The Master Builder and Other Plays

by Henrik Ibsen

  ELLA RENTHEIM [looks at her for a while]: You have a hard heart, Gunhild.

  MRS BORKMAN: Where he’s concerned, yes.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: He is your husband after all.

  MRS BORKMAN: Didn’t he say in court that it was I who led to his ruin? That I spent far too much money –?

  ELLA RENTHEIM [carefully]: But wasn’t there some truth in that?

  MRS BORKMAN: Wasn’t that the way he wanted it? Everything had to be so absurdly extravagant –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, I know. But that’s precisely why you should have held back. And you didn’t, did you?

  MRS BORKMAN: How could I have known it wasn’t his own money – the money he gave me to spend? The money he spent himself, as well. Ten times worse than me!

  ELLA RENTHEIM [quietly]: That was because of the position he held, I should think. For the most part, anyway.

  MRS BORKMAN [scornfully]: Yes, we were always expected to ‘entertain’. Oh, he certainly ‘entertained’. Driving around in his coach-and-four – as though he were a king. Letting people bow and scrape to him as they would to a king. [With a laugh] They always called him by his first name4 – up and down the land – exactly as though he were the king himself. ‘John Gabriel’, ‘John Gabriel’. So everyone would know what a great man ‘John Gabriel’ was!

  ELLA RENTHEIM [warmly and emphatically]: He was a great man back then.

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, to all appearances he was. But he never said a single word to me about the reality of his situation. Never even hinted where he was taking the money from.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Of course – but none of the others could have known either.

  MRS BORKMAN: The others – they were neither here nor there. But to me he had a duty to tell the truth. And he never did! He just lied – lied so abysmally –

  ELLA RENTHEIM [interrupting]: Surely not, Gunhild! He kept things back maybe. But surely he didn’t lie?

  MRS BORKMAN: All right, all right; call it what you like. It amounts to the same thing –. But then everything collapsed. – Everything. The whole lot,5 in the end.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [to herself]: Yes, everything collapsed – for him – and for others.

  MRS BORKMAN [drawing herself up threateningly]: But let me tell you, Ella – I haven’t given up yet! I’m going to make sure I get restitution6 – you can count on it!

  ELLA RENTHEIM [tense]: Restitution? What do you mean by that?

  MRS BORKMAN: Restitution of my name, my honour and my well-being! Restitution for my whole shattered fate; that’s what I mean! And, I’ll have you know, I have someone in reserve. – One who will wash everything clean7 – everything the banker defiled.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Gunhild! Gunhild!

  MRS BORKMAN [with mounting excitement]: An avenger lives, Gunhild! He will right all the wrongs his father did me!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Erhart, you mean.

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, Erhart – my magnificent boy! He will ensure the restitution of the family, the house, the name. Everything that can be restored.8 – And perhaps more besides.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: And how do you suppose that will happen?

  MRS BORKMAN: It’ll just happen. I don’t know how it will happen. But I know that it can and it will happen one day. [Looks searchingly at her] Oh, Ella – isn’t this essentially the same thing you’ve been thinking about ever since he was little?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: No, I can’t really say it is.

  MRS BORKMAN: Really? Then why did you take him in? When the storm broke over – over this house?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Because you were unable to care for him yourself back then, Gunhild.

  MRS BORKMAN: No – that’s right, I couldn’t. And his father – had the perfect excuse – given where he was – so closely guarded –

  ELLA RENTHEIM [upset]: Oh, how can you say such things –! You!

  MRS BORKMAN [with a venomous expression]: And how could you bring yourself to take in a child of – of John Gabriel’s! Just as if he were your own? Take him away from me – take him home with you. And keep him with you, year after year. Until the boy was almost an adult. [Looks suspiciously at her.] Why did you actually do that, Ella? Why did you keep him?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: I grew to love him so much –

  MRS BORKMAN: More than me – his mother?

  ELLA RENTHEIM [evasively]: That I don’t know. And then, Erhart was rather delicate as a child –

  MRS BORKMAN: Erhart – delicate!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, I thought so – at least at the time. And then the air over there on the west coast is so much milder than here, as you know.

  MRS BORKMAN [smiles bitterly]: Hm. Is it? [Breaking off] Yes, you truly have done a great deal for Erhart. [Changes tone.] But then again, you could afford to. [Smiles] You were so lucky, Ella. Everything that was yours was rescued.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [offended]: That wasn’t my doing – I can assure you. I had no idea – not till much, much later – that the securities the bank held in my account – had been spared –

  MRS BORKMAN: All right, all right; I have no head for these things! All I’m saying is that you were lucky. [Looks inquiringly at her] But when, on your own initiative, you undertook to bring up Erhart on my behalf –? What was your motive there?

  ELLA RENTHEIM [looks at her]: Motive –?

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, you must have had a motive. What did you want to make him into? To make out of him, I mean?

  ELLA RENTHEIM [slowly]: I wanted to smooth the path for Erhart to become a happy human being in this world.

  MRS BORKMAN [snorts contemptuously]: Huh – people of our position have more important things to do than think about happiness.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Such as? What do you mean?

  MRS BORKMAN [looks steadily and earnestly at her]: Erhart must first of all manage to shine so far and wide that people in this country no longer can so much as glimpse the shadow his father cast over me – and over my son.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [probingly]: Tell me, Gunhild – is this something Erhart demands of his own life?

  MRS BORKMAN [taken aback]: Yes, let’s hope it is!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: –or is it rather something you demand of his life?

  MRS BORKMAN [curtly]: Erhart and I always demand the same things of ourselves.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [heavily and slowly]: You’re very sure of your boy, aren’t you, Gunhild?

  MRS BORKMAN [with concealed triumph]: Yes, thank God, I am. You can count on it!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Then I suppose that you really must feel happy after all. Despite everything else.

  MRS BORKMAN: And I do. In a way. But then, you see – every second, all the rest comes sweeping over me like a storm.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [with a change in tone]: Tell me –. Just as well to at once. Because that’s really why I’ve come out to see you –

  MRS BORKMAN: What?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Something I think I must talk to you about. – Tell me – Erhart isn’t living out here with – with you both, is he?

  MRS BORKMAN [hard]: Erhart can’t live out here with me. He has to live in town –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: He wrote to me about that.

  MRS BORKMAN: He has to because of his studies. But he comes out to see me for a while every single evening.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Could I perhaps see him then? And speak to him right away?

  MRS BORKMAN: He isn’t here yet. But I’m expecting him any minute.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But Gunhild – he must be. I can hear him walking around upstairs.

  MRS BORKMAN [quickly glances overhead]: Up in the gallery?9

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes. I’ve heard him walking about up there ever since I arrived.

  MRS BORKMAN [looks away]: That’s not him, Ella.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [astonished]: Not Erhart? [It dawns on her.] Who is it then?

  MRS BORKMAN: The banker.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [quietly, with suppressed pain]: Borkman. John Gabriel Borkman!

  MRS BORKMAN: That’s how he paces, up and down. Back and forth. Fro
m morning till evening. Day in and day out.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, of course I’ve heard rumours –

  MRS BORKMAN: I dare say. I’m sure there are all sorts of rumours about us out here.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Erhart hinted at it. In his letters. That his father mostly kept to himself – up there. And you to yourself, down here.

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes – that’s how we’ve been, Ella. Ever since they let him out. And sent him home to me. – All these eight long years.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But I never believed it could really be true. That it could be possible –!

  MRS BORKMAN [nods]: It is true. And can never be otherwise.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [looks at her]: This must be an appalling life, Gunhild.

  MRS BORKMAN: Oh, worse than appalling. Almost impossible to bear any more.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: I can easily understand that.

  MRS BORKMAN: Always hearing his footsteps up there. Right from early in the morning till long into the night. – And you can hear everything so clearly down here!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, it is remarkable how clearly the sound carries.

  MRS BORKMAN: It often seems to me that I have a sick wolf10 pacing in a cage up there in the gallery. Right above my head. [Listens and whispers] Just listen! Listen! Back and forth – back and forth goes the wolf.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [warily]: Couldn’t things be different, Gunhild?

  MRS BORKMAN [dismissively]: He’s never taken any steps in that direction.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Couldn’t you take the first step, then?

  MRS BORKMAN [flares up]: Me? After all the wrongs he’s done me! – No, thank you! Better to leave the wolf padding around up there.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: It’s too hot for me in here. You’ll have to allow me to take my things off after all.

  MRS BORKMAN: Well, I did ask –

  ELLA RENTHEIM takes off her hat and coat and puts them on a chair by the door to the hall.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Do you ever come across him, outside the house?

  MRS BORKMAN [laughs bitterly]: Socially, you mean?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: I mean when he goes out in the fresh air. On the paths in the forest, or –

  MRS BORKMAN: The banker never goes out.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Not even at nightfall?

  MRS BORKMAN: Never.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [moved]: Can’t he bring himself to?

  MRS BORKMAN: I don’t suppose he can. He keeps his big cloak and his felt hat hanging in the cupboard. The one in the hall, you know –

  ELLA RENTHEIM [to herself]: – the cupboard we played in when we were little –

  MRS BORKMAN [nods]: And every once in a while – late in the evening – I hear him coming down – to get ready to go out. But instead he stops halfway down the stairs – and turns round. And then goes back up to the gallery.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [quietly]: Don’t any of his old friends ever go up there to see him?

  MRS BORKMAN: He doesn’t have any old friends.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But he had so many – once.

  MRS BORKMAN: Hm! Well, he made pretty sure that he got rid of them all. He became an expensive friend to his friends – John Gabriel.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, you may well be right there, Gunhild.

  MRS BORKMAN [vehemently]: All the same, I have to say that it’s despicable, low, petty and contemptible of them to make so much of the paltry losses they may have incurred because of him. After all, it was only money they lost. Nothing else.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [without answering]: So he lives up there all on his own. Utterly alone.

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, I suppose he does. But I’m told an old clerk or copyist comes to see him now and then.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Ah, yes; that’ll probably be a man called Foldal. I know they were friends when they were young.

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, I believe they were. But I know nothing else about him. He was never part of our social circle. When we had one, that is –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But now he visits Borkman?

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, he’s not too particular for that. But of course he only comes after dark.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: This Foldal – he was also one of those who suffered losses when the bank collapsed.

  MRS BORKMAN [casually]: Yes, I think I do remember that he lost some money too. But apparently it was a completely insignificant sum –

  ELLA RENTHEIM [with slight emphasis]: It was all he had.

  MRS BORKMAN [smiling]: Yes, but for heaven’s sake – whatever he had, was surely a negligible trifle, Ella. Nothing worth mentioning.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: And it wasn’t mentioned – by Foldal – during the trial.

  MRS BORKMAN: In any event, I can assure you Erhart has amply compensated for that insignificant sum.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [surprised]: Erhart! How can Erhart have done that?

  MRS BORKMAN: He has taken Foldal’s youngest daughter under his wing. He’s taught her things – to give her a chance to make something of herself and perhaps become independent one day. You see – that’s a good deal more than the father could have done for her.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, I suppose the father lives in quite straitened circumstances.

  MRS BORKMAN: And then Erhart has arranged for her to have music lessons. She’s already become so accomplished that she can go up to – go upstairs to play for – for him in the gallery.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: So he’s still fond of music?

  MRS BORKMAN: Oh, yes, I suppose he is. After all, he still has the piano you sent out here – when he was expected back –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: And she plays it for him?

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, occasionally. In the evenings. That’s another thing Erhart has set up.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But does the poor girl have to walk all the way out here? And then back to town again?

  MRS BORKMAN: No, she doesn’t. Erhart has arranged for her to stay with a lady who lives nearby. A Mrs Wilton –

  ELLA RENTHEIM [animated]: Mrs Wilton!

  MRS BORKMAN: She’s a very rich lady. You wouldn’t know her.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: I’ve heard the name. Mrs Fanny Wilton, I think –

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, that’s right.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Erhart has often mentioned her in his letters. – She lives out here now?

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, she has rented a villa here. She moved out of town some time ago.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [slightly hesitant]: They say, people say, she’s divorced from her husband.11

  MRS BORKMAN: But her husband died many years ago.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, but they were divorced –. He divorced her.

  MRS BORKMAN: He deserted her, actually. Apparently it wasn’t her fault.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: You know her, then, do you, Gunhild?

  MRS BORKMAN: Oh yes, pretty well. She does live nearby, after all. And she drops in to see me occasionally.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: So you like her, then?

  MRS BORKMAN: She’s so uncommonly understanding. So remarkably clear in her judgements.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: In her judgements of people, you mean?

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, of people mainly. Erhart, she’s made a veritable study of him – really thorough, right into his soul. And that’s why she idolizes him too – quite reasonably so.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [slyly]: Then perhaps she knows Erhart even better than she knows you?

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, Erhart used to see a good deal of her in town, before she moved out here.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [impulsively]: And she moved out of town even so?

  MRS BORKMAN [puzzled, looks sharply at her]: Even so? What do you mean by that?

  ELLA RENTHEIM [evasively]: Oh, heavens – mean –?

  MRS BORKMAN: You said it in such a peculiar way. You did mean something by it, Ella!

  ELLA RENTHEIM [looks her straight in the eye]: Yes, that’s right, Gunhild. I did mean something by it.

  MRS BORKMAN: I see. Then come straight out with it!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: First of all, I want to say this, that I think I also have a kin
d of right to Erhart. Or perhaps you don’t think so?

  MRS BORKMAN [looks around the room]: Of course you do. After all the money you’ve spent on him, I –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Oh, not because of that, Gunhild. Because I love him –

  MRS BORKMAN [smiles contemptuously]: My son? Really? You? Despite everything?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, really. Despite everything. And I do. I love Erhart. To the extent that I am capable of loving another human being – at this stage. At my age.

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, well, all right then; but –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: So you see, that’s why I start to worry the minute I see something threatening him.

  MRS BORKMAN: Threatening Erhart! But what is threatening him? Or rather, who is threatening him?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Well, you are, to begin with – in your own way –

  MRS BORKMAN [in an outburst]: I am?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: –and there’s that Mrs Wilton, too – she worries me.

  MRS BORKMAN [looks at her speechless for a moment]: How can you think such a thing about Erhart! About my son! He, who has his great mission to fulfil!

  ELLA RENTHEIM [dismissively]: What, his mission –!

  MRS BORKMAN [indignantly]: How dare you say that with such scorn?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Do you believe that a happy, healthy young man Erhart’s age – do you honestly believe he will go sacrificing himself for – for something like a ‘mission’?

  MRS BORKMAN [firm and emphatic]: Erhart will! I know he will.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [shakes her head]: You neither know it nor believe it, Gunhild.

  MRS BORKMAN: I don’t believe it?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: It’s just something you go around dreaming of. Because if you didn’t have that to cling to, you feel that you’d fall into total despair.

  MRS BORKMAN: Yes, then I certainly would despair. [Vehemently] But perhaps that is what you really want, Ella!

  ELLA RENTHEIM [with her head up]: Yes – that’s what I really want – if you can’t free yourself in a way that doesn’t affect Erhart.

  MRS BORKMAN [threatening]: You’re trying to come between us! Between mother and son! You!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: I want to free him from your power – your control – your dominance.

  MRS BORKMAN [triumphantly]: You can’t do that any longer! You had him in your snare – right up to his fifteenth year. But I’ve won him back now, you see!