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Quote 25- I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as much as you are—or at least I’m going to try to be. I know most people agree with you, Torvald, and that’s also what it says in books. But I’m not content anymore with what most people say, or what it says in books. I have to think things for myself, and get things clear. Meaning. Shocked by Nora's objections to their life together and by her decision to leave, Torvald has insisted that she stay, arguing that she is "first and foremost a wife and mother." Nora rejects this by saying that she is an individual before she is anything else. (This statement would have been highly scandalous at the time.) Significantly, Nora does acknowledge that most people remain committed to societal norms about gender and the family (aside from Torvald, this is also particularly true of Mrs. Linde). The fact that Nora mentions this shows how central the approval of society remains within the play, even at the moment when Nora decides to radically subvert societal expectations. It is important to note that Nora rejects three major sources of knowledge about how she should choose to conduct her life: the opinion of her husband, the opinion of society as a whole, and the knowledge to be found in books. The last of these is especially significant, because it emphasizes the fact that Nora believes that the truth about how she should live can only be found within herself. Furthermore, she thinks she will only be able to gain access to this truth through living independently and figuring it out on her own. Though a fairly common notion in today's world, this was a highly unusual position to take in the 19th century, especially for a woman. Nora's speech thus confirms the extent to which "A Doll's House" was ahead of its time, foreshadowing debates about gender and autonomy that would not emerge until many decades later.