HENRIK IBSEN

HENRIK IBSEN, the most famous Norwegian poet and dramatist, was born at Skien, Norway, in 1828. Before he was twenty-one he had written a number of poems, and his drama "Katilina " was composed during his student days. In politics he was, for a time, a pronounced socialist. After directing a theater at Bergen, he traveled on the continent five years. During this period he wrote a number of works that were to give him lasting fame. Among the best of his plays are Nora, or, a DollHouse," Ghosts," 'The Pillars of Society," "Hedda Gabler," and "Peer Gynt." Ibsen believes that the drama is a great teacher, and, while he deals with unpleasant characters of the type usually found in all problem plays, he always points to the remedy, and punishment always follows the transgressors of the moral law.

NORA AWAKENED

(From "A Doll's House." Translated by William Archer) SCENE: Sitting-room in TORVALD HELMER's home, (a flat) in Christiania.

Helmer.—Why, what's this? Not gone to bed? You have changed your dress?

Nora.-Yes, Torvald; now I have changed my

dress.

Helmer. But why now, so late?
Nora. I shall not sleep to-night.

Helmer.-But, Nora dear—

Nora [looking at her watch].-It's not so late yet. Sit down, Torvald: you and I have much to say to each other. [She sits at one side of the table.]

Helmer.-Nora, what does this mean? Your cold, set face

Nora. Sit down. It will take some time: I have much to talk over with you.

Helmer [sits at the other side of the table]. -You alarm me; I don't understand you.

We

Nora. No, that's just it. You don't understand me; and I have never understood you-till to-night. No, don't interrupt. Only listen to what I say. must come to a final settlement, Torvald! Helmer.-How do you mean?

Nora [after a short silence].-Does not one thing strike you as we sit here?

Helmer.-What should strike me?

Nora. We have been married eight years. Does it not strike you that this is the first time we twoyou and I, man and wife have talked together seriously?

Helmer. Seriously! Well, what do you call seriously?

Nora. During eight whole years and more—ever since the day we first met-we have never changed one serious word about serious things.

ex

Helmer.-Was I always to trouble you with the cares you could not help me to bear?

Nora. I am not talking of cares. I say that we have never yet set ourselves seriously to get to the bottom of anything.

Helmer.—Why, my dear Nora, what have you to do with serious things?

Nora.-There we have it! You have never under

stood me. I have had great injustice done me, Torvald: first by my father, and then by you.

Helmer.-What! by your father and me?-by us who have loved you more than all the world?

Nora [shaking her head].-You have never loved me. You only thought it amusing to be in love with

me.

Helmer.-Why, Nora, what a thing to say! Nora.-Yes, it is so, Torvald. While I was at home with father he used to tell me all his opinions, and I held the same opinions. If I had others I concealed them, because he would not have liked it. He used to call me his doll child, and play with me as I played with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house

Helmer.-What an expression to use about our marriage!

Nora [undisturbed].-I mean I passed from father's hands into yours. You settled everything according to your taste; and I got the same tastes as you; or I pretended to-I don't know whichboth ways perhaps. When I look back on it now, I seem to have been living here like a beggar, from hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and father have done me a great wrong. It's your fault that my life has been wasted.

Helmer.-Why, Nora, how unreasonable and ungrateful you are! Haven't you been happy here? Nora.-No, never: I thought I was, but I never

was.

Helmer.-Not-not happy?

Nora. No, only merry. And you've always been so kind to me. But our house has been nothing but a play-room. Here I have been your doll wife, just as at home I used to be papa's doll child. And the children in their turn have been my dolls. I thought it fun when you played with me, just as the children did when I played with them. That has been our marriage, Torvald.

Helmer.-There is some truth in what you say, exaggerated and overstrained though it be. But Henceforth it shall be different. Play-time is over; now comes the time for education.

Nora.-Whose education? Mine, or the children's?

Helmer.-Both, my dear Nora.

Nora. O Torvald, you can't teach me to be a fit wife for you.

Helmer. And you say that?

Nora.-Am I-am I fit to educate the children?
Helmer.-Nora!

Nora. Didn't you say yourself a few minutes ago you dared not trust them to me?

Helmer.-In the excitement of the moment: why should you dwell upon that?

Nora.-No-you are perfectly right. That problem is beyond me. There's another to be solved first -I must try to educate myself. You are not the man to help me in that. I must set about it alone. And that's why I am now leaving you.

Helmer [jumping up].—What do you mean to say

Nora. I must stand quite alone to know myself and my surroundings; so I cannot stay with you. Helmer.-Nora! Nora!

Nora. I am going at once. me in for to-night—

Christina will take

Helmer.-You are mad. I shall not allow it. I forbid it.

Nora. It's no use your forbidding me anything now. I shall take with me what belongs to me. From you I will accept nothing, either now or afterward.

Helmer. What madness!

Nora.-To-morrow I shall go home.

Helmer.-Home!

Nora. I mean to what was my home. It will be easier for me to find some opening there.

Helmer.-Oh, in your blind inexperience

Nora.-I must try to gain experience, Torvald. Helmer. To forsake your home, your husband, and your children! You don't consider what the world will say.

Nora.-I can pay no heed to that! I only know that I must do it.

Helmer.-It's exasperating! Can you forsake your holiest duties in this way?

Nora.-What do you call my holiest duties?

Helmer. Do you ask me that?

your husband and your children.

Your duties to

Nora. I have other duties equally sacred.
Helmer.-Impossible! What duties do you mean?
Nora. My duties toward myself.

Helmer. Before all else you are a wife and a mother.

Nora.-That I no longer believe. I think that before all else I am a human being, just as much as you are or at least I will try to become one. I know that most people agree with you, Torvald, and that they say so in books. But henceforth I can't be satisfied with what most people say, and what is in books. I must think things out for myself, and try to get clear about them.

Helmer. Are you not clear about your place in your own home? Have you not an infallible guide in questions like these? Have you not religion?

Nora. O Torvald, I don't know properly what religion is.

Helmer.-What do you mean?

Nora.-I know nothing but what our clergyman told me when I was confirmed. He explained that religion was this and that. When I get away from here and stand alone, I will look into that matter too. I will see whether what he has taught me is true, or at any rate whether it is true for me.

Helmer.-Oh, this is unheard of! But if religion cannot keep you right, let me appeal to your conscience-for I suppose you have some moral feeling? Or, answer me; perhaps you have none?

I

Nora.-Well, Torvald, it's not easy to say. really don't know-I am all at sea about these