Quote 21
HELMER: "I must try and appease [Krogstad] some way or another. The matter must be hushed up at any cost." (3.242)
Krogstad was right when he predicted earlier in the play that Torvald would submit to his demands. The crooked lawyer knows his old friend has always been obsessed with what other people think.
Quote 22
HELMER: "Do you know, when I am out at a party with you like this, why I speak so little to you […] It is because I make believe to myself that we are secretly in love." (3.139)
It's telling that Torvald's fantasies relegate his feelings for Nora to secret infatuation.
Quote 23
HELMER: "Now you have destroyed all my happiness. You have ruined all my future." (3.238)
After Torvald finds out the truth, all he seems to be worried about is himself. Does this mean he never really loved Nora?
Quote 24
HELMER: "Empty. She is gone. (A hope flashes across his mind.) The most wonderful thing of all—?" (3.381)
Has Torvald come to understand what real love is in this last moment, or is it something else entirely?
Quote 25
HELMER: "Hasn't Miss Sweet Tooth been breaking rules in town today? […] taken a bite at a macaroon or two?"
NORA: "No, Torvald." (1.55-1.62)
Nora lies on about every page of the play. This is the first one of which the audience is aware. It seems pretty innocent to lie about cookies, but it hints at a much larger gulf in their marriage.
Quote 26
HELMER: "My little songbird must never do that again. A songbird must have a clean beak to chirp with—no false notes!" (1.435)
The danger of Torvald finding out about Nora's deceit is the essential tension that drives most of the play.
Quote 27
HELMER: "A guilty man like that has to lie and […] has to wear a mask in the presence of those near and dear to him, even before his own wife and children. […] the children—that is the most terrible part of it all, Nora." (1.467)
It's ironic that Torvald is saying this in front of his wife, who has deceived him so often.
Quote 28
HELMER: "What is this? Someone has been at the lock. […] Here is a broken hairpin. Nora, it is one of yours."
NORA: (quickly) Then it must have been the children—" (3.198-3.201)
Down to the very end, Nora lies to her husband. We wonder why she still keeps it up by this point. He's going to find out everything in about thirty seconds anyway.
Quote 29
HELMER: "I ought to have foreseen it. All your father's want of principle—be silent!—all your father's want of principle has come out in you." (3.236)
Where else in the play are there ideas of inherited guilt?
Quote 30
HELMER: "What a horrible awakening! All these eight years—she who was my joy and pride—a hypocrite, a liar—worse, worse—a criminal!" (3.236)
The fact that Nora did all these things for him seems to be completely lost on Torvald.
Quote 31
HELMER: "How I am punished for having winked at what he did! I did it for your sake, and this is how you repay me." (3.236)
Ah, so Helmer's record isn't as spotless as he makes it out to be. He admits here that he ignored some of Nora's father's wrongdoing.
Quote 32
HELMER: "I must try and appease [Krogstad] some way or another. The matter must be hushed up at any cost." (3.242)
Isn't Torvald being hypocritical here? Isn't covering up Nora's indiscretion deceitful as well?
Quote 33
HELMER: "Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?" (1.11)
Nora is constantly accused of wasting money when, in reality, she keeps barely anything for herself, all in an effort to pay back the loan that saved her husband's life.
Quote 34
HELMER: "Suppose, now, that I borrowed fifty pounds today, and you spent it all in the Christmas week, and then on New Year's Eve a slate fell on my head and killed me." (1.16)
Torvald is ever the pragmatist when it comes to financial matters.
Quote 35
HELMER: "There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt." (1.21)
Torvald's absolute horror of debt is what forced Nora to deceive him in regards to the loan that saved his life.
Quote 36
HELMER: "I hear [Krogstad] is a good worker, too. But I knew him when we were boys. […] this tactless fellow lays no restraint on himself when other people are present. On the contrary, he thinks it gives him the right to adopt a familiar tone with me." (2.117)
Looks like Torvald has been hiding something as well. This is the first time he mentions that he used to know Krogstad.