Poor _Nora_, who cannot understand why a daughter has no right to spare her dying father anxiety, or why a wife has no right to save her husband's life, is surely not aware of the true character of her idol. But gradually the veil is lifted. At first, when in reply to her desperate pleading for _Krogstad_, her husband discloses the true reason for wanting to get rid of him: "The fact is, he was a college chum of mine--there was one of those rash friendships between us that one so often repents later. I don't mind confessing it--he calls me by my Christian name; and he insists on doing it even when others are present. He delights in putting on airs of familiarity--Torvald here, Torvald there! I assure you it's most painful to me. He would make my position at the bank perfectly unendurable." And then again when the final blow comes. For forty-eight hours _Nora_ battles for her ideal, never doubting _Torvald_ for a moment. Indeed, so absolutely sure is she of her strong oak, her lord, her god, that she would rather kill herself than have him take the blame for her act. The end comes, and with it the doll's house tumbles down, and _Nora_ discards her doll's dress--she sheds her skin, as it were. _Torvald Helmer_ proves himself a petty Philistine, a bully and a coward, as so many good husbands when they throw off their respectable cloak. _Helmer's_ rage over _Nora's_ crime subsides the moment the danger of publicity is averted--proving that _Helmer_, like many a moralist, is not so much incensed at _Nora's_ offense as by the fear of being found out. Not so _Nora_. Finding out is her salvation. It is then that she realizes how much she has been wronged, that she is only a plaything, a doll to _Helmer_. In her disillusionment she says, "You have never loved me. You only thought it amusing to be in love with me." _Helmer._ Why, Nora, what a thing to say! _Nora._ Yes, it is so, Torvald. While I was at home with father he used to tell me all his opinions and I held the same opinions. If I had others I concealed them, because he would not have liked it. He used to call me his doll child, and play with me as I played with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house---- ... I mean I passed from father's hands into yours. You settled everything according to your taste; and I got the same tastes as you; or I pretended to--I don't know which--both ways perhaps. When I look back on it now, I seem to have been living here like a beggar, from hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, Torvald. But you would have it so. You and father have done me a great wrong. It's your fault that my life has been wasted.... _Helmer._ It's exasperating! Can you forsake your holiest duties in this way? _Nora._ What do you call my holiest duties? _Helmer._ Do you ask me that? Your duties to your husband and your children. _Nora._ I have other duties equally sacred. _Helmer._ Impossible! What duties do you mean?