A Doll's House quotes

Question 1

“Has my little songbird been overspending again?”

Answer 1

Torvald Helmer
Act 1

Question 2

“Ivar … a sword … a horse and trumpet for Bob. And a doll and cradle for Emmy”

Answer 2

Nora
Act 1

Question 3

“No one to live for anymore”

Answer 3

Mrs Linde
Act 1

Question 4

“He’s so proud of being a man - it’d be so painful for him to know he owed anything you me. It’d completely wreck our relationship”

Answer 4

Nora
Act 1

Question 5

“There’s a moral cripple in with Helmer at this very moment”

Answer 5

Dr Rank (about Krogstad)
Act 1

Question 6

“What do I care about society? I think it’s a bore”

Answer 6

Nora
Act 1

Question 7

“No, the strange gentleman won’t do anything to hurt mummy”

Answer 7

Nora
Act 1

Question 8

“I have no influence”

Answer 8

Nora
Act 1

Question 9

“So little Miss Independent’s in trouble and needs a man to rescue her, does she?”

Answer 9

Torvald
Act 1

Question 10

“An atmosphere of lies contaminates and poisons every corner of the home”

Answer 10

Torvald
Act 1

Question 11

“Nearly all young criminals are children of mothers who are constitutional liars”

Answer 11

Torvald
Act 1

Question 12

“You ought to give up this business with Dr Rank”

Answer 12

Mrs Linde
Act 2

Question 13

“Squirrel would do lots of pretty tricks for you if you granted her wish”

Answer 13

Nora
Act 2

Question 14

“Who would gladly lay down his life for you?”

Answer 14

Dr Rank (expressing love for Nora)
Act 2

Question 15

“Now you know that I am ready to serve you, body and soul”

Answer 15

Dr Rank
Act 2

Question 16

“Even duns and hack journalists have hearts you know”

Answer 16

Krogstad (uses Torvalds words, “hack journalist”, how did he know?)
Act 2

Question 17

“You must testify that it isn’t true Christine. I’m not mad - I know exactly what I’m saying - and I’m telling you, no one else knows anything about this. I did it entirely on my own.”

Answer 17

Nora
Act 2

Question 18

“My child shall have her way”

Answer 18

Torvald (about Nora)
Act 2

Question 19

“A woman chucking a man because something better turns up”

Answer 19

Krogstad
Act 3

Question 20

“You’re just being hysterical and romantic”

Answer 20

Krogstad
Act 3

Question 21

“I need someone to be a mother to”

Answer 21

Mrs Linde
Act 3

Question 22

“A woman who has sold herself once for the sake of others doesn’t make the same mistake again”

Answer 22

Mrs Linde
Act 3

Question 23

“This unhappy secret of Nora’s must be revealed”

Answer 23

Mrs Linde
Act 3

Question 24

“Costume”

Answer 24

Mrs Linde about Nora’s dress
Act 3

Question 25

“She’s worth looking at”

Answer 25

Torvald Act 3

Question 26

“Knitting, now - that’s an ugly business”

Answer 26

Torvald Act 3

Question 27

“My most treasured possession” “that’s mine, mine alone, all mine”

Answer 27

Torvald Act 3

Question 28

“I pretend to myself that you're my secret mistress”

Answer 28

Torvald Act 3

Question 29

“Those are big words for my little Nora to use”

Answer 29

Torvald Act 3

Question 30

“You'll have to break them out of that habit”

Answer 30

Torvald (the children) Act 3

Question 31

“Often I wish some terrible danger might threaten you, so that I could offer my life and my blood, everything, for your sake”

Answer 31

Torvald Act 3

Question 32

“Wretched woman”

Answer 32

Torvald (Nora) Act 3

Question 33

“.. [your father] has handed onto you. No religion, no morals, no sense of duty!”

Answer 33

Torvald Act 3

Question 34

“The children shall be taken out of your hands. I dare no longer entrust them to you”

Answer 34

Torvald Act 3

Question 35

“I am saved! Nora, I am saved! … you too, of course!”

Answer 35

Torvald Act 3

Question 36

“There is something so indescribably wonderful and satisfying for a husband in knowing that he has forgiven his wife … It means that she has become his property in a double sense … she is now not only his wife but also his child”

Answer 36

Torvald Act 3

Question 37

“Worries you couldn't possibly have helped me with”

Answer 37

Torvald Act 3

Question 38

“If I did have any of my own [opinions], I kept them quiet, because he wouldn’t have liked them”

Answer 38

Nora Act 3

Question 39

“I passed from papa’s hands to yours”

Answer 39

Nora Act 3

Question 40

“Our home has never been anything but a playroom. I’ve been your doll-wife, just as I used to be papa’s doll-child”

Answer 40

Nora Act 3

Question 41

“I must educate myself”

Answer 41

Nora Act 3

Question 42

“But you’re blind! You’ve no experience of the world”

Answer 42

Torvald (AO4 link to Adam and Eve gaining knowledge and opening their eyes) Act 3

Question 43

“I am first and foremost a human being”

Answer 43

Nora Act 3

Question 44

“I don’t really know what religion means”

Answer 44

Nora Act 3

Question 45

“The miracle”

Answer 45

Nora Act 3

Question 46

“No man can be expected to sacrifice his honour”

Answer 46

Torvald Act 3

Question 47

“I’m not going to be satisfied with just getting back my job. I’m going to get to the top, I tell you.”

Answer 47

Krogstad Act 2

Question 48

“A man’s better at coping with these things than a woman”

Answer 48

Torvald Act 1

Question 49

“It was great fun, though, sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man.”

Answer 49

Nora Act 1

Question 50

“Leave your home, your husband and your children! And you haven’t a thought for what people will say!”

Answer 50

Torvald Act 3

Question 51

“A man with a thing like that on his conscience will always be having to lie and cheat … he can never drop the mask”

Answer 51

Torvald Act 1