l take nothing from you, either now or
later.
Helmer. What sort of madness is this!
Nora. Tomorrow I shall go home--I mean, to my old home. It will be
easiest for me to find something to do there.
Helmer. You blind, foolish woman!
Nora. I must try and get some sense, Torvald.
Helmer. To desert your home, your husband and your children! And you
don't consider what people will say!
Nora. I cannot consider that at all. I only know that it is necessary
for me.
Helmer. It's shocking. This is how you would neglect your most sacred
duties.
Nora. What do you consider my most sacred duties?
Helmer. Do I need to tell you that? Are they not your duties to your
husband and your children?
Nora. I have other duties just as sacred.
Helmer. That you have not. What duties could those be?
Nora. Duties to myself.
Helmer. Before all else, you are a wife and a mother.
Nora. I don't believe that any longer. I believe that before all else I
am a reasonable human being, just as you are--or, at all events, that
I must try and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people
would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in
books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say, or
with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get
to understand them.
Helmer. Can you not understand your place in your own home? Have you not
a reliable guide in such matters as that?--have you no religion?
Nora. I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what religion is.
Helmer. What are you saying?
Nora. I know nothing but what the clergyman said, when I went to be
confirmed. He told us that religion was this, and that, and the other.
When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter
too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if
it is true for me.
Helmer. This is unheard of in a girl of your age! But if religion cannot
lead you aright, let me try and awaken your conscience. I suppose you
have some moral sense? Or--answer me--am I to think you have none?
Nora. I assure you, Torvald, that is not an easy question to answer. I
really don't know. The thing perplexes me altogether. I only know that
you and I look at it in quite a different light. I am learning, too,
that the law is quite another thing from what I supposed; but I find it
impossible to convince myself that the law is right. According to it
a woman
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