Ibsen textual quotes

“In all these

eight years […] we have never exchanged a word on any serious subject”

“I have been your

doll wife, just as at home I was Papa’s doll child”

“I’ve been performing

tricks for you, Torvald. That’s how I’ve survived. You wanted it like that. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. It’s because of you I’ve made nothing of my life”

“One day I might, yes.

Many years from now, when I’ve lost my looks a little. Don’t laugh. I mean, of course, a time will come when Torvald is not as devoted to me, not quite so happy when I dance for him, and dress for him, and play with him”

“What an

expensive pet she is for a man to keep”

“Is a wife not

allowed to save her husband’s life?”

“Is it really true

you didn’t love your husband? Why did you marry him then?”

“I did it

for love, didn’t I?”

“An atmosphere

of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home”

“Almost everyone

who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother”

“No, I really don’t know.

Oh, yes-Torvald-!”

“You know

I could never act against your wishes”

“I’ll lead up

to it so delicately, so delicately; I’ll get him in the right mood”

“Squirrel would do

lots of pretty tricks for you if you granted her wish”

“Free.

To be free, absolutely free. To spend time playing with the children. To have a clean, beautiful house, the way Torvald likes it”

“All alone.

How dreadful that must be for you.”

“Something

glorious is going to happen”

“You know how much

Torvald loves me - he’d never hesitate for an instant to lay down his life for me”

“Oh, Torvald,

I don’t really know what religion means”

“You are going to have

a big salary and have lots and lots of money”

“It was a

tremendous pleasure to sit there working and earning money. It was like being a man”

“But no man would

sacrifice his honour for the one he loves” Nora: “It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done”

“From now on,

forget happiness. Now it’s just about saving the remains, the wreckage, the appearance”

“A home that is

founded on debts and borrowing can never be a place of freedom and beauty”

“It’s lovely

to have heaps of money and not to have to worry about anything”

“If the rumour got about

that the new vice-president had allowed his wife to persuade him to change his mind”

“When the real crises comes,

you will not find me lacking in strength or courage. I am man enough to bear the burden for us both”

“My little

skylark”, “my little squirrel”

“A wife can’t

borrow money without her husband’s consent”

“How painful

and humiliating it would be for Torvald, with his manly independence, to know that he owed me anything”

“sacred

duties […] to your husband”

“Yes, Torvald.

I can’t get anywhere without your help”

“Wasn’t it nice of me

to give in to you? Torvald: “Nice - to give in to your husband?”

“Correct me,

lead me, the way you always do”

“Now my songbird’s

talking just like a real big human being”

“My most treasured

possession […] mine, mine alone, all mine”

“First and foremost

you are a wife and mother”