A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

  KARSTEN BERNICK: With the Indian Girl?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, the captain has promised to take me with him. I’m going over, as I said; I’m selling my farm and sorting out my affairs. In two months I’ll be back.44

  KARSTEN BERNICK: And then you’ll speak out?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Then the guilty party will take the guilt on himself.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Are you forgetting I’d then also have to take upon me the thing of which I am not guilty?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Who was it that benefited from that shameful rumour fifteen years ago?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: You’re driving me to despair! But if you speak out, I’ll deny everything! I’ll say there’s a conspiracy against me; revenge; that you’ve come here to extort money from me!

  MISS HESSEL: Shame on you, Karsten!

  KARSTEN BERNICK: I’m desperate, I tell you; and I’m fighting for my life. I’ll deny everything, everything!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: I’ve got your two letters. I found them in my suitcase among my other papers. I read through them this morning; they’re plain enough.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: And you’ll produce those?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: If necessary.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: And in two months you’ll be back?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: I hope so. The wind’s fair. In three weeks I’ll be in New York – as long as the Indian Girl doesn’t go down.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [looking startled]: Go down? Why should the Indian Girl go down?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: No, why indeed?

  KARSTEN BERNICK [barely audible]: Go down?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Well, Bernick, now you know what’s in store; you’d better consider your options in the meantime. Goodbye! You can say goodbye to Betty for me, she’s hardly given me a sisterly welcome. But Marta I do want to see. She must tell Dina – must promise me –

  He leaves through the furthest door to the left.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [to himself]: The Indian Girl –? [Urgently] Lona, you must prevent this!

  MISS HESSEL: You can see for yourself, Karsten – I no longer have any power over him.

  She follows JOHAN into the room to the left.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [troubled]: Go down –?

  AUNE enters from the right.

  AUNE: With permission, is it convenient to the consul –?

  KARSTEN BERNICK [turns abruptly]: What do you want?

  AUNE: To ask if I may put a question to the consul.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Well then; hurry up. What d’you want to ask?

  AUNE: I wanted to ask if it still stands firm – if it’s irreversible – that I’d be dismissed from the yard if the Indian Girl couldn’t sail tomorrow?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: What? The ship will be ready to sail, won’t it?

  AUNE: Yes – it will. But if it wasn’t – would I be dismissed?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: What is the point of such idle questions?

  AUNE: I’d like very much to know, Mr Consul, sir. Just answer me that; would I then be dismissed?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Does my word usually stand firm or not?

  AUNE: So, tomorrow I’d have lost the position I have in my house and among those closest to me – lost my influence in the workers’ circles – lost the opportunity to do anything of benefit for those of low and modest status in the community.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Mr Aune, we’ve done with that subject.

  AUNE: Right, then the Indian Girl will sail.

  Short silence.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Listen here; I can’t have eyes everywhere; can’t be responsible for everything. You can, I presume, assure me that the repairs are beyond criticism?

  AUNE: You gave me a tight deadline, Mr Consul, sir.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: But the repairs are satisfactory, you say?

  AUNE: We do have good weather, and it’s the middle of summer.

  Renewed silence.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Do you have anything else to say to me?

  AUNE: I don’t know of anything else, Mr Consul, sir.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: So – the Indian Girl will sail –

  AUNE: Tomorrow?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes.

  AUNE: Right.

  He nods and leaves.

  CONSUL BERNICK stands in doubt for a moment; then he walks quickly to the exit door, as if to call AUNE back, but stands uneasily with his hand on the door handle. At that moment the door is opened from the outside and MR KRAP steps in.

  KRAP [hushed]: Aha, he was here. Has he confessed?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Hm – have you discovered anything?

  KRAP: What’s the need? Couldn’t the consul see that evil conscience flashing out of his eyes?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Come, come, now – such things aren’t visible. I asked if you’d discovered anything?

  KRAP: Couldn’t get access; was too late; they were already towing the ship out of dock. But this very haste indicates clearly –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: It indicates nothing. So the inspection’s taken place?

  KRAP: Of course; but –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: There you see. And naturally they found nothing to criticize.

  KRAP: Mr Consul, sir, you know very well how these inspections are conducted, particularly at a yard with as good a name as ours.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Nonetheless; we’re beyond reproach then.

  KRAP: Sir, did you really notice nothing in Aune that –?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Aune has reassured me absolutely, I tell you.

  KRAP: And I’m telling you that I am morally convinced that –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: What are you getting at, Mr Krap? I realize you bear a grudge against the man; but if you want rid of him, you’ll have to choose some other occasion. You know how crucial it is for me – or to put it more accurately the shipping company – that the Indian Girl sets sail tomorrow.

  KRAP: Well, well, so be it; but when we’ll hear from that ship again, I – hm!

  MR VIGELAND enters from the right.

  VIGELAND: A very good day to you, Mr Consul. Do you have a moment?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: At your service, Mr Vigeland.

  VIGELAND: I just wanted to hear if you’re also in favour of the Palm Tree setting sail tomorrow?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, of course; that’s agreed.

  VIGELAND: But now the captain’s come to me, reporting signs of a storm.

  KRAP: The barometer’s fallen sharply since this morning.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Oh? Can we expect a storm?

  VIGELAND: Strong winds at least; but no headwind; quite the contrary –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Hm; so what do you say?

  VIGELAND: Well, I say, as I said to the captain, that the Palm Tree rests in the hands of Providence. And besides, she’s only crossing the North Sea to begin with; and with freights45 being so high in England right now –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, it would probably mean a loss for us if we waited.

  VIGELAND: And the ship is solid all right, and besides she’s fully insured. No, when it comes to it, the Indian Girl is at much greater risk.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: How do you mean?

  VIGELAND: Well, she’s sailing tomorrow too.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, her owners have put the pressure on, and besides –

  VIGELAND: Well, if that old crate can brave it – and with a crew like that into the bargain – it’d be a shame if we didn’t –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, well. I take it you have the ship’s papers with you?

  VIGELAND: Yes, here.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Good; then do go in with Mr Krap.

  KRAP: After you; it’ll be sorted out in no time.

  VIGELAND: Thank you. – And we shall place the outcome in the hands of the Almighty, Mr Consul.

  He walks together with MR KRAP into the nearest room to the left. SCHOOLMASTER RØRLUND comes through the garden.

  MR RØRLUND: Ah, at home at this time of day, Mr Consul, sir?

  KARSTEN BERNICK [in thought]: As you see.

  MR RØRLUND:
Well, it was for your wife’s sake I dropped by actually. I thought she might need a few words of comfort.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Indeed she might. But I’d like to speak with you too.

  MR RØRLUND: With pleasure, Mr Consul, sir. But what’s troubling you? You look rather pale and upset.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Oh? Do I? Yes, how could it be otherwise – with things towering up around me as they are just now? My whole business – and then the railway –. Listen, tell me something, schoolmaster; let me put a question to you.

  MR RØRLUND: With pleasure, sir.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: It’s a thought that’s occurred to me. When one stands on the threshold of a far-reaching enterprise which aims at the improved well-being of thousands –. If this thing were to require one single sacrifice –?

  MR RØRLUND: In what way, sir?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Suppose, for example, that a man is considering building a large factory. He knows for certain – since experience has taught him this – that sooner or later during the running of this factory human life will be lost.

  MR RØRLUND: Yes, that’s only too probable.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Or a man embarks on a mining business. He takes family men and youngsters in the prime of life into his service. It can be said with absolute certainty, can it not, that they won’t all come out of it alive?

  MR RØRLUND: Yes, unfortunately, that’s probably so.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Well. Such a man knows beforehand, then, that the enterprise he wants to set in motion will undoubtedly cost human lives at some point. But this enterprise is for the common good; for every human life it costs, it will just as undoubtedly further the welfare of hundreds.

  MR RØRLUND: Aha, you’re thinking of the railway – all that dangerous excavation work and mountain blasting and such –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes; I am indeed thinking of the railway. And, well yes – the railway will, of course, give rise to both factories and mines. But nonetheless don’t you think –?

  MR RØRLUND: My dear consul, you have almost too great a conscience. I feel that when you place the matter in the hands of Providence –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes; yes, of course; Providence –

  MR RØRLUND: – you are then beyond reproach. You just build your railway with confidence.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, but now I’ll suggest a specific instance. Suppose there is a borehole that has to be blasted in a dangerous place; but without the blasting of this borehole, the railway will never be realized. And now let’s suppose that the engineer knows it will cost the life of the worker who’ll light the explosive; yet lit it must be, and it’s the engineer’s duty to send a worker out to do it.

  MR RØRLUND: Hm –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: I know what you’ll say. It would be heroic if the engineer took the fuse himself and went over to light the borehole. But nobody does that. So, he must sacrifice a worker.

  MR RØRLUND: No engineer here would ever do that.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: No engineer in one of the larger countries would hesitate to do it.

  MR RØRLUND: The larger countries? Yes, that I can believe. In those corrupt and unscrupulous communities –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Oh, there are many good things about those communities.

  MR RØRLUND: And you can say that, when you yourself –?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: In these larger communities people do at least have room to further a beneficial enterprise; they have the courage over there to sacrifice something for a great cause; but here people are restricted by all sorts of petty considerations and misgivings.

  MR RØRLUND: Is a human life a petty consideration?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: When this human life represents a threat to the welfare of thousands.

  MR RØRLUND: But you’re presenting utterly inconceivable examples, Mr Consul, sir! I don’t understand you at all today. And then you point to these larger communities. Well, yes, out there – what’s a human life worth? There they calculate human lives as they do capital. But we take quite a different moral standpoint, I should think. Look at our honest shipowners! Name one single shipowner here at home who would sacrifice a human life for paltry gain! And then think of those crooks out there in these larger communities, who for profit’s sake send one unseaworthy ship out after another –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: I’m not talking about unseaworthy ships!

  MR RØRLUND: But I am talking about them, Mr Consul, sir.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, but what’s your point? That’s irrelevant, isn’t it. – Ah, these craven little considerations! If a general here at home led his men into the line of fire and got them shot down, he’d have sleepless nights afterwards. Things aren’t like that elsewhere. You should hear what the man in there says –

  MR RØRLUND: Who? The American –?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes. You should hear how in America they –

  MR RØRLUND: He’s in there? And you didn’t tell me. I’m going right –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: It’ll do you no good; you won’t get anywhere with him.

  MR RØRLUND: We’ll see about that. Well now, here he is.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN comes from the room on the left.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN [speaks back through the open door]: All right, Dina, that’s fine; but I shan’t give up on you even so. I’ll come back, and then everything will come good between us.

  MR RØRLUND: With permission, what are you suggesting with those words? What is it you want?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: What I want is for the young girl for whom you blackened my character yesterday to be my wife.

  MR RØRLUND: Your –? And you think you can –?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: I want her as my wife.

  MR RØRLUND: All right, then you must be told – [Walks over to the half-open door] Mrs Bernick, be so good as to act as witness. And you too, Miss Marta. And Dina must come. [Sees MISS HESSEL] Ah, you’re here as well?

  MISS HESSEL [in the doorway]: Shall I come too?

  MR RØRLUND: As many as wish; the more the better.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: What have you in mind?

  MISS HESSEL, MRS BERNICK, MISS BERNICK, DINA and HILMAR TØNNESEN come out of the room.

  MRS BERNICK: Mr Rørlund, hard as I tried, I couldn’t stop him –

  MR RØRLUND: I shall stop him, Mrs Bernick. – Dina, you are a thoughtless girl. But I don’t reproach you harshly. You’ve been left much too long without the moral support that ought to have upheld you. It’s myself I reproach, for not having been that pillar of support earlier.

  DINA: Do not speak now!

  MRS BERNICK: But what is this?

  MR RØRLUND: It is now that I must speak, Dina, even though your conduct both yesterday and today has made it ten times harder for me. But for your rescue all other considerations must give way. You remember the pledge I made you. You remember what you promised to answer, when I found that the time had come. I dare hesitate no longer [to JOHAN TØNNESEN] – the young girl whom you are pursuing, is my fiancée.

  MRS BERNICK: What!

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Dina!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: She! Your –?

  MISS BERNICK: No, Dina, no!

  MISS HESSEL: Lies!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Dina – is this man speaking the truth?

  DINA [after a short pause]: Yes.

  MR RØRLUND: So now, hopefully, any tricks of seduction are rendered powerless. I am happy for this step, which I have resolved upon for Dina’s benefit, to be announced to our whole community. I cherish the sure hope that it will not be misconstrued. But now, Mrs Bernick, I think it best we escort her from here and seek to bring calm and equilibrium to her mind once more.

  MRS BERNICK: Yes, come. Oh, Dina, how wonderful for you!

  She leads DINA out to the left; MR RØRLUND follows them.

  MISS BERNICK: Farewell, Johan!

  She leaves.

  HILMAR TØNNESEN [in the garden doorway]: Hm – well, I really must say –

  MISS HESSEL [who has watched DINA leave]: Don’t lose heart, boy!
I’ll stay here and keep watch on the pastor.

  She goes out to the right.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, Johan, you won’t be going with the Indian Girl now!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: I certainly will.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: But you won’t be coming back?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: I’ll come back.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: After this? What would you want here after this?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: To avenge myself on all of you; to crush as many of you as I can.

  He leaves to the right. MR VIGELAND and MR KRAP enter from the CONSUL’s room.

  VIGELAND: Right, the documents are in order now, Mr Consul, sir.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Good, good –

  KRAP [quietly]: And it stands firm that the Indian Girl sails tomorrow?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: She sails.

  He goes into his room. MR VIGELAND and MR KRAP leave to the right. HILMAR TØNNESEN wants to follow them, but just then OLAF sticks his head hesitantly round the door to the left.

  OLAF: Uncle! Uncle Hilmar!

  HILMAR TØNNESEN: Oof! It’s you? Why aren’t you upstairs? You’re grounded.

  OLAF [a couple of steps forward]: Ssh! Uncle Hilmar, have you heard the news?

  HILMAR TØNNESEN: Well, I know you got a thrashing today.

  OLAF [casts a threatening glance towards his father’s room]: He’ll never ever hit me again. But did you know Uncle Johan’s sailing tomorrow with the Americans?

  HILMAR TØNNESEN: What’s that got to do with you? Take yourself upstairs again.

  OLAF: Maybe I can go on a buffalo hunt too one day, Uncle.

  HILMAR TØNNESEN: Oh, rubbish; a wimp like you –

  OLAF: Oh, just wait; you’ll know different tomorrow!

  HILMAR TØNNESEN: Clothead!

  He walks out through the garden. OLAF runs back into the room and closes the door when he sees MR KRAP coming in from the right.

  KRAP [walks over to the CONSUL’s door and opens it halfway]: Excuse my coming back, Mr Consul, sir; but there’s a violent storm gathering. [Waits a little; no reply] Will the Indian Girl sail just the same?

  After a short pause CONSUL BERNICK answers from inside the room.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: The Indian Girl sails just the same.

  MR KRAP closes the door and again leaves to the right.

  Act Four

  The garden room at Consul Bernick’s. The work table has been removed. It is a stormy afternoon. It is already half dark and gets darker during the following.