What if torvald heard

It also shows that he loves her as his possession instead of a human being. However, Dr. Rank treats her as equal and adores her when she is not dressed in fancy clothes.

If you put one on, no one can see you. Rank speaks to Nora in ambiguous language that only both of them can understand. He means that her husband Torvald, would not understand this language. Rank means that he will be dead as he would not be attending the next fancy-dress ball. Therefore, the black hat here means death. He vows to save her from any danger even if he would have to risk his own life. After vowing to save her from any difficult times, Torvald comes to know about the debt and tells her that he does not accept her now as he has to save the rest of the things.

Rank points out that she seems even more relaxed in his company than with Torvald. Nora explains that "there are some people one loves best and others whom one would almost always rather have as companions.

At this point, the maid hands her Krogstad's visiting card. Finding some pretext, Nora excuses herself from Dr. Rank and confronts the moneylender, who has just received Torvald's letter of dismissal. Krogstad informs Nora that he has no further interest in the money and will keep the bond in a gesture of blackmail. With this weapon, he will have the power to make Torvald guarantee his employment at the bank and to eventually attain a higher position.

Nora declares that her husband would never submit to such humiliation and hints she would rather sacrifice her life than have Torvald suffer blame for her crime. She is sure his protective nature would make him assume all the guilt, but Krogstad has a much lower opinion of Torvald's character. Turning to go, he tells her that he is leaving a letter informing Torvald of the forgery. Nora listens breathlessly as the footsteps pass downstairs.

As they pause, she hears something drop into the letterbox, then the steps gradually diminish. Returning to Christine, Nora tells of the forgery and the letter. She begs her friend to act as a witness "if anything should happen to me. But it is so terrible, Christine, it mustn't happen, not for all the world. On the strength of their past love, she will ask him to recall the letter.

Torvald is accustomed at this hour to read his mail, and Nora tries to distract him. She tells him that she is so nervous about dancing the tarantella for the party that he must help her practice until the last minute. Agreeing to do nothing but instruct her dancing — not even open his mail — Torvald watches as Nora begins her dance, Rank playing the piano accompaniment.

Despite her husband's instructions, Nora moves more and more violently, dancing "as if her life depended on it. This is sheer madness. Obsessed with thoughts of illness, the physician characterizes Krogstad as "morally diseased. This idea draws a parallel between Krogstad's situation and that of Dr. The lawyer feels his job is threatened now that Torvald is his chief, while Rank, ill with a congenital disease, is close to losing his life.

With this in mind, Ibsen indicates that Krogstad clings to his respectability, or moral health, just as Dr. Rank clings to whatever physical life he has left. Now that he has dismissed his visitor, Torvald emerges from the study and meets Christine for the first time. Recommending that Torvald find a job for Christine, Nora makes up a little story to push her point.

Her friend rushed to town, the wife relates, just as soon as she heard of Torvald's promotion in hopes of finding a place at the bank. Now that Christine has left to seek lodgings, Nora admits the nurse and loudly greets her three children. During the noisy romp, Nora crawls under the table to play hide and seek. She emerges growling and the children shriek with laughter. No one has heard Krogstad's knock on the door. He enters, and when Nora emerges from under the table again, she gives a stifled cry at discovering her villain.

Ushering the children out of the room, Nora is alone with Krogstad. He has come, he says, to ask her to intercede with Torvald on his behalf, for only her influence can protect the job which Christine Linde might take from him. He tells her that, for the sake of his growing sons, he has been working to restore his fallen position in society and is prepared to fight for this small post in the bank as if he were "fighting for his life.

Krogstad reveals that he can prove she borrowed the pounds from him by forging her father's signature. Her situation was desperate when she needed the money, Nora explains. Her father, who died soon afterward, was too ill at the time to be consulted about such matters. Surely it is no crime for a woman to do everything possible to save her husband's life, Nora declares. Forgery is a criminal act, Krogstad reminds her, and the law cares nothing about motivation. He tells her that the one false step in his own life, the one that ruined his reputation and his career "was nothing more nor nothing worse than what you have done.

A songbird must have a clean beak to sing with. Do you expect me to make a laughingstock of myself before my entire staff — give people the idea that I am open to outside influence? But I forgive you, because it so charmingly testifies to the love you bear me.

Watch me, now. You hold the embroidery in your left hand, like this, and then you take the needle in your right hand and go in and out in a slow, easy movement — like this.

Do you know, Nora, often I wish some terrible danger might threaten you, so that I could offer my life and my blood, everything, for your sake. There is something indescribably wonderful and satisfying for a husband in knowing that he has forgiven his wife — forgiven her unreservedly, from the bottom of his heart.

It means that she has become his property in a double sense; he has, as it were, brought her into the world anew; she is now not only his wife but also his child. Previous section Nora Next section Krogstad. Popular pages: A Doll's House. Take a Study Break.