after that and spoil the effect?
- 1:52:13Speaker 7: No?
- 1:52:13Speaker 4: Indeed, I took my charming little Capri maiden, my capricious
- 1:52:17Speaker 4: little Capri maiden, I should say, on my arm, took
- 1:52:21Speaker 4: one quick turn round the room, a curtsey on either side,
- 1:52:24Speaker 4: and as they say in novels, the beautiful apperration disappeared.
- 1:52:29Speaker 4: An exit ought always to be effective, Missus Lynde. But
- 1:52:32Speaker 4: that is what I cannot make Nora understand. Pooh, this
- 1:52:36Speaker 4: room is hot.
- 1:52:37Speaker 1: Throws his domino on a chair and opens the door
- 1:52:40Speaker 1: of his room.
- 1:52:41Speaker 4: Hello, it's all dark in here. Oh, of course, excuse me.
- 1:52:46Speaker 1: He goes in and lights some candles in a hurried
- 1:52:50Speaker 1: and breathless whisper well in a low voice.
- 1:52:54Speaker 5: I have had a talk with him. Yes, and Nora,
- 1:52:57Speaker 5: you must tell your husband all about it, in.
- 1:53:00Speaker 1: An expressionless voice, I knew it.
- 1:53:03Speaker 5: You have nothing to be afraid of as far as
- 1:53:05Speaker 5: Kralgstat is concerned. But you must tell him. I won't
- 1:53:10Speaker 5: tell him then the letter will.
- 1:53:14Speaker 2: Thank you, Christine. Now I know what I must do.
- 1:53:18Speaker 1: Hush, coming in.
- 1:53:19Speaker 4: Again, well missus Lynde. Have you admired her?
- 1:53:23Speaker 5: Yes? And now I will say good night.
- 1:53:25Speaker 4: What already is this yours? This knitting?
- 1:53:30Speaker 1: Taking it?
- 1:53:31Speaker 7: Yes?
- 1:53:31Speaker 5: Thank you? I had very nearly forgotten it.
- 1:53:34Speaker 4: So you knit?
- 1:53:35Speaker 5: Of course?
- 1:53:36Speaker 4: Do you know you ought to embroider?
- 1:53:39Speaker 5: Really? Why?
- 1:53:41Speaker 4: Yes, it's far more becoming. Let me show you. You
- 1:53:44Speaker 4: hold the embroidery thus in your left hand, and use
- 1:53:47Speaker 4: the needle with the right like this, with a long,
- 1:53:49Speaker 4: easy sweep. Do you see?
- 1:53:52Speaker 7: Yes?
- 1:53:52Speaker 5: Perhaps, But in the.
- 1:53:54Speaker 4: Case of knitting, that can never be anything but ungraceful.
- 1:53:58Speaker 4: Look here the arms are close together, the knitting needles
- 1:54:01Speaker 4: going up and down. It has that sort of Chinese effect.
- 1:54:05Speaker 4: That was really excellent champagne. They gave us.
- 1:54:08Speaker 5: Well, good night, Nora, and don't be self willed anymore.
- 1:54:13Speaker 4: That's right, missus Lynde.
- 1:54:15Speaker 5: Good night, mister Helmer, accompanying her to the door.
- 1:54:18Speaker 4: Good night, good night. I hope you will get home
- 1:54:21Speaker 4: all right. I shall be very happy to, but you
- 1:54:25Speaker 4: haven't any great distance to go. Good Night, good night.
- 1:54:28Speaker 1: She goes out. He shuts the door after her and
- 1:54:31Speaker 1: comes in again.
- 1:54:32Speaker 4: Ah, at last we have got rid of her. What
- 1:54:34Speaker 4: a frightful ball that woman.
- 1:54:37Speaker 2: Aren't you very tired, Torvald, No, not in the least
- 1:54:41Speaker 2: your sleepy?
- 1:54:42Speaker 4: Not a bit. On the contrary, I feel extraordinarily lively.
- 1:54:46Speaker 4: And you you really look both tired and sleepy.
- 1:54:50Speaker 2: Yes, I am very tired. I want to go to
- 1:54:52Speaker 2: sleep at once.
- 1:54:54Speaker 4: There, you see, it was quite right of me not
- 1:54:56Speaker 4: to let you stay there any longer.
- 1:54:58Speaker 2: Everything you do is quite right, Torvald, kissing her on
- 1:55:01Speaker 2: the forehead.
- 1:55:02Speaker 4: Now, my little skylark is speaking reasonably. Did you notice
- 1:55:06Speaker 4: what good spirits rank was in this evening?
- 1:55:09Speaker 2: Really? Was he? I didn't speak to him at all.
- 1:55:13Speaker 4: And I very little, but I have not for a
- 1:55:15Speaker 4: long time seen in such good form.
- 1:55:18Speaker 1: Looks for a while at her, and then goes nearer
- 1:55:20Speaker 1: to her.
- 1:55:22Speaker 4: It is delightful to be at home by ourselves again,
- 1:55:25Speaker 4: to be all alone with you, you fascinating, charming little darling.
- 1:55:29Speaker 2: Don't look at me like that, Torvald.
- 1:55:32Speaker 4: Why shouldn't I look at my dearest treasure, all that
- 1:55:34Speaker 4: beauty that is mine, all my very own, going to
- 1:55:38Speaker 4: the other.
- 1:55:38Speaker 1: Side of the table.
- 1:55:40Speaker 2: You mustn't say things like that to me.
- 1:55:41Speaker 1: To night following her.
- 1:55:44Speaker 4: You still have got the tarantella in your blood, I see,
- 1:55:47Speaker 4: and it makes you more captivating than ever. Listen, the
- 1:55:50Speaker 4: guests are beginning to.
- 1:55:51Speaker 1: Go now in a lower voice.
- 1:55:54Speaker 4: Norah, soon the whole house will be quiet. Yes, I
- 1:55:58Speaker 4: hope so, Yes, my own darling Nora. Do you know
- 1:56:03Speaker 4: when I am out at a party with you like this,
- 1:56:06Speaker 4: why I speak so little to you, keep away from you,
- 1:56:09Speaker 4: and only send a stolen glance in your direction now
- 1:56:12Speaker 4: and then? Do you know why I do that? It
- 1:56:15Speaker 4: is because I make believe to myself that we are
- 1:56:18Speaker 4: secretly in love, that you are my secretly promised bride,
- 1:56:22Speaker 4: and that no one suspects there is anything between us.
- 1:56:26Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I know very well. Your thoughts are with
- 1:56:29Speaker 2: me all the time.
- 1:56:30Speaker 4: And when we are leaving and I put the shawl
- 1:56:33Speaker 4: over your beautiful young shoulders and your lovely neck, then
- 1:56:37Speaker 4: I imagine that you are my young bride, and that
- 1:56:39Speaker 4: we have just come from the wedding, and I am
- 1:56:42Speaker 4: bringing you for the first time into our home to
- 1:56:45Speaker 4: be alone with you for the first time, quite alone
- 1:56:48Speaker 4: with my shy little darling. All this evening, I have
- 1:56:51Speaker 4: longed for nothing but you. When I have watched the
- 1:56:54Speaker 4: seductive figures of the Tarantella, my blood was on fire.
- 1:56:59Speaker 4: I could endure it no longer, and that was why
- 1:57:01Speaker 4: I brought you down so early.
- 1:57:03Speaker 2: Go away, Torvald, you must let me go. I won't.
- 1:57:06Speaker 4: What's that you're joking, my little Nora? You won't. You won't?
- 1:57:12Speaker 4: Am I not your husband?
- 1:57:14Speaker 1: A knock has heard at the outer door, starting did
- 1:57:18Speaker 1: you hear going into the hall? Who is it outside?
- 1:57:23Speaker 7: It is? I? May I come in for a moment.
- 1:57:26Speaker 1: In a fretful whisper, Oh what.
- 1:57:28Speaker 4: Does he want now?
- 1:57:30Speaker 1: Aloud?
- 1:57:31Speaker 4: Wait a minute, unlocks the door. Come. That's kind of
- 1:57:35Speaker 4: you not to pass by our door.
- 1:57:37Speaker 7: I thought I heard your voice and felt as if
- 1:57:40Speaker 7: I should like.
- 1:57:41Speaker 1: To look in with a swift glance round.
- 1:57:44Speaker 7: Ah, yes, these dear familiar rooms. You're very happy and
- 1:57:49Speaker 7: cozy in here, you two.
- 1:57:50Speaker 4: It seems to me that you looked after yourself pretty
- 1:57:52Speaker 4: well upstairs, too excellently.
- 1:57:55Speaker 7: Why shouldn't I? Why shouldn't one enjoy everything in this
- 1:57:59Speaker 7: world any rate, as much as one can and as
- 1:58:02Speaker 7: long as one can.
- 1:58:04Speaker 4: The wine was capital, especially the champagne, so.
- 1:58:08Speaker 7: You notice that too. It is almost incredible how much
- 1:58:11Speaker 7: I managed to put away.
- 1:58:12Speaker 2: Torvald drank a great deal of champagne tonight too, did he? Yes,
- 1:58:17Speaker 2: and he is always in such good spirits afterwards.
- 1:58:21Speaker 7: Well, why should one not enjoy a May evening after
- 1:58:25Speaker 7: a well spent day?
- 1:58:26Speaker 4: Well spent? I'm afraid I can't take any credit for.
- 1:58:29Speaker 1: That, clapping him on the back, but I can.
- 1:58:32Speaker 2: You know, doctor Rink, you must have been occupied with
- 1:58:35Speaker 2: some scientific investigation today, exactly.
- 1:58:39Speaker 4: Just listen little Nora talking about scientific investigations.
- 1:58:44Speaker 2: And may I congratulate you on the result, indeed you
- 1:58:47Speaker 2: may Was it favorable? Then?
- 1:58:50Speaker 7: The best possible for both doctor and patient? Certainty, quickly
- 1:58:55Speaker 7: and searchingly, certainty absolute certy. So wasn't I entitled to
- 1:59:02Speaker 7: make a maydy evening of it after that?
- 1:59:05Speaker 2: Yes, you certainly were, doctor Renk.
- 1:59:09Speaker 4: I think so too, as long as you don't have
- 1:59:11Speaker 4: to pay for it in the morning.
- 1:59:13Speaker 7: Oh well, one can't have anything in this life without paying.
- 1:59:16Speaker 2: For it, doctor Renk. Are you fond of fancy dress balls?
- 1:59:21Speaker 7: Yes, if there is a fine loss of pretty costumes?
- 1:59:26Speaker 2: Tell me what shall we two wear at the next.
- 1:59:30Speaker 4: Little feather brain? Are you thinking of the next door? Ready?
- 1:59:33Speaker 7: We too? Yes? I can tell you you shall go
- 1:59:37Speaker 7: as a good fairy.
- 1:59:38Speaker 4: Yes, but what do you suggest as an appropriate costume
- 1:59:41Speaker 4: for that?
- 1:59:42Speaker 7: Let your wife go dress just as she is in
- 1:59:44Speaker 7: everyday life.
- 1:59:46Speaker 4: That was really very prettily turned. But can't you tell
- 1:59:49Speaker 4: us what you will be?
- 1:59:50Speaker 7: Yes, my dear friend, I have quite made up my
- 1:59:53Speaker 7: mind about that. Well, at the next fancy dress I
- 1:59:57Speaker 7: shall be invisible.
- 2:00:00Speaker 4: That's a good joke.
- 2:00:01Speaker 7: There's a big black hat. Have you never heard of
- 2:00:04Speaker 7: hearts that make you invisible? If you put one on,
- 2:00:07Speaker 7: no one can see.
- 2:00:08Speaker 1: You suppressing a smile.
- 2:00:10Speaker 7: Yes, you were quite right, But I am clean forgetting
- 2:00:14Speaker 7: what I came for. Helma, give me a cigar one
- 2:00:17Speaker 7: of the dark. Havanas with the greatest of pleasure, offers
- 2:00:21Speaker 7: him his.
- 2:00:22Speaker 1: Case, takes a cigar and cuts off the end.
- 2:00:26Speaker 2: Thanks, let me give you a light, striking a match.
- 2:00:30Speaker 7: Thank you.
- 2:00:31Speaker 1: She holds the match for him to light his cigar.
- 2:00:34Speaker 4: And now goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, dear man.
- 2:00:40Speaker 2: Sleep well, doctor Rank, thank you for that wish. Wish
- 2:00:44Speaker 2: me the same, you.
- 2:00:48Speaker 7: Well if you want me to sleep well. And thanks
- 2:00:51Speaker 7: for the light.
- 2:00:52Speaker 1: He nods to them both and goes out in a
- 2:00:56Speaker 1: subdued voice.
- 2:00:57Speaker 4: He has drunk more than he ought.
- 2:01:00Speaker 1: Simply maybe Helmer takes a bunch of keys out of
- 2:01:03Speaker 1: his pocket and goes into the hall.
- 2:01:06Speaker 2: Torvauld, what are you going to do there?
- 2:01:09Speaker 4: Emptying the letter box? It is quite full. There will
- 2:01:12Speaker 4: be no root for the newspaper in tomorrow morning.
- 2:01:15Speaker 2: Are you going to work tonight?
- 2:01:16Speaker 4: You know quite where I am not? What is this?
- 2:01:20Speaker 4: Someone has been at the lock? At the lock, yes,
- 2:01:23Speaker 4: someone has? What can it mean? I should never have
- 2:01:27Speaker 4: thought the maid. Here is a broken hairpin, Nora, it's
- 2:01:31Speaker 4: one of yours.
- 2:01:32Speaker 2: Quickly then it must have been the children.
- 2:01:34Speaker 4: Then you must get them out of those ways. There
- 2:01:39Speaker 4: at last, I've got it.
- 2:01:40Speaker 1: Open takes out the contents of the letter box and
- 2:01:43Speaker 1: calls to the kitchen Helen.
- 2:01:45Speaker 4: Helen put out the light over the front door, goes.
- 2:01:48Speaker 1: Back into the room and shuts the door. In the hall,
- 2:01:51Speaker 1: he holds out his hands full of letters.
- 2:01:53Speaker 4: Look at that. Look what a heap of them there are,
- 2:01:57Speaker 4: turning them over? What on earth is that at the window?
- 2:02:01Speaker 2: The letter No, Torvald, No.
- 2:02:05Speaker 4: Two cards of ranks.
- 2:02:07Speaker 2: Of doctor ranks.
- 2:02:09Speaker 4: Looking at them, doctor rank. They were on top. He
- 2:02:13Speaker 4: must have put them in as he went out.
- 2:02:15Speaker 2: Is there anything written on them?
- 2:02:17Speaker 4: There is a black cross over the name. Look there,
- 2:02:20Speaker 4: What an uncomfortable idea. He looks as if he were
- 2:02:23Speaker 4: announcing his own death.
- 2:02:24Speaker 2: It is just what he is doing.
- 2:02:26Speaker 4: What do you know anything about it? Has he said
- 2:02:29Speaker 4: anything to you?
- 2:02:30Speaker 2: Yes, he told me that when the cards came, it
- 2:02:34Speaker 2: would be his leave taking from us. He means to
- 2:02:37Speaker 2: shut himself up and die.
- 2:02:39Speaker 4: My poor old friend. Certainly I knew we should not
- 2:02:43Speaker 4: have him very long with us, but so soon, and
- 2:02:47Speaker 4: so he eyed himself away like a wounded animal.
- 2:02:49Speaker 2: If it has to happen, it is best it should
- 2:02:51Speaker 2: be without a word, don't you think so? Torvald?
- 2:02:55Speaker 1: Walking up and down.
- 2:02:57Speaker 4: He had so grown into our lives. I can't think
- 2:03:00Speaker 4: of himmers having gone out of them. He, with his
- 2:03:03Speaker 4: sufferings and his loneliness, was like a cloudy background to
- 2:03:06Speaker 4: our sunlit happiness. Well, perhaps it is best so for
- 2:03:10Speaker 4: him anyway, standing still, and perhaps for us too, Nora.
- 2:03:16Speaker 4: We two are throned quite upon each other.
- 2:03:18Speaker 1: Now puts his arms around her.
- 2:03:20Speaker 4: My darling wife. I don't feel as if I could
- 2:03:23Speaker 4: hold you tight enough, do you know, Nora? I have
- 2:03:26Speaker 4: often wished that you might be threatened with some great danger,
- 2:03:30Speaker 4: so that I might risk my own life's blood and
- 2:03:32Speaker 4: everything for your sake.
- 2:03:35Speaker 1: Disengages herself and says, firmly and decidedly.
- 2:03:38Speaker 2: Now you must read your letters. Torvald.
- 2:03:41Speaker 4: No, no, not to night. I want to be with you,
- 2:03:44Speaker 4: my darling wife.
- 2:03:45Speaker 2: With the thought of your friend's death.
- 2:03:47Speaker 4: You are right, it has affected us both. Something ugly
- 2:03:51Speaker 4: has come between us, the thought of the horrors of death.
- 2:03:55Speaker 4: We must try to rid our minds of that. Until
- 2:03:57Speaker 4: then we will each go to our own room.
- 2:04:00Speaker 2: Hanging on his neck, good night, Torvald, good night, kissing
- 2:04:07Speaker 2: her on the forehead.
- 2:04:08Speaker 4: Good night, my little singing bird, sleep sound, Nora. Now
- 2:04:13Speaker 4: I will read the letters through.
- 2:04:15Speaker 1: He takes his letters and goes into his room, shutting
- 2:04:17Speaker 1: the door after him. Gropes distractedly about, seizes Helmer's domino,
- 2:04:23Speaker 1: throws it round her, while she says in quick, hoarse,
- 2:04:25Speaker 1: spasmodic whispers, never to see him again, never, never, puts
- 2:04:32Speaker 1: her shawl over her head.
- 2:04:33Speaker 2: Never to see my children again either, never again never never. Ah,
- 2:04:41Speaker 2: the icy black water, the unfathomable depths. If only it
- 2:04:46Speaker 2: were over. He has got it now, now he is
- 2:04:51Speaker 2: reading it. Good Bye, Torvald and my children.
- 2:04:55Speaker 1: She is about to rush out through the hall when
- 2:04:56Speaker 1: Helmer opens his door hurriedly and stands with an open
- 2:04:59Speaker 1: letter in his hand.
- 2:05:00Speaker 4: Norah, ah, what is this? Do you know what is
- 2:05:05Speaker 4: in this letter?
- 2:05:06Speaker 2: Yes? I know, Let me go, Let me get out.
- 2:05:09Speaker 1: Holding her back, Where are you going trying to get free?
- 2:05:14Speaker 2: You shan't save me, Torvald reeling true?
- 2:05:19Speaker 4: True? Is this true that I read here? Horrible? No, No,
- 2:05:24Speaker 4: it is impossible that it can be true.
- 2:05:27Speaker 2: It is true. I have loved you above everything else
- 2:05:30Speaker 2: in the world.
- 2:05:31Speaker 4: Oh, don't let us have silly excuses.
- 2:05:34Speaker 1: Taking a step towards.
- 2:05:35Speaker 4: Him, Torvald, miserable creature, What have you done?
- 2:05:40Speaker 2: Let me go. You shall not suffer for my sake.
- 2:05:42Speaker 2: You shall not take it upon yourself.
- 2:05:44Speaker 4: No tragic airs.
- 2:05:45Speaker 1: Please locks the hall door.
- 2:05:47Speaker 4: Here, you shall stay and give me an explanation. Do
- 2:05:51Speaker 4: you understand what you have done? Answer me? Do you
- 2:05:54Speaker 4: understand what you have done?
- 2:05:56Speaker 1: Looks steadily at him and says, with a growing look
- 2:05:58Speaker 1: of coldness in her face.
- 2:06:00Speaker 2: Yes, now I am beginning to understand thoroughly.
- 2:06:05Speaker 4: Walking about the room, What a horrible awakening. All these
- 2:06:09Speaker 4: eight years she was my pride and joy, a hypocrite,
- 2:06:13Speaker 4: a liar, and worse worse, a criminal. The unutterably ugliness
- 2:06:19Speaker 4: of it all shame, shame.
- 2:06:22Speaker 1: Nora is silent and looks steadily at him. He stops
- 2:06:25Speaker 1: in front of her.
- 2:06:26Speaker 4: I ought to have suspected that something of this sort
- 2:06:29Speaker 4: would happen. I ought to have foreseen it. All your
- 2:06:33Speaker 4: father's want of principle, Be silent. All your father's want
- 2:06:37Speaker 4: of principle has come out in you. No religion, no morality,
- 2:06:41Speaker 4: no sense of duty. How I am punished for having
- 2:06:44Speaker 4: winked at what he did. I did it for your sake,
- 2:06:48Speaker 4: And this is how you repay me.
- 2:06:51Speaker 2: Yes, that's just it.
- 2:06:54Speaker 4: Now you have destroyed my happiness. You have ruined my future.
- 2:06:59Speaker 4: It is horrible to me. I am in the power
- 2:07:02Speaker 4: of an unscrupulous man. He can do what he likes
- 2:07:05Speaker 4: with me, ask anything he likes to me, give me
- 2:07:09Speaker 4: orders he pleases. I dare not refuse, and I must
- 2:07:12Speaker 4: sink to such miserable debts because of a thoughtless woman.
- 2:07:16Speaker 2: When I am out of the way, you will be free.
- 2:07:19Speaker 4: No fine speeches, please. Your father had always plenty of
- 2:07:23Speaker 4: those ready too. What good would it be to me
- 2:07:27Speaker 4: if you were out of the way, as you say,
- 2:07:29Speaker 4: not the slightest. He can make the affair known everywhere,
- 2:07:32Speaker 4: and if he does, I may be falsely suspected of
- 2:07:36Speaker 4: having been party to your criminal action. Very likely people
- 2:07:40Speaker 4: will think I was behind it all, that it was
- 2:07:42Speaker 4: I who prompted you, And I have to thank you
- 2:07:46Speaker 4: for this, you whom I have cherished during the whole
- 2:07:50Speaker 4: of our married life. Do you understand now what it
- 2:07:53Speaker 4: is you have done to me?
- 2:07:55Speaker 1: Coldly and quietly?
- 2:07:57Speaker 4: Yes, it is so incredible. I can't take it in.
- 2:08:01Speaker 4: But we must come to some understanding. Take off that shawl.
- 2:08:04Speaker 4: Take it off. I tell you, I must try and
- 2:08:07Speaker 4: appease in some way or another. The matter must be
- 2:08:10Speaker 4: hushed up at any cost. And as for you and me,
- 2:08:14Speaker 4: it must appear as if everything between us was just
- 2:08:17Speaker 4: as before, but naturally only in the eyes of the world.
- 2:08:22Speaker 4: You will still remain in my house, that is a
- 2:08:24Speaker 4: matter of course, But I shall not allow you to
- 2:08:27Speaker 4: bring up the children. I dare not trust them to you.
- 2:08:31Speaker 4: To think I should be obliged to say so to
- 2:08:34Speaker 4: one whom I have loved so dearly and whom I
- 2:08:37Speaker 4: still No. That is all over from this moment. Happiness
- 2:08:43Speaker 4: is not to the question. All that concerns us is
- 2:08:46Speaker 4: to save the remains, the fragments the appearance.
- 2:08:50Speaker 1: A ring is heard at the front door, bell with
- 2:08:52Speaker 1: a start.
- 2:08:53Speaker 4: What is that so late? Can the worst? Can he
- 2:08:58Speaker 4: hide yourself? Norah, you are ill.
- 2:09:01Speaker 1: Nora stands motionless. Helmer goes and then locks the door.
- 2:09:05Speaker 1: Half dressed, comes to the door.
- 2:09:07Speaker 6: A letter for the mistress.
- 2:09:09Speaker 1: Give it to me, takes the letter and shuts the door.
- 2:09:12Speaker 4: Yes, it is from him. You shall not have it.
- 2:09:15Speaker 4: I will read it myself.
- 2:09:17Speaker 2: Yes, read it.
- 2:09:19Speaker 1: Standing by the lamp.
- 2:09:20Speaker 4: I scarcely have the courage to do it. It may mean
- 2:09:24Speaker 4: ruined for both of us. No, I must know.
- 2:09:27Speaker 1: Tears open the letter, runs his eye over a few lines,
- 2:09:30Speaker 1: looks at a paper and closed and gives a shout
- 2:09:32Speaker 1: of joy.
- 2:09:33Speaker 4: Nora.
- 2:09:34Speaker 1: She looks at him questioningly.
- 2:09:36Speaker 4: Nora, No, I must read it once again. Yes it
- 2:09:40Speaker 4: is true. I'm saved, Nora. I'm saved and I you two.
- 2:09:45Speaker 4: Of course, we are both saved, both you and I. Look,
- 2:09:48Speaker 4: he sends you your bondmac He says, he regrets and
- 2:09:51Speaker 4: repents that a happy change in his life. Never mind
- 2:09:55Speaker 4: what he says. We are saved, Norah. No one can
- 2:09:58Speaker 4: do anything to you, oh, Norah, Nora. No, First, I
- 2:10:02Speaker 4: must destroy these hateful things. Let me see.
- 2:10:04Speaker 1: Takes a look at the bond.
- 2:10:06Speaker 4: No, no, I won't look at it. The whole thing
- 2:10:09Speaker 4: shall be nothing but a bad dream to me.
- 2:10:11Speaker 1: Tears up the bond in both letters, throws them all
- 2:10:14Speaker 1: into the stove, and watches them burn there.
- 2:10:17Speaker 4: Now it doesn't exist any longer. He says that since
- 2:10:21Speaker 4: Christmas Eve you, these must have been three dreadful days
- 2:10:25Speaker 4: for you, Nora.
- 2:10:27Speaker 2: I have fought a hard fight.
- 2:10:28Speaker 4: These three days had suffered agonies and see no way out. No,
- 2:10:34Speaker 4: we won't call any of the horrors to mind. We
- 2:10:37Speaker 4: will only shout with joy and keep saying it's all over.
- 2:10:40Speaker 4: It's all over. Listen to me, Nora. You don't seem
- 2:10:44Speaker 4: to realize it's all over. What is this such a
- 2:10:48Speaker 4: cold set face, my poor little Nora. I quite understand
- 2:10:53Speaker 4: you don't feel as if you could believe that I've
- 2:10:55Speaker 4: forgiven you. But it is true, Nora, I swear it.
- 2:10:59Speaker 4: I have forgiven everything. I know what you did you
- 2:11:03Speaker 4: did out of love for me.
- 2:11:04Speaker 2: That is true.
- 2:11:06Speaker 4: You have loved me as a wife ought to love
- 2:11:08Speaker 4: her husband. Only you had not sufficient knowledge to judge
- 2:11:12Speaker 4: of the means you used. But do you suppose you
- 2:11:16Speaker 4: are any less dear to me because you don't understand
- 2:11:19Speaker 4: how to act on your own responsibility. No, no, only
- 2:11:23Speaker 4: lean on me. I will advise and direct you. I
- 2:11:27Speaker 4: should not be a man if this womanly helplessness did
- 2:11:30Speaker 4: not give you a double attractiveness in my eyes. You
- 2:11:34Speaker 4: must not think any more about the hard things I
- 2:11:37Speaker 4: have said in my first moment of consternation, when I
- 2:11:40Speaker 4: thought everything was going to overwhelm us. I have forgiven you, Nora,
- 2:11:43Speaker 4: I swear to you. I have forgiven you.
- 2:11:47Speaker 2: Thank you for your forgiveness.
- 2:11:49Speaker 1: She goes out through the door to the right.
- 2:11:51Speaker 4: No, don't go looks in What are you doing in there?
- 2:11:55Speaker 1: From within?
- 2:11:56Speaker 2: Taking off my fancy dress standing.
- 2:11:59Speaker 4: At the old Yes, do try and calm yourself and
- 2:12:03Speaker 4: make your mind easy again, My frightened little singing bird,
- 2:12:07Speaker 4: be at rest and feel secure. I have broad wings
- 2:12:10Speaker 4: to shelter you.
- 2:12:10Speaker 1: Under walks up and down by the door.
- 2:12:14Speaker 4: How warm and cozy our home is, Norah, Here is
- 2:12:17Speaker 4: shelter you. Here. I will protect you like a hunted
- 2:12:20Speaker 4: dove that I have saved from a hawk's claus. I
- 2:12:24Speaker 4: will bring peace to your poor beating heart. I will
- 2:12:28Speaker 4: come little by little, Nora. Believe me, to morrow morning
- 2:12:32Speaker 4: you will look upon it all quite differently, so everything
- 2:12:36Speaker 4: will be just as it was before. Very soon you
- 2:12:39Speaker 4: won't need me to assure you that I have forgiven you.
- 2:12:43Speaker 4: You will feel the certainty that I have done So.
- 2:12:46Speaker 4: Can you suppose I should ever think of such a
- 2:12:49Speaker 4: thing as repudiating you, or even reproaching you. You have
- 2:12:53Speaker 4: no idea what a true man's heart is like, Norah.
- 2:12:56Speaker 4: There is something so indescribably sweet and satisfying to a
- 2:13:01Speaker 4: man in the knowledge that he has forgiven his wife,
- 2:13:04Speaker 4: forgiven her freely with all his heart. It seems as
- 2:13:09Speaker 4: if that has made her, as it were, doubly his own.
- 2:13:13Speaker 4: He has given her a new life, so to speak,
- 2:13:15Speaker 4: and she has in a way become both wife and
- 2:13:18Speaker 4: child to him. So you shall be for me after this,
- 2:13:22Speaker 4: my scared, helpless darling. Have no anxiety about it, Norah.
- 2:13:28Speaker 4: Only be frank and open with me, and I will
- 2:13:30Speaker 4: serve as will and conscious both to you.
- 2:13:35Speaker 7: What is this?
- 2:13:36Speaker 4: Not gone to bed? Have you changed your things in
- 2:13:40Speaker 4: every day dress?
- 2:13:41Speaker 2: Yes, Torvald, I have changed my things now.
- 2:13:44Speaker 4: But what for so late as this?
- 2:13:47Speaker 2: I shall not sleep to night?
- 2:13:49Speaker 4: But my dear Nora, looking at her watch.
- 2:13:52Speaker 2: It is not so very late. Sit down here, Torvald.
- 2:13:57Speaker 2: You and I have much to say to one another.
- 2:14:00Speaker 1: Sits down at one side of the table.
- 2:14:02Speaker 4: Nora, what is this this cold set face?
- 2:14:05Speaker 2: Sit down? It will take some time. I have a
- 2:14:09Speaker 2: lot to talk over with you.
- 2:14:11Speaker 1: Sits down at the opposite side of the table.
- 2:14:13Speaker 4: You alarm me, Nora, and I don't understand you.
- 2:14:17Speaker 2: No, that is just it. You don't understand me, and
- 2:14:22Speaker 2: I have never understood you either before tonight. No, you
- 2:14:26Speaker 2: mustn't interrupt me. You must simply listen to what I say, Torvald.
- 2:14:32Speaker 2: This is a settling of accounts?
- 2:14:34Speaker 4: What do you mean by that?
- 2:14:36Speaker 2: After a short silence, isn't there one thing that strikes
- 2:14:40Speaker 2: you as strange in our sitting here like this?
- 2:14:43Speaker 3: What is it?
- 2:14:45Speaker 2: We have been married now eight years. Does it not
- 2:14:48Speaker 2: occur to you that this is the first time we two,
- 2:14:51Speaker 2: you and I husband and wife, have had a serious conversation?
- 2:14:56Speaker 4: What do you mean by sirius?
- 2:14:58Speaker 2: In all these eight years longer than that, from the
- 2:15:02Speaker 2: very beginning of our acquaintance, we have never exchanged a
- 2:15:05Speaker 2: word on any serious subject.
- 2:15:08Speaker 4: Was it likely I would be continually and forever telling
- 2:15:11Speaker 4: you about worries that you could not help me?
- 2:15:14Speaker 2: Fair? I am not speaking about business matters. I say
- 2:15:18Speaker 2: that we have never sat down in earnest together to
- 2:15:20Speaker 2: try and get at the bottom of anything.
- 2:15:22Speaker 4: But, dearest Norah, would it have been any good to you?
- 2:15:26Speaker 2: That is just it. You have never understood me. I
- 2:15:30Speaker 2: have been greatly wronged Torvald, first by Papa and then
- 2:15:35Speaker 2: by you.
- 2:15:36Speaker 4: What by us two? By us two who have loved
- 2:15:40Speaker 4: you better than any one else in the world.
- 2:15:43Speaker 2: You have never loved me. You have only thought it
- 2:15:45Speaker 2: pleasant to be in love with me.
- 2:15:47Speaker 4: Nora? What do I hear you saying.
- 2:15:50Speaker 2: It is perfectly true, Torvald. When I was at home
- 2:15:53Speaker 2: with Papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and
- 2:15:56Speaker 2: so I had the same opinions. And if I differed
- 2:15:59Speaker 2: from him, I concealed the fact because he would not
- 2:16:02Speaker 2: have liked it. He called me his doll child, and
- 2:16:06Speaker 2: he played with me just as I used to play
- 2:16:08Speaker 2: with my dolls. And when I came to live with you, what.
- 2:16:12Speaker 4: Sort of expression is that to use about our marriage?
- 2:16:15Speaker 1: Undisturbed?
- 2:16:16Speaker 2: I mean that I was simply transferred from Papa's hands
- 2:16:19Speaker 2: into yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste,
- 2:16:23Speaker 2: and so I got the same tastes as yours, or
- 2:16:26Speaker 2: else I pretended to. I'm really not quite sure which
- 2:16:29Speaker 2: I think, sometimes the one and sometimes the other. When
- 2:16:33Speaker 2: I look back on it, it seems to me as
- 2:16:35Speaker 2: if I have been living here like a poor woman,
- 2:16:38Speaker 2: just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely to
- 2:16:41Speaker 2: perform tricks for you, tor Vault, but you would have it.
- 2:16:45Speaker 2: So you and Papa have committed a great sin against me.
- 2:16:49Speaker 2: It is your fault that I have made nothing of
- 2:16:51Speaker 2: my life.
- 2:16:52Speaker 4: How unreasonable and ungrateful you are, Nora. Have you not
- 2:16:56Speaker 4: been happy here?
- 2:16:57Speaker 7: No?
- 2:16:58Speaker 2: I have never been happy. I thought I was, but
- 2:17:02Speaker 2: it has never really been.
- 2:17:03Speaker 4: So not not happy, No.
- 2:17:08Speaker 2: Only Mary, and you have always been so kind to me.
- 2:17:12Speaker 2: But our home has been nothing but a play room.
- 2:17:16Speaker 2: I have been your doll wife, just as at home
- 2:17:19Speaker 2: I was Papa's dull child, and here the children have
- 2:17:22Speaker 2: been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you
- 2:17:26Speaker 2: played with me, just as they thought it great fun
- 2:17:28Speaker 2: when I played with them. That is what our marriage
- 2:17:32Speaker 2: has been, Torvald.
- 2:17:33Speaker 4: There is some truth in what you say, exaggerated and
- 2:17:37Speaker 4: strained as your view of it is. But for the
- 2:17:40Speaker 4: future it shall be different. Play time shall be over,
- 2:17:43Speaker 4: and lesson time shall begin.
- 2:17:45Speaker 2: Whose lessons mine or the children's?
- 2:17:50Speaker 4: Both yours and the children's, My darling.
- 2:17:52Speaker 2: Nora Alas, Torvald, you are not the man to educate
- 2:17:56Speaker 2: me into being a proper wife for you.
- 2:17:59Speaker 4: And you can say that, and I how am.
- 2:18:03Speaker 2: I fitted to bring up the children?
- 2:18:05Speaker 4: Norah?
- 2:18:06Speaker 2: Didn't you say so yourself a little while ago, that
- 2:18:09Speaker 2: you dare not trust me to bring them up?
- 2:18:11Speaker 4: In a moment of anger. Why do you pay any
- 2:18:14Speaker 4: heed to that?
- 2:18:16Speaker 2: Indeed, you were perfectly right. I am not fit for
- 2:18:20Speaker 2: the task. There is another task I must undertake first.
- 2:18:25Speaker 2: I must try and educate myself. You are not the
- 2:18:29Speaker 2: man to help me in that. I must do that
- 2:18:31Speaker 2: for myself. And that is why I am going to
- 2:18:35Speaker 2: leave you now.
- 2:18:37Speaker 4: Springing up, what do you say?
- 2:18:39Speaker 2: I must stand quite alone if I am to understand
- 2:18:43Speaker 2: myself and everything about me. It is for that reason
- 2:18:46Speaker 2: that I cannot remain with you any longer.
- 2:18:49Speaker 4: Norah, Norah, I am.
- 2:18:51Speaker 2: Going away from here now at once. I am sure
- 2:18:54Speaker 2: Christine will take me in for the night.
- 2:18:56Speaker 4: You are out of your mind. I won't allow it.
- 2:18:58Speaker 4: I forbid you.
- 2:19:00Speaker 2: It is no use forbidding me anything any longer. I
- 2:19:03Speaker 2: will take with me what belongs to myself. I will
- 2:19:06Speaker 2: take nothing from you, either now or later.
- 2:19:09Speaker 4: What sort of madness is this?
- 2:19:11Speaker 2: To morrow I shall go home, I mean to my
- 2:19:14Speaker 2: old home. It will be easiest for me to find
- 2:19:17Speaker 2: something to do there.
- 2:19:18Speaker 4: You blind, foolish woman.
- 2:19:21Speaker 2: I must try and get some sense, Torvald, to.
- 2:19:25Speaker 4: Desert your home, your husband and children. And you don't
- 2:19:29Speaker 4: consider what people will say.
- 2:19:31Speaker 2: I cannot consider that at all. I only know that
- 2:19:33Speaker 2: it is necessary for me.
- 2:19:36Speaker 4: It's shocking, this is how you would neglect your most
- 2:19:39Speaker 4: sacred duties.
- 2:19:40Speaker 2: What do you consider my most sacred duties?
- 2:19:43Speaker 4: Do I need to tell you that? Are they not
- 2:19:46Speaker 4: your duties to your husband and to your children.
- 2:19:48Speaker 2: I have other duties just as sacred that you have.
- 2:19:51Speaker 4: Not what duties?
- 2:19:53Speaker 2: Could those be duties to myself?
- 2:19:56Speaker 4: Before all else? You are a wife and a mother.
- 2:20:00Speaker 2: I don't believe that any longer. I believe that before
- 2:20:03Speaker 2: all else I am a reasonable human being, just as
- 2:20:07Speaker 2: you are, or at all events that I must try
- 2:20:09Speaker 2: and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most
- 2:20:13Speaker 2: people would think you right, and that views of that
- 2:20:16Speaker 2: kind are to be found in books. But I can
- 2:20:18Speaker 2: no longer content myself with what most people say or
- 2:20:22Speaker 2: with what is found in books. I must think over
- 2:20:25Speaker 2: things for myself and get to understand them.
- 2:20:28Speaker 4: Can you not understand your place is in the home?
- 2:20:31Speaker 4: Have you not a reliable guide us in such matters
- 2:20:34Speaker 4: as that? Have you no religion?
- 2:20:37Speaker 2: I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what
- 2:20:39Speaker 2: religion is.
- 2:20:40Speaker 4: What are you saying?
- 2:20:42Speaker 2: I know nothing but what the clergyman said. When I
- 2:20:44Speaker 2: went to be confirmed. He told us that religion was
- 2:20:47Speaker 2: this and that and the other. When I am away
- 2:20:50Speaker 2: from all this and am alone, I will look into
- 2:20:53Speaker 2: that matter too. I will see if what the clergyman
- 2:20:56Speaker 2: said is true, or at all events, if it is true.
- 2:20:59Speaker 4: For me, this is unheard of in a girl of
- 2:21:02Speaker 4: your age. But if religion cannot lead you aright, let
- 2:21:06Speaker 4: me try and awaken your conscience. I suppose you have
- 2:21:09Speaker 4: some moral sense or answer me? Am I to think
- 2:21:12Speaker 4: you have none?
- 2:21:13Speaker 2: I assure you, Torvald, that is not an easy question
- 2:21:16Speaker 2: to answer. I really don't know the thing perplexes me altogether.
- 2:21:22Speaker 2: I only know that you and I look at it
- 2:21:24Speaker 2: in quite a different light. I am learning too that
- 2:21:28Speaker 2: the law is quite another thing from what I supposed.
- 2:21:31Speaker 2: But I find it impossible to convince myself that the
- 2:21:33Speaker 2: law is right. According to it, a woman has no
- 2:21:37Speaker 2: right to spare her old dying father or to save
- 2:21:39Speaker 2: her husband's life. I can't believe.
- 2:21:42Speaker 4: That you talk like a child. You don't understand the
- 2:21:46Speaker 4: conditions of the world in which you live.
- 2:21:49Speaker 2: No, I don't. But now I am going to try.
- 2:21:53Speaker 2: I am going to see if I can make out
- 2:21:55Speaker 2: who is right the world or I.
- 2:21:58Speaker 4: You are ill, Nora, you delirious. I almost think you
- 2:22:01Speaker 4: are out of your mind.
- 2:22:03Speaker 2: I have never felt my mind so clear and certain
- 2:22:06Speaker 2: as tonight.
- 2:22:07Speaker 4: And it is with a clear and certain mind that
- 2:22:10Speaker 4: you forsake your husband and children?
- 2:22:13Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
- 2:22:15Speaker 4: Then there is only one possible explanation. What is that
- 2:22:19Speaker 4: you do not love me any more? No, that is
- 2:22:24Speaker 4: just it, Norah. And you can say that it.
- 2:22:27Speaker 2: Gives me great pain, Torvald, for you have always been
- 2:22:31Speaker 2: so kind to me. But I cannot help it. I
- 2:22:35Speaker 2: do not love you any more.
- 2:22:38Speaker 1: Regaining his composure.
- 2:22:40Speaker 4: Is that a clear and certain conviction too.
- 2:22:42Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely clear and certain. That is the reason why
- 2:22:47Speaker 2: I will not stay here any longer.
- 2:22:50Speaker 4: And can you tell me what I have done to
- 2:22:52Speaker 4: forfeit your love?
- 2:22:54Speaker 2: Yes, indeed I can. It was tonight when the wonderful
- 2:23:00Speaker 2: thing did not happen. Then I saw you were not
- 2:23:03Speaker 2: the man I had thought you were.
- 2:23:06Speaker 4: Explain yourself better. I don't understand you.
- 2:23:09Speaker 2: I have waited so patiently for eight years, for goodness knows,
- 2:23:15Speaker 2: I knew very well that wonderful things don't happen every day.
- 2:23:19Speaker 2: Then this horrible misfortune came upon me, and then I
- 2:23:22Speaker 2: felt quite certain that the wonderful thing was going to
- 2:23:25Speaker 2: happen at last. When Crogstad's letter was lying out, there
- 2:23:30Speaker 2: never for a moment, did I imagine that you would
- 2:23:32Speaker 2: consent to accept this man's conditions. I was so absolutely
- 2:23:36Speaker 2: certain that you would say to him, publish the thing
- 2:23:39Speaker 2: to the whole world. And when that was done, yes.
- 2:23:42Speaker 4: What then when I had exposed my wife to shame
- 2:23:45Speaker 4: and disgrace?
- 2:23:46Speaker 2: When that was done, I was so absolutely certain you
- 2:23:50Speaker 2: would come forward and take everything upon yourself and say
- 2:23:54Speaker 2: I am the guilty one. Norah, you mean that I
- 2:23:58Speaker 2: would never have accepted such a sacrifice on your part.
- 2:24:01Speaker 5: No, of course not.
- 2:24:03Speaker 2: But what would my assurances have been worth against yours.
- 2:24:07Speaker 2: That was the wonderful thing which I hoped for and feared,
- 2:24:12Speaker 2: And it was to prevent that that I wanted to
- 2:24:14Speaker 2: kill myself.
- 2:24:16Speaker 4: I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora,
- 2:24:19Speaker 4: bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man
- 2:24:22Speaker 4: will sacrifice his honor for the one he loves.
- 2:24:25Speaker 2: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.
- 2:24:29Speaker 4: Oh you think and talk like a heedless.
- 2:24:31Speaker 2: Child, maybe, but you neither think nor talk like the man.
- 2:24:37Speaker 2: I could bind myself too, as soon as your fear
- 2:24:41Speaker 2: was over. And it was not fear for what threatened me,
- 2:24:44Speaker 2: but for what might happen to you. When the whole
- 2:24:47Speaker 2: thing was passed, As far as you were concerned, it
- 2:24:50Speaker 2: was exactly as if nothing at all had happened, exactly
- 2:24:53Speaker 2: as before. I was your little skylark, your doll, which
- 2:24:57Speaker 2: you would in future treat with doubly gent care, because
- 2:25:00Speaker 2: it was so brittle and fragile, Torvald. It was then
- 2:25:05Speaker 2: it dawned upon me that for eight years I had
- 2:25:07Speaker 2: been living here with a strange man, and had borne
- 2:25:10Speaker 2: him three children. Oh, I can't bear to think of it.
- 2:25:15Speaker 2: I could tear myself into little bits.
- 2:25:19Speaker 4: Sadly, I see, I see an abyss has opened between us.
- 2:25:25Speaker 4: There is no denying it. But Norah, will it not
- 2:25:29Speaker 4: be possible to fill it up?
- 2:25:31Speaker 2: As I am now? I am no wife for you.
- 2:25:35Speaker 4: I have it in me to become a different man.
- 2:25:37Speaker 2: Perhaps if your doll is taken away from you.
- 2:25:41Speaker 4: But to part, to part from you. No, no, Nora,
- 2:25:46Speaker 4: I can't understand that idea.
- 2:25:48Speaker 2: Going out to the right that makes it all the
- 2:25:52Speaker 2: more certain that it must be done.
- 2:25:54Speaker 1: She comes back with her cloak and hat and a
- 2:25:56Speaker 1: small bag, which she puts on a chair by the table.
- 2:25:59Speaker 4: Norah, Nora, not now wait until to morrow putting on
- 2:26:03Speaker 4: her cloak.
- 2:26:04Speaker 2: I cannot spend the night in a strange man's room.
- 2:26:08Speaker 4: But can't we lived like brother and sister.
- 2:26:10Speaker 2: Putting on her hat, you know very well that would
- 2:26:14Speaker 2: not last long.
- 2:26:15Speaker 1: Puts the shawl round her.
- 2:26:17Speaker 2: Good Bye, Torvald. I won't see the little ones. I
- 2:26:21Speaker 2: know they are in better hand than mine. As I
- 2:26:24Speaker 2: am now, I can be of no use to them.
- 2:26:27Speaker 4: But some day, Nora, some day, how.
- 2:26:30Speaker 2: Can I tell? I have no idea what is going
- 2:26:33Speaker 2: to become of me?
- 2:26:34Speaker 4: But you are my wife, whatever becomes of you.
- 2:26:37Speaker 2: Listen, Torvald, I have heard that when a wife deserts
- 2:26:41Speaker 2: her husband's house, as I am doing now, he is
- 2:26:44Speaker 2: legally freed from all obligations towards her. In any case,
- 2:26:49Speaker 2: I set you free from all your obligations. You are
- 2:26:53Speaker 2: not to feel yourself bound in the slightest way any
- 2:26:56Speaker 2: more than I shall. There must be perfect freedom on
- 2:26:59Speaker 2: both sides. See here is your ring back, Give me
- 2:27:04Speaker 2: mine that too, that too?
- 2:27:09Speaker 4: Here it is, that's.
- 2:27:10Speaker 2: Right now, it is all over. I have put the
- 2:27:15Speaker 2: keys here. The maids know all about everything in the
- 2:27:18Speaker 2: house better than I do. Tomorrow, after I have left her,
- 2:27:23Speaker 2: Christine will come here and pack up my own things
- 2:27:25Speaker 2: that I brought with me from home. I will have
- 2:27:27Speaker 2: them sent after.
- 2:27:28Speaker 4: Me all over, all over, Norah. Shall you never think
- 2:27:36Speaker 4: of me again?
- 2:27:38Speaker 2: I know I shall often think of you, the children
- 2:27:42Speaker 2: and this house.
- 2:27:43Speaker 4: May I write to you, Norah?
- 2:27:45Speaker 2: No, never, you must not do that.
- 2:27:48Speaker 4: But at least let me send.
- 2:27:50Speaker 2: You nothing, nothing, Let me.
- 2:27:52Speaker 4: Help you if you are in want.
- 2:27:55Speaker 2: No I can receive nothing from a stranger, Norah.
- 2:27:59Speaker 4: Can I never be anything more than a stranger to you?
- 2:28:03Speaker 2: Taking her bag, Ah, Torvault, the most wonderful thing of
- 2:28:08Speaker 2: all would have to happen.
- 2:28:10Speaker 4: Tell me what that would be?
- 2:28:11Speaker 2: Both you and I would have to be so changed that,
- 2:28:15Speaker 2: Oh Torvald, I don't believe any longer and wonderful things happening, but.
- 2:28:20Speaker 4: I believe in it. Tell me so change.
- 2:28:22Speaker 2: That that our life together would be a real wedlock. Goodbye.
- 2:28:30Speaker 1: She goes out through the hall, sinks down on a
- 2:28:34Speaker 1: chair at the door, and buries his face in his hands.
- 2:28:37Speaker 4: Norah.
- 2:28:39Speaker 1: Norah looks round and rises empty.
- 2:28:44Speaker 4: She's gone.
- 2:28:45Speaker 1: A hope flashes across his mind.
- 2:28:48Speaker 4: The most wonderful thing of all.
- 2:28:51Speaker 1: The sound of a door shutting is heard from below.
- 2:28:55Speaker 1: End of Act three, end of a doll's house, Oh,