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Nora. I am not speaking about business matters. I say that we
have never sat down in earnest together to try and get at the
bottom of anything.

Helmer. But, dearest Nora, would it have been any good to you?

Nora. That is just it; you have never understood me. I have been
greatly wronged, Torvald--first by papa and then by you.

Helmer. What! By us two--by us two, who have loved you better
than anyone else in the world?

Nora (shaking her head). You have never loved me. You have only
thought it pleasant to be in love with me.

Helmer. Nora, what do I hear you saying?

Nora. It is perfectly true, Torvald. When I was at home with
papa, he told me his opinion about everything, and so I
had the same opinions; and if I differed from him I
concealed the fact, because he would not have liked it.
He called me his doll-child, and he played with me just
as I used to play with my dolls. And when I came to
live with you--

Helmer. What sort of an expression is that to use about our marriage?

Nora (undisturbed). I mean that I was simply transferred from
papa's hands into yours. You arranged everything according to
your own taste, and so I got the same tastes as your else I
pretended to, I am really not quite sure which--I think
sometimes the one and sometimes the other. When I look back
on it, it seems to me as if I had been living here like a
poor woman--just from hand to mouth. I have existed merely
to perform tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it
so. You and papa have committed a great sin against me.
It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life.

Helmer. How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have
you not been happy here?

Nora. No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has
never really been so.

Helmer. Not--not happy!

Nora. No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me.
But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been
your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and
here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun
when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun
when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald.

Helmer. There is some truth in what you say--exaggerated and
strained as your view of it is. But for the future it shall be

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