The Master Builder and Other Plays

by Henrik Ibsen

BORKMAN: Go on, you can say his name. It doesn’t bother me any more.

  FOLDAL: I’m certain your son isn’t aware of the connection, John Gabriel.

  BORKMAN [gloomy, sits banging on the table]: Yes, he is – as surely as I’m sitting here.

  FOLDAL: In that case how can you imagine that he should want to socialize in that house!

  BORKMAN [shakes his head]: My son probably doesn’t see things with the same eyes as I do. I’ll swear he’s on the side of my enemies! He doubtless thinks, like the rest of them do, that Hinkel was only doing his damned duty when he went and betrayed me.

  FOLDAL: But, my dear man, who could have presented it to him in that light?

  BORKMAN: Who? Have you forgotten who brought him up? First his aunt – from when he was six or seven years old. And after that – his mother!

  FOLDAL: I think you do them an injustice there.

  BORKMAN [flares up]: I never do anyone an injustice! Both of them have gone and poisoned his mind against me, I tell you.

  FOLDAL [subdued]: Yes, yes, yes, I suppose they have.

  BORKMAN [indignant]: Women! They corrupt and complicate life for us. Confound our entire destinies – our march to victory.

  FOLDAL: Not all of them, John Gabriel!

  BORKMAN: Oh, no? Name me a single woman who is good for anything?

  FOLDAL: That’s the difficulty. The few I do know aren’t good for much.

  BORKMAN [snorts contemptuously]: Well, what’s the point of that, then? What’s the point of such women existing when you don’t know them?

  FOLDAL [warmly]: No, John Gabriel, there is a point, even so. It’s such a happy and blessed thing to think that out there, round about us, far away – the true woman does exist after all.

  BORKMAN [shifts impatiently on the sofa]: Oh, spare me the poetic claptrap!

  FOLDAL [looks at him, deeply offended]: Poetic claptrap? Is that what you call my most sacred faith?

  BORKMAN [harshly]: Yes, it is! It is what’s always been stopping you from getting on in the world. If only you would get all that out of your head, I could still help you get started – help you succeed.

  FOLDAL [boiling inwardly]: Oh, but you can’t.

  BORKMAN: Yes, I can, as soon as I’m back in power.

  FOLDAL: But that day is surely a terribly long way off.

  BORKMAN [vehemently]: Perhaps you think that day will never come? Answer me!

  FOLDAL: I don’t know how to answer that.

  BORKMAN [stands up, cold and dignified, motioning towards the door]: Then I no longer have any use for you.

  FOLDAL [out of his chair]: No use –?

  BORKMAN: Since you don’t believe that my luck will turn –

  FOLDAL: But how can I believe that when it flies in the face of all reason? I mean, you’d need full restitution10 first –

  BORKMAN: Go on! Go on!

  FOLDAL: Well, I never passed my examination;11 but I have read enough in my time to know –

  BORKMAN [quickly]: Impossible, you mean?

  FOLDAL: There’s no precedent for something like this.

  BORKMAN: Not essential for exceptional people.12

  FOLDAL: The law does not recognize such a distinction.

  BORKMAN [harsh and decisive]: You’re no poet, Vilhelm.

  FOLDAL [involuntarily folds his hands]: Do you mean that in all seriousness?

  BORKMAN [distant, without answering]: We’re just wasting each other’s time. Best if you don’t come again.

  FOLDAL: Do you really want me to leave you?

  BORKMAN [without looking at him]: Have no more use for you.

  FOLDAL [meekly, takes his folder]: No, no, no; I dare say you haven’t.

  BORKMAN: So all this time you’ve been lying to me.

  FOLDAL [shakes his head]: Never lied, John Gabriel.

  BORKMAN: Haven’t you sat here feeding me lies of hope, trust and confidence?

  FOLDAL: It wasn’t a lie so long as you believed in my vocation. As long as you believed in me, I believed in you.

  BORKMAN: Then all this time we’ve been deceiving each other. And perhaps deceiving ourselves too – both of us.

  FOLDAL: But isn’t that basically what friendship is, John Gabriel?

  BORKMAN [smiles bitterly]: Yes, to deceive – that’s what friendship means. You’re quite right. I’ve experienced that once before.

  FOLDAL [looks at him]: No poetic vocation! That you had to be so blunt about it!

  BORKMAN [in a gentler voice]: Well, I’m no expert in that area, you know.

  FOLDAL: Perhaps more than you think.

  BORKMAN: Who, me?

  FOLDAL [subdued]: Yes, you. Because I’ve had my doubts – now and then, you know. The horrendous doubt – that I might have made a mess of my life for the sake of a delusion.

  BORKMAN: Doubt yourself and you stand on slippery ground.

  FOLDAL: That was why I took such comfort in coming here and leaning on you, who believed in me. [Taking his hat] – But you’re like a stranger to me now.

  BORKMAN: And you to me.

  FOLDAL: Goodnight, John Gabriel.

  BORKMAN: Goodnight, Vilhelm.

  FOLDAL goes out to the left.

  BORKMAN stands for a moment staring at the closed door, makes as though to call FOLDAL back but changes his mind and starts pacing the floor with his hands behind his back. He then stops by the sofa table and extinguishes the lamp. The room falls into semi-darkness.

  Shortly afterwards there is a knock at the tapestry door at the back, left.

  BORKMAN [at the table, starts, turns, and asks in a loud voice]: Who’s that knocking?

  No answer; another knock.

  BORKMAN [without moving]: Who is it? Come in!

  ELLA RENTHEIM appears in the doorway with a lighted candle in her hand. She is wearing her black dress, as before, with her coat thrown loosely over her shoulders.

  BORKMAN [staring at her]: Who are you? What do you want with me?

  ELLA RENTHEIM [closes the door and approaches]: It’s me, Borkman.

  She puts the candle down on the piano and remains standing there.

  BORKMAN [as though thunderstruck, stares fixedly at her and says in a half whisper]: Is it – is it Ella? Is it Ella Rentheim?

  ELLA RENTHEIM. Yes – it’s your Ella – as you used to call me. Once. Many – many years ago.

  BORKMAN [as before]: Yes, it is you, Ella – I see that now.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Do you recognize me?

  BORKMAN: Yes, now I’m beginning to –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: The years have taken their toll on me and ushered autumn in, Borkman. Don’t you think so?

  BORKMAN [forced]: You have changed a little. At first glance, that is –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: There aren’t any dark curls falling down my neck now. The ones you used to love twisting round your fingers.

  BORKMAN [hurried]: That’s right! Now I see it, Ella. You’ve changed the style of your hair.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [with a sad smile]: That’s it; it’s the way I do my hair that makes all the difference.

  BORKMAN [changes the subject]: I had no idea you were in this part of the country.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Well, I’ve only just arrived.

  BORKMAN: Why did you make the journey – now, in winter?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: You’ll find out soon enough.

  BORKMAN: Is there something you want with me?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: With you too. But if we’re to discuss that, I’ll have to go back a long way.

  BORKMAN: You seem tired.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, I am tired.

  BORKMAN: Why don’t you sit down? There – on the sofa.13

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, thank you. I do need to sit down.

  She walks over to the right and sits down on the front corner of the sofa. BORKMAN stands by the table with his hands behind his back and looks at her. A short silence.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: It’s been unspeakably long since the two of us met face to face, Borkman.

  BORKMAN [
gloomily]: Long, long ago. All the terrible things separate then from now.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: An entire lifetime. A wasted life.

  BORKMAN [looks keenly at her]: Wasted!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, just that, wasted. For both of us.

  BORKMAN [in a cold, business-like tone]: I don’t regard my life as wasted yet.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: What about my life then?

  BORKMAN: You have yourself to blame, Ella.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [starts]: How can you say that?

  BORKMAN: You could so easily have been happy without me.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Do you believe that?

  BORKMAN: If you had only wanted to be.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [bitterly]: Oh, yes, I know well enough there was someone waiting to take me on –

  BORKMAN: But you turned him away –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, I did.

  BORKMAN: Time and again you turned him away. Year after year –

  ELLA RENTHEIM [scornfully]: Year after year I turned happiness away, you mean?

  BORKMAN: You could so easily have been happy with him too. And then I would have been saved.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: You? –

  BORKMAN: Yes, you would have saved me, Ella.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: What do you mean by that?

  BORKMAN: He thought I was behind your refusals – your endless rejections. So he took revenge. And it was so easy for him – he had all the letters I’d written him, confiding in him, holding nothing back. He made use of them – and that was the end of me – for the time being, that is. See, Ella, it was all your fault!

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, you see, Borkman – when all’s said and done, perhaps it is I who am in debt to you!

  BORKMAN: Depends how you look at it. I’m well aware of everything I have to be grateful to you for. You made sure you secured the property, the entire estate, at the auction. You put the house completely at my disposal – and your sister’s. You took in Erhart – and cared for him in every way –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: – for as long as I was allowed to –

  BORKMAN: Allowed by your sister, you mean. I never concerned myself with domestic matters. – And as I was about to say – I know what sacrifices you’ve made for me and for your sister. But you were able to do so, Ella; and you must remember that it was I who put you in that position.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [agitated]: You’re so wrong, Borkman! It was my deepest, my warmest love for Erhart – and for you too – that made me do it!

  BORKMAN [interrupting]: My dear, let’s not get into emotions and such things. Naturally, what I mean is that, when you acted as you did, it was because I had given you the means to do so.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [smiles]: Hmm, the means, the means –

  BORKMAN [passionate]: Exactly – the means! When the great decisive battle was about to begin – when I could afford to spare neither family nor friends – when I had to seize – when I did seize the millions entrusted to me – I spared everything that was yours, everything you had, everything you owned – even though I could have taken it, borrowed it and used it – as I did with all the rest!

  ELLA RENTHEIM [cold and calm]: That’s perfectly true, Borkman.

  BORKMAN: Yes it is. And that was why – when they came and took me away – they found everything that was yours untouched in the bank vaults.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [looks at him]: I’ve often wondered – why in fact did you spare everything that was mine? And only what was mine?

  BORKMAN: Why?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, why? Tell me.

  BORKMAN [harsh and contemptuous]: I suppose you think I did it to have something to fall back on – in case everything went wrong?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Oh no, my friend – I’m sure you didn’t think like that in those days.

  BORKMAN: Never! I was so utterly confident of victory.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Well then, why did you –?

  BORKMAN [shrugs his shoulders]: Oh, Lord, Ella – it’s not so easy to recall motives that are twenty years old. All I remember is that, when I’d go grappling there, alone in silence with all the great plans I had to set in motion, I felt rather like the captain of a hot-air balloon14 must feel. All those sleepless nights I’d inflate a giant air balloon, preparing to sail away over all the world’s perilous, uncertain seas.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [smiles]: You, who never doubted your victory?

  BORKMAN [impatient]: That’s what people are like, Ella. They both doubt and believe in the same thing. [Looks straight ahead] And I suppose that must be why I didn’t want to take you and everything that was yours up with me in the balloon.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [tensely]: But why, I ask you? Tell me why!

  BORKMAN [without looking at her]: Nobody takes what is most precious to them on such a journey.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But you did have what was most precious to you on board. Your future life –

  BORKMAN: Life isn’t always what is most precious.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [breathless]: Is that how you felt at the time?

  BORKMAN: I suppose it was.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: That I was the most precious thing you knew?

  BORKMAN: Yes, something along those lines, I think.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But years and years had passed since you betrayed me – and married – another woman!

  BORKMAN: Betrayed you, you say? You know very well that I was compelled by higher motives – well – other motives. Without his support, I couldn’t have got anywhere.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [controls herself]: So you betrayed me out of – higher motives?

  BORKMAN: I couldn’t do without his help. And you were the price he named for his help.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: And you paid the price. In full. No haggling.

  BORKMAN: Had no choice. Had to conquer or fall.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [in a trembling voice, looks at him]: Can what you’re telling me really be true, that at that time I was the most precious thing to you in the world?

  BORKMAN: Both at that time and after that – long, long, after that.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: And even so you bartered me away. Bargained away your right to love with another man. Sold my love for a – for the chairmanship of a bank.

  BORKMAN [gloomy and bowed]: I was in the grip of inexorable necessity, Ella.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [rises from the sofa, wild and trembling]: Criminal!

  BORKMAN [starts, but controls himself]: I’ve heard that word before.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Oh, don’t think for a minute I’m talking about anything you may have done against the law of the land! The use you made of all those share certificates and securities – or whatever they were – do you think I care about that! Had you let me stand by your side when everything came crashing down on you –

  BORKMAN [tense]: Then what, Ella?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Believe me, I would have borne it with you, gladly. The shame, the devastation – all of it, all of it, I would have helped you to bear it –!

  BORKMAN: Would you have done that? Could you?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Both would and could. Because at the time I didn’t know about your great, horrific crime.

  BORKMAN: What crime? What are you talking about?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: I’m talking about the crime for which there is no forgiveness.15

  BORKMAN [stares at her]: You must be out of your mind.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [steps closer]: You’re a murderer! You have committed the great mortal sin!

  BORKMAN [moves back towards the piano]: Are you raving mad, Ella?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: You killed the vital capacity for love16 in me. [Closer to him] Do you understand what that means? The Bible speaks of a mysterious sin for which there is no forgiveness. I’ve never been able to understand what that could possibly mean. But now I do. The great, unforgivable sin – is to murder the vital capacity for love in another human being.

  BORKMAN: And you’re saying that is what I have done?

  ELLA RENTHEIM: You have. I never really knew till this evening what had actually happened to me. That you betrayed me
and turned to Gunhild instead – I just took to be common inconstancy on your part. And the result of heartless scheming on hers. I think I even despised you a little – in spite of everything. – But now I see it! You betrayed the woman you loved! Me, me, me! What was most precious to you in the world, you were prepared to barter away for the sake of profit. That’s the double murder you’re guilty of! The murder of your own soul and of mine!

  BORKMAN [cold and controlled]: How well I recognize that passionate, indomitable spirit, Ella. It’s natural enough that you should see things the way you do. You’re a woman, after all. And as such it seems you neither know nor acknowledge any other consideration in the entire world.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: No, as a matter of fact I don’t.

  BORKMAN: You are ruled by your heart alone.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Only that! Only that! You’re right there.

  BORKMAN: But you should remember that I am a man. As a woman, you were the most precious thing in the world to me. But in the final analysis, one woman can always be replaced by another –

  ELLA RENTHEIM [looks at him with a smile]: Was that your experience after you married Gunhild?

  BORKMAN: No. But my tasks in life helped me bear that too. I wanted to subjugate all sources of power in this country. All the wealth contained in the earth, the mountains, the forests and the sea – I wanted to conquer and build myself a realm and through that promote the well-being of many, many thousands of others.

  ELLA RENTHEIM [lost in memories]: I know. We spent so many evenings talking over your plans.

  BORKMAN: Yes, I could talk to you, Ella.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: I used to joke about your projects and ask whether you intended to rouse all the slumbering spirits of gold.17

  BORKMAN [nods]: I remember that expression. [Slowly] All the slumbering spirits of gold.

  ELLA RENTHEIM: But you didn’t take it as a joke. You said: Yes, yes, Ella, that is exactly what I want to do.

  BORKMAN: And so it was. All I needed was to get my foot into the stirrup –. And that depended on that one man. He was able and willing to secure me the top job in the bank – on condition that I, for my part –

  ELLA RENTHEIM: Yes, that’s right! If you for your part gave up the woman you loved – and who in return loved you beyond words.

  BORKMAN: I knew about his consuming passion for you. I knew that he’d never agree to any other terms –