Krogstad and Christine are alone onstage, for the Helmers and Dr. Rank are upstairs at the masquerade party. Bitterly Krogstad reproaches Christine for renouncing their betrothal, years ago, sacrificing him in order to marry a man better able to support her and her family.
After wrecking his hopes the first time, she appears again to stand in his way by taking over his hard-won position at the bank. Christine denies the charge. She says she returned to town to seek him and renew their love.
Krogstad, deeply moved, is grateful for her love and faith. He says he will ask Torvald to return his letter, but Christine has changed her mind. Torvald must find out the truth; she says all this concealment and falsehood must be exposed in order for Nora and Torvald to realize a true marriage. After Krogstad has gone, Torvald enters, drawing Nora into the room while she struggles and protests that she wants to remain at the party a little longer. He is annoyed to find Christine waiting up for them, and while he fetches candles, Christine tells Nora of her talk with Krogstad and counsels that "you must tell your husband all about it.
Torvald is relieved when Christine finally leaves them alone. Flushed with champagne and romantic desires, he tells Nora that all this night, "I have longed for nothing but you. Nora twists out of his embrace. Before he can be angry, Dr. Rank enters to wish them good night, and Nora quickly senses the real reason for his visit. Turning to go, Rank says good-bye with unmistakable finality. To Nora's dismay, Torvald now goes to the letterbox. Rank has left them a visiting card marked with black; "as if he were announcing his own death," murmurs Torvald.
After Nora tells him of Rank's condition, he clasps her tightly. Now that their closest friend is gone, he says, they must hold on to each other even more closely. She firmly disengages herself. In deference to their friend's death, Torvald agrees to retire to his own room.
Alone, Nora prepares to rush out to meet her own death "in the icy depths. In a paroxysm of self-pity and indignation, Torvald struts and shouts, vulgarly abusing his wife for bringing this shame upon him, for putting him into Krogstad's power.
People might even suspect that he was responsible for the whole thing, that he prompted Nora to do the deed. Christine returns and reports that Krogstad wasn't home. She left a note for him. After Christine leaves, Nora counts down the hours she has to live. Act Three finds Christine alone in the Helmers' living room. The Stenborgs' party is going on upstairs. Krogstad enters. Apparently, they used to go out, but Christine eventually ditched him for a richer man.
She had to because her mother was sick and she had two younger brothers to care for. Christine says that she wants to be with Krogstad again and help him raise his children. Krogstad is overjoyed. He says he'll demand his blackmail letter back unopened. Christine tells him not to. She thinks all the lies in the Helmer household need to be revealed. Krogstad takes off. The Helmers come down from the party. Christine tells them she was waiting to see Nora in her costume.
Nora whispers, asking what happened with Krogstad. Her friend tells her that she has nothing to fear anymore from Krogstad, but that she needs to tell Torvald the truth anyway. Christine exits. Torvald is kind of drunk and tries to get Nora to sleep with him, but she's not in the mood. Rank drops by. He's super-drunk. He makes allusions that he is going to die soon and then exits into the night.
Torvald opens the mailbox. He finds cards that Rank left. They have black crosses on them. Nora tells him the cards are Rank's way of announcing his death. Torvald laments his friend's sickness. He tells Nora that sometimes he wishes she was in terrible danger so that he could save her. Nora tells him to open his mail. When Torvald reads Krogstad's letter he totally flips out, telling her that she is a terrible person. He laments that they'll have to do whatever Krogstad says.
He insists that Nora is not to be allowed near the children anymore, because she may corrupt them. Just then, a letter arrives from Krogstad. In the letter, Krogstad says that he's had a change of heart and will no longer be blackmailing them. Torvald is really happy and forgives Nora. Nora, however, doesn't forgive Torvald. She tells him that she was expecting a wonderful thing to happen. She thought he would try to sacrifice himself for her, taking all the blame on himself.
Nora, of course, wouldn't allow him to do that, and would've committed suicide to stop him. Torvald's actions made him seem cowardly in Nora's eyes. She tells him that she is leaving him, because they've never had a real marriage. She's never been more than a doll in his eyes. He begs her to stay, but she refuses, leaving both him and the kids, with the slamming of a door.
Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Henrik Ibsen. At this point, Dr. Rank arrives. He has come, he says, to tell her that he has one more month left to live. When the final "horrors of dissolution" begin, he will send her a card marked with a black cross, for he intends to remain alone like a sick animal when it is time to die.
A victim of tuberculosis of the spine, Rank denounces the "inexorable retribution'' that innocent children must pay for their parent's excesses, and Nora covers her ears to prevent hearing the references to her own life and her own children.
To avoid the serious talk, Nora chatters about her dress, flirtatiously showing Rank her silk stockings. The doctor becomes serious again, expressing sorrow at being unable to leave her a token of gratitude for the friendship he enjoyed in this house. Nora, about to ask him to lend her money as a "big proof of friendship," never makes her request, for Rank responds to her hint with a passionate declaration of love.
Nora rises and quietly calls the servant to bring them more light. As their conversation continues in the brightened room, she lapses into her former friendliness. 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.
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