The Master Builder and Other Plays

by Henrik Ibsen

RITA [tearfully]: Yes.

  ALLMERS [dully]: And never – never will anyone see him again.

  RITA [wailing]: Day and night he’ll be before me as he lay down there.

  ALLMERS: With those big wide-open eyes.

  RITA [shuddering]: Yes, with those big wide-open eyes. I see them! I see them before me!

  ALLMERS [rising slowly and regarding her with quiet menace]: Were they evil, those eyes, Rita?

  RITA [blanching]: Evil –!

  ALLMERS [going right up to her]: Were they evil eyes, staring upwards? From down there in the depths?

  RITA [backing away]: Alfred –!

  ALLMERS [following her]: Answer me that! Were they evil child-eyes?

  RITA [screaming]: Alfred! Alfred!

  ALLMERS: Well, now we have things – just as you wished, Rita.

  RITA: Me! What did I wish?

  ALLMERS: That Eyolf wasn’t here.

  RITA: Never, ever did I wish that! That Eyolf didn’t come between us – that was what I wished.

  ALLMERS: Ah, well – from now on he won’t be doing that.

  RITA [softly, staring into space]: From now on more than ever maybe. [Flinching] Oh, that horrible sight!

  ALLMERS [nodding]: Those evil child-eyes, yes.

  RITA [fearfully, backing away]: Leave me alone, Alfred! You’re scaring me! I’ve never seen you like this before.

  ALLMERS [giving her a cold, hard stare]: Grief makes us mean and wicked.

  RITA [frightened, but defiant]: It seems that way to me too.

  ALLMERS crosses to the right and gazes out across the fjord. RITA sits down at the table. Brief pause.

  ALLMERS [turning to look at her]: You never loved him fully and unreservedly. Never!

  RITA [cool, composed]: Eyolf never let me catch and draw him to me, not fully and unreservedly.

  ALLMERS: Because you weren’t willing.

  RITA: Oh, no, Alfred. I was more than willing. But someone stood in the way. Right from the start.

  ALLMERS [turning right round]: I stood in the way, you mean?

  RITA: No, no. Not at the start.

  ALLMERS [moving closer]: Who then?

  RITA: The aunt.

  ALLMERS: Asta.

  RITA: Yes. Asta barred the way for me.

  ALLMERS: Really, Rita?

  RITA: Yes. Asta – she caught him to herself – from the moment it happened – that disastrous fall.

  ALLMERS: If she did, then she did it out of love.

  RITA [sharply]: Exactly! I can’t stand sharing anything with anyone else! Not out of love!

  ALLMERS: The two of us should have shared him between us out of love.

  RITA [eyeing him with contempt]: The two of us? Oh, you never had any real love for him either, not at bottom.

  ALLMERS [staring at her in amazement]: I didn’t –!

  RITA: No, you didn’t. First you were so caught up in that book – about responsibility.

  ALLMERS [emphatically]: Yes, I was. But that, Rita – that I gave up for Eyolf’s sake.

  RITA: Not out of love for him.

  ALLMERS: Why then, do you think?

  RITA: Because you were consumed by self-doubt. Because you had begun to wonder whether you had any great vocation to live for in this world.

  ALLMERS [curiously]: Had you noticed something of this sort in me?

  RITA: Oh, yes – little by little. And then you needed something new, to fulfil you. – I was obviously no longer enough for you.

  ALLMERS: It’s the law of change,4 Rita.

  RITA: That’s why you wanted to make a child prodigy of poor little Eyolf.

  ALLMERS: That’s not what I wanted. I wanted to make a happy human being of him.That’s all I wanted.

  RITA: But not out of love for him. Look inside yourself! [With a guarded look on her face] And examine all that lies beneath – and behind.

  ALLMERS [avoiding her eye]: There’s something you’re evading.

  RITA: You too.

  ALLMERS [considering her]: If it is as you think, then we never really owned our child.

  RITA: No. Not fully, with love.

  ALLMERS: And yet here we are grieving so sorely for him.

  RITA [bitterly]: Yes, it’s strange to think, isn’t it? To be grieving like this for a little stranger of a boy.

  ALLMERS [crying out]: Oh, don’t call him a stranger!

  RITA [shaking her head mournfully]: We never won that boy over, Alfred. Not me. Not you either.

  ALLMERS [wringing his hands]: And now it’s too late! Too late!

  RITA: And so utterly hopeless – all of it.

  ALLMERS [suddenly flaring up]: You are to blame for this!

  RITA [gets up]: Me!

  ALLMERS: Yes, you! You are to blame for him being – as he was! It’s your fault that he couldn’t get himself out of the water.

  RITA [protesting]: Alfred – don’t you go pinning that on me!

  ALLMERS [becoming more and more worked up]: Yes, yes, I will! You’re the one who left that tiny baby to fend for itself on that table.

  RITA: He was lying so snugly among those pillows. And sleeping so soundly. And you had promised to mind the baby.

  ALLMERS: Yes, I had. [Lowering his voice] But then you came, you, you – and lured me to you.

  RITA [eyeing him defiantly]: Oh, why don’t you just say that you forgot the baby and everything else?

  ALLMERS [with suppressed fury]: Yes, that’s true. [More softly] I forgot the baby – in your arms!

  RITA [shocked]: Alfred! Alfred – that’s despicable of you!

  ALLMERS [quietly, shaking clenched fists at her]: At that moment you condemned little Eyolf to death.

  RITA [frantically]: Well, in that case – so did you! So did you!

  ALLMERS: Oh, yes – call me to account too – if you like. We’re both guilty. – So Eyolf’s death was a kind of retribution, after all.

  RITA: Retribution?

  ALLMERS [more calmly]: Yes. A judgement on you and me. Now we are paying for what we have done. In secret, craven remorse we shied away from him when he was alive. Couldn’t stand seeing that thing – that thing he had to drag around –

  RITA [softly]: The crutch.

  ALLMERS: Yes, that. – And what we now call grief and loss – that’s the gnawing of our consciences, Rita. Nothing else.

  RITA [staring at him in bewilderment]: I feel this can only lead to despair – lead straight to madness for us both. Because we can never – never make it right again.

  ALLMERS [in a quieter frame of mind]: I dreamed about Eyolf last night. I seemed to see him coming up from the jetty. He could run, just like other boys. Nothing had happened to him, you see. Neither the one thing nor the other. So that suffocating reality was only a dream, I thought to myself. Oh, how I thanked and I blessed – [breaking off] hm –

  RITA [looking straight at him]: Who?

  ALLMERS [evasively]: Who –?

  RITA: Yes; who did you thank and bless?

  ALLMERS [dismissively]: I was dreaming, I told you –

  RITA: Someone you don’t actually believe in yourself?

  ALLMERS: It just came over me, though. I was asleep –

  RITA [reproachfully]: You shouldn’t have made me doubt, Alfred.

  ALLMERS: Would it have been right of me to let you go through life with empty illusions?

  RITA: It would have been better for me. Because then I would have had something to trust in. Now here I am not knowing what to think.

  ALLMERS [eyeing her keenly]: What if you had the choice –? What if you could follow Eyolf, to wherever he is now –?

  RITA: Yes? What of it?

  ALLMERS: What if you were quite certain that you would find him again – know him – understand him –?

  RITA: Yes, yes; what of it?

  ALLMERS: Would you willingly make the leap across to him? Willingly leave behind all of this? Renounce this earthly life? Would you do it, Rita?

  RITA [softly]: Now, this minute?

  ALLMERS: Y
es; now, this very day. This very hour. Answer me that. Would you?

  RITA [hesitantly]: Oh, I don’t know, Alfred. – No; I think I’d want to stay here a while with you first.

  ALLMERS: For my sake.

  RITA: Yes, just for your sake.

  ALLMERS: Well after that, then. Then would you –? Answer me!

  RITA: Oh, how can I answer such a question? I couldn’t possibly leave you. Never! Never!

  ALLMERS: Well, what if I went to join Eyolf? And you were absolutely certain that you would meet both him and me over there. Then would you come to us?

  RITA: I would want to. Oh, so much! So much! But –

  ALLMERS: What?

  RITA [with a soft moan]: I couldn’t do it – I can tell. No, no; I simply couldn’t do it! Not for all the glories of heaven!

  ALLMERS: Neither could I.

  RITA: There, you see, Alfred! You couldn’t do it either!

  ALLMERS: No. For here, in this earthly life, is where we, the living, belong.

  RITA: Yes, here is the kind of happiness we understand.

  ALLMERS [bleakly]: Oh, happiness – happiness, Rita –

  RITA: You mean, I suppose, that happiness – that we will never find again? [Giving him an inquiring glance] But what if –? [Vehemently] No, no; I don’t dare say it! Not even think it.

  ALLMERS: No, say it. Just say it, Rita.

  RITA [falteringly]: Could we not try –? Might it not be possible for us to forget him?

  ALLMERS: Forget Eyolf!

  RITA: Forget the remorse and the gnawing guilt, I mean.

  ALLMERS: Would you want that?

  RITA: Yes. If it were possible, that is. [Bursting out] Because this – this I can’t bear for long! Oh, couldn’t we think of something that would bring forgetfulness!

  ALLMERS [shaking his head]: What could that possibly be?

  RITA: Couldn’t we try travelling far away?

  ALLMERS: From home? You who are never happy anywhere but just here.

  RITA: Well, have lots of people to visit, then. Keep open house. Throw ourselves into something that might deafen and deaden.

  ALLMERS: That sort of life’s not for me. – No – in that case I’d do better to try taking up my work again.

  RITA [sharply]: Your work? The very thing that has so often stood like a brick wall between us?

  ALLMERS [slowly, eyes riveted on her]: There must always be a brick wall between you and me from now on.

  RITA: Why must there –?

  ALLMERS: Who’s to say that those big wide-open child-eyes aren’t watching us night and day?

  RITA [slowly, shuddering]: Alfred – that’s a horrible thought!

  ALLMERS: Our love has been like an all-consuming fire. Now it must be extinguished –

  RITA [straight at him]: Extinguished!

  ALLMERS [coldly]: It has been extinguished – in one of us.

  RITA [stunned]: And this you dare say to me!

  ALLMERS [more gently]: It’s dead, Rita. But in what, in complicity and penitence,5 I now feel for you – in that I glimpse what might be a resurrection –

  RITA [furiously]: Oh, I don’t care about any resurrection!

  ALLMERS: Rita!

  RITA: But I’m a hot-blooded human being! I don’t wander around in a stupor – with fish blood in my veins. [Wringing her hands] And to be locked in for life – in remorse and gnawing guilt. Locked in with someone who’s no longer mine, mine, mine!

  ALLMERS: It had to end like this some time, Rita.

  RITA: Did it have to end like this! What began for us in such an engaging of hearts!

  ALLMERS: My heart was not engaged at the start.

  RITA: So what did you feel for me at the very start?

  ALLMERS: Terror.

  RITA: I can understand that. So how did I manage to win you anyway?

  ALLMERS [under his breath]: You were so all-consumingly lovely, Rita.

  RITA [giving him a searching look]: So it was only that, was it? Tell me, Alfred! Only that?

  ALLMERS [with an effort]: No; there was something else too.

  RITA [exclaiming]: I can guess what that was! It was my ‘gold and green forests’ as you call it. Was that it, Alfred?

  ALLMERS: Yes.

  RITA [regarding him with deep reproach]: How could you – how could you!

  ALLMERS: I had Asta to think of.

  RITA [fiercely]: Asta, yes! [Bitterly] So it was really Asta who brought us together.

  ALLMERS: She knew nothing of it. To this day she has no idea.

  RITA [dismissively]: It was Asta though! [Smiling, with a mocking sidelong glance at him] Or no – it was little Eyolf. Little Eyolf, that’s who!

  ALLMERS: Eyolf –?

  RITA: Yes, you used to call her Eyolf, didn’t you? I think you said that once – in an intimate moment. [Moving closer] Do you remember that – that all-consumingly sweet moment, Alfred?

  ALLMERS [recoiling, as if in horror]: I remember nothing! Want to remember nothing!

  RITA [pursuing him]: That was the moment – when your other little Eyolf became a cripple!

  ALLMERS [dully, supporting himself on the table]: Retribution.

  RITA [menacingly]: Yes, retribution!

  ASTA and BORGHEIM come back round the corner of the boathouse. She is carrying some water-lilies.

  RITA [collecting herself]: Well, Asta – have you and Mr Borgheim said all you have to say to one another?

  ASTA: Oh, yes – more or less.

  She puts down her umbrella and lays the flowers on a chair.

  BORGHEIM: Miss Allmers was very quiet on our walk.

  RITA: Oh, was she? Well, Alfred and I have said all we had to say and more –

  ASTA [eyeing them both intently]: What’s going on here –?

  RITA: – enough to do us for life, I’d say. [Breaking off] But why don’t we go back up, all four of us. We’re going to need people around us from now on. Alfred and I can’t cope with this alone.

  ALLMERS: Yes, go on ahead, you two. [Turning] But I need to have a word with you first, Asta.

  RITA [looks at him]: What – Oh, well, come along with me, Mr Borgheim.

  RITA and BORGHEIM walk off up the path.

  ASTA [anxiously]: Alfred, what’s the matter!

  ALLMERS [grimly]: The matter is that I can’t stand it here any longer.

  ASTA: Here! With Rita, you mean?

  ALLMERS: Yes, Rita and I can’t go on living together.

  ASTA [shaking his arm]: Oh, Alfred – don’t say such a dreadful thing!

  ALLMERS: It’s true what I say. All we’re doing here is making each other mean and wicked.

  ASTA [distressed]: Oh, never – never would I have thought such a thing!

  ALLMERS: I didn’t realize it myself until today.

  ASTA: And now you’re going to –! Yes, what are you going to do, Alfred?

  ALLMERS: I’m going to go away from all this. Far away from it all.

  ASTA: And stand all alone in the world?

  ALLMERS [nodding]: As before, yes.

  ASTA: But you’re not made to stand alone!

  ALLMERS: Oh, yes I am. Or used to be at any rate.

  ASTA: Used to be, yes. But then you had me with you.

  ALLMERS [making to take her hand]: Yes. And it’s to you, Asta, that I’ll return home now.

  ASTA [shying away from him]: To me! No, no, Alfred! That’s quite out of the question.

  ALLMERS [regarding her sadly]: So Borgheim does stand in the way, after all?

  ASTA [earnestly]: No, no; he doesn’t! You’re wrong about that!

  ALLMERS: Good. Then I’ll come to you – my dear, dear sister. I must come back to you. Home to you to be cleansed and purified of my life with –

  ASTA [shocked]: Alfred – you sin against Rita!

  ALLMERS: I have sinned against her. But not in this. Ah, only think back, Asta! What was our life together like, yours and mine? Wasn’t it like one long festival from start to finish?

  ASTA: Yes,
it was, Alfred. But such times can’t be relived.

  ALLMERS [bitterly]: You mean that my marriage has so irredeemably corrupted me?

  ASTA [quietly]: No, I don’t mean that.

  ALLMERS: Well, then we can relive our old life together.

  ASTA [firmly]: No we can’t, Alfred.

  ALLMERS: Yes, we can. Because the relationship between a brother and sister –

  ASTA [expectantly]: What of it?

  ALLMERS: That relationship is the only one that is not subject to the law of change.

  ASTA [softly, tremulously]: But what if that relationship were not –

  ALLMERS: Not –

  ASTA: – not the relationship we have?

  ALLMERS [staring at her in astonishment]: Not what we –? My dear, what do you mean by that?

  ASTA: It’s best that I tell you straight out, Alfred.

  ALLMERS: Yes, yes, just tell me!

  ASTA: The letters to Mother –. The ones in that attaché case –

  ALLMERS: Yes – well?

  ASTA: Those you have to read – once I’m gone.

  ALLMERS: Why should I do that?

  ASTA [battling with herself]: Well, because then you’ll see that –

  ALLMERS: What!

  ASTA: – that I have no right to bear – your father’s name.

  ALLMERS [staggering backwards]: Asta! What are you saying!

  ASTA: Read the letters. Then you’ll see. And understand. – And perhaps be forgiving – of Mother, too.

  ALLMERS [clutching his head]: I can’t understand this. Can’t grasp the thought. You, Asta – you’re not in fact –

  ASTA: You are not my brother, Alfred.

  ALLMERS [briskly, a touch defiantly, looking at her]: All right, but what does this change as far as the relationship between us is concerned? Nothing, really.

  ASTA [shaking her head]: It changes everything, Alfred. Our relationship is not that of brother and sister.

  ALLMERS: No, no. But it’s every bit as sacred for all that. Will always be every bit as sacred.

  ASTA: Don’t forget – it’s subject to the law of change – as you said a moment ago.

  ALLMERS [searching her face]: Are you saying that –?

  ASTA [quietly, deeply moved]: Not another word – my dear, dear Alfred. – [Picking up the flowers from the chair] Do you see these water-lilies?

  ALLMERS [nodding slowly]: They’re the kind that shoot up – from deep down on the bottom.

  ASTA: I picked them at the tarn. Where it flows out into the fjord. [Holding them out] Do you want them, Alfred?