A Doll's House and Other Plays (Penguin)

by Henrik Ibsen

  51. your religion: Here the Evangelical-Lutheran form of Christianity.

  52. he is freed according to the law from all obligations towards her: Divorce was only possible on grounds of adultery, desertion or impotence. The ‘guilty party’ would lose his or her rights to common property and parental influence and would be barred from remarrying.

  GHOSTS

  1. Ghosts: The Norwegian title, ‘Gengangere’, literally means ‘something that or someone who walks again’. There are rare examples of it being used in contemporary scientific discussions of inherited syphilis.

  2. Family Drama: Ibsen’s chosen term was not an established sub-category of drama.

  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. chamberlain: A title which could be a mere honorary title granted by a royal person, as in this case. It was not as exclusive as, for example, the title of the British Lord Chamberlain, and Mr Alving did not serve at court.

  5. in the service: The phrase ‘i huset’ (‘in the house’) can simply mean that one is a member of the household, but can also refer to employment as a servant.

  6. the left: Ibsen always pictures the stage from the perspective of the audience.

  7. idiot: The original has ‘menneske’, literally ‘person’ or ‘man’ (in the generic sense). Here the word is used pejoratively.

  8. we are but frail: Biblical allusion. See Romans 6:19: ‘the infirmity of your flesh’. Engstrand, who has just been called ‘menneske’, here again uses this word (including himself and all ‘mennesker’ among those who are frail).

  9. steamship: The coastal steamer afforded the easiest connection between places along the fjords and other parts of the country.

  10. damned: The original has ‘fan”, a coarse form of the more acceptable ‘fanden’ (the devil). Norwegian swear words are on the whole of a religious kind. It is hard to find English equivalents that are strong enough without being sexual or appearing anachronistic. See A Note on the Translation.

  11. What the hell’s: See note 10.

  12. Fi donc: French interjection communicating contempt.

  13. Pied de mouton: Literally ‘sheep’s foot’, a cloven foot.

  14. I’ll bleedin’ well: See note 10.

  15. God-awful: See note 10.

  16. wayfaring mariners: An example of Engstrand’s tendency to mimic a higher or more archaic style, with internal inconsistencies as a result (in the original Engstrand uses the vulgar plural form of seamen, ‘sjømænder’ instead of the formally correct ‘sjømænd’).

  17. seven or eight hundred kroner: A little above the annual salary for a labourer.

  18. bleedin’: See note 10.

  19. savoir vivre: French for the art of living, knowing how to live life to the full.

  20. three hundred speciedaler: Before Norway in 1875 introduced kroner, it had used ‘speciedaler’. One speciedaler at this point equalled four kroner.

  21. church register: The parish registers functioned as the only public registers at this time.

  22. Miss: The word ‘jomfru’ used in the original refers to a young, unmarried woman. A somewhat dated, conservative usage in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the word had for the most part been superseded by ‘frøken’ (Miss). ‘Jomfru’ means both ‘maiden’ and ‘virgin’. In Ibsen’s modern prose dramas the word only appears in one other place, when Hedvig in The Wild Duck (1884) describes a picture of Death and a maiden from Harrison’s History of London.

  23. farmer: The original ‘Landman’ literally means ‘countryman’, as opposed to ‘city folk’.

  24. hallway: The original has ‘forstuen’, the first room (after an entrance or the like) you entered in a house or apartment, from which there was access to the other rooms.

  25. hot chocolate: A conventional drink among the bourgeoisie, later replaced by coffee.

  26. Is the pastor sitting comfortably?: Use of the the third-person form of address indicates distance, as in ‘would the gentleman like …?’

  27. guiding hand: A common religious phrase. An allusion to God’s guidance, or to Providence more generally.

  28. intellectual trends: The word ‘åndelige’ includes the meanings of both ‘spiritual’ and ‘intellectual’.

  29. Solvik: The name literally means ‘Sunny bay’. Older farms with ‘Sol’ as a prefix in their name would often be found in sunny spots, on the more attractive, sunny side of the valley.

  30. estate: Aristocracy in Norway had been formally abolished in 1821. The term ‘herregården’ generally referred to a large farm with a certain history of having played a significant social, economic and cultural role in the area.

  31. higher purpose: The original has the more succinct compound ‘livsopgave’, literally ‘life task’ or ‘task in life’, again with a more poetic ring and connotations of a noble calling.

  32. my colleague’s: Probably a reference to an evangelical revivalist clergyman. The evangelical movement stressed individual conversion and repentance, and opposed a more rationalist, liberal theology.

  33. Divine Providence: The demand that one trust God’s guidance is clearly expressed in the Danish theologian Erik Pontoppidan’s authoritative explanations of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.

  34. social burden: The compound noun ‘fattigbyrder’ used here means more literally ‘the burden of (taking care of) the poor’. The care of the poor had been the responsibility of local government since the Poor Law of 1845 and would make up around 30–40 per cent of total communal expenditure around this time. Taxes would be paid according to land ownership, wealth and income.

  35. cause offence: A biblical allusion. See 1 Corinthians 10:32: ‘Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.’

  36. all manner of things to wrestle with: The original uses the word ‘anfægtelser’, which means temptations or strong religious doubts, but here more specifically refers to the mental state of having to wrestle with these temptations or doubts.

  37. office: Homes had offices where business was conducted, and this was usually the sole preserve of men; cf. Torvald Helmer’s office in A Doll’s House. Here, Mrs Alving is associated with the office, but never Chamberlain Alving.

  38. Prodigal Son: An allusion to the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:11–32. The Norwegian adjective ‘forlorne’ means ‘lost’ or ‘wayward’, so the effect is starker here than in the English ‘prodigal’. See also Pillars of the Community, note 17.

  39. first name: This use of a person’s first name indicates a high degree of intimacy and close acquaintance. As the older of the two, it is Manders’s prerogative to suggest the mode of address. This choice communicates both his close relationship to the family (especially Mrs Alving) and his superior position.

  40. inward man: Biblical allusion. See, e.g., Romans 7:22–3: ‘For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.’

  41. private room: The word ‘kammeret’ refers to a smaller, private room. Chamberlain Alving seems to have spent time alone here rather than in the office.

  42. the joys of life: The original has the compound ‘livsglad’, literally ‘happy in life’ or ‘enjoying life’. It is the first glimpse in the play of the central concern with Osvald’s ‘livsglæde’, translated as ‘joy of life’, and his ‘arbejdsglæden’, the ‘joy of work’.

  43. paternal home: The original uses the word ‘fædrenehjemmet’, meaning ‘home of the father’, rather than the more common ‘familjehjemmet’, ‘family home’.

  44. get married: Women of the upp
er and middle classes were generally not supposed to take on paid work, but to be provided for by their husbands. Men were therefore unable to marry before they could provide for their families.

  45. unlawful relationships: During this time, a law of 1842 forbidding cohabitation was still in force. It stated that extramarital sex could be punished with imprisonment or fines.

  46. wild marriages: The phrase Ibsen uses here, ‘såkaldte vilde ægteskaber’ (literally ‘so-called wild marriages’), is a reference to a relationship based on free love. Ibsen has probably borrowed the expression from the German.

  47. life of freedom: The original has the more poetic compound ‘frihedsliv’, literally ‘freedom life’.

  48. my husband: In the original Mrs Alving refers to her husband by his surname, which was common practice when a wife spoke about her husband to people from outside the family circle.

  49. But a wife is not entitled to stand as judge over her husband: See Ephesians 5:22–3: ‘Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.’

  50. Helene: When Pastor Manders here switches to her first name, he discloses that the two have or have had a more intimate relationship. Elsewhere, he addresses her as ‘Mrs Alving’. See, note 39.

  51. government almanac: An annual publication containing the most important information on state institutions and affairs.

  52. three hundred speciedaler: A very large sum for a servant. Johanne seems to have been paid around four times the standard annual salary for a servant.

  53. fallen man: The expression ‘falden mand’, ‘fallen man’ (with reference to gender rather than the generic ‘menneske’), is a neologism in Dano-Norwegian, mimicking the conventional reference to ‘falden kvinde’, ‘fallen woman’.

  54. consulted: A reference to the customs of engagement and marriage. See King Christian V’s Norwegian Law of 1687 in which a man desiring to be married should ask the woman’s parents or guardians for her hand, but with her consent.

  55. depraved: The word ‘forfaldent’ literally means ‘decrepit’, ‘ruined’, ‘decayed’, with associations of ‘fallen’.

  56. a child should love and honour his mother and father: The Fourth Commandment. See Exodus 20:1–17.

  57. dead doctrines: The word ‘tro’, translated as ‘doctrines’ here, also means ‘faith’, ‘belief’.

  58. frightened of the light: The compound word ‘lysrædde’ literally means ‘light-fearful’ or ‘afraid of the light’.

  59. wailing: The expression ‘grædendes tårer’ is common in the comedies of Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754). Here Engstrand adds an ungrammatical ‘s’, displaying his working-class register.

  60. gnashing of teeth: The expression ‘tænders gnidsel’ is used several times in Matthew with reference to eternal damnation.

  61. the wages of sin: See Romans 6:23: ‘For the wages of sin is death.’

  62. ‘vermoulu’: ‘État vermoulu’ is a French expression meaning ‘worm-eaten’ and was at that time used of patients with syphilis.

  63. the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children: An Old Testament notion. See Exodus 20:5: ‘for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.’

  64. eagerly: The original has the compound ‘livfuldt’, literally ‘life full’ or ‘full of life’.

  65. light and sunshine: A reference to French impressionism, known in Norway from around 1870. It may possibly also allude to the group of Scandinavian painters associated with Skagen in northern Denmark in the 1870s and ’80s, ‘the Skagen painters’.

  66. parish: The original’s ‘landsognet’ was a rural district belonging to a market town, but constituting an independent commune or municipality.

  67. gold-feathered nest: The phrase ‘leve som guld i et æg’ literally means ‘live like gold in an egg’, a twist on the Norwegian idiom ‘live like the yolk in an egg’, i.e., being in the best place possible.

  68. Why are you so formal with me: Polite conventions meant that one could not use the informal ‘du’ without being on first-name terms with someone. Here the expression ‘Hvorfor kan du ikke sige du til mig?’ of the original means ‘Why can’t you (the informal ‘du’) say you (the informal ‘du’) to me?’ By now choosing the informal ‘du’ in addressing her, and asking her to use the same mode of address, he is challenging the norms of the servant–master relationship.

  69. sunny Sunday: The word is ‘søndagsvejr’, literally ‘Sunday weather’. Cf. the note on impressionism above.

  70. civil service appointment: A state office to which one formally had to be appointed by the king.

  71. I suppose I can say Osvald now: Since Regine is Osvald’s half-sister, and now knows it, she seems to mean that they are equals and that she is in a position where she can suggest that they change their mode of address.

  72. end up with nothing: The expression ‘stå på bar bakke’ literally means to ‘stand on bare ground’, meaning being without the means to provide for oneself. Regine is not in command of the idiom, adding an indefinite article (‘en bar bakke’).

  73. inherited: One’s ‘arvelod’ refers to the totality of one’s inheritance. Cf. also the contemporary scientific theories that considered syphilis an inheritable disease, transferable from father to son.

  74. lodged in here: Osvald hints at the fact that the illness has now attacked his brain. This would belong to the symptoms that were associated with the tertiary and terminal phase of syphilis.

  75. I had one attack down there: One of the leading contemporary medical authorities on syphilis, Alfred Fournier, noted that a patient who had survived a first attack would often not be able to cope with a second or third attack.

  AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE

  1. Enemy of the People: The word ‘folkefiende’ had in rare instances been used in Swedish and Danish before this, in the sense of ‘enemy of democracy’. There are no recorded earlier uses of it in Norwegian. Ibsen had been characterized as an ‘enemy of society’ (‘samfundets fiende’) in a debate in the Norwegian parliament in 1882.

  2. Play: Ibsen had long wavered between calling An Enemy of the People ‘lystspil’ (a kind of light comedy) or ‘skuespil’ (play), but finally decided on the latter.

  3. medical officer: ‘Badelæge’, i.e. a doctor employed at a spa.

  4. Mrs: The term ‘fru’ indicates 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.

  5. teacher: The title, ‘lærerinde’, is gender specific in the original, referring to a female teacher. From the middle of the century women gradually became more accepted as teachers in state elementary schools. It became one of the few professions available to unmarried women of the bourgeoise.

  6. Eilif: The spelling has been changed from ‘Ejlif’ to ‘Eilif’ in order to facilitate pronunciation (‘ej’ is the old Dano-Norwegian way of spelling the diphthong ‘ei’).

  7. mayor of the town and local police chief: The ‘byfogd’ (here ‘mayor’) was a local judge and in charge of the lowest court in the towns. In smaller towns the same person would at that time fill the roles of head of police and administrative head of the court.

  8. People’s Messenger: The name ‘Folkebudet’, literally ‘The Folk Messenger’, is reminiscent of a number of democratically inclined newspapers of the time, many of which had the prefix ‘Folk’.

  9. various classes and occupations: The terms classes (‘klasser’) and standing (the plural form ‘stænder’ meant social standing or occupational status) were roughly synonymous in nineteenth-century Norway, but the latter, somewhat more general categoriza
tion was the more frequent.

  10. table covering: Not a table cloth for the dining table, but a heavier cloth (‘bordtæppe’) often richly decorated with embroidery.

  11. Mr Billing: The title ‘herr’ was by this time used in connection with all higher offices and with a number of other professions of different social categories. At this time the title did not signal social distinctions.

  12. public spirit: The original uses the word ‘borgerånd’, literally ‘a spirit of citizenship’, meaning a commitment and loyalty to the state and to society more generally.

  13. poor rates: The overall costs for taking care of the poor went up in the 1870s, but not in terms of the share of communal expenses.

  14. up north: The expression ‘nordpå’ (‘in the north’) refers to northern Norway, today the provinces of Nordland, Troms and Finnmark.

  15. district governor: The ‘amtmand’ was the highest-ranked civil servant in the local regions, the counties. In 1866 Norway was divided into twenty counties.

  16. a top senior official: The ‘amtmand’ (see previous note) and the bishop were the highest authorities in a county.

  17. the individual: Loyalty towards authority was often motivated by the Fourth Commandment, to ‘honour thy father and thy mother’, and elaborated on in various Lutheran cathechisms.

  18. the community: The original ‘samfundet’ means both ‘society’ and ‘community’. See Pillars of the Community, note 1.

  19. toddy heater: The word ‘kogemaskine’ literally means ‘boiling machine’; it was a metal container which could be used for heating water.

  20. arrack: Alcoholic beverage based on rice and palm juice, originally Indian.

  21. smoking-cap: The ‘kalot’ was a form of headgear used by men, not least balding men.

  22. English story: Newspapers would often publish serial stories at the bottom of the page, either as mere entertainment or (commonly) for their moral or didactic content. Many of these stories would be translated from English.