A Doll's House

Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)

Henrik Ibsen, Kenneth McLeish

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781780011295
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price

Henrik Ibsen's revolutionary play about a woman's awakening to her need for a life of her own.

A Doll's House was premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 1879.

This English version of A Doll's House is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.

Act One

Room in HELMER’s apartment. The decoration is not extravagant, but comfortable and stylish. Back right, door to the hall; back left, door to HELMER’s 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 mustn’t see it till tonight, after it’s 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 HELMER’s 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. It’s the first Christmas we don’t have to scrimp and save.

HELMER. That doesn’t mean we’ve money to burn.

NORA. Can’t we burn just a little? A tiny little? Now you’re getting such a big pay-packet, pennies and pennies and pennies.

HELMER. After January the first. And even then we won’t 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 Year’s Eve a tile falls on my head and kills me –

NORA (hand to mouth). Don’t 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 don’t 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, it’s slavery, it’s vile. We’ve struggled this far without, the two of us – and we’ll struggle on for a few more weeks, till we don’t 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, d’you think I don’t know what it costs at Christmastime?

NORA (counting). Ten, twenty, thirty, forty. Oh thankyou, Torvald, thankyou. Now I’ll manage.

HELMER. You must.

NORA. I will. Now come here, and see what I’ve bought. Bargains! A new outfit for Ivar, and a little sword. A horse and a trumpet for Bob. A dolly and a dolly’s bed for Emmy. Nothing expensive: they’ll soon be broken, anyway. Dress-lengths and hankies for the maids. Old Anne-Marie should really have something better.

HELMER. What’s 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 don’t want anything.

HELMER. Of course you do. Tell me some little thing you’d like more than all the world.

NORA. I really don’t … Unless … Torvald …

HELMER. Yes?

NORA (playing with his buttons, not looking at him). If you really want to give me something, you could … you could …

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 …

HELMER. Oh, Nora –

NORA. Please, Torvald, please. I’ll wrap them in pretty paper and hang them on the tree. They’ll be so pretty.

HELMER. What do they call little birds that are always wasting money?

NORA. Featherbrains. I know. But why don’t we try it, Torvald, try it? Give me time to think what I’d really like? It would be a good idea.

HELMER (smiling). Of course it would – if you really did manage to save it, to spend on yourself. But it’ll just go into the housekeeping, you’ll spend it on this or that, and I’ll 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. Don’t be horrid. I do save, all I can.

HELMER (with a laugh). All you can. That’s right. The whole trouble is, you can’t.

NORA (smiling gently and playfully). Oh Torvald, songbirds, squirrels, you know how we spend and spend.

HELMER. What a funny little thing it is. Daddy’s daughter. A thousand little ways of wheedling pennies – and as soon as you’ve got them, they melt in your hands. You never know where they’ve gone. It’s in the blood, little Nora, it’s inherited.

NORA. I wish I’d inherited some of Daddy’s other qualities.

HELMER. I wouldn’t have you any different. Dear little bird, little darling. But what is it? There’s something, isn’t 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 d’you mean?

HELMER. Did she visit the sweetie-shop?

...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• For Further Reading
• Ibsen: Key Dates
• A Doll's House
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information