A Doll's House quotes

‘Is that my skylark twittering out there?’ ‘Is that my squirrel rustling’ - Torvald

Evidence of Torvald’s dehumanisation of her & almost implicit mocking of her lack of freedom when compared o these animals.

‘No debts! Never borrow! A home that is founded on debts and borrowing can never be a place of freedom and beauty’ - Torvald

Highlights the difference in morals between Nora and Torvald - due to their social positions and possibly foreshadows the future turmoil to come from Nora’s borrowing.

‘You’ll spend it all on useless things for the house’ - Torvald

Shows a lack of understanding over the domestic sphere & the many duties Nora has to perform.

‘The squanderbird’s a pretty little creature but she gets through an awful lot of money. It’s incredible what an expensive pet she is for a man to keep’ - Torvald

Dehumanising and diminutive language being used to reduce her to something meaningless & nothing more than a problem in his life.

‘If only you knew how many expenses we larks and squirrels have, Torvald’ - Nora

Represents her place as a woman in society and how overlooked & dismissed they are.

‘You’ve got a little paler though Christine. And perhaps a bit thinner’ - Nora

Highlights the focus on women’s image & the importance of them maintaining their body and beauty to the correct societal standard.

‘Well I mean it’s lovely to have heaps of money and not to have to worry about anything. Don’t you think’ - Nora

Reflects the massive juxtaposition between them and how Nora tries to fool herself into thinking she’s happy because her life is comfortable when in reality she has no freedom.

Yes. Well, we had the money, you see and the doctors said we mustn’t delay. So we went the month after papa died’ - Nora

Shows Nora performing her ‘duty’ of protecting her husband and doing anything to save him, even if it damages her reputation.

‘No Nora. Just unspeakably empty. No one to live for anymore’ - Christine

The life of women in society revolves around men and they are defined by caring for someone else - without that they have no place.

‘You’re a child Nora’ - Christine

Reflects the role she is forced to play into and how she is completely overlooked as a married woman with few rights - Christine’s view is superior as she’s experienced the hardships of the world first hand.

‘Well a wife can’t borrow money without her husband’s consent’ - Christine

Shows societal rules & expectations.

‘He’s so proud of being a man…it’d completely wreck our relationship. This life we have built together would no longer exist’ - Nora

Torvald’s reputation and concern over his image to society is the whole purpose driving their relationship & makes up the foundations it’s built on - it’s fake, not real.

‘It was almost like being a man’ - Nora

Explicitly highlights the separate spheres they operate in - Torvald will never understand Nora an she will never understand him.

‘I can play all day with the children, I can fill the house with pretty things, just the way Torvald likes’ - Nora

Demonstrating that her only purpose in life is to serve her husband and make him happy & she has spent her whole life up until this point gaslighting herself into thinking she has freedom.

‘He’s crippled all right; morally twisted’ - Dr Rank

Highlights Rank as a judgemental character because he has a title & authority - believes himself to be superior to the struggles of others.

‘(hiding the bag of macaroons) Ssh! Ssh!’ - Nora

Despite her little acts of defiance and freedom with the macaroons she can’t afford for Torvald to see them as she has much more to lose if he knows she lied to him.

‘We’re so cramped here’ - Nora

Shows her recognising the lack of freedom and space she is rewarded with - feels penned in and trapped.

‘The children answer her inaudibly as she talks to them’ - stage directions

The lack of speech written for the children highlights how they are simply a means to an end for Nora to demonstrate that she has fulfilled her role - they have no real importance.

‘It was I who wrote Pappa’s name there’ - Nora

Shows her admitting to fraud and the crime she has committed behind Torvald’s back.

‘Hasn’t a daughter the right to shield her father from worry and anxiety when he’s old and dying’ - Nora

Emphasises the female position of a married woman with little power in society to defend her actions.

‘Do as you please but i will tell you this, if i get thrown into the gutter for a second time, I shall take you with me’ - Krogstad

He’s reminding her that she is also a moral cripple and therefore no better than him - in society’s eyes they are both undeserving of respect despite how Nora acts.

‘I’ll do everything that you like Torvald, I’ll sing for you, dance for you’ - Nora

She reminds herself of her duty to fulfil her role as a ‘doll’ for her husband to distract herself from the crime she’s committed which could cause the breakdown of her family & only source of power in society.

‘Because an atmosphere of lies contaminates and poisons every corner of the home. Every breath that the children draw in such a house contains the germs of evil’ ‘Nearly all young criminals are the children of mothers who are constitutional liars’ - Torvald

Reflects the 19th century belief that morally corrupt people could severely affect children & poison families into social breakdown - Torvald is terrified of this happening despite being oblivious to how his actions inevitably cause this anyway'.