Dialogue and Tension: Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House”

    “NORA.
    [after a short silence]. Isn’t there one thing that strikes you as strange in our sitting here like this?

    HELMER.
    What is that?


    NORA.
    We have been married now eight years. Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, husband and wife, have had a serious conversation?

    HELMER.
    What do you mean by serious?


    NORA.
    In all these eight years—longer than that—from the very beginning of our acquaintance, we have never exchanged a word on any serious subject.


    HELMER.
    Was it likely that I would be continually and forever telling you about worries that you could not help me to bear?


    NORA.
    I am not speaking about business matters. I say that we have never sat down in earnest together to try and get at the bottom of anything.

    HELMER.
    But, dearest Nora, would it have been any good to you?


    NORA.
    That is just it; you have never understood me. I have been greatly wronged, Torvald—first by papa and then by you.


    HELMER.
    What! By us two—by us two, who have loved you better than anyone else in the world?


    NORA.
    [shaking her head]. You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.

    HELMER.
    Nora, what do I hear you saying?


    NORA.
    It is perfectly true, Torvald. When I was at home with papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it. He called me his doll-child, and he played with me just as I used to play with my dolls. And when I came to live with you—

    HELMER.
    What sort of an expression is that to use about our marriage?


    NORA.
    [undisturbed]. I mean that I was simply transferred from papa’s hands into yours. You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as you—or else I pretended to, I am really not quite sure which—I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other. When I look back on it, it seems to me as if I had been living here like a poor woman—just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely to perform tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and papa have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life.


    HELMER.
    How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have you not been happy here?


    NORA.
    No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never really been so.

    HELMER.
    Not—not happy!


    NORA.
    No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.


    HELMER.
    There is some truth in what you say—exaggerated and strained as your view of it is. But for the future it shall be different. Playtime shall be over, and lesson-time shall begin.

    NORA.
    Whose lessons? Mine, or the children’s?

    HELMER.
    Both yours and the children’s, my darling Nora.


    NORA.
    Alas, Torvald, you are not the man to educate me into being a proper wife for you.

    HELMER.
    And you can say that!

    NORA.
    And I—how am I fitted to bring up the children?

    HELMER.
    Nora!


    NORA.
    Didn’t you say so yourself a little while ago—that you dare not trust me to bring them up?

    HELMER.
    In a moment of anger! Why do you pay any heed to that?

    NORA.
    Indeed, you were perfectly right. I am not fit for the task. There is another task I must undertake first. I must try and educate myself—you are not the man to help me in that. I must do that for myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now.

    HELMER.
    [springing up]. What do you say?


    NORA.
    I must stand quite alone, if I am to understand myself and everything about me. It is for that reason that I cannot remain with you any longer.

    HELMER.
    Nora, Nora!


    NORA.
    I am going away from here now, at once. I am sure Christine will take me in for the night—

    HELMER.
    You are out of your mind! I won’t allow it! I forbid you!


    NORA.
    It is no use forbidding me anything any longer. I will take with me what belongs to myself. I will take nothing from you, either now or later.

    HELMER.
    What sort of madness is this!


    NORA.
    Tomorrow I shall go home—I mean, to my old home. It will be easiest for me to find something to do there.

    HELMER.
    You blind, foolish woman!

    NORA.
    I must try and get some sense, Torvald.


    HELMER.
    To desert your home, your husband and your children! And you don’t consider what people will say!

    NORA.
    I cannot consider that at all. I only know that it is necessary for me.

    HELMER.
    It’s shocking. This is how you would neglect your most sacred duties.

    NORA.
    What do you consider my most sacred duties?

    HELMER.
    Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your husband and your children?

    NORA.
    I have other duties just as sacred.

    HELMER.
    That you have not. What duties could those be?

    NORA.
    Duties to myself.”

    — A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

    Technique

    In A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen builds tension between two characters with multiple techniques.

    In the above excerpt, Ibsen steadily builds tension through a conversation between a husband (Helmer) and wife (Nora) who have different motives and goals in life. Helmer believes in a traditional marriage where the husband makes all decisions, and Nora no longer believes in that philosophy after eight years of marriage with Helmer and continuous patronization.

    The excerpt starts with Helmer and Nora sitting in the same room silently, the silence naturally setting the mood and building the tension because they are not speaking. Nora asks if he finds it “strange” that they’re sitting silently, and Helmer’s obliviousness is important here because it shows that he has a different perspective than her on their silence and that he is not aware of how she’s feeling. His lack of awareness triggers Nora, who’s spent a lot of time thinking, to push the conversation forward by expanding on her original question, yet Helmer remains oblivious:

    HELMER.
    What is that?


    NORA.
    We have been married now eight years. Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two, you and I, husband and wife, have had a serious conversation?


    HELMER.
    What do you mean by serious?


    NORA.
    In all these eight years—longer than that—from the very beginning of our acquaintance, we have never exchanged a word on any serious subject.

    Ibsen adds credibility to the tension with two linked analogies: Nora comparing Helmer to her controlling father from her childhood and comparing their house to a playroom. In both analogies, Nora is the child who cannot make a decision for herself. Helmer validates Nora’s point by belittling her with the word “darling” and grouping her with their childen for “lesson-time,” which further emboldens her:

    NORA.
    No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa’s doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.


    HELMER.
    There is some truth in what you say—exaggerated and strained as your view of it is. But for the future it shall be different. Playtime shall be over, and lesson-time shall begin.


    NORA.
    Whose lessons? Mine, or the children’s?


    HELMER.
    Both yours and the children’s, my darling Nora.

    Later, Ibsen builds Nora’s independence and filps the script by having her make a decision that impacts her and Helmer—to abandon the marriage. Note in the following part how Helmer is “springing up,” which implies that he finally understands the matter’s urgency after sitting the entire length of the conversation thus far:

    HELMER.
    [springing up]. What do you say?


    NORA.
    I must stand quite alone, if I am to understand myself and everything about me. It is for that reason that I cannot remain with you any longer.


    HELMER.
    Nora, Nora!


    NORA.
    I am going away from here now, at once. I am sure Christine will take me in for the night—


    HELMER.
    You are out of your mind! I won’t allow it! I forbid you!


    NORA.
    It is no use forbidding me anything any longer. I will take with me what belongs to myself. I will take nothing from you, either now or later.

    Use

    • Contrast character perspectives to create natural tension.
    • Alternate declarative statements and questioning by each character to heighten emotions.
    • Have characters speak vulnerably and directly to each other, including using expanded words instead of contractions (“cannot” instead of “can’t”).