A DOLL’S HOUSE QUOTE BANK
GENDER ROLES
TORVALD: ‘Oh, Nora, Nora, how like a woman!’
TORVALD: ‘The squander bird is 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’
LINDE: ‘Well, a wife can’t borrow money without her husband’s consent’
NORA: ‘he’s so proud of being a man – it’d be so painful and humiliating
for him to know that he owed anything to him’
NORA: ‘she’s mad to come under some really clever man who can teach
her even more than she knows already – ‘
TORVALD: ‘You are a widow I take it, Mrs Linde?’
NORA: ‘Hasn’t a wife the right to save her husband’s life’
TORVALD: ‘Aha! So little Miss Independent’s in trouble and needs a man
to rescue her, does she?’
ANNE-MARIE: ‘A poor girl what’s got into trouble can’t afford to pick and
choose’
NORA: ‘It’s much easier for a man to arrange these things than a woman-‘
TORVALD: ‘When the real crisis comes, you will not find me lacking in
strength or courage. I am man enough to bear the burden for us both’
NORA: ‘But I can’t get anywhere without your help’ TORVALD: ‘my poor,
helpless little darling’
NORA: ‘Correct me, lead me, the way you always do’
LINDE: ‘I know what despair can drive a man like you to’
LINDE: ‘Nils, a woman who has sold herself once for the sake of others
doesn’t make the same mistake again’
TORVALD: ‘my most treasured possession’ ‘mine, mine alone, all mine’
TORVALD: ‘as you stand there young and trembling and beautiful’
TORVALD: ‘Don’t want, don’t want -? Aren’t I your husband?’
TORVALD: ‘It was simply that in your inexperience you chose the wrong
means’ ‘I shall counsel you. I shall guide you’ ‘feminine helplessness’
TORVALD: ‘I have broad wings to shield you’ ‘like a haunted dove’ ‘my
poor, helpless, bewildered little creature’
TORVALD: ‘There is something 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; he has, as it were, brought her
into the world anew; she is now not only his wife but also his child’
, TORVALD: ‘Can you neglect your most sacred duties?’ ‘Your duties
towards your husband, and your children’ NORA: ‘My duty towards myself’
NORA: ‘Has a woman really not the right to spare her dying father pain, or
save her husband’s life?’
NORA: ‘But what would my word have counted for against yours?’
TORVALD: ‘But no man can be expected to sacrifice his honour, even for
the person he loves’ NORA: ‘Millions of women have done it’
FAMILY AND MOTHERHOOD
(including references to Nora as a child)
NORA: ‘No more troubles! I can play all day with the children, I can fill the
house with pretty things, just the way Torvald likes’
NORA: ‘I’ll undress them myself, Anne-Marie. No please let me; it’s such
fun’
NORA: ‘dogs don’t bite lovely little baby dolls’
TORVALD: ‘how he must wear a mask even in the presence of those who
are dearest to him, even his own wife and children!’
TORVALD: ‘Because an atmosphere of lies contaminates and poisons
every corner of the home’
TORVALD: ‘Nearly all young criminals are the children of mothers who are
constitutional liars’
NORA: ‘(pale with fear). Corrupt my little children -! Poison my home!
LINDE: ‘In many ways you’re still a child’
TORVALD: ‘My child shall have her way’
TORVALD: ‘She just gets scared like a child sometimes – I told you
before –‘
TORVALD: ‘There is something 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; he has, as it were, brought her
into the world anew; she is now not only his wife but also his child’
NORA: ‘He called me his little dolls, and he played with me just the way I
played with my dolls’ ‘But 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.
And the children have been my dolls’
TORVALD: ‘Playtime is over. Now the time has come for education’ ‘Both
yours and the children’s, my dearest Nora’ NORA: ‘I must educate myself’
TORVALD: ‘Can you neglect your most sacred duties?’ ‘Your duties
towards your husband, and your children’ NORA: ‘My duty towards myself’
