A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

  HORSTER: Oh, I wouldn’t say it took that much courage.

  MR HOVSTAD and MR ASLAKSEN arrive simultaneously but make their way through the crowd separately.

  ASLAKSEN [goes over to HORSTER]: Hasn’t the doctor arrived yet?

  HORSTER: He’s waiting in there.

  Activity by the door in the background.

  HOVSTAD [to BILLING]: There’s the mayor. You see!

  BILLING: Yes, God strike me dead if he hasn’t turned up after all!

  The MAYOR manoeuvres his way carefully through the crowd, greets people politely and positions himself by the wall to the left. Shortly afterwards DR STOCKMANN comes in through the door to the right in the background. He is dressed in black, with a formal jacket and white neckerchief. A few people clap uncertainly, are gently shushed. It goes quiet.

  DR STOCKMANN [in a lowered voice]: How are you, Katrine?

  MRS STOCKMANN: I’m fine, thank you. [More quietly] Don’t get worked-up now, Tomas.

  DR STOCKMANN: Oh, I know how to handle myself, dear. [Looks at his watch, climbs up on to the platform and bows.] It’s a quarter past now – so I’d like to start – [Takes his manuscript out.]

  ASLAKSEN: A chairman should surely be elected first.

  DR STOCKMANN: No, that’s really not necessary.

  SOME GENTLEMEN [shouting]: Oh, yes it is!

  THE MAYOR: I’d assume too that a moderator should be elected.

  DR STOCKMANN: But I’ve summoned this meeting to give a speech, Peter!

  THE MAYOR: The medical officer’s speech may lead to some divergence of opinion.

  MORE VOICES [from the crowd]: A chairman! A moderator!

  HOVSTAD: The general citizens’ will seems to demand a chairman.

  DR STOCKMANN [controlled]: Very well; let the citizens’ will have its way.

  ASLAKSEN: Wouldn’t the mayor perhaps be willing to assume that duty?

  THREE GENTLEMEN [clapping]: Bravo! Bravo!

  THE MAYOR: For various reasons that are easy to comprehend, I must decline. But fortunately we have in our midst a man I think everybody can accept. I refer to the head of the Homeowners’ Association, Mr Aslaksen.

  MANY VOICES: Yes, yes! Long live Aslaksen! Hurrah for Aslaksen!

  DR STOCKMANN takes his manuscript and walks down from the platform.

  ASLAKSEN: When my fellow citizens’ trust calls upon me, I’ll not be unwilling –

  Applause and cheering. ASLAKSEN mounts the platform.

  BILLING [writing]: Right, so – ‘Mr Aslaksen, book printer, elected by acclamation.’

  ASLAKSEN: And now that I stand here, may I be permitted to say a few concise words? I am a modest and peaceable man, who holds by prudent temperance, and by – by temperate prudence; as is recognized by all who know me.

  SEVERAL VOICES: Yes! Yes, Aslaksen!

  ASLAKSEN: I have learned, in the school of life and experience, that temperance is a virtue that best befits a citizen –

  THE MAYOR: Hear, hear!

  ASLAKSEN: – and prudence and temperance are also that by which society is best served. I would therefore entreat the honourable citizen who has called this meeting that he strive to remain within the bounds of temperance.

  A MAN [up by the door]: To the Temperance Society! A toast!

  A VOICE: What the heck!

  SEVERAL VOICES: Shh, Shh!

  ASLAKSEN: No interruptions, gentlemen! – Does anybody wish to take the floor?

  THE MAYOR: Mr Moderator.

  ASLAKSEN: Mayor Stockmann has the floor.

  THE MAYOR: In view of the close family ties that I have, as you doubtless know, with the current medical officer, I would have preferred not to speak tonight. But my relationship to the Spa Institute and my concern for the town’s most vital interests compel me to propose a motion. I assume that not a single citizen here in this room would find it desirable that untrustworthy and exaggerated accounts about the sanitary conditions of our Spa and town be spread wider afield.

  SEVERAL VOICES: No, no, no! Not at all! We protest!

  THE MAYOR: I would therefore propose that this assembly ought not to permit the medical officer to read or to present his views on this matter.

  DR STOCKMANN [aggravated]: Not permit –! What –!

  MRS STOCKMANN [coughing]: Ahem! – ahem!

  DR STOCKMANN [collecting himself]: I see, yes; not permit.

  THE MAYOR: In my statement in The People’s Messenger, I have informed the public of the principal facts, so that every fair-minded citizen may, with ease, reach his own verdict. From it, you will see that the medical officer’s suggestion – apart from being a vote of no confidence against the town’s leading men – ultimately means burdening the taxpaying residents of this town with the unnecessary expenditure of at least one hundred thousand kroner.

  Hostility and blowing of whistles.

  ASLAKSEN [ringing his bell]: Silence,51 gentlemen! I beg to support the mayor’s proposal. It is also my opinion that there’s a hidden motive for the doctor’s agitation. He talks about the Spa; but it’s a revolution he’s aiming at – he wants to put the leadership into other hands. Nobody doubts the doctor’s honourable intentions; Lord no, there can be no two opinions about that. I am also a friend of people’s self-governance, as long as it doesn’t come at too high a price to the taxpayers. But that would be the outcome here; which is why – no, God dammit – beg pardon – but I cannot go along with Dr Stockmann this time. One can pay too high a price even for gold; that’s my opinion.

  Lively approval from all sides.

  HOVSTAD: I too feel called upon to account for my position. Dr Stockmann’s agitation seemed to win considerable approval to begin with, and I supported it as impartially as I could. But then it became apparent that we’d allowed ourselves to be misled by a false representation of –

  DR STOCKMANN: False –!

  HOVSTAD: A less than reliable representation of the facts, then. The mayor’s statement has proved that. I hope nobody in this town doubts my liberal principles; The Messenger’s stance on the larger political questions is well known to each of you. But I have learned from experienced and prudent men that in purely local matters a paper must proceed with a certain caution.

  ASLAKSEN: In full agreement with the speaker.

  HOVSTAD: And in this particular matter, it is now beyond doubt that Dr Stockmann has the general will against him. But, gentlemen, what is an editor’s first and noblest obligation? Is it not to operate in accordance with his readers? Hasn’t he received a kind of unspoken mandate to promote the welfare of his like-minded fellows, vigorously and tirelessly? Or am I perhaps mistaken in this?

  MANY VOICES: No, no! The editor’s right!

  HOVSTAD: It has been a most painful struggle for me to break with a man in whose house I have lately been a frequent guest – a man who until this very day enjoyed the undivided goodwill of his fellow citizens – a man whose only – or at least major – flaw is that he consults his heart more than his head.

  SOME SCATTERED VOICES: That’s true! Hurrah for Dr Stockmann!

  HOVSTAD: But my duty to this community demanded I break with him. And there is another concern that drives me to confront him, and, if possible, stop him on the perilous path he has embarked upon; and that is my concern for his family –

  DR STOCKMANN: Keep to the water supply and sewage!

  HOVSTAD: – concern for his spouse and his poor needy children.

  MORTEN: Is that us, Mother?

  MRS STOCKMANN: Hush!

  ASLAKSEN: So, I shall put the mayor’s proposal to the vote.

  DR STOCKMANN: There’s no need! Tonight I don’t intend to speak about the swinish filth down there at the Spa House. No; you shall hear quite a different story.

  THE MAYOR [under his breath]: What is it this time?

  A DRUNKEN MAN [up by the entrance door]: I am a taxpayer!52 And so I have a right to an opinion too! And I am of the complete – firmly incomprehendible opinion –

  A NUMBER
OF VOICES: Be quiet over there!

  OTHERS: He’s drunk! Chuck him out!

  The DRUNKEN MAN is turned out.

  DR STOCKMANN: Do I have the floor?

  ASLAKSEN [ringing his bell]: Dr Stockmann has the floor!

  DR STOCKMANN: If anybody, even a few days ago, had dared make any such attempt at gagging me, as they have tonight – I would have defended my sacred human rights like a lion! But that doesn’t matter to me now; because now I have more important things to talk about.

  The crowd presses closer to him. MORTEN KIIL comes into view among them.

  DR STOCKMANN [continuing]: I’ve thought and I’ve pondered a great deal these last few days – pondered over so many things that in the end they turned into an utter jumble in my head –

  THE MAYOR [coughs]: Hm –!

  DR STOCKMANN: – but then I worked it out; I saw precisely how everything connects. And that is why I’m standing here tonight. I have some great revelations to make to you, my fellow citizens! I want to report a discovery of a very different scope than the trifling matter of our water supply being poisoned and our Health Spa built on a plague-infested ground.

  MANY VOICES [shouting]: Don’t talk about the Spa! We don’t want to hear it! Not that!

  DR STOCKMANN: I’ve said I want to talk about the important discovery I’ve made over the last few days – the discovery that our spiritual wells are poisoned, and that our entire civic community rests on a plague-infested ground of lies.

  ASTONISHED VOICES [hushed]: What’s that he’s saying?

  THE MAYOR: Such an insinuation –!

  ASLAKSEN [with his hand on the bell]: The speaker is urged to be temperate.

  DR STOCKMANN: I have loved my native town as much as any man can love the home of his younger years. I wasn’t old when I left here, and distance, longing and memories somehow cast an increased glow over the town and its people.

  Some clapping and shouts of support are heard.

  DR STOCKMANN: There I sat for many years in that frightful backwater far in the north. When I met some of the people who live dotted here and there among the screes, I often thought that those poor, decrepit creatures might have been better served if they’d got a vet up there rather than a man like me.

  Murmuring in the hall.

  BILLING [puts his pen down]: Well, God strike me dead if I’ve ever heard –!

  HOVSTAD: This is an insult to decent common folk!53

  DR STOCKMANN: Just wait a bit! – I don’t think anyone can say of me that I forgot my native town up there. I sat rather like an eider54 on its eggs; and what I hatched, well – that was the plan for the Spa Institute here.

  Applause and objections.

  DR STOCKMANN: And when fate at long, long last smiled down upon me and granted me the chance to come back home – yes, my fellow citizens, then I knew I had no other desire in this world. Well, yes, I had this desire, to work eagerly, untiringly and passionately for the welfare of my hometown and of the public.

  THE MAYOR [looking up in the air]: Your method is somewhat peculiar – hm!

  DR STOCKMANN: So here I was, blindly enjoying life. But yesterday morning – no, it was actually on the evening before – my spiritual eyes were opened, and the first thing I saw was the unbelievable idiocy of the authorities –

  Commotion, shouts and laughter. MRS STOCKMANN coughs energetically.

  THE MAYOR: Mr Moderator!

  ASLAKSEN [ringing]: By the power vested in me, I –!

  DR STOCKMANN: It’s petty to get hung up on a word, Mr Aslaksen! I just mean that I suddenly realized what unbelievably swinish behaviour our leading men were guilty of down there at the Spa. I can’t abide leading men at any price! – I’ve had enough of those people in my time. They’re like billy-goats in a field of saplings; they wreak havoc in every direction; they block a free man’s path no matter which way he turns – and I’d like nothing better than for us to have them eradicated like any other vermin –.

  Unease in the room.

  THE MAYOR: Mr Moderator, can such remarks be allowed to pass?

  ASLAKSEN [with his hand on his bell]: Doctor –!

  DR STOCKMANN: I can’t comprehend how it has taken me until now to see these gentlemen in their true light; particularly since I’ve had such a splendid specimen before my eyes virtually every day here in town – my brother Peter – slow off the mark and a bumbling bigot.

  Laughter, commotion, blowing of whistles. MRS STOCKMANN sits coughing.

  ASLAKSEN rings his bell forcefully.

  THE DRUNKEN MAN [who has come back in again]: You talking about me? Yeah, ’cos my name’s Peter Sloe, all right, but I’m bloody well not –

  ANGRY VOICES: Get that drunkard out! Show him the door!

  The MAN is thrown out again.

  THE MAYOR: Who was that man?

  FIRST CITIZEN: Didn’t recognize him, Mr Mayor, sir.

  SECOND CITIZEN: He’s not from this town.

  THIRD CITIZEN: He’s probably a timberman55 from over at – [The rest is inaudible.]

  ASLAKSEN: The man was clearly intoxicated on stout. Carry on, doctor; but do conduct yourself with temperance.

  DR STOCKMANN: Very well, my fellow citizens; I shall make no further pronouncements on our leaders. And if anyone imagines, from what I’ve just said, that I’d like to kill these gentlemen off tonight, then he’s mistaken – seriously mistaken. I cherish the comforting conviction that these laggards, these old men with their world of dying ideas, are taking excellent care of their own demise; there’s no need for any doctor’s help to hasten their mortal departure. Besides, they aren’t the sort of people who pose the greatest danger to society; they aren’t the most active in poisoning our spiritual wells and contaminating the ground beneath us; they aren’t the most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom in our society.

  SHOUTS FROM ALL SIDES: Who then? Who? Name them!

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, rest assured, I shall name them! Because that is in fact the great discovery I made yesterday. [Raises his voice] The most dangerous enemies to truth and freedom among us are the solid majority. Yes, that damned solid, liberal majority: there! Now you know it!

  Tremendous uproar. Most people are shouting, stamping and blowing their whistles. Some of the OLDER GENTLEMEN among them exchange stolen glances and seem to gloat. MRS STOCKMANN gets up nervously. EILIF and MORTEN walk threateningly towards some SCHOOLBOYS who are making a commotion. ASLAKSEN rings his bell and pleads for calm. HOVSTAD and BILLING both speak but are inaudible. Finally there is silence.

  ASLAKSEN: The chairman expects the speaker to withdraw his imprudent remarks.

  DR STOCKMANN: Never, Mr Aslaksen! It’s the majority here in our community who are robbing me of my freedom and who want to prohibit me from telling the truth.

  HOVSTAD: The majority always have right on their side.

  BILLING: And so does the truth; God strike me dead!

  DR STOCKMANN: The majority never have right on their side, never I tell you! That’s one of those lies in society against which any independent, thinking man must wage war. Who is it that constitutes the greater part of the population in a country? The intelligent people, or the stupid ones? I think we’d have to agree that stupid people make up a quite terrifying, overwhelming majority the world over. But never in all eternity, damn it all, can it be right for the stupid people to rule over the intelligent ones!

  Uproar and cries.

  DR STOCKMANN: Oh, yes; you can shout me down all right; but you can’t argue against me. The might is with the many – unfortunately – but not the right. The right is with myself and a few other solitary individuals. The minority is always in the right.

  Huge uproar again.

  HOVSTAD: Haha; so Dr Stockmann’s turned aristocrat since the day before yesterday!

  DR STOCKMANN: I’ve said already that I can’t be bothered to waste words on that puny, narrow-chested, short-winded bunch who lag astern. Life’s beating pulse has no business with them. Rather, I am thinkin
g of the few, those individuals among us who have embraced all the new, vigorous truths. Such men stand at the outposts, as it were, so far ahead that the solid majority has yet to catch up with them – and there they fight for truths that are still too newly born into the world of consciousness to have gained any majority support.

  HOVSTAD: Oh right, so now the doctor’s turned into a revolutionary leader!

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, I bloody well have, Mr Hovstad! I intend to start a revolution against the lie that the majority has a monopoly on the truth. What kinds of truths do the majority habitually flock around? They are truths so advanced in years, that they’re on the way to being decrepit. But when a truth is that old, it’s also well on the way to becoming a lie, gentlemen.

  Laughter and derision.

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, all right, you don’t have to believe me; but not all truths are the long-lived Methuselahs56 people imagine. An averagely built truth lives – let’s say – as a rule seventeen or eighteen, at most twenty years; rarely longer. But truths of such advanced years are always dreadfully scrawny. And yet it is only then that the majority adopts them and recommends them to society as wholesome spiritual food. But there’s not much nutritional value in such a diet, I can assure you; and as a doctor, I should know. All these truths of the majority can be likened to last year’s cured meats; they’re like rancid, furry, green-salted hams. And from these comes all the moral scurvy that runs so rampant in our communities.

  ASLAKSEN: It occurs to me that the honourable speaker is drifting somewhat off script.

  THE MAYOR: I must concur with the moderator’s opinion.

  DR STOCKMANN: No, but I think you’re quite mad, Peter! I’m sticking as closely to the script as I can! Since what I want to talk about here is precisely that the masses, the many, this damned solid majority – that it’s these, I tell you, who are poisoning our spiritual wells and infecting the ground beneath us.

  HOVSTAD: And this because our great liberal majority are prudent enough to defer to truths that are certain and approved?

  DR STOCKMANN: My dearest Mr Hovstad, don’t talk of certain truths! The truths that the masses, that the public, approve are the truths that the fighters at the outposts held to be certain in our grandfathers’ day. Those of us fighting at the outposts today no longer recognize them; and I do not believe there is any other certain truth apart from this: that no society can live a healthy life on such old, marrowless truths.