The Lady from the Sea

by Henrik Ibsen

  BOLETTE: Me?

  ARNHOLM: I had a letter from your father. I misunderstood. He spoke of a young woman wanting to see me. I thought he meant you, in fact he was writing of something else…but…I allowed myself to dream.

  BOLETTE: But now that you know he didn’t mean me?

  ARNHOLM: Too late. You are in my heart. You always were. I don’t expect you to understand, but there it is.

  BOLETTE: I never imagined.

  ARNHOLM: Now that you do know…couldn’t you – you wouldn’t consider marrying me?

  BOLETTE: You’re my teacher. I couldn’t ever think of you as anything else.

  ARNHOLM: No. I see. Understood. All the same, I stand by what I said. I will look after you. You shall leave. Go into the world. I will see that you’re secure…when you’re older. You will always have a true and faithful friend in me, Bolette. You can rely on that.

  BOLETTE: But that’s just what I can’t do! Not now. Don’t you see, you’ve made that utterly impossible! I couldn’t possibly take anything from you now – it’s out of the question!

  ARNHOLM: You prefer to stay here, at home.

  BOLETTE: Of course not, it’s unbearable!

  ARNHOLM: Do you really want to throw away your life? The chance to see the world? To travel…live… learn…think, Bolette!

  BOLETTE: Ohh!

  ARNHOLM: What about later, when your father is no longer here to protect you? You may have to marry – perhaps another man you don’t care for?

  BOLETTE: Yes…everything you say – oh! What am I to…? Is it so impossible?

  ARNHOLM: Bolette?

  BOLETTE: I suppose it could…it might…

  ARNHOLM: You mean you might let me help you? As a friend?

  BOLETTE: No! That’s impossible now! No, Doctor Arnholm. It would have to be as –

  ARNHOLM: Oh my dear…will you?

  BOLETTE: I…I could…

  ARNHOLM: As my wife?

  BOLETTE: If you still want me.

  ARNHOLM: If! (Seizes her hand.) Thank you! Oh, Bolette, thank you! I will win your heart. I’ll be patient, I promise you. I’ll look after you –

  BOLETTE: And I’ll travel? See life? All the things you promised?

  ARNHOLM: You have my word.

  BOLETTE: And learn?

  ARNHOLM: I’ll be your teacher.

  BOLETTE: Ohh…free. No more worries about money.

  ARNHOLM: None. That’s good, isn’t it?

  BOLETTE: Yes, it is.

  ARNHOLM: You’ll see how happy and serene we’ll be together, my dear. We’ll have a good life, you’ll see.

  BOLETTE: Yes. It has to work. (She looks right, disengages herself.) That poor boy. Don’t say anything.

  ARNHOLM: What?

  BOLETTE: Over there.

  ARNHOLM: Lyngstrand? Why, what is – ?

  BOLETTE: He’s ill.

  ARNHOLM: He certainly seems to think he is.

  BOLETTE: He’s dying. Perhaps it’s just as well.

  ARNHOLM: How do you mean?

  BOLETTE: He isn’t talented. Let’s go on.

  ARNHOLM: Yes, indeed.

  HILDE and LYNGSTRAND enter.

  HILDE: Wait for us!

  ARNHOLM: Catch us up. (He and BOLETTE go.)

  LYNGSTRAND: (Laughs.) Everyone’s pairing off.

  HILDE: He’s fallen in love.

  LYNGSTRAND: Really?

  HILDE: Look! I bet he’s about to propose.

  LYNGSTRAND: She won’t have him.

  HILDE: No. Too ancient. He’s going bald.

  LYNGSTRAND: She wouldn’t have him anyway.

  HILDE: How do you know?

  LYNGSTRAND: She’s made a promise to think of someone else.

  HILDE: Only think.

  LYNGSTRAND: While he’s away.

  HILDE: Oh – you!

  LYNGSTRAND: Perhaps.

  HILDE: She promised?

  LYNGSTRAND: Yes. Don’t tell her you know.

  HILDE: Cross my heart. Will you marry her when you come back?

  LYNGSTRAND: Oh, no, I shall be much too busy. Anyway, she’ll be too old by then.

  HILDE: But you still want her to think about you?

  LYNGSTRAND: It’ll help me as an artist. It’s not asking much – after all, what else has she got to think about, stuck here – still, it was nice of her to offer.

  HILDE: A sort of muse, to boost the masterpiece?

  LYNGSTRAND: Yes! When I’m away, if I know a lovely young girl is dreaming about me somewhere…that should – I mean, it has to be an influence.

  HILDE: An inspiration…you’ll be inspired?

  LYNGSTRAND: Well…yes. Almost. You know, Miss Hilde, you’re very understanding for your age. Come to think of it, by the time I arrive home, you’ll be as old as your sister is now. You’ll be you and her in one, as it were.

  HILDE: And you’d like that?

  LYNGSTRAND: Yes, yes, I think I would. Although for now I like you just as you are.

  HILDE: You like me like this?

  LYNGSTRAND: Yes, very much.

  HILDE: Hmm. Tell me – speaking as an artist – do you like pale colours?

  LYNGSTRAND: Oh yes!

  HILDE: What about black?

  LYNGSTRAND: I’m sorry?

  HILDE: How would I look in black? Would you like that? Would I look well in black?

  LYNGSTRAND: Not in the summer. Though you would look beautiful in black, it would suit your…the way you look, perfectly.

  HILDE: Black up to here…black gloves, black hat, black veil? All down to here?

  LYNGSTRAND: I’d want to paint you, as a lovely young widow in mourning.

  HILDE: Or a young girl in mourning for her lover…

  LYNGSTRAND: Yes, better still. You don’t really want to wear black, do you?

  HILDE: I don’t know. I find it rather thrilling. Oh, look – the ship!

  WANGEL and ELLIDA enter.

  WANGEL: No sign of her yet.

  LYNGSTRAND: Look, Doctor!

  HILDE: The ship.

  WANGEL: She’s in?

  ELLIDA: I knew!

  LYNGSTRAND: Came on us like a thief in the night.

  WANGEL: Why don’t you take Hilde down to the quay to hear the music? We’ll join you.

  HILDE: (Whispers to LYNGSTRAND.) Another couple!

  They go.

  The sound of band music.

  ELLIDA: He’s here. I feel it.

  WANGEL: Go indoors.

  ELLIDA: No. (She sees the STRANGER.) Ohh!

  STRANGER: Well?

  ELLIDA: You came.

  STRANGER: What about you? Are you leaving with me, or not?

  WANGEL: You can see she’s not.

  STRANGER: Come as you are. I’ve everything she needs on board. Are you ready?

  ELLIDA: (Weak.) Please…

  The ship’s bell is heard in the distance.

  STRANGER: First bell. Come on. Yes or no?

  ELLIDA: How can I…I don’t – it’s my whole life!

  STRANGER: In half an hour it will be too late.

  ELLIDA: Why do you hold on to me?

  STRANGER: We belong together.

  ELLIDA: Because we promised?

  STRANGER: Promises can’t bind. I’m here because I have to be. What about you?

  ELLIDA: You should have come before!

  WANGEL: Ellida!…please…

  ELLIDA: I want to.

  STRANGER: I’m in you. Inside you. In your face, in your voice.

  ELLIDA: Like the sea.

  WANGEL: It’s not her choice. I’m here to choose for her, protect her. So go before I have you arrested. I know about the murder.

  ELLIDA: Wangel, no!

  The STRANGER takes out a revolver.

  ELLIDA throws herself in front of WANGEL.

  Don’t! Shoot me!

  STRANGER: This isn’t for him. It’s for me. I won’t be taken.

  ELLIDA: (To WANGEL.) Listen. I want him to hear this. You can keep me here. You have the right. You have
the power. Can you keep my mind? My thoughts? My dreams? Can you hold them? They reach out for the life I was created for. Which you deny me.

  WANGEL: I know that. You slip away from me, all the time. But to long for the ineffable – the unattainable…it will drive you into darkness…insanity!

  ELLIDA: I feel it, beating in me, like whips in my mind.

  WANGEL: It’s no good. I can’t do this to you, my love. Here. You’re free. I let you go. Decide for yourself, Ellida. You’re free.

  ELLIDA: Do you mean it? In your heart of hearts?

  WANGEL: My heart is broken. But I mean it.

  ELLIDA: But can you do it – let me go?

  WANGEL: No. Yes. I can because I love you.

  ELLIDA: I mean so much?

  WANGEL: You’re part of me. These years together have done that.

  ELLIDA: Have they? Not to me.

  WANGEL: Because you’ve been elsewhere. But now you’re free. To choose. Your responsibility, Ellida.

  ELLIDA: Responsibility?

  The ship’s bell rings.

  STRANGER: The last bell. Come.

  ELLIDA: (Shakes her head slowly.) No. I can’t. Not now.

  STRANGER: No?

  ELLIDA crosses to WANGEL.

  ELLIDA: I can’t leave you.

  WANGEL: Ellida…

  STRANGER: You’re not coming?

  ELLIDA: No.

  STRANGER: It’s over?

  ELLIDA: Yes.

  STRANGER: Then there’s something stronger than me here. Can there be feelings stronger than mine?

  ELLIDA: Go back to the sea where you came from, I don’t want you. You are dead to me.

  STRANGER: Another shipwreck. (Going.) Well, goodbye, lady. (He goes.)

  WANGEL: Ebb…flow…you’re like the sea. Why? What made you change your mind?

  ELLIDA: You set me free. I was free. So I could choose.

  WANGEL: And the unknown? Out there?

  ELLIDA: Is out there. I’m neither frightened nor fascinated. Not now. I had the choice. I could have gone. I saw the heart of it.

  WANGEL: You see things in pictures. All this yearning, was it a yearning for freedom all the time? Was that it?

  ELLIDA: I don’t know. All I know at this moment is that something is changed…cured…well, you are the doctor.

  WANGEL: Even a doctor needs courage sometimes, to take risks. Will you stay, Ellida?

  ELLIDA: Yes.

  WANGEL: You’re sure?

  ELLIDA: Of my own free will.

  WANGEL: And we’ll live for each other from now on?

  ELLIDA: Yes. Us. Everything together…all our memories, yours and mine…and the children.

  WANGEL: Ah, the children…

  ELLIDA: They’re not mine yet. But they will be.

  WANGEL: My dear!

  HILDE, BALLESTED, LYNGSTRAND, ARNHOLM and BOLETTE enter.

  HILDE: (To LYNGSTRAND.) Look – like lovers!

  BALLESTED: (Overhearing.) It is summertime, little Miss!

  ARNHOLM: The ship’s on the move.

  BOLETTE: There she goes.

  LYNGSTRAND: The last of the year.

  BALLESTED: The ice is on the way. We shall miss you, Mrs Wangel – I hear you’re off to Skjoldvik tomorrow?

  ELLIDA: No.

  WANGEL: We’ve changed our minds.

  ARNHOLM: Really?

  BOLETTE: Father?

  HILDE: (To ELLIDA.) You’re staying?

  ELLIDA: If you’ll have me, Hilde.

  HILDE: If? Oh, yes!

  ELLIDA: As you were saying, Dr Arnholm, we’re land creatures. We’ve left the sea. No going back.

  BALLESTED: Just like the mermaid in my picture.

  ELLIDA: Perhaps.

  BALLESTED: Of course, she dies. Human beings now – they can acclimatomise themselves, can’t they?

  ELLIDA: If they have the choice, Mr Ballested.

  WANGEL: Choose and take the consequences!

  ELLIDA: Yes!

  The ship glides out.

  The music is heard more loudly.

  The End.