Chapter XLI: Act I: , Scene 4.)19

Two sets of extracts from the first and final versions of Ibsen's _A Doll's House_ show the way in which perfected understanding of a character reveals the apt phrase.

(_Nora stands motionless. He (_Nora stands motionless.
goes to the door and opens Helmer goes to the door
it._) and opens it_.)

_The Maid._ (_In the Hall._) _Ellen._ (_Half-dressed in the
Here is a letter for you, ma'am. Hall_.) Here is a letter for you,
ma'am.

_Helmer._ Give it here. (_He _Helmer._ Give it to me. (_Seizes
seizes the letter and shuts the letter and shuts the door._) Yes,
door._) Yes, from him. Look from him. You shall not have it.
here. I shall read it.

_Nora._ Read it. _Nora._ Read it.

_Helmer._ I have hardly the _Helmer._ (_By the lamp_.) I
courage. I fear the worst. We have hardly the courage to. We
may both be lost, both you and I. may both be lost, both you and
Ah! I must know. (_Hastily I. Ah! I must know. (_Hastily
tears the letter open; reads a tears the letter open; reads a few
few lines with a cry of joy._) few lines, looks at an enclosure;
Nora! a cry of joy._) Nora!

(_Nora looks inquiringly at (_Nora looks inquiringly at
him._) him._)

_Helmer._ Nora!--Oh, I must read _Helmer._ Nora! Oh, I must read
it again. Yes, yes, it is so. You it again. Yes, yes, it is so.
are saved, Nora, you are saved. I are saved, Nora, I am saved.

_Nora._ How, saved? _Nora._ And I?

_Helmer._ Look here. He sends _Helmer._ You too, of course;
you back your promissory note. we are both saved, both of us.
He writes that he regrets and Look here, he sends you back your
apologises, that a happy turn promissory note. He writes that
in his life--Oh, what matter he regrets and appologises; that
what he writes. We are saved, a happy turn in his life--Oh,
Nora! There is nothing to matter what he writes. We are
witness against you. Oh, Nora, saved, Nora! No one can harm you.
Nora.[20] Oh, Nora, Nora.[21]

The text of the right-hand column brings out more clearly than the original the complete but unconscious selfishness of Helmer. Ibsen, understanding that character more fully than in his first draft, makes not only the change from "You are saved, Nora" to the self-revelatory "I am saved!" but also the change to that infinitely more dramatic "And I?" which replaces Nora's "How, saved?"

In a second set of extracts from the same scene, a firmer grasp of the characters has permitted Ibsen to replace the general and conventional in the last two speeches of the left-hand column with the more specific and characterizing lines of Helmer and the lines of Nora that are an inspiration.

_Nora._... It never for a moment _Nora._... When Krogstad's letter
occurred to me that you lay in the box, it never occurred
would think of submitting to to me that you would think of
that man's conditions, that you submitting to that man's
would agree to direct your conditions. I was convinced that
actions by the will of another. I you would say to him, "Make it
was convinced that you would known to all the world"; and that
say to him, "Make it known to then--
the whole world"; and that
then--

_Helmer._ Well? I should give _Helmer._ Well? When I had
you up to punishment and disgrace. given my own wife's name up to
disgrace and shame--?

_Nora._ No; then I firmly believed _Nora._ Then I firmly believed
that you would come forward, take that you would come forward,
everything upon yourself, and say, take everything upon yourself,
"I am the guilty one"-- and say, "I am the guilty one."

_Helmer._ Nora! _Helmer._ Nora!

_Nora._ You mean I would _Nora._ You mean I would
never have accepted such a never have accepted such a
sacrifice? No, of course not. But sacrifice? No, certainly not. But
what would my word have been what would my assertions have
in opposition to yours? I so been worth in opposition to yours?
firmly believed that you would That was the miracle that I hoped
sacrifice yourself for me--"don't for and dreaded. And it was to
listen to her," you would hinder that that I wanted to die.
say--"she is not responsible;
she is out of her senses"--you
would say that it was love of
you--you would move heaven
and earth. I thought you would
get Dr. Rank to witness that I
was mad, unhinged, distracted.
I so firmly believed that you
would ruin yourself to save
me. That is what I dreaded, and
therefore I wanted to die.

_Helmer._ Oh, Nora, Nora! _Helmer._ I would gladly work
for you day and night, Nora--
bear sorrow and want for your
sake--but no man sacrifices
his honour, even for one he loves.

_Nora._ And how did it turn _Nora._ Millions of women have
out? No thanks, no outburst of done so.[23]
affection, not a shred of a
thought of saving me.[22]

Perfect phrasing rests, then, on character thoroughly understood and complete emotional accord with the character. Short of that in dialogue, one stops at the commonplace and colorless, the personal, or the literary.

Even, however, when dialogue expounds properly and is thoroughly in character, it will fail if not fitted for the stage. John Oliver Hobbes stated a truth, if somewhat exaggeratedly, in these lines of her preface to _The Ambassador_:

Once I found a speech in prose--prose so subtly balanced, harmonious,
and interesting that it seemed, on paper, a song: But no actor or
actress, though they spoke with the voice of angels, could make it, on
the stage, even tolerable.... Yet the speech is nevertheless fine
stuff: it is nevertheless interesting in substance: it has
imagination: it has charm. What, then, was lacking? Emotion in the
_tone_ and, on the part of the writer, consideration for the speaking
voice. Stage dialogue may have or may not have many qualities, but it
must be emotional. It rests primarily on feeling. Wit, philosophy,
moral truths, poetic language--all these count as nothing unless
there is feeling of an obvious, ordinary kind.[24]

When reading a play aloud, do we give all the stage directions, or, cutting out those which state how certain speeches should be read, try to give these as directed? Even when reading some story aloud, do we not often find troublesome full directions as to just how the speakers delivered their lines? If given by us, they provide an awkward standard by which to judge our reading. If we wish to suppress them, they are not, in rapid reading, always seen in time. As was pointed out very early in this book, gesture, facial expression, movement about the stage, and above all, the voice, aid the dramatist as they cannot aid the novelist. These aids and the time limits of a play have, as we shall see, very great effect on dialogue. Note in the opening of _The Case of Rebellious Susan_, by Henry Arthur Jones, the effects demanded from the aids just named.