Nora Helmer 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: 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.

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.

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.

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: 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.

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

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.

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.

Helmer: (...) Have you not been happy here? Nora: No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never been so. Helmer: Not--not happy? Nora: No, only merry.

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.

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.)

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!

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. 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,

Wonderful. The word she has always found far too big. Nora waited eight years too. Perhaps it wasn’t her disappointment in Helmer that was the worst, but the transition from gold to granite. That what she thought was a noble act, a sacrifice made for love, became a sin. That she was not the savior, but the one who needed saving. And perhaps the wonderful state she longed for was to one day feel free of guilt. Without shame.

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.