Source Text: DOLL3.4Nora: Yes, Torvald. I've changed.
Helmer: But why now -- so late -- ?
Nora: I shall not sleep tonight.
Helmer: But, my dear Nora --
Nora: It isn't that late. Sit down here, Torvald. You and I have a lot to talk about.
Helmer: Nora, what does this mean? You look quite drawn --
Nora: Sit down. It's going to take a long time. I've a lot to say to you.
Helmer: You alarm me, Nora. I don't understand you.
Nora: No, that's just it. You don't understand me. And I've never understood you -- until this evening. No, don't interrupt me. Just listen to what I have to say. You and I have got to face facts, Torvald.
Helmer: What do you mean by that?
Nora: Doesn't anything strike you about the way we're sitting here?
Helmer: What?
Nora: We've been married for eight years. Does it occur to you that this is the first time that we two, you and I, man and wife, have ever had a serious talk together?
Helmer: Serious? What do you mean, serious?
Nora: In eight whole years -- no, longer -- ever since we first met -- we have never exchanged a serious word on a serious subject.
Helmer: Did you expect me to drag you into all my worries -- worries you couldn't possibly have helped me with?
Nora: I'm not talking about worries. I'm simply saying that we have never sat down seriously to try to get to the bottom of anything.
Helmer: But, my dear Nora, what on earth has that got to do with you?
Nora: That's just the point. You have never understood me. A great wrong has been done to me, Torvald. First by Papa, and then by you.
Helmer: What? But we two have loved you more than anyone in the world!
Nora: You have never loved me. You just thought it was fun to be in love with me.
Helmer: Nora, what kind of a way is this to talk?
Nora: It's the truth, Torvald. When I lived with Papa, he used to tell me what he thought about everything, so that I never had any opinions but his. And if I did have any of my own, I kept them quiet, because he wouldn't have like them. He called me his little doll, and he played with me just the way I played with my dolls. Then I came here to live in your house --
Helmer: What kind of a way is that to describe our marriage?
Nora: I mean, then I passed from Papa's hands into yours. You arranged everything the way you wanted it, so that I simply took over your taste in everything -- or pretended I did -- I don't really know -- I think it was a little of both -- first one and then the other. Now I look back on it, it's as if I've been living here like a pauper, from hand to mouth. I performed tricks for you, and you gave me food and drink. But that was how you wanted it. You and Papa have done me a great wrong. It's your fault that I have done nothing with my life.
Helmer: Nora, how can you be so unreasonable and ungrateful? Haven't you been happy here?
Nora: No; never. I used to think I was; but I haven't ever been happy.
Helmer: Not -- not happy?
Nora: No. I've just had fun. You've always been very kind to me. 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. I used to think it was fun when you came in and played with me, just as they think it's fun when I go in and play games with them. That's all our marriage has been, Torvald.
Helmer: There may be a little truth in what you say, though you exaggerate and romanticize. But from now on it'll be different. Playtime is over. Now the time has come for education.
Nora: Whose education? Mine or the children's?
Helmer: Both yours and the children's, my dearest Nora.
Nora: Oh, Torvald, you're not the man to educate me into being the right wife for you.
Helmer: How can you say that?
Nora: And what about me? Am I fit to educate the children?
Helmer: Nora!
Nora: Didn't you say yourself a few minutes ago that you dare not leave them in my charge?
Helmer: In a moment of excitement. Surely you don't think I meant it seriously?
Nora: Yes. You were perfectly right. I'm not fitted to educate them. There's something else I must do first. I must educate myself. And you can't help me with that. It's something I must do by myself. That's why I'm leaving you.
Helmer: What did you say?
Nora: I must stand on my own feet if I am to find out the truth about myself and about life. So I can't go on living here with you any longer.
Helmer: Nora, Nora!
Nora: I'm leaving you now, at once. Christine will put me up for tonight --