A Doll’s House​ Extract

HELMER. I am deeply shocked. Is this how you ne-

glect your most sacred duties?
NORA. What do you think are my most sacred duties?
HELMER. Do I need to tell you? Your duty to your
(5) husband and your children.
NORA. I have another duty equally sacred.
HELMER. No, you don’t. What duty could that be?
NORA. My duty to myself.
HELMER. Before all else you are a wife and a mother.
(10) NORA. I don’t believe that nay more. I believe that
before anything I am a thinking human being,
just as you are-or, at any rate, that I must try to
become one. I know very well, Torvald, that most
people would think you are right, and that your
(15) views would be supported in books. But I can no
longer be satisfied with what most people say or
what is written in books. I must think things over
for myself and try to understand them.
HELMER. Why not try to understand your place in
(20) your own home? Haven’t you got a dependable
guide in things like--your religion?
NORA. I’m afraid, Torvald, I don’t really know
what religion is.
HELMER. What are you saying?
NORA. All I know is what my pastor told me when
(25) I was confirmed. He told us that religion was this,
that and the other. When I have left all this behind,
when I am alone, I will look into that too.
I will find out if what the pastor said is true, or at
least if it is true for me
(30) HELMER. This is unheard of in a girl like you! But if
religion can’t put you on the right path, then let
me try to prick your conscience. You have some
moral sense, don’t you? Or--now answer me--am
I supposed to think that you don’t?
(35) NORA.Well, Torvald, that is not an easy question to
answer. I really don’t know. I am totally perplexed.
All I know is that you and I look at it very
differently. And I am finding out too that the law
is very different from what I thought. I find it
(40) impossible to convince myself that the law is right.