Alternate Ending
Of all of Ibsen’s plays, none had the lasting effects that A Doll’s House had on the literary world and on society at large. Because its theme of humanity and independence is easily applied to various revolutionary movements, many people have taken the play to promote their own ideals. The most radical of promotions I found also included a change in the ending, to show how “immoral the play is; how ridiculous – and hateful – the conception of a woman deliberately abandoning her husband and children must be to an English audience” (Marx). The following is an excerpt from the last scene:
Hel. – As you now are, you are no wife for me.
Nora. – You have strength to make another woman of me.
Hel. – Perhaps – when husband and children are taken away from you.
Nora. – To be parted from you – from the children! No, Torvald, no; I can’t grasp the thought.
Hel (going into his room). – The more reason for the thing to happen.
(He comes back with brush, comb, tooth-brush, a piece of soap, and two candlesticks. These he places on the table.)
Nora. – Torvald, Torvald, not now. Can’t you think it over till to-morrow?
Hel. – No. Of course I can’t allow you to spend the night in another’s house, so we shall live here as brother and sister.
Nora. – Oh, Torvald! I must go to the children. I know they're in better hands than mine, but still I am their mother.
Hel. (interrupting). – As you now are, you can be nothing to them. They must be sent to a boarding school.
Nora. – Oh! never, never! No mother could ever leave her little ones. Nature, society, religion, all forbid you to separate a mother from her children. You cannot! You dare not!
Hel. – Cannot? Dare not? I both can and dare do what is my duty towards my children.
Nora. (hysterically). – But this is monstrous, unnatural, unheard of!
Hel. – Unheard of? Supposing I had not saved you from Krogstad, you would have been condemned as a forger. Do you think you would have your children with you in a prison cell? And what the law would have done on legal grounds, I must do on moral grounds. Unnatural? It is the law of nature in the working classes, and you have debased yourself to their level. Didn’t the three nurses you engaged for the children, because I was afraid nursing them yourself would spoil your figure, have to send their own babes to baby-farms? And as for monstrous, supposing you had committed suicide, as you selfishly thought of doing, would you not have been separated from the children, and for ever?
Nora. (overwhelmed, sinks on her knees). – But some time, Torvald, some time.
Hel. – Possibly.
Nora. – Ah! my husband! My husband now and always!
Hel. – And as such the best judge.
Nora. (sobbing in uncontrollable violence). – But the children -
Hel. – Have you really the courage to begin that again?
Nora. (pleadingly, catching hold of his coat tails). – Torvald!
Hel. – No, it is all over now. Take your tooth-brush and these (points to things on table). Towels are in the room already. Remember the matter must be placed in a proper light before the servants. And I will write to Pastor Manders to recommend me a good boarding school for my children.
Nora. – All over All over! Torvald, shall I never see them again?
Hel. – They will write to you once a quarter.
Nora. – And I may write to them?
Hel. – Yes. But I must see the letters.
Nora. – And I may send them goodies – macaroons?
Hel. – Nothing. Nothing!
Nora. – But I may go to them if they should have the measles.
Hel – No, I say. You must remain strangers.
Nora. – Can I never be more than a stranger to you and to them?
Hel. (takes up matches and lights both candles). – Oh, Nora, then the miracle of miracles would have to happen.
Nora. – What is the miracle of miracles?
Hel. – You would have to change so that – but oh! Nora, after my experience of miracles I hardly look forward to another.
Nora – But I will believe in one. I must so change that -
Hel. – That, perhaps, I may allow the children to come home for the holidays.
Nora. (seizes his hand) – Oh, thank you, thank you! And perhaps, Torvald, then I shall become your little squirrel again your merry little song-bird.
Hel. – In that case our living together will be a true marriage. (Takes up his candle.) Good-night! (He goes out.)
Nora. (sinks into a chair with her face in her hands). – Torvald, Torvald! (She looks round and stands up.) He’s gone! (She takes her candle, the brushes, etc., then a hope suddenly inspires her, and she puts them down again.) Ah! the miracle of miracles!
(Helmer’s bedroom door bangs.)
As is obvious from the text, Eleanor Marx recreated the situation so that Nora becomes the so-called villain of the play, and Torvald, O Sensible and Good Gentleman, saves her. This new version “cannot fail to satisfy the English sense of morality and decency” (Marx). However, many critics believe (myself included), that “the original ending was the only right one” (Beyer 210). From my point of view, the first resolution is the only one closest to reality, as my actions and development must result in a character specific denouement or enlightenment.