A Doll`s House 1879

A Doll`s House

1879

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From Act II

NORA.
If your little squirrel were to ask you very prettily for something … Would you do it?Your squirrel will scamper about and do all her tricks, if you’ll be nice and do what she asks. Your skylark’ll sing all over the house, up and down the scale. I’ll be a fairy and dance on a moonbeam for you, Torvald. (…) Oh, but you must do as I ask – you must let Krogstad keep his place in the bank.

Transl. by Peter Watts.

Mr Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora are preparing Christmas celebrations, at the same time looking forward to his promotion to director of the bank. The blue skies are clouded when Nora gets a visit from solicitor Krogstad, who once lent her a large sum of money. Nora forges a signature as security for the loan. She had to borrow the money secretly to save her husband’s life when he was seriously ill, but never told him about the secret loan. Krogstad wants revenge because Helmer has fired him from the bank, and he reveals Nora’s secret in a letter of extortion to Helmer. When Nora discovers that Helmer only cares for his own position and power – forgetting that she has saved his life, she realizes she has been naive and that Helmer has been a different man than she thought. Based on her new insight she leaves her husband and their three children.

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