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A Doll's House
Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)
Henrik Ibsen
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eBook - ePub
A Doll's House
Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)
Henrik Ibsen
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About This Book
The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography, key dates and suggestions for further reading) and the complete text, uncluttered with footnotes. The translations, by leading experts in the field, are accurate and above all actable. The editions of English-language plays include a glossary of unusual words and phrases to aid understanding.
A Doll's House is Ibsen's revolutionary tale of Nora's awakening to her need for a life of her own.
Translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.
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Act One
Room in HELMERâs apartment. The decoration is not extravagant, but comfortable and stylish. Back right, door to the hall; back left, door to HELMERâs study. Between the doors, a piano. Centre left, a door, and beyond it a window; beside the window a round table, easy chairs and a small sofa. Upstage right, a door, and below it a stove, two easy chairs and a rocking chair. Between the door and the stove, a side-table. Engravings on the walls. A cabinet filled with china and other small objects; a small bookcase with expensively-bound books. Carpet on the floor; fire in the stove. Winter.
A bell rings in the hall, off, and soon afterwards we hear the door being opened. Enter NORA. She is happy, humming a tune. She is dressed in outdoor clothes, and carries a number of parcels, which she puts down on the table, right. She leaves the hall door open, and through it can be seen a PORTER, carrying a Christmas tree and a basket. He gives them to the CHAMBERMAID, who has opened the door.
NORA. Make sure you hide it, Helene. The children mustnât see it till tonight, after itâs trimmed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much is that?
PORTER. Fifty øre.
NORA. Keep the change.
The PORTER thanks her and goes. NORA closes the door. She takes off her coat, laughing to herself. She takes a bag of macaroons from her pocket and eats two of them. Then she goes cautiously and listens at HELMERâs door.
He is home.
Still humming, she goes to the table right, and starts opening the parcels.
HELMER (off). Is that my little songbird piping away out there?
NORA. Yes it is.
HELMER (off). Is that my little squirrel rustling?
NORA. Yes.
HELMER (off). When did squirrelkin come home?
NORA. Just now.
She puts the macaroons in her pocket and wipes her mouth.
Come out here, Torvald, and see what I bought.
HELMER (off). Just a moment.
After a short pause, he opens the door and looks in, pen in hand.
Did you say bought? All those? Has my little songbird been spending all my money again?
NORA. Oh Torvald, this year we can let ourselves go a little. Itâs the first Christmas we donât have to scrimp and save.
HELMER. That doesnât mean weâve money to burn.
NORA. Canât we burn just a little? A tiny little? Now youâre getting such a big pay-packet, pennies and pennies and pennies.
HELMER. After January the first. And even then we wonât see the money till the end of the first quarter.
NORA. Oh fiddle, we can borrow till then.
HELMER. Nora!
He takes her playfully by the ear.
What a little featherbrain it is! I borrow a thousand kroner today, you spend it all by Christmas, and on New Yearâs Eve a tile falls on my head and kills me â
NORA (hand to mouth). Donât say that.
HELMER. But suppose it did?
NORA. If it did, why would I care if I still owed people money?
HELMER. But what about them? The people I borrowed it from?
NORA. Who cares about them? I donât even know their names.
HELMER. Just like a woman! But seriously, you know what I think. No borrowing. No debt. When a household relies on debt, itâs slavery, itâs vile. Weâve struggled this far without, the two of us â and weâll struggle on for a few more weeks, till we donât have to struggle any more.
NORA (crossing to the stove). Yes, Torvald.
HELMER (following). There, there. Poor little songbird, drooping her wings? Little squirrel, making sulky faces?
He takes out his wallet.
Nora, what have I here?
NORA (turning quickly). Pennies!
HELMER. Look. (Giving her money.) Heavens, dâyou think I donât know what it costs at Christmastime?
NORA (counting). Ten, twenty, thirty, forty. Oh thankyou, Torvald, thankyou. Now Iâll manage.
HELMER. You must.
NORA. I will. Now come here, and see what Iâve bought. Bargains! A new outfit for Ivar, and a little sword. A horse and a trumpet for Bob. A dolly and a dollyâs bed for Emmy. Nothing expensive: theyâll soon be broken, anyway. Dress-lengths and hankies for the maids. Old Anne-Marie should really have something better.
HELMER. Whatâs in this one?
NORA (with a shriek). No, Torvald. Not till tonight!
HELMER. And what about my own little spendthrift? What would she like, herself?
NORA. Oh fiddle. Me? I donât want anything.
HELMER. Of course you do. Tell me some little thing youâd like more than all the world.
NORA. I really donât ⌠Unless ⌠Torvald âŚ
HELMER. Yes?
NORA (playing with his buttons, not looking at him). If you really want to give me something, you could ⌠you could âŚ
HELMER. Out with it.
NORA (blurting it). Give me some pennies of my own. Just what you can spare. I could keep them till I really wanted something âŚ
HELMER. Oh, Nora â
NORA. Please, Torvald, please. Iâll wrap them in pretty paper and hang them on the tree. Theyâll be so pretty.
HELMER. What do they call little birds that are always wasting money?
NORA. Featherbrains. I know. But why donât we try it, Torvald, try it? Give me time to think what Iâd really like? It would be a good idea.
HELMER (smiling). Of course it would â if you really did manage to save it, to spend on yourself. But itâll just go into the housekeeping, youâll spend it on this or that, and Iâll end up forking out again.
NORA. No, Torvald.
HELMER. Darling Nora, yes.
He puts his arm round her waist.
What a sweet little featherbrain it is. But it swallows up so many pennies. It costs a lot of pennies, to keep a little featherbrain.
NORA. Donât be horrid. I do save, all I can.
HELMER (with a laugh). All you can. Thatâs right. The whole trouble is, you canât.
NORA (smiling gently and playfully). Oh Torvald, songbirds, squirrels, you know how we spend and spend.
HELMER. What a funny little thing it is. Daddyâs daughter. A thousand little ways of wheedling pennies â and as soon as youâve got them, they melt in your hands. You never know where theyâve gone. Itâs in the blood, little Nora, itâs inherited.
NORA. I wish Iâd inherited some of Daddyâs other qualities.
HELMER. I wouldnât have you any different. Dear little bird, little darling. But what is it? Thereâs something, isnât there? There is.
NORA. What?
HELMER. Look at me.
NORA (looking at him). There.
HELMER (wagging his finger). Was little Miss Sweet-tooth naughty in town today?
NORA. What dâyou mean?
HELMER. Did she visit the sweetie-shop?
...