Literature Guides
A Doll’s House Quotes and Analysis
Quotes and Analysis
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.
Taken from Act One, Nora is explaining to Kristine the circumstances where she will consider telling her husband about the loan she took out in secret with the intention to save his life. She claims that she might tell him when she gets older and her looks begin to fade.
This is important because it indicates that Nora senses what is the real nature of her marriage to Torvald and that his love for her is largely based on the way that she looks, and she is cognizant of the fact that when her appearance starts to fade, so will the love her husband has for her.
Free. To be free, absolutely free. To spend time playing with the children. To have a clean, beautiful house, the way Torvald likes it.
Also taken from her talk with Kristine in Act One, Nora indicates that she will be ‘free’ after her debt has been finally paid off. In describing her forthcoming freedom, Nora illuminates the factors that compel her. She believes that freedom will permit her time to be a mother to her children and to keep her home in the condition that her husband prefers it.
I have 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.
These words are spoken by Nora towards the end of Act Three. She recognizes that much of her life has been a ‘performance’ that she has ‘played a role’ as a doting wife for her husband, just as she had acted as a doting daughter for her own father.
At that moment she realizes that both her husband and her father have influenced her to make her act in a certain manner and, in doing so, they have hindered her success in life. She believes that she exists only for the satisfaction of men’s needs and not for herself.
