Quotes from A Doll's House

“You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“You see, there are some people that one loves, and others that perhaps one would rather be with.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“I must make up my mind which is right – society or I.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“I believe that before anything else I'm a human being -- just as much as you are... or at any rate I shall try to become one. I know quite well that most people would agree with you, Torvald, and that you have warrant for it in books; but I can't be satisfied any longer with what most people say, and with what's in books. I must think things out for myself and try to understand them.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves."

"It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“Mrs LINDE: When you've sold yourself once for the sake of others, you don't do it second time.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“With me you could have been another person.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“When I lost you, it was as if all the solid ground dissolved from under my feet. Look at me; I'm a half-drowned man now, hanging onto a wreck.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“I'm also like a half-drowned woman on a wreck. No one to suffer with; no one to care for.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“I'll risk everything together with you.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“How can I hold you close enough?”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“Anyone who's sold herself for somebody else once isn't going to do it again.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“[From below comes the noise of a door slamming.]”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“There are people one loves and others one likes to talk to”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“You arranged everything according to your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as you - or else I pretended to. I am really not quite sure which - I think sometimes the one and sometimes the other.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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..”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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!”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“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.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“What good would that ever do me if you were gone from this world, as you say? Not the slightest.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“Zar nije neobično dražesna? To je bilo mišljenje i čitavog društva. Ali užasno je tvrdoglavo - to slatko malo stvorenje.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

“[Gospođa Linde:]Čovek mora da živi, gospodine doktore.
[Rank:]Da, uobičajeno je shvatanje da je to tako neophodno.”
― Henrik Ibsen, quote from A Doll's House

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