A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

  DR STOCKMANN: Well, that can’t be prevented now, my dear Peter.

  THE MAYOR: It must and shall be prevented.

  DR STOCKMANN: It’s not possible, I tell you; there are far too many people who know about it.

  THE MAYOR: Know about it! Who? It surely can’t be those gentlemen at The People’s Messenger who –?

  DR STOCKMANN: Oh yes, them as well. The independent, liberal-minded press will, I think, ensure that the committee does its duty.

  THE MAYOR [after a short pause]: You are an inordinately imprudent man, Tomas. Haven’t you considered the consequences that this might carry with it for you?

  DR STOCKMANN: Consequences? Consequences for me?

  THE MAYOR: For you and yours, yes.

  DR STOCKMANN: What the hell is that supposed to mean?

  THE MAYOR: I believe that I have, throughout my life, proved an obliging and helpful brother to you.

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, you have; and I thank you for it.

  THE MAYOR: No need. I’ve also been forced to it to some degree – for my own sake. It was always my hope that I could keep you tolerably in check, by helping to improve your financial position.

  DR STOCKMANN: You what? So it was just for your own sake –!

  THE MAYOR: To some degree, I say. It’s awkward for a civil servant when his nearest relative goes about compromising himself time after time.

  DR STOCKMANN: And that’s what you think I do?

  THE MAYOR: Yes, I’m afraid you do, without knowing it. You have a restless, argumentative, rebellious disposition. And then there’s your unfortunate compulsion to write on every possible and impossible topic. No sooner do you get some idea than you have to write a newspaper article or an entire pamphlet about it.

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, but isn’t it every man’s duty as a citizen of this country to share it with the general public, when he seizes upon a new idea?

  THE MAYOR: Oh, the general public has no need whatsoever for new ideas. The public is best served by the good, old, accepted ideas it already has.

  DR STOCKMANN: And you can say that straight out?

  THE MAYOR: Well, I have to talk straight with you some time. So far I’ve sought to avoid it, since I know how short-tempered you are; but now I must tell you the truth, Tomas. You have no idea how much damage you do to yourself with your hot-headedness. You complain about the authorities, yes, about the government even – running them down; claiming that you’ve been pushed aside, persecuted. But can you expect otherwise – a man as difficult as you?

  DR STOCKMANN: What, now I’m difficult too, am I?

  THE MAYOR: Yes, Tomas, you are an extremely difficult man to work with. I’ve experienced that for myself. You set yourself above all other considerations; you seem to forget that it’s to me you owe your position here as medical officer to the Spa –

  DR STOCKMANN: I was the perfect man for the job! I and nobody else! I was the first to see that the town could become a flourishing spa town; and back then I was the only one who saw that. I stood alone fighting for the idea for years; and I wrote and wrote –

  THE MAYOR: Undeniably. But the time still wasn’t ripe; well, that was hardly something you could judge from that backwater of yours. But when the appropriate moment came, then I – and the others – took the matter into our hands –

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, and then you botched my whole wonderful plan. Oh yes, it’s plain now what clever chaps you were!

  THE MAYOR: In my opinion all that’s plain is that you’re spoiling for another fight. You want to finish your superiors off – it’s an old habit with you. You can’t bear anyone in authority over you; you look askance at anyone who occupies a superior official position; you consider him a personal enemy – and immediately one weapon of attack is as good as the next. But now I’ve made you aware of the interests that are at stake for the whole town – and consequently for myself too. And therefore I am telling you, Tomas, I am inexorable in the demand that I now intend to present you with.

  DR STOCKMANN: What kind of demand?

  THE MAYOR: Since you’ve been loose-tongued enough to discuss this ticklish affair with outsiders, despite the fact it ought to have remained a boardroom secret,36 the matter can’t, of course, be hushed up. Rumours of all sorts will be spread far and wide, and the ill-disposed among us will feed these rumours with all kinds of additions. It will be essential, therefore, that you counter such rumours publicly.

  DR STOCKMANN: Me! How? I don’t understand.

  THE MAYOR: It is expected that you will, after renewed investigations, come to the conclusion that this issue is nowhere near as dangerous or as alarming as you’d initially imagined.

  DR STOCKMANN: Aha – you expect that!

  THE MAYOR: Furthermore, it is expected that you foster and publicly express confidence in the board that it will thoroughly and conscientiously carry out whatever’s necessary to alleviate any possible defects.

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, but the board will never be able to do that, so long as it carries on cheating and patching things up! I’m telling you, Peter; and that is my full and firm conviction –!

  THE MAYOR: As an employee you have no right to foster any independent convictions.

  DR STOCKMANN [taken aback]: No right to –?

  THE MAYOR: As an employee, I’m saying. As a private person – Lord above, that’s quite another matter. But as a subordinate public servant at the Spa, you do not have the right to express any convictions that run contrary to those of your superiors.

  DR STOCKMANN: This is going too far! That I, as a doctor, a man of science, should not be permitted to –!

  THE MAYOR: The issue being discussed here is not purely scientific; it’s a combined issue; it is both a technical and financial issue.

  DR STOCKMANN: It can be whatever the hell it wants! I want the freedom to express myself on every possible issue in the world.

  THE MAYOR: Go ahead! But just not about the Spa. – We forbid you.

  DR STOCKMANN [shouting]: We forbid –! We! You and those –

  THE MAYOR: I forbid it – I, your most senior superior. And when I forbid you something, you had better obey.

  DR STOCKMANN [controlling himself]: Peter – if you weren’t my brother –

  PETRA [throwing open the door]: Father, you’re not to stand for this!

  MRS STOCKMANN [after her]: Petra, Petra!

  THE MAYOR: Oh, been eavesdropping, have we?

  MRS STOCKMANN: Sounds travel so easily here; we couldn’t help –

  PETRA: No, you’re right, I was listening.

  THE MAYOR: Well, actually I’m pleased –

  DR STOCKMANN [moving closer]: You spoke to me about ‘to forbid’ and ‘to obey’ –?

  THE MAYOR: You’ve forced me to speak in that tone.

  DR STOCKMANN: And I’m to make a public statement eating my own words?

  THE MAYOR: We consider it an unavoidable necessity that you make a public statement of the kind I have demanded.

  DR STOCKMANN: And if I don’t – obey?

  THE MAYOR: Then we shall issue a statement ourselves to reassure the public.

  DR STOCKMANN: Very well; but then I’ll write opposing you. I shan’t budge; I’ll prove that I am right, and that you are wrong. And then what will you all do?

  THE MAYOR: Then I shall be unable to prevent your dismissal.

  DR STOCKMANN: What –?

  PETRA: Father – dismissal!

  MRS STOCKMANN: Dismissal!

  THE MAYOR: Dismissal as medical officer. I shall see myself obliged to apply for your immediate discharge, to remove you from any involvement in the Spa’s affairs.

  DR STOCKMANN: And the board would dare do that!

  THE MAYOR: You’re the one playing dare here.

  PETRA: Uncle, that’s a shocking thing to do to a man like Father!

  MRS STOCKMANN: Will you just be quiet, Petra!

  THE MAYOR [looks at PETRA]: Aha, so we’re already engaging in public debates, are we? Yes, naturally. [To
MRS STOCKMANN] Sister-in-law, you seem to be the most reasonable one in this house. Exercise whatever influence you might have over your husband; get him to realize what this will bring with it both for his family –

  DR STOCKMANN: My family is of no concern to anybody but me!

  THE MAYOR: – both for his family, I say, and for the town he lives in.

  DR STOCKMANN: I’m the one who wants what’s best for the town! I want to expose the faults that must sooner or later come to light. Oh yes, it’ll be plain that I love my native town.

  THE MAYOR: You, when in blind obstinacy you go about cutting off the town’s primary source of sustenance?

  DR STOCKMANN: That source is poisoned, man! Are you mad? We live here by peddling foul sludge and putrefaction! The whole of our flowering municipal life is sucking its sustenance from a lie!

  THE MAYOR: Fantasies – or worse. The man who flings such offensive insinuations at his own hometown has to be society’s enemy.

  DR STOCKMANN [moves towards him]: And you dare –!

  MRS STOCKMANN [throwing herself between them]: Tomas!

  PETRA [grasps her father by the arm]: Calm down, Father!

  THE MAYOR: I won’t be subjected to violence. You’ve been warned now. Just remember what you owe your family. Goodbye.

  He leaves.

  DR STOCKMANN [walking up and down]: And I have to tolerate such treatment! In my own house, Katrine! What do you say to that!

  MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, it is shameful, Tomas –

  PETRA: I could kill Uncle!

  DR STOCKMANN: It’s my own fault. I should have put my claws out long ago! – shown my teeth! – bitten back! – And to call me an enemy of society! Me! By God, I shan’t take that lying down.

  MRS STOCKMANN: But, Tomas my sweet, your brother has all the power on his side.

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, but I have right on mine, Katrine!

  MRS STOCKMANN: Right? What use is it to have right on your side when you have no power?

  PETRA: But, Mother, really! – How can you talk like that?

  DR STOCKMANN: So, you’re saying it’s no use in a free society to have right on your side? You’re hilarious, Katrine. And besides – haven’t I got the liberal-minded, independent press before me – and the solid majority behind me? That’s power enough, I’d have thought!

  MRS STOCKMANN: But, good heavens, Tomas, you’re surely not thinking of –?

  DR STOCKMANN: What aren’t I thinking of?

  MRS STOCKMANN: – of standing up against your brother, I mean.

  DR STOCKMANN: What the devil else would you want me to do, if not stand by what’s right and true?

  PETRA: Yes, that’s what I’d ask too.

  MRS STOCKMANN: But it won’t be of any use; when they won’t, they won’t.

  DR STOCKMANN: Hoho, Katrine, just give it time, and you’ll see how I’ll drive this war through.

  MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, you might just drive your dismissal through – that’s what.

  DR STOCKMANN: Then at least I’ll have done my duty towards the public – to society. Yes, I – who’ve been called an enemy of society!

  MRS STOCKMANN: But towards your family, Tomas? Towards us here at home? Do you think that is doing your duty towards the people you’re meant to provide for?

  PETRA: Oh, don’t always think about us first, Mother.

  MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, it’s easy for you to talk; if it comes to the crunch you can stand on your own feet. – But remember the boys, Tomas; and consider yourself a bit too, and me –

  DR STOCKMANN: But I think you’re quite mad, Katrine! If I fell to my knees like a miserable coward before Peter and his damned clique – would I ever have another moment’s happiness in my life again?

  MRS STOCKMANN: Well, that I don’t know; but God preserve us from the happiness we’ll all have if you continue to defy him. Then you’ll find yourself back without bread on the table, without any regular income. I think all of us have had enough of that in the past; remember, Tomas; think about what that means.

  DR STOCKMANN [his body contorts and he clenches his fists]: And this is what these office lackeys can bring down on a free and honest man! Isn’t that dreadful, Katrine?

  MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, you’ve been treated abominably, that’s quite true. But, good heavens, there’s so much injustice in this world that one has to bow to. – Here are the boys, Tomas! Look at them! What’s to become of them? Oh, no, no, you wouldn’t have the heart –.

  EILIF and MORTEN, carrying their schoolbooks, have meanwhile come in.

  DR STOCKMANN: The boys –! [Suddenly recovers himself.] No, not even if the entire world crashed down, would I bow my neck under that yoke. [Walks towards his room.]

  MRS STOCKMANN [following him]: Tomas – what are you going to do?

  DR STOCKMANN [by the door]: I’m going to earn the right to look my sons in the eye when they’re full-grown free men. [Goes in.]

  MRS STOCKMANN [bursting into tears]: Dear God, help and preserve us all!

  PETRA: Father’s a good man! He’s not giving in.

  The BOYS ask in surprise what is going on; PETRA signals to them to be quiet.

  Act Three

  The editorial office of The People’s Messenger. In the background, to the left, is the entrance door; to the right in the same wall is a door with glass panels, through which the printshop can be seen. In the wall to the right is another door. In the middle of the room is a large table covered with papers, newspapers and books. In the foreground, to the left, a window, in front of which stands a desk and a high chair. There are a couple of armchairs by the table, and other chairs standing along the wall. The room is gloomy and unappealing; the furniture is old, the armchairs are stained and torn. In the printshop a couple of typesetters are seen at work, and further away a hand-press is in operation.

  MR HOVSTAD is sitting at the desk, writing. A moment later BILLING comes in from the right with DR STOCKMANN’s manuscript in his hand.

  BILLING: Well, I never –!

  HOVSTAD [whilst writing]: Have you read it all?

  BILLING [putting the manuscript on the desk]: Yes, I most certainly have.

  HOVSTAD: The doctor’s very sharp, don’t you think?

  BILLING: Sharp? He’s crushing, God strike me dead, he is. Every word falls with such weight – how shall I say – like the blow of a sledgehammer.

  HOVSTAD: Yes, but remember these people don’t fall at the first blow.

  BILLING: True; but then we’ll go on striking – blow after blow, until the whole feudal elite come tumbling down. When I sat in there reading this, it was as though I glimpsed the revolution coming from afar.

  HOVSTAD [turning round]: Shhh! – Just don’t say that so Aslaksen hears.

  BILLING [lowering his voice]: Aslaksen is a chicken, a wimp; not a jot of manly courage in him. But you’ll get your way this time, surely. Eh? The doctor’s article will go in, won’t it?

  HOVSTAD: Yes, as long as the mayor doesn’t decide to give in –

  BILLING: That would be damned annoying.

  HOVSTAD: Well, fortunately we can turn the situation to our advantage whatever happens. If the mayor doesn’t go along with the doctor’s suggestion, he’ll have all the small tradesmen at his throat – the entire Homeowners’ Association and the others. And if he does go along with it, he’ll fall out with a whole bunch of the Spa’s big shareholders, who’ve been his strongest backers till now –

  BILLING: Yes, that’s right; because they’ll probably have to dish out a big pile of money –

  HOVSTAD: Yes, you can bet on it. And then the ring will be broken, you see, and then day in and day out we’ll make it evident in the paper to the public that the mayor is incompetent in one thing after another, and that all the positions of trust in the town, the whole municipal council, ought to be handed over to liberal-minded people.

  BILLING: Yes, God strike me dead, that’s perfect! I see it – I see it; we’re standing right near the very beginning of a revolution!

>   There is a knock at the door.

  HOVSTAD: Shhh! [Calls out] Come in!

  DR STOCKMANN comes in through the door to the left in the background. MR HOVSTAD moves towards him.

  HOVSTAD: Ah, it’s the doctor! Well?

  DR STOCKMANN: Print away, Mr Hovstad!

  HOVSTAD: So it’s come to that?

  BILLING: Hurrah!

  DR STOCKMANN: Print away, I say. Yes, it has indeed come to that. But now they’ll get what they’ve asked for. Now it’ll be war here in town, Mr Billing!

  BILLING: War to the knife37 I hope! And knife to the throat, doctor!

  DR STOCKMANN: The report is only a start. My head is already full of sketches for some four or five other articles. Where have you put Aslaksen?

  BILLING [calls into the printshop]: Aslaksen, come in here for a moment!

  HOVSTAD: Four or five more articles, you say? About the same issue?

  DR STOCKMANN: No – far from it, my friend. No, they’ll be about entirely different things. But it all stems from the water system and the sewers. One thing drags the next with it, you understand. It’s like when you start tearing away at an old house – just the same.

  BILLING: God strike me dead, that’s so true; you never feel you’re finished until you’ve torn down the whole rickety building.

  ASLAKSEN [coming from the printshop]: Torn down? The doctor’s not thinking of tearing down the Spa house, surely?

  HOVSTAD: Far from it; don’t you worry.

  DR STOCKMANN: No, it was something quite different. So, Mr Hovstad, what do you say to my report?

  HOVSTAD: I think it’s an absolute masterpiece –

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, isn’t it –? Well, I’m glad to hear it, glad to hear it.

  HOVSTAD: It’s so clear and to the point; you don’t need to be an expert at all to see how everything connects. I dare say you’ll get every enlightened man on your side.

  ASLAKSEN: And all the prudent ones, I hope?

  BILLING: Prudent and imprudent – practically the whole town, I think.