A Doll's House Nora Quotes

Helmer: I would gladly work night and day for you. Nora- bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves. Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.

HELMER: But this is disgraceful. Is this the way you neglect your most sacred duties? NORA: What do you consider is my most sacred duty? HELMER: Do I have to tell you that? Isn't it your duty to your husband and children? NORA: I have another duty, just as sacred. HELMER: You can't have. What duty do you mean? NORA: My duty to myself.

NORA: I must stand on my own two feet if I'm to get to know myself and the world outside. That's why I can't stay here with you any longer.

Nora: It's true Torvald. When I lived at home with Papa, he used to tell me his opinion about everything, and so I had the same opinion. If I thought differently, I had to hide it from him, or he wouldn't have liked it. He called me his little doll, and he used to play with me just as I played with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house - Helmer: That's no way to talk about our marriage! Nora [undisturbed]: I mean when I passed out of Papa's hands into yours. You arranged everything to suit your own tastes, and so I came to have the same tastes as yours.. or I pretended to. I'm not quite sure which.. perhaps it was a bit of both -- sometimes one and sometimes the other. Now that I come to look at it, I've lived here like a pauper -- simply from hand to mouth. I've lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. That was how you wanted it. You and Papa have committed a grievous sin against me: it's your fault that I've made nothing of my life.

Nora: Torvald, don't look at me like that! Torvald: Can't I look at my richest treasure? At all that beauty that's mine, mine alone-completely and utterly.

HELMER:—To forsake your home, your husband, and your children! You don’t consider what the world will say. NORA:—I can pay no heed to that. I only know what I must do. HELMER:—It is exasperating! Can you forsake your holiest duties in this world? NORA:—What do you call my holiest duties? HELMER:—Do you ask me that? Your duties to your husband and your children. NORA:—I have other duties equally sacred. HELMER:—Impossible! What duties do you mean? NORA:—My duties towards myself. HELMER:—Before all else you are a wife and a mother. NORA:—That I no longer believe. I think that before all else I am a human being, just as much as you are—or at least I will try to become one.

Torvald: I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora--bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. Nora: But hundreds of thousands of women have done!

Zar nije neobično dražesna? To je bilo mišljenje i čitavog društva. Ali užasno je tvrdoglavo - to slatko malo stvorenje.

The beauty myth of the present is more insidious than any mystique of femininity yet: A century ago, Nora slammed the door of the doll's house; a generation ago, women turned their backs on the consumer heaven of the isolated multiapplianced home; but where women are trapped today, there is no door to slam. The contemporary ravages of the beauty backlash are destroying women physically and depleting us psychologically. If we are to free ourselves from the dead weight that has once again been made out of femaleness, it is not ballots or lobbyists or placards that women will need first; it is a new way to see.

Odlazak uvijek mora biti efektan.

Helmer: But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.

KROGSTAD: The law cares nothing about motives. NORA: Then it must be a very foolish law.

Nevertheless the severance is rather casual and it drops a stain on our admiration of Nora. Ibsen has put the leaving of her children on the same moral and emotional level as the leaving of her husband and we cannot, in our hearts, asssent to that. It is not only the leaving but the way the play does not have time for suffering, changes of heart. Ibsen has been too much a man in the end. He has taken the man's practice, if not his stated belief, that where self-realization is concerned children shall not be an impediment.

NORA: No; only merry. And you were always so friendly and kind to me. But our house has been nothing but a nursery. Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa's doll-child. And my children were, in their turn, my dolls. I was exceedingly delighted when you played with me, just as children were whenever I played with them. That has been our marriage, Torvald.

Helmer: To desert your home, your husband and your children! And you don‘t consider what people will say! Nora: I cannot consider that at all. I only know that it is necessary for me. Helmer: It‘s shocking. This is how you would neglect your most sacred duties. Nora: What do you consider my most sacred duties? Helmer: Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your husband and your children? Nora: I have other duties just as sacred. Helmer: That you have not. What duties could those be? Nora: Duties to myself. Helmer: Before all else, you are a wife and mother. Nora: I don‘t believe that any longer. I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are — or, at all events, that I must try and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say, or with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get to understand them.

Nora. I know nothing but what the clergyman said, when I went to be confirmed. He told us that religion was this, and that, and the other. When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if it is true for me.

A onda kad polazimo, i kad stavljam šal oko tvojih nježnih, mladenačkih ramena - na taj divni zatiljak - onda zamišljam da si ti moja mlada nevjesta i da upravo dolazimo iz crkve, da te po prvi put vodim u svoj stan, da sam po prvi put nasamo s tobom - sasvim sam s tobom, ti mlada, ustreptala ljepotice! Čitavo ovo veče bila si moja čežnja.

NORA. I have other duties just as sacred. HELMER. That you have not. What duties could those be? NORA. Duties to myself.

I have other duties just as sacred. HELMER. That you have not. What duties could those be? NORA. Duties to myself. HELMER. Before all else, you are a wife and mother.

But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. NORA. It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.

Nora: I have other duties just as sacred. Helmer: That you have not. What duties could those be? Nora: Duties to myself.

Nora: As I am now, I am no wife for you. Helmer: I have it in me to become a different man. Nora: Perhaps-- if your doll is taken away from you.

But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. Nora. It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done. Helmer. Oh, you think and talk like a heedless child.

Krogstad: The law cares nothing about motives. Nora: Then it must be a very foolish law. Krogstad: Foolish or not, it is the law by which you will be judged, If I produce this paper in court.

I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora—bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves. Nora. It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.

Helmer: Just think how a guilty man like that has to lie and play the hypocrite with every one, how he has to wear a mask in presence of those near and dear to him, even before his own wife and children. And about the children--that is the most terrible part of it all, Nora. Nora: How? Helmer: Because such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home. Each breath the children take in such a house is full of the germs of evil.

Mrs. Linde: One must live, Doctor Rank. Rank: Yes, the general opinion seems to be that it is necessary. Nora: Look here, Doctor Rank - you know you want to live. Rank: Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible.

Both you and I would have to be so changed that—. Oh, Torvald, I don't believe any longer in wonderful things happening. HELMER. But I will believe in it. Tell me? So changed that—? NORA. That our life together would be a real wedlock. Good-bye. (She goes out through the hall.)

The beauty myth of the present is more insidious than any mystique of femininity yet: A century ago, Nora slammed the door of the doll’s house; a generation ago, women turned their backs on the consumer heaven of the isolated multiapplianced home; but where women are trapped today, there is no door to slam. The contemporary ravages of the beauty backlash are destroying women physically and depleting us psychologically. If we are to free ourselves from the dead weight that has once again been made out of femaleness, it is not ballots or lobbyists or placards that women will need first; it is a new way to see.

But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for the short time longer that there need be any struggle.

Nora: Look here, Doctor Rank--you know you want to live. Rank: Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible. All my patients are like that. And so are those who are morally diseased; one of them, and a bad case too, is at this very moment with Helmer-- Mrs. Linde: [sadly] Ah!

The feminine mystique, elevated by Freudian theory into a scientific religion, sounded a single, overprotective, life-restricting, future-denying note for women. Girls who grew up playing baseball, baby-sitting, mastering geometry -- almost independent enough, almost resourceful enough, to meet the problems of the fission-fusion era -- were told by the most advanced thinkers of our time to go back and live their lives as if they were Noras, restricted to the doll's house by Victorian prejudice. And their own respect and awe for the authority of science -- anthropology, sociology, psychology share that authority now -- kept them from questioning the feminine mystique.

Nora. I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what religion is. Helmer. What are you saying? Nora. I know nothing but what the clergyman said, when I went to be confirmed. He told us that religion was this, and that, and the other. When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if it is true for me.

NORA: Yes; it is just so, Torvald. While I was still at home with father, he used to tell me all his views, and so of course I held the same views; if at any time I had a different view I concealed it, because he would not have liked people with opinions of their own. He used to call me his little doll, and play with me, as I in my turn used to play with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house.

Nora. What do you consider my most sacred duties? Helmer. Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your husband and your children? Nora. I have other duties just as sacred. Helmer. That you have not. What duties could those be? Nora. Duties to myself. Helmer. Before all else, you are a wife and mother. Nora. I don’t believe that any longer. I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being,

Nora. I assure you, Torvald, that is not an easy question to answer. I really don't know. The thing perplexes me altogether. I only know that you and I look at it in quite a different light. I am learning, too, that the law is quite another thing from what I supposed; but I find it impossible to convince myself that the law is right. According to it a woman has no right to spare her old dying father, or to save her husband's life. I can't believe that.

Ma ti pare che sarei capace di farlo, io?! Di ripudiarti, o di farti soltanto un rimprovero? Oh tu non conosci la natura dell'uomo, Nora. Vedi per un uomo non c'è nulla di più carezzevole, di più sereno che il sentimento di aver perdonato alla propria moglie, di averle perdonato sinceramente di tutto cuore. Il tesoro che egli possiede in lei si raddoppia, è come se essa rinascesse e, direi quasi diventasse ad un tratto sua moglie sua figlia. E ciò tu sarai per me, d'ora in poi, smarrita e inesperta creatura. Non ti prender pensiero di nulla, mia Nora; sii solamente franca con me e allora io sarò in pari tempo la tua volontà e la tua coscienza.

NORA: nNon ci credo più. Prima di tutto credo invece che io sia un essere umano, come te, né più ne meno, o, infine, voglio procurare di diventarlo. So bene che la maggior parte della gente ti darà ragione, Torvaldo, e che qualche cosa di simile è scritto nei libri. Ma io non posso più contentarmi di ciò che dice la maggioranza e di ciò che è scritto nei libri. Devo riflettere - da me stessa su certe cose e rendermele pienamente - chiare. HELM: Ah, tu pensi e tu parli come una bambina in ragionevole.p NORA: Può essere. Ma tu non pensi e non parli come l'uomo al quale potrei appartenere. Torvaldo, in codesto momento ho compreso chiaramente che ho vissuto qui per otto anni continui insieme con un estraneo che mi ha fatto fare tre figliuoli! Oh, è un pensiero per me insopportabile! Potrei stritolarmi! Potrei farmi a pezzi!

Enten går Nora, eller så går JEG!

So, Nora leaves him in the end," she said, as they walked down the stairs. "What?" "In the play. A Doll's House." "That's right." Beatrice went to the sink. "She says she can't be anyone's wife or anyone's mother until she knows who she is. She walks out of their house and closes the door behind. It's this iconic moment. At least, that's what our teacher said." "That's very interesting.

NORA: And even though I was living by myself – for everything I did – every decision I made, from what I ate to when I went to bed – I could hear a voice in the back of my head that either sounded like you or my father or my pastor or any number of other people I knew – I’d always in my head somehow manage to check with that person to see what he thought, even though that person wasn’t a person but my thinking of that person. And so, as long as that continued, I’d decided that I’d live in silence, not speaking and avoiding the speaking of others – and I’d live like this until I couldn’t remember what other people sounded like – until I no longer heard a voice in my head other than my voice or what I was certain had to be my voice. That was almost two years, two yeas of silence. And once I could hear my voice, I could think of things that I wanted that had nothing to do with what anyone else wanted. It’s really hard to hear your own voice, and every lie you tell makes your voice harder to hear, and a lot of what we do is lying. Especially when what we want so badly from other people is for them to love us. So I find that I’m best – that I’m my best self if I’m by myself. TORVALD: … NORA: … but it’s nice to sit with you. TORVALD: Yes. It is.

In 1908, the great Russian actress Alla Nazimova played Nora in New York in performances that became legendary. In the audience was Halvdan Koht, who describes Nazimova in the last scene acting “with a passionate intensity that made Nora’s transformation at the end completely an inner reality, conveyed in low-pitched, emotion-laden words” (K 323). Koht recalls his horror when members of the audience, mistaking “the work of art” for “a collection of ideas,” began to applaud Nora’s every line “as though it were a political harangue” (K 323). But while not a harangue, Nora’s words are nevertheless resoundingly political, for in representing the “inner reality” of an obscure Norwegian housewife, they constitute a discourse of recognition for every woman who has ever lived her life for a man, and by Nora’s count, there are “millions.” Displaying what the modern theatre condemns as bad manners, the 1908 audience was responding to Ibsen’s powerful feminist poetry, the exhilarating promise that on the other side of the doll house, women, no less then men, could learn to take themselves seriously: “I believe that, before all else, I’m a human being, no less than you — or anyway, I ought to try to become one” (193). The universality of A Doll House does not come from “its demand for truth in every human relation” (K 323), but in its demand for equality in the relation between women and men.