A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

  A SERVANT lights the chandelier; a couple of SERVANT GIRLS bring in pots of flowers, lamps and candles, which are placed on tables and ledges along the walls. RUMMEL, wearing a dinner suit, gloves and a white cravat, stands in the room, giving instructions.

  RUMMEL [to the SERVANT]: Only every other candle, Jakob. It oughtn’t to look too festive; it’s supposed to come as a surprise after all. And all these flowers –? Oh all right, just leave them; it can look as if they were here every day –

  CONSUL BERNICK comes out of his room.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [in the doorway]: What’s going on?

  RUMMEL: Oh heck, are you here? [To the SERVANTS] Well, you can go for now.

  The SERVANT and the MAIDS leave through the door furthest back on the left.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [comes closer]: But Rummel, what’s the meaning of all this?

  RUMMEL: It means your proudest moment is come. The town is holding a parade this evening for its top man.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: What?

  RUMMEL: A parade with banners and music! We were going to have torches too; but we didn’t dare in this stormy weather. Still, the illuminations46 will be there; and that will sound pretty good too when it comes in the papers.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Listen, Rummel, I don’t want any part in this.

  RUMMEL: Well, it’s too late now; they’ll be here in half an hour.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: But why didn’t you tell me before?

  RUMMEL: Precisely because I was afraid you’d make objections. But I got together with your wife; she allowed me to make a few arrangements and she’s attending to the refreshments.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [listening]: What’s that? Are they coming already? I think I can hear singing.

  RUMMEL [by the garden door]: Singing? Oh, that’s just the Americans. It’s the Indian Girl being towed out to the buoy.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Being towed out! I see – no, I can’t do this tonight, Rummel; I’m ill.

  RUMMEL: Yes, you do look rather poorly. But you’ve got to buck up.47 You must, for crying out loud, buck up! We’ve all, myself and Sandstad and Vigeland, put a lot of weight behind getting this event organized. Our opponents must be crushed under the amplest demonstration of public opinion possible. Rumours are multiplying around town; the announcement of the land purchases can’t be held back any longer. You’ve got to let them know this very evening, amid singing and speeches and the clinking of glasses, in short, amid a swell of festivity, what you’ve risked for the good of the community. In such a swell of festivity, as I just put it, one can achieve a great deal here in our town. But that’s what you need, or it won’t work.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes, yes –

  RUMMEL: Especially when such a delicate and ticklish matter is to be raised. Well, you have, thank God, a name that can take it, Bernick. But listen now; we need to finalize a few little details. Mr Tønnesen has written a song for you. It starts very nicely with the words: ‘Raise the flag of ideas aloft’. And Mr Rørlund has been assigned the task of giving the speech of honour. To which you must obviously respond.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: I can’t tonight, Rummel. Couldn’t you –?

  RUMMEL: Impossible, however much I’d want to. The speech will, as you’d expect, be directed mainly at you. Although there might be the odd word for the rest of us too. I’ve spoken to Vigeland and Sandstad about it. We thought you could answer with a toast to the well-being of our community; Sandstad will say a few words about the harmony that exists between all levels of our community; Vigeland will doubtless say a bit about how essential it is that this new enterprise shouldn’t disturb the moral foundation upon which we presently stand, and I am thinking of saying a few appropriate words in remembrance of our womenfolk, whose more modest works are not altogether without significance to the community. But you’re not listening –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes – yes, of course I am. But tell me, do you think the sea is that violent out there?

  RUMMEL: Oh, you’re worried about the Palm Tree? She’s well insured.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, insured; but –

  RUMMEL: And in good repair; and that’s what’s most important.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Hm –. If something happens to a vessel, it doesn’t necessarily follow, of course, that human lives will be lost. A ship and cargo can go down – and one can lose suitcases and papers –

  RUMMEL: Christ almighty, suitcases and papers aren’t of any great consequence.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: They’re not? No, of course, I just meant –. Ssh – they’re singing again.

  RUMMEL: It’s aboard the Palm Tree.

  MR VIGELAND enters from the right.

  VIGELAND: Well, the Palm Tree is putting out to sea now. Good afternoon, Mr Consul, sir.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: And you, with your knowledge of the oceans, you still hold that –?

  VIGELAND: I hold firmly by Providence, I do, Mr Consul, sir; besides I’ve been on board and distributed a few short tracts, which will, I hope, act as a blessing.

  MR SANDSTAD and MR KRAP enter from the right.

  SANDSTAD [in the doorway]: Yup, if that doesn’t end in disaster, anything’s possible. Ah, afternoon all, afternoon!

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Something wrong, Mr Krap?

  KRAP: I’m saying nothing, Mr Consul, sir.

  SANDSTAD: The entire crew of the Indian Girl are drunk; I wouldn’t be an honest man if I said those beasts would make it over alive.

  MISS HESSEL arrives from the right.

  MISS HESSEL [to CONSUL BERNICK]: Right, now I can say goodbye to you from him.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Already on board?

  MISS HESSEL: Soon at least. We parted outside the hotel.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: And his intentions still stand firm?

  MISS HESSEL: Firm as rock.

  RUMMEL [up by the windows]: Damn these new-fangled fittings; I can’t get these curtains down.

  MISS HESSEL: Are they to come down? I rather thought –

  RUMMEL: Down to start with, Miss Hessel. You do know48 what’s happening here, I take it?

  MISS HESSEL: Indeed. Let me help; [grabs the strings] I’ll let the curtains down for my brother-in-law – though I’d rather have it go up.

  RUMMEL: Well, you can do that later. When the garden is filled with the swelling crowd the curtains will go up, and people will see a surprised and happy family within –. A citizen’s home should be like a glass cabinet.

  CONSUL BERNICK seems to want to say something but turns abruptly and goes into his room.

  RUMMEL: Right, let’s have our final conference. You too, Mr Krap; you need to assist us with a few facts here.

  All the gentlemen walk into the CONSUL’s room. MISS HESSEL has closed the curtains over the windows and is about to do the same with the curtains on the open glass door when OLAF jumps down on to the garden steps from above; he is carrying a small blanket over his shoulder and a bundle in his hand.

  MISS HESSEL: Oh, God forgive you, boy, you frightened me!

  OLAF [hides his bundle]: Shhh, Auntie!

  MISS HESSEL: Did you just jump out of your window? Where are you off to?

  OLAF: Shhh; don’t say anything. I want to go to Uncle Johan; just to the harbour, you understand – just to say goodbye to him. Good night, Auntie!

  He runs through the garden.

  MISS HESSEL: No, stay! Olaf – Olaf!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN in travel clothes, with a bag over his shoulder, enters hesitantly through the door to the right.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Lona!

  MISS HESSEL [turns]: What! Are you back?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: There are still a few minutes left. I have to see her one more time. We can’t part like this.

  MISS BERNICK and DINA, both with coats on, and the latter with a small travel bag in her hand, enter from the furthest door on the left.

  DINA: To him; to him!

  MISS BERNICK: Yes, you shall go to him, Dina!

  DINA: There he is!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Dina!

&n
bsp; DINA: Take me with you!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: What –!

  MISS HESSEL: You want to go?

  DINA: Yes, take me with you! The other one’s written to me and said it’ll be announced publicly this evening –

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Dina – you don’t love him?

  DINA: I’ve never loved that man. I’ll throw myself to the bottom of the fjord if I have to be his fiancée! Oh, the way he tried to make me grovel with his arrogant words yesterday! The way he made me feel he was lifting some despised creature up to his level! I don’t want to be despised any more. I want to travel. Can I come with you?

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, yes – a thousand times yes!

  DINA: I shan’t be a burden to you for long. Just help me get over there; help me settle in a bit at the start –

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Hurrah, everything will sort itself out, Dina!

  MISS HESSEL [points to the CONSUL’s door]: Shh, quietly, quietly!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Dina, I’ll carry you in my arms!

  DINA: I won’t let you carry me. I want to make my own way; and over there I’m sure I can. Just so long as I get away from here. Oh, these respectable wives – you’ve no idea – they also wrote to me today; they urged me to recognize my good fortune, lectured me on how noble-minded he’s been. Tomorrow and for ever after, they’ll watch over me to see if I’m proving worthy of it all. Oh, all this respectability terrifies me!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Tell me, Dina, is that the only reason for your leaving? Am I nothing to you?

  DINA: Yes, Johan. You mean more to me than anyone else.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Oh, Dina –!

  DINA: Everybody here says that I ought to hate and detest you; that it’s my duty. But I don’t understand this thing about duty; I’ll never understand it.

  MISS HESSEL: Nor should you, my child!

  MISS BERNICK: No, nor should you; and that’s why you shall go with him as his wife.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes! Yes!

  MISS HESSEL: What? Now I’ve got to kiss you, Marta! I’d never have expected that from you.

  MISS BERNICK: No, that I can believe; I didn’t expect it myself. But something was bound to burst out in me at some point. Oh, how we suffer here under the abuse of conventions and rules! Rebel against it, Dina. Be his wife. Do something that defies all these dos and don’ts.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: What’s your answer, Dina?

  DINA: Yes, I want to be your wife.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Dina!

  DINA: But first I want to work, make something of myself, just as you have. I don’t want to be a thing that’s taken.

  MISS HESSEL: Yes, quite right too.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Fine; I shall wait and hope –

  MISS HESSEL: – and win her, my boy. But now, aboard!

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, aboard! Ah, Lona, my dear sister, a word; listen now –

  He takes her towards the background and speaks urgently with her.

  MISS BERNICK: Dina, you lucky thing – let me look at you, kiss you one more time – the last time.

  DINA: Not the last; no, dear darling Aunt, I’m sure we’ll see each other again.

  MISS BERNICK: Never! Promise me that, Dina, never come back. [Grasps both her hands and looks at her] You’re going to your happiness now, my darling child – over the sea. Oh, how often in the schoolhouse I’ve dreamed of it! It must be beautiful out there; wider skies, clouds drifting higher than here, a freer air flowing cool above people’s heads –

  DINA: Oh, Auntie Marta, you’ll come too some time.

  MISS BERNICK: Me? Never; never. It’s here I have my little life vocation, and I do believe now that I can become wholly and completely what I should be.

  DINA: I can’t imagine parting from you.

  MISS BERNICK: Oh, a person may be parted from a great deal, Dina. [Kisses her.] But that’s not for you to experience, my sweet child. Promise me to make him happy.

  DINA: I don’t want to promise anything; I hate making promises; everything must come as it can.

  MISS BERNICK: Yes, yes, it must; you must stay just as you are – honest and true to yourself.

  DINA: I will, Auntie.

  MISS HESSEL [hides some papers in her pocket that JOHAN has given her]: Good, very good, my sweet boy. But now, off you go.

  JOHAN TØNNESEN: Yes, there’s no time to waste. Goodbye, Lona; thank you for all your love. Goodbye, Marta, and thanks to you too, for your loyal friendship.

  MISS BERNICK: Goodbye, Johan! Goodbye, Dina! And lifelong happiness to you both!

  MISS HESSEL and MISS BERNICK usher them towards the door in the background. JOHAN TØNNESEN and DINA walk quickly through the garden. MISS HESSEL closes the door and then draws the curtain in front of it.

  MISS HESSEL: Now we’re alone, Marta. You’ve lost her and I him.

  MISS BERNICK: You – him?

  MISS HESSEL: Oh, I’d half lost him over there already. The boy was longing to stand on his own two feet; so I made him think I was yearning for home.

  MISS BERNICK: Was that why? Yes, now I understand why you came. But he’ll want you back there, Lona.

  MISS HESSEL: An old half-sister – what use is she to him now? – Men tear apart so much and so many things in their quest for happiness.

  MISS BERNICK: It happens on occasion.

  MISS HESSEL: But we’ll stick together, Marta.

  MISS BERNICK: Can I be anything to you?

  MISS HESSEL: Who more? Us two foster mothers – haven’t we both lost our children? We’re alone now.

  MISS BERNICK: Yes, alone. And that’s why you should know this – I’ve loved him more than anything in the world.

  MISS HESSEL: Marta! [Grabs her arm.] Is that true?

  MISS BERNICK: The entire content of my life lies in those words. I’ve loved him and waited for him. Every summer I’ve waited for him to come. And then he came – but he didn’t see me.

  MISS HESSEL: Loved him! And yet you were the one who put happiness in his hands.

  MISS BERNICK: Shouldn’t I put happiness in his hands, when I loved him? Yes, I have loved him. My whole life has been a life for him, from the moment he left. What reason had I to hope, you’re wondering? Oh, I do believe I had some reason for it. But when he came back – it was as though everything was wiped from his memory. He didn’t see me.

  MISS HESSEL: It was Dina who overshadowed you, Marta.

  MISS BERNICK: A good thing she did. At the time when he left, we were the same age; when I saw him again – oh, that dreadful moment – it dawned on me that I was now ten years older than him. He’d journeyed out into the bright, shimmering sunlight and sucked youth and health in with every breath of air; and meanwhile I’d sat in here spinning and spinning –

  MISS HESSEL: – the thread of his happiness, Marta.

  MISS BERNICK: Yes, it was gold that I spun. No bitterness! Isn’t that so, Lona, we’ve been two good sisters to him?

  MISS HESSEL [throws her arms around her]: Marta!

  KARSTEN BERNICK comes out of his room.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [to the gentlemen in his room]: Yes, yes, organize everything as you please. I’m sure, when the time comes, I’ll – [Closes the door.] Ah, so you’re here? Listen, Marta, you must dress up a bit. And tell Betty to do the same. I don’t want anything showy, of course; just a neat, homely touch. But you’ve got to hurry.

  MISS HESSEL: And a bright, cheerful expression, Marta; happy faces all round.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Olaf should come down too; I want to have him next to me.

  MISS HESSEL: Hm; Olaf –

  MISS BERNICK: I’ll let Betty know.

  She leaves through the door furthest back on the left.

  MISS HESSEL: So, the great and solemn moment is come.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [walks back and forth]: Yes, it has indeed.

  MISS HESSEL: At a moment like this a man must feel proud and happy, I’d imagine.

  KARSTEN BERNICK [looks at her]: Hm!

  MISS HESSEL: The whole town is to be
illuminated, I hear.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, they’ve come up with something of the sort.

  MISS HESSEL: The associations will all turn up with their banners. Your name will be lit up in burning letters. It’ll be telegraphed to every corner of the land tonight: ‘Surrounded by his happy family, Consul Bernick was hailed by his fellow townsfolk as one of the pillars of the community.’

  KARSTEN BERNICK: That’s right; and the crowd will cheer outside, and shout excitedly for me to appear in that doorway there; and I shall be compelled to bow and thank them.

  MISS HESSEL: Compelled to –

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Do you think I feel happy at this moment?

  MISS HESSEL: No, I don’t think you can be feeling very happy at all.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Lona, you despise me.

  MISS HESSEL: Not yet.

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Nor do you have a right to. Not to despise me! – Lona, you have no idea how unutterably lonely I stand here in this mean-spirited and crippled community – how year upon year I’ve had to cut back on any expectation of a wholly fulfilling vocation in life. What have I accomplished, however great and varied it might appear? Patchwork – petty trivialities. But nothing else, nothing more, is tolerated here. If I wanted to move one step ahead of the mood or opinion of the moment, all my power would be gone. Do you know what we are – those of us who are reckoned pillars of the community? We are the instruments of the community, that’s all.

  MISS HESSEL: Why have you only just seen this?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Because I’ve been thinking a lot recently – since you came back – and most of all this evening. – Oh Lona, why didn’t I know you for who you really are – in the old days.

  MISS HESSEL: What then?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: Then I’d never have let you go; and if I’d had you, I wouldn’t be standing where I’m standing now.

  MISS HESSEL: And you’ve no thought for what she might have grown to be for you, the woman you chose in my place?

  KARSTEN BERNICK: I know at least that she never became anything for me that I needed.

  MISS HESSEL: Because you’ve never shared your life’s vocation with her; because you’ve never put her in a place where she could be honest and free in relation to you; because you’ve allowed her to sink under the weight of accusation and blame for the disgrace that you poured over her family.