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A Doll's House

Nora monologue from A Doll's House

Nora’s monologue from the play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. A dramatic piece for women with a playing age of 30s, running about 1:30.

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The full speech. Read it out loud twice before you start working it.

Nora’s monologue

You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasant to be in love with me. 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--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.

https://youtu.be/TN9YvDKCOlk

Nora's Monologue - A Doll's House, being performed at a competition.

Public domain text.

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About A Doll's House

Play by Henrik Ibsen · 1879

  • A Doll's House premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in 1879.
  • Nora's exit and the final slam of the door shocked audiences; one German production made Ibsen write an alternative ending.

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