A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

DR STOCKMANN: But, damn it all, science must surely be able to find some neutralizing substance; some preventive or other –

  MORTEN KIIL: You mean something to kill these creatures?

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, or render them harmless.

  MORTEN KIIL: Couldn’t you experiment with some rat poison?

  DR STOCKMANN: Oh, nonsense! – But everybody’s saying it’s just a figment of the imagination. Let it be a figment then! Let them stew in it! After all, these ignorant, mean-hearted mongrels harangued me as an enemy of the people – and they were ready to tear the clothes off my back too!

  MORTEN KIIL: And then all the windows they’ve smashed for you!

  DR STOCKMANN: And then there’s my duty towards my family! I must discuss this with Katrine; she has a good grasp of such things.

  MORTEN KIIL: That’s good; just you listen to a sensible wife’s advice.

  DR STOCKMANN [advancing towards him]: How could you be so perverse! Putting Katrine’s money in the balance; putting me in this horrible, agonizing torment! When I look at you, it’s like looking at the devil himself –!

  MORTEN KIIL: Well, then, it’s best I go. But before two o’clock, I shall want an answer. Yes or no. If it is no, the shares will go to the foundation – and on this very day.

  DR STOCKMANN: And then what does Katrine get?

  MORTEN KIIL: Not a jot.

  The hall door opens. MR HOVSTAD and MR ASLAKSEN come into view.

  MORTEN KIIL: Oh, look at those two!

  DR STOCKMANN [stares at them]: What! Do you still have the nerve to enter my home?

  HOVSTAD: Yes, we do indeed.

  ASLAKSEN: We have something to talk to you about, you see.

  MORTEN KIIL [whispers]: Yes or no – before two o’clock.

  ASLAKSEN [glancing towards HOVSTAD]: Aha!

  MORTEN KIIL leaves.

  DR STOCKMANN: So, what do you want with me? Make it brief.

  HOVSTAD: I can well understand your taking umbrage at us for the stance we took at the meeting yesterday –

  DR STOCKMANN: You call that a stance? Yes, a wonderfully non-existent stance! Old-womanish, I’d call it –. To hell with you!

  HOVSTAD: Call it whatever you like; we couldn’t do otherwise.

  DR STOCKMANN: You didn’t dare do otherwise. Isn’t that it?

  HOVSTAD: Yes, if you like.

  ASLAKSEN: But why didn’t you drop a little hint in advance? Just give Mr Hovstad or myself the wink?

  DR STOCKMANN: A hint? About what?

  ASLAKSEN: About what was behind it all.

  DR STOCKMANN: I don’t understand.

  ASLAKSEN [with a conspiratorial nod]: Oh, I think you do, Dr Stockmann.

  HOVSTAD: There’s no need to keep it hidden any longer.

  DR STOCKMANN [looking from one to the other alternately]: Yes, but, in the devil’s name –!

  ASLAKSEN: Might I ask – isn’t your father-in-law going about town buying up all the Spa’s shares?

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, he’s been out buying Spa shares today; but –?

  ASLAKSEN: You’d have been wiser to get somebody else to do it – who wasn’t quite so close to you.

  HOVSTAD: And you shouldn’t have acted under your own name. Nobody needed to know, after all, that the attack on the Spa came from you. You should have consulted me, Dr Stockmann.

  DR STOCKMANN [looks straight ahead; something seems to dawn on him, and he says in astonishment]: Can this be possible? Can such things be done?

  ASLAKSEN [smiles]: It appears they can, indeed. But they should be done discreetly, you understand.

  HOVSTAD: And it’s preferable to have several people in on it; the responsibility of the individual is always lessened when he has others with him.

  DR STOCKMANN [composed]: To the point, gentlemen – what do you want?

  ASLAKSEN: Mr Hovstad can perhaps best –

  HOVSTAD: No, you say it, Aslaksen.

  ASLAKSEN: Well, it’s this – now that we know how all the pieces fit, we think we might dare to put The People’s Messenger at your disposal.

  DR STOCKMANN: Now you dare? But what about public opinion? Aren’t you afraid a storm will rise against us?

  HOVSTAD: We’ll just have to ride the storm out.

  ASLAKSEN: And the doctor will need to be quick off the mark. As soon as your attack has served its purpose –

  DR STOCKMANN: As soon as my father-in-law and I have got hold of the shares cheaply, you mean –?

  HOVSTAD: I presume it’s mainly out of scientific concern that you feel driven to take over the baths.

  DR STOCKMANN: Oh, absolutely; it was out of scientific concern that I got the old Badger to go along with all this. So now we’ll patch up the water pipe a bit and dig about in the beach a bit, without it costing the town funds half a krone. That’ll do it, don’t you think? Yes?

  HOVSTAD: I think so – when you have The People’s Messenger with you.

  ASLAKSEN: In a free society the Press is a force, doctor.

  DR STOCKMANN: I see; as is public opinion of course; and you, Mr Aslaksen, I assume you’ll be taking the Homeowners’ Association on your conscience?

  ASLAKSEN: Both the Homeowners’ Association and my temperance friends. Rest assured.

  DR STOCKMANN: But, gentlemen – well, I feel ashamed to ask; but – your price –?

  HOVSTAD: Ideally we’d have helped you for nothing at all, you’ll understand. But The Messenger is on a weak footing; it’s not doing too well; and to close the newspaper down now, when there’s so much to work for in the bigger political arena, is something I’d be loath to do.

  DR STOCKMANN: Oh, absolutely; that would indeed be an awful blow for a friend of the people like yourself. [Flares up] But I, I am an enemy of the people! [Dashes around the room.] Where’s my stick? Where the hell have I put my stick?

  HOVSTAD: What’s this?

  ASLAKSEN: You’re never going to –

  DR STOCKMANN [stops still]: And if I didn’t give you a single penny from all my shares? We rich folk are close to our money, you must remember!

  HOVSTAD: And you must remember that this affair with the shares can be represented in two ways!

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, you’re the man for that all right; if I don’t come to the aid of The People’s Messenger, then you’ll doubtless take a jaundiced view of the whole affair; you’ll hunt me down, I’d imagine – pursue me – try to throttle me as a dog throttles a hare.

  HOVSTAD: All according to nature’s law; every animal wants to survive.

  ASLAKSEN: One has to take one’s food where one can find it, you understand.

  DR STOCKMANN: Well, see if you can find something out in the gutter; [pacing about the room] because now we’re going to bloody well see who’s the strongest animal out of the three of us! [Finds his umbrella and swings it.] Hey, look here –!

  HOVSTAD: Surely you’re not going to assault us!

  ASLAKSEN: Do be careful with that umbrella.

  DR STOCKMANN: Out of the window with you, Mr Hovstad!

  HOVSTAD [by the hall door]: Are you completely insane!

  DR STOCKMANN: Out of the window, Mr Aslaksen! Leap to it, I say! No time like the present.

  ASLAKSEN [running round the desk]: Temperance, doctor; I’m a fragile man; I can’t take much – [Screams] Help, help!

  MRS STOCKMANN, PETRA and HORSTER come in from the living room.

  MRS STOCKMANN: But heaven help us, Tomas! What’s going on here?

  DR STOCKMANN [swinging his umbrella]: Jump out, I say! Down into the gutter!

  HOVSTAD: An assault on an innocent man! I call you to witness, Captain Horster. [He hurries out through the hall.]

  ASLAKSEN [confused]: Aargh, if only I understood the local conditions –.67 [Slips out through the living room.]

  MRS STOCKMANN [holding on to the DOCTOR]: But control yourself, Tomas!

  DR STOCKMANN [throwing his umbrella down]: Well, by God, if they didn’t get away after all.

  MRS STOCKMANN: But what did
they want from you?

  DR STOCKMANN: You’ll find out later; right now I’ve other things to think about. [Goes to the table and writes on a visiting-card.] Look at this, Katrine; what does it say?

  MRS STOCKMANN: Three big Nos; but what is this?

  DR STOCKMANN: You’ll find that out later too. [Hands over the card.] There, Petra; get that sooty girl to run up to the Badger with this as fast as she can. Hurry up!

  PETRA goes with the card out through the hall.

  DR STOCKMANN: Well, if I’ve not been visited by all the devil’s messengers today, then I don’t know what! But now I shall sharpen my pen against them, until it’s like a dagger; I shall dip it in venom and gall; I shall hurl my inkwell straight at their skulls!68

  MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, but we’re leaving, Tomas.

  PETRA comes back.

  DR STOCKMANN: Well?

  PETRA: Done.

  DR STOCKMANN: Good. – Leaving, did you say? No, I’ll be damned if we are! We’re staying put, Katrine!

  PETRA: We’re staying!

  MRS STOCKMANN: Here, in town?

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, right here; it’s here the sacred battleground is; it’s here the fight will be; it’s here I shall be victorious! As soon as I’ve got my trousers sewn up, I’ll go out into town and look for a house; we’ve got to have a roof over our heads for the winter after all.

  HORSTER: You’ll have that in my house.

  DR STOCKMANN: Can I?

  HORSTER: Yes, you certainly can; I’ve plenty of room, and I’m almost never home.

  MRS STOCKMANN: Oh, how kind of you, Captain Horster!

  PETRA: Thank you!

  DR STOCKMANN [shaking his hand]: Thank you, thank you! Well, that’s one worry less! So I’ll begin in earnest right now, today. Oh, there’s such an infinite amount here to dig about in, Katrine! But it’s a good thing I’ve got so much time at my disposal now; yes, because listen; I’ve been dismissed from the Spa, you see –

  MRS STOCKMANN [sighs]: Oh dear, I was waiting for that.

  DR STOCKMANN: – and they want to take my practice away from me too. But just let them! They won’t take the poor folk from me at least; those who pay nothing and who, by God, need me the most. But they’ll bloody well have to listen to me, I’ll preach, in season and out of season, as is written some place.

  MRS STOCKMANN: But, Tomas my sweet, I think you’ve seen what preaching achieves.

  DR STOCKMANN: You’re hilarious, Katrine. Should I perhaps let myself be driven off the field by public opinion, the solid majority and other such devilry? No, thank you! What I want is so obvious and simple and totally straightforward. All I want is to bang it into those mongrels’ heads that the liberals are a free man’s most deceitful enemies – that these party manifestos wring the necks of every budding young truth – that this regard for rearguard ideas turns any sense of morals and fairness on its head, until it’s just hideous to live here in the end. Well, don’t you agree, Captain Horster, I should be able to get people to grasp that much?

  HORSTER: Very likely; I don’t really understand these things.

  DR STOCKMANN: Well, look here – I’ll explain! It’s the big party chiefs who must be eradicated. A party chief is like a wolf, you see – a ravenous grey-foot – who needs so and so many livestock each year if he’s to exist. Now just look at Hovstad and Aslaksen! How many young animals don’t they wipe out, or maim and tear to pieces so they’ll never be anything more than homeowners or subscribers to The People’s Messenger! [Perches on the edge of the table.] Oh, my little Katrine, come here – look how beautifully the sun falls in here today! And how blessed I am with all this fresh spring air coming in.

  MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, if we could only live on sun and spring air, Tomas.

  DR STOCKMANN: Well, you’ll have to scrimp and save a bit too – then everything will be fine. That’s the least of my worries. No, what’s worse is this – that I don’t know of any man noble and free enough to dare take up my task after me.

  PETRA: Oh, don’t think about that, Father; you’ve got time. But look, the boys are already back!

  EILIF and MORTEN come in from the living room.

  MRS STOCKMANN: Have you been given the day off?

  MORTEN: No; but we were fighting with the others at break –

  EILIF: That’s not true; it was the others fighting us.

  MORTEN: Yes, and then Mr Rørlund said it was best we stay at home for a few days.

  DR STOCKMANN [snaps his fingers and jumps up from the table]: I’ve got it! I’ve got it, by God! You are never going to set foot in that school again!

  THE BOYS: No more school!

  MRS STOCKMANN: But, Tomas –

  DR STOCKMANN: Never, I say! I shall educate you myself – that is, you shan’t learn a blessed thing –

  MORTEN: Hooray!

  DR STOCKMANN: – but I shall make you into free and noble men. – Listen, Petra, you’ll have to help me with that.

  PETRA: Yes, Father, you can rely on it.

  DR STOCKMANN: And my school will be held in the room where they harangued me as an enemy of the people. But we must have more boys; I must have at least twelve to begin with.

  MRS STOCKMANN: Well, you certainly won’t find them here in town.

  DR STOCKMANN: We’ll see about that. [To the BOYS] Don’t you know any street urchins – regular guttersnipes –?

  MORTEN: Yes, Father, I know lots!

  DR STOCKMANN: Well, that’s perfect; get hold of a few specimens for me. I’ll experiment with the mongrels for once; there are some outstanding brains among them now and then.

  MORTEN: But what’ll we do once we’re free and noble men?

  DR STOCKMANN: Then you’ll chase every grey-foot wolf into the distant west, boys!

  EILIF looks rather doubtful; MORTEN jumps and cries ‘Hurrah!’

  MRS STOCKMANN: Hm, as long as it’s not the wolves chasing you, Tomas.

  DR STOCKMANN: Are you quite mad, Katrine? Chase me! Now – when I am the town’s strongest man!

  MRS STOCKMANN: The strongest – now?

  DR STOCKMANN: Yes, and I’d dare go so far as to say that now I’m one of strongest men in the whole world.

  MORTEN: Really?

  DR STOCKMANN [lowering his voice]: Shhh! You mustn’t tell anyone yet; but I’ve made a huge discovery.

  MRS STOCKMANN: Again?

  DR STOCKMANN: Of course, of course! [Gathers them round him, and talks to them confidingly] The fact is, you see, that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.

  MRS STOCKMANN [smiling and shaking her head]: Oh, Tomas, Tomas!

  PETRA [confidently, as she grasps his hands]: Father!

  Notes

  PILLARS OF THE COMMUNITY

  1. Pillars of the Community: The Norwegian word ‘samfund’ can mean both ‘society’ and ‘community’, but the meaning in this play is most often clearly closer to the latter. We have therefore chosen to break with the convention of calling this play The Pillars of Society.

  2. Consul: A consul was a local businessman appointed to facilitate a foreign nation’s trade interests. In 1877 there were around 210 such consuls in Norway.

  3. Mrs: The term is ‘fru’, indicating that the woman in question is married and has a relatively high social standing (belonging to the bourgeoisie or the higher levels of the rural community). The term ‘madam’ was at this time used for married women from lower social strata.

  4. schoolmaster: The title ‘adjunkt’ was used for teachers in the higher level of the education system, equivalent to secondary school and high school.

  5. merchant: A merchant (‘grosserer’) in this respect dealt in large quantities of goods, but the term was also used for grocers more generally.

  6. uphold: The verb (‘støtte’) used here echoes the plural noun ‘støtter’ (‘pillars’) in the play’s title. It has often been translated as ‘support’, but this does not quite convey Aune’s serious commitment to, and authority within, his comm
unity.

  7. the Workers’ Association: The establishment of labour societies began in Norway in the 1860s, first with the Kristiania (now Oslo) Labour Society. These societies were at first of a philanthropic bent, but had become more political by the late 1870s.

  8. Mr Chief Clerk: By the late nineteenth century, the title ‘herr’ was used in connection with all higher offices and with a number of other professions of different social categories. The title did not at that time signal a social distinction.

  9. larger societies and communities: The word ‘samfund’ can mean both ‘society’ and ‘community’ (cf. above). Both words are used in the translation, depending on context.

  10. whited sepulchres: Cf. Matthew 23:27: ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.’

  11. tares grow in amongst the wheat here too: Cf. Matthew 13:24–5: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.’

  12. Volunteer Nurses: Women in charge of the social work in a Lutheran parish. In a Norwegian context, the title was relatively new in Norway at this time, with the first institution for the training of ‘diakonisser’ established in Kristiania in 1868.

  13. railway business: When Ibsen visited Norway from July to September 1874, several newspapers were running articles on the planned railway between Kristiania and the area along what is now the Oslo fjord. There were heated debates about whether the line ought to run inland or along the coast.

  14. ‘Woman as Servant to the Community’: Fictitious title clearly meant to satirize the conduct literature of the period, prescribing the role of women in society.

  15. sports and more sports: The Norwegian term ‘idræt’ was at this time often seen in contrast to English ‘sport’, with the former having a more utilitarian slant. Traditional Norwegian sports included skiing, skating, shooting, sailing and rowing, although German and Swedish gymnastics had also become popular from the 1850s onwards.

  16. student Tønnesen: In order to be called ‘student’, the person in question would have to have passed the ‘examen artium’ which qualified a student for university.