Her fear of corrupting her children is confirmed when she later refuses to see them, “Nora: No! No! Don’t let them come near me! Keep them with you, Nanny… Nora [white with fear]: Corrupt my little children – poison my home? [She pauses, then throws up her head. ] That’s not true! It could never, never be true. ” Later, in the second act, Nora and the Nurse discuss about children and Nora again hints that she is avoiding the children, stating “But Nanny, I can’t be with them like I used to. ” In response to Nanny’s reply, “Oh well, young children’ll get used to anything”, Nora queries hopefully, “Do you think so?
Do you think they’d forget their Mamma if she went away altogether? ” Her question insinuates her consideration of leaving her children. Her words to Nanny, “And if my babies hadn’t any other mother, I know you’d… ” further fuels this notion, and her contemplation of entrusting her children to the Nurse’s care. Having her original plan of swaying Torvald’s mind foiled, Nora gets increasingly agitated. When Mrs. Linde comes over to help mend her dress, Nora displays her restlessness by constantly moving about, “[getting up and crossing the room]… [walking about]… [pacing up and down]”, trying to think up of a solution.
“Nora: … [coming to a halt] When you’ve paid off everything you owe, you do get your bond back don’t you? … And you can tear it to little pieces and burn it – the horrid filthy thing? ” This illustrates her palpable anxiety about Krogstad’s threat of disclosing her forgery, and her desperate wish to destroy the evidence, as well as reflect her plan to immediately pay off everything she owed as to reclaim the offending bond and destroy it. This plan links to her previous conversation with Mrs. Linde, where Mrs. Linde had wrongly assumed that Dr. Rank was the imaginary “rich admirer” who provided the money for Nora.
Nora: No, it would never have entered my head to ask Dr. Rank. Though I’m quite sure if I were to ask him… Mrs. Linde: But of course you wouldn’t. Nora: Of course not. I can’t imagine there’d be any need. But I’m quite sure that if I told Dr. Rank – Nora is reminded that Dr. Rank is quite well-off when Mrs. Linde was discussing about him, “Is Dr. Rank rich?… Oh yes”; and she appears to be considering about asking him for money, as shown twice in the above dialogue, where she distractedly ponders aloud in unfinished sentences, “I’m quite sure if I were to ask him”, with an emphasis on the were, and “I’m quite sure if I told Dr.Rank”.
Hence, with these words, Nora has indirectly publicised her plan of asking money from Dr. Rank to pay of the rest of the debt as to retrieve the bond and destroy it. Later, when Dr. Rank comes and visits Nora, he informs her of his prediction of his upcoming death. Nora: No, you’re really being absurd today – and just when I so wanted you to be in a particularly good mood. Rank: What, with death just around the corner? And when it’s to pay for someone else’s sins! Where’s the justice in that? Yet in one way or another there isn’t a single family where some sort of inexorable retribution isn’t being exacted.
Nora [stopping her ears]: Nonsense! Cheer up – cheer up! Notice that Nora covers her ears when Rank speaks of “inexorable retribution” in every single family and of paying for “someone else’s sins”. Rank’s words have clearly reminded her of her own situation with her children, and she attempts to block it out, denying the idea of her children having to pay for her sins. Meanwhile, her wish for Dr. Rank “to be in a particularly good mood” exhibits Nora meaning to set her plan in action. Just like the way she habitually tries to coax Torvald into a good mood before asking him for a favour, she flirts with Dr.
Rank before asking him for a “great proof of [his] friendship”. Her plans are ruined though when it resulted in an unexpected declaration of love from Dr. Rank, and upset that the innocent appearance of their relationship is spoiled, Nora refrains from asking the favor. Nora’s plans had all failed, and Krogstad comes again to see her, but this time with a letter for Torvald, notifying him of Nora’s crime and of Krogstad’s plan to have the bond in his possession for further blackmailing purposes in the future.
He informs Nora that there’s nothing she can do now. Krogstad: – if you’ve thought of running away from your home – Nora: I have. Krogstad: – or of anything worse – Nora: How did you know? … Krogstad: Most of us think of that at first. I thought of it, too – only I hadn’t the courage. Nora [dully]: Nor had I. Here, “anything worse” most likely refers to suicide, which Nora had considered but could not muster up enough courage to do it.
However, Nora later changes her mind when Krogstad speaks of his plans to use Torvald to get him a better position at the bank, “Nora: That’ll never happen as long as you live… “Krogstad: Do you mean that you’ll – … Nora: Yes, I have the courage now. ” Krogstad finally drops the letter of doom into the letterbox, and since Torvald has the only key to the letterbox, Nora realizes that the disaster that is about to happen is inevitable. She informs Mrs. Linde of the disastrous news and asks her to be her ‘witness’.
