"THE ALTERNATIVE 'GERMAN' ENDING

Under strong pressure, and very reluctantly, Ibsen wrote an alternative ending for the German
theatre. Both Maurice in Hamburg and Laube in Vienna pressed for a 'conciliatory' ending, as
also did Frau Hedwig Niemann-Raabe who was to play Nora on tour. Copyright laws in Norway
did not extend to Germany, so the German producers could have changed it themselves if they
wanted to. In the end, Ibsen himself provided the following additional dialogue. In order to avoid
a barbarous outrage he wrote it himself, saying if the play was going to have violence done to
it, he would prefer to be the one to do it. The play was a (controversial) success in Germany, but
Ibsen later regretted having written the alternative ending.

NORA. . . . Where we could make a real marriage out of our lives together. Goodbye. [Begins to
go.]
HELMER. Go then! [Seizes her arm.] But first you shall see your children for the last time!
NORA. Let me go! I will not see them! I cannot!
HELMER. [draws her over to the door, left]. You shall see them. [Opens the door and says
softly.] Look, there they are asleep, peaceful, and carefree. Tomorrow when they wake up and
call for their mother, they will be--motherless.
NORA. [trembling]. Motherless . . . !
HELMER. As you once were.
NORA. Motherless! [Struggles with herself, lets her travelling bag fall, and says.] Oh, this is a
sin against myself, but I cannot leave them. [Half sinks down the door.]
HELMER [joyfully, but softly]. Nora!
[The curtain falls.]" (287-88)

From The Oxford Ibsen. Trans. James Walter McFarlane. Vol. 4. New York and Toronto: Oxford
UP, 1961.