Courage

Freedom is the sure possession of those who have the courage to defend it.

Fall seven times. Stand up eight.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

*Excerpt from Act Three*

**NORA:** I must stand on my own feet if I am ever to understand myself and the world around me. That is why I can no longer stay with you.

**HELMER:** Nora! Nora!

**NORA:** I am leaving at once. Kristine will give me shelter for tonight.

**HELMER:** Have you lost your senses? You shall not do this—I forbid it!

**NORA:** It is useless for you to forbid me anything now. I shall take only what belongs to me. I want nothing from you, neither now nor ever again.

**HELMER:** But this is madness!

**NORA:** Tomorrow I shall go back to my own home—to my father's house, I mean. It will be easier for me there to find something useful to do.

**HELMER:** You are blind to reality—and utterly inexperienced!

**NORA:** Then it is time that I gained some experience, Torvald.

**HELMER:** You are leaving your home, your husband, and your children... What will people say?

**NORA:** I do not care. I only know that this is what I must do now.

**HELMER:** But it is shameful! You are neglecting your most sacred duty!

**NORA:** What do you consider my most sacred duty?

**HELMER:** Must I tell you? Is it not your duty to your husband and your children?

**NORA:** I have another duty—one just as sacred.

**HELMER:** Impossible! What duty is that?

**NORA:** My duty to myself.

**HELMER:** Before anything else, you are a wife and a mother.

**NORA:** I no longer believe that. I believe that before anything else I am a human being, just as you are—or at least I shall try to become one. I know perfectly well that most people will agree with you, Torvald, and that the books all say the same. But I can no longer be satisfied with what people say or what books declare. I must think things through for myself and discover what is true.

**HELMER:** Your place is here—in your home. And for everything you wish to understand, you have an infallible guide: your religion.

**NORA:** Oh, Torvald, I hardly know what religion really is.

**HELMER:** What?

**NORA:** I know only what Pastor Hansen taught me when he prepared me for confirmation. He told me that religion was this, and that, and the other. When I leave all this behind and am alone, I shall examine that question too. I want to find out whether what Pastor Hansen taught me is true—or at least whether it is true for me.

**HELMER:** It is unheard of for a young woman to speak like this! Very well, if religion cannot guide you, then let me awaken your conscience. Surely, as a human being, you must have some sense of right and wrong—or have you not?

**NORA:** That is not so easy to answer. I simply do not know. I am completely bewildered. The only thing I know is that I think very differently from you. And now I have discovered that the law is something quite different from what I believed it to be, so I am no longer convinced that it is just. Can it really be true that a woman has no right to spare her dying father great suffering or to save her husband's life?

**HELMER:** You speak like a child. You do not understand the society you live in!

**NORA:** No, I do not. But I intend to find out. I must discover who is right—society or I.

**HELMER:** You are ill, Nora. You have a fever. I believe you have completely lost your reason.

**NORA:** Never have I seen things so clearly or so rationally as I do tonight.

**HELMER:** So clearly and so rationally that you choose to leave your husband and your children?

**NORA:** Yes.

**HELMER:** Then there can be only one explanation. You no longer love me.

**NORA:** That is true.

**HELMER:** Nora, how can you say such a thing?

**NORA:** It is not easy for me, Torvald, because you have always been kind to me. But what can I do? I do not love you anymore.