by Henrik Ibsen
MISS HESSEL: I am doing it. If the boy likes her – and she him – they shall have each other. Bernick’s a man of such wisdom; he’ll have to find a way –
MRS BERNICK: And you imagine this unseemly American behaviour would be tolerated here –
MISS HESSEL: Oh nonsense, Betty –
MRS BERNICK: – that a man like Karsten, with his strict, moral outlook –
MISS HESSEL: Oh, pff, I shouldn’t think it’s so overly strict.
MRS BERNICK: What are you daring to suggest?
MISS HESSEL: I’m daring to suggest that Bernick isn’t any more uniquely moral than other menfolk.
MRS BERNICK: So that’s how deep your hatred is for him still! But then what do you want here, since you’ve never been able to forget that –? I don’t understand how you dared to look him in the eye after that shameful insult you inflicted on him back then.
MISS HESSEL: Yes, Betty, back then I overstepped myself dreadfully.
MRS BERNICK: And how noble-minded he was in forgiving you, this man who hadn’t done a thing wrong! He couldn’t help it if you went about here building up your hopes. But ever since that time you’ve hated me too. [Bursts into tears.] You’ve always begrudged me my happiness. And now you’ve come here to bring all this down on me – to show the town what sort of family I’ve brought Karsten into. Yes, I’m the one who’ll bear the brunt of it, and that’s what you want. Oh, it’s despicable of you!
She leaves, still crying, through the left-hand door to the back.
MISS HESSEL [gazes after her]: Poor Betty.
CONSUL BERNICK comes out of his room.
KARSTEN BERNICK [still at his door]: Yes, yes, that’s good, Mr Krap; that’s splendid. Send four hundred kroner34 towards food for the poor. [Turns around] Lona! [Closer] You’re alone? Betty’s not coming?
MISS HESSEL: No. Shall I fetch her perhaps?
KARSTEN BERNICK: No, no, no, leave it! Oh, Lona, you don’t know how I’ve burned to speak with you openly – to implore your forgiveness.
MISS HESSEL: Listen, Karsten, let’s not get sentimental; it doesn’t suit us.
KARSTEN BERNICK: You must listen to me, Lona. I do realize that appearances are against me, now that you know all about this thing with Dina’s mother. But I swear to you, it was nothing but a fleeting aberration; I really did, honestly and truthfully, love you once.
MISS HESSEL: What do you think I’ve come home for?
KARSTEN BERNICK: Whatever you’ve got in mind, I beg you not to act on it before I’ve vindicated myself. And I can, Lona; I can at least explain myself.
MISS HESSEL: You’re scared now. – You loved me once, you say. Yes, you assured me of it often enough in your letters; and perhaps it was true too – in a way, as long as you were living out there in a big and free world, it gave you the courage to think bigger and more freely yourself. Perhaps you found rather more character and will and independence in me than in most people here at home. And, of course, it was a secret between the two of us; so nobody could poke fun at your bad taste.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Lona, how can you think –?
MISS HESSEL: But then when you came back; when you heard the jeers that were raining down on me; when you sensed the way everybody here laughed at what they called my peccadilloes –
KARSTEN BERNICK: You were reckless back then.
MISS HESSEL: Mostly to annoy those beskirted and betrousered prudes that dragged about town. And then, when you met that beguiling young actress –
KARSTEN BERNICK: That was a silly bout of vanity; nothing more; I swear to you; not one tenth of the rumour and gossip that went round was true.
MISS HESSEL: Maybe so; but then when Betty returned home, beautiful, blooming, worshipped by all – and when it was made known that she was to inherit all Auntie’s money and that I’d get nothing –
KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, there’s the nub of it, Lona; and now I’ll tell you without embellishment. I didn’t love Betty back then; and I didn’t break with you because of some new infatuation. It was quite simply for the sake of the money; I was forced to it; I had to secure that for myself.
MISS HESSEL: And you’re telling me that to my face?
KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, I am. Listen, Lona –
MISS HESSEL: And yet you wrote and told me you were gripped by an irrepressible love for Betty, appealed to my noblemindedness, made me swear for Betty’s sake to keep quiet about what had been between us –
KARSTEN BERNICK: I had to, I say.
MISS HESSEL: Then, by God in heaven, I don’t regret overstepping myself the way I did that day.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Let me explain, coolly and calmly, what the position was at the time. My mother was, as you remember, the head of the firm; but she had absolutely no business sense whatever. I was called home urgently from Paris; times were critical; I was to get the business up and running. What did I find? I found something that had to be kept in deepest secrecy, a house that was as good as ruined. Yes, it was as good as ruined, this old, respected house that had stood for three generations. What was I, the son, the only son, to do but look around for some means of rescue?
MISS HESSEL: And so you rescued the House of Bernick at a woman’s expense.
KARSTEN BERNICK: You know very well Betty loved me.
MISS HESSEL: Yes, but me?
KARSTEN BERNICK: Believe me, Lona – you would never have been happy with me.
MISS HESSEL: Was it out of concern for my happiness that you sacrificed me?
KARSTEN BERNICK: You think perhaps I was motivated by self-interest in acting as I did? Had I stood alone at the time, I’d have started afresh with cheerful courage. But you’ve no understanding for how a businessman, under such an inordinate weight of responsibility, grows as one with the company he inherits. Do you realize that the welfare of hundreds, nay, thousands of people depends upon him? Doesn’t it occur to you that the entire community which both you and I call our home would have been affected in the most drastic way if the House of Bernick had collapsed?
MISS HESSEL: Is it for the community’s sake, too, that you’ve stood fixed for these fifteen years in a lie?
KARSTEN BERNICK: In a lie?
MISS HESSEL: What does Betty know of what lay behind or happened before her involvement with you?
KARSTEN BERNICK: Can you believe I’d want to hurt her to no advantage by revealing these things?
MISS HESSEL: No advantage, you say. Oh yes, you’re the businessman of course; you must know what’s advantageous. – But listen now, Karsten, now I too wish to speak coolly and calmly. Tell me – are you really happy?
KARSTEN BERNICK: In my family you mean?
MISS HESSEL: Perhaps.
KARSTEN BERNICK: I am, Lona, yes. Oh, your self-sacrifice to me as a friend has not been in vain. I venture to say I’ve grown happier year by year. Betty is amenable and good. And the way she’s learned with the years to bend her nature to all my little idiosyncrasies –
MISS HESSEL: Hm.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Initially, of course, she had lots of over-excited notions about love; she couldn’t settle with the idea that it would, little by little, turn into a mild flame of companionship.
MISS HESSEL: But now she’s reconciled to that?
KARSTEN BERNICK: Absolutely. You can be sure that her day-to-day association with me has not been without a maturing influence upon her. People must learn to exercise mutual restraint in their demands if they’re to fulfil their purpose in their community here on earth. That too Betty learned little by little to see, and as a result our house is now a model to our fellow citizens.
MISS HESSEL: But these fellow citizens know nothing about the lie?
KARSTEN BERNICK: About the lie?
MISS HESSEL: Yes, the lie you’ve now stood in for fifteen years.
KARSTEN BERNICK: And you call that –?
MISS HESSEL: A lie, I call it. A threefold lie. First the lie towards me; then the lie towards Betty; then the lie towards Johan.
KARST
EN BERNICK: Betty never demanded I should speak out.
MISS HESSEL: Because she knew nothing.
KARSTEN BERNICK: And you won’t demand it – out of consideration for her.
MISS HESSEL: No indeed, I think I can bear the volleys of laughter; I have broad shoulders.
KARSTEN BERNICK: And Johan won’t demand it either; he’s promised me that.
MISS HESSEL: But you, Karsten? Is there nothing within you that wants to come out of this lie?
KARSTEN BERNICK: I should voluntarily sacrifice my family happiness and my position in the community!
MISS HESSEL: What right have you to stand where you stand?
KARSTEN BERNICK: Every day for fifteen years I’ve bought myself a little of that right – by my conduct, and with everything I’ve worked for and the progress I’ve achieved.
MISS HESSEL: Yes, you’ve worked and achieved a great deal, both for yourself and for others. You’re the town’s richest and most powerful man; they don’t dare do anything but bend under your will, any of them, because you’re reckoned to be without fault and flaw; your home passes for a model home, your conduct passes for model conduct. But all this splendour, and you with it, stands on an uncertain quagmire. A moment may come, a word be spoken – and both you and all this splendour will sink right to the bottom, if you don’t save yourself in time.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Lona – what is it you want over here?
MISS HESSEL: I want to help you get to ground that’s firm underfoot, Karsten.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Revenge! You want revenge? I suspected as much. But you won’t succeed! There’s only one person here who has the authority to speak, and he is silent.
MISS HESSEL: Johan?
KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, Johan. If anybody else wishes to accuse me, I’ll deny everything. If somebody wants to annihilate me, I shall fight for my life. You’ll never succeed, I tell you! The man who could topple me, he is keeping quiet – and he is leaving again.
RUMMEL and VIGELAND enter from the right.
RUMMEL: Good morning, good morning, my dear Bernick; you must come up with us to the Business Association; we’ve got a meeting about the railway, remember.
KARSTEN BERNICK: I can’t. Impossible right now.
VIGELAND: You ought, really, Mr Consul, sir –35
RUMMEL: You36 must, Bernick. There are people working against us. Hammer and the others who backed the coastal line are claiming there are private interests behind this new proposal.
KARSTEN BERNICK: So explain to them –
VIGELAND: It won’t help, whatever we explain, Mr Consul, sir –
RUMMEL: No, no, you must come yourself; naturally nobody would dare suspect you of any such thing.
MISS HESSEL: No, I should think not.
KARSTEN BERNICK: I can’t, I tell you; I’m not well – or at least, wait – let me gather myself.
MR RØRLUND enters from the right.
MR RØRLUND: Excuse me, Mr Consul, sir; you see me here in a violent state of agitation –
KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, what’s the matter with you?
MR RØRLUND: I must ask you a question, Mr Consul, sir. Is it with your consent that the young girl who’s found refuge under your roof shows herself in the public street in the company of a person who –
MISS HESSEL: What person, pastor?
MR RØRLUND: With the very person she should, of all people in the world, be kept furthest from.
MISS HESSEL: Oh, come now!
MR RØRLUND: Is it with your consent, Mr Consul, sir?
KARSTEN BERNICK [who is looking for his hat and gloves]: I know nothing of it. I’m sorry, I’m in a hurry. I’m on my way up to the Business Association.
HILMAR TØNNESEN [enters from the garden and walks over towards the left-hand door to the rear]: Betty, Betty, listen!
MRS BERNICK [in the doorway]: What is it?
HILMAR TØNNESEN: You’ve got to go down into the garden and put an end to this flirtation that a certain somebody is engaging in with that Dina Dorf. It’s made me quite nervous just listening to it.
MISS HESSEL: And? What has this somebody said?
HILMAR TØNNESEN: Oh, only that he wants her to go to America with him. Oof!
MR RØRLUND: Can that be possible?
MRS BERNICK: What are you saying!
MISS HESSEL: But that would be marvellous.
KARSTEN BERNICK: It’s impossible. You’ve misheard.
HILMAR TØNNESEN: Ask him yourself then. Here comes the couple. But just leave me out of it.
KARSTEN BERNICK [to RUMMEL and VIGELAND]: I’ll follow on – in a moment –
RUMMEL and VIGELAND exit to the right. JOHAN TØNNESEN and DINA enter from the garden.
JOHAN TØNNESEN: Hurrah, Lona, she’s coming with us!
MRS BERNICK: But, Johan – you irresponsible –!
MR RØRLUND: Unbelievable! A first-class scandal! With what tricks of seduction have you –!
JOHAN TØNNESEN: Steady, man; what are you saying?
MR RØRLUND: Answer me, Dina; is this your purpose – your full and free decision?
DINA: I have to get away from here.
MR RØRLUND: But with him – with him!
DINA: Name me anyone else here who’s had the courage to take me with them.
MR RØRLUND: I see, you must be told who he is, then.
JOHAN TØNNESEN: Do not speak!
KARSTEN BERNICK: Not a word more!
MR RØRLUND: Then I’d be serving the community, for whose morals and conduct I’m placed as custodian, very poorly indeed; and acting irresponsibly towards this young girl, in whose upbringing I have also borne a significant share and for whom I feel –
JOHAN TØNNESEN: Careful what you do!
MR RØRLUND: She shall know it! Dina, this is the man who caused all your mother’s unhappiness and shame.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Mr Rørlund –!
DINA: He! [To JOHAN TØNNESEN] Is this true?
JOHAN TØNNESEN: You answer, Karsten.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Not a word more! There’ll be silence here today.
DINA: So it’s true.
MR RØRLUND: Absolutely true. And there’s more. This person, in whom you’ve put your trust, did not run away from home empty-handed: Widow Bernick’s money – the consul can testify to it!
MISS HESSEL: Liar!
KARSTEN BERNICK: Ah –!
MRS BERNICK: Oh my God, oh my God!
JOHAN TØNNESEN [towards him with raised arm]: And you dare to –!
MISS HESSEL [checking him]: Don’t hit him, Johan!
MR RØRLUND: Yes, assault me, why don’t you. But the truth will out; and it is the truth; Consul Bernick said it himself, and the entire town knows it. – So, Dina, now you know who he is.
Short silence.
JOHAN TØNNESEN [quietly, grabbing BERNICK’s arm]: Karsten, Karsten, what have you done!
MRS BERNICK [subdued and in tears]: Oh, Karsten, that I should bring such disgrace on you.
SANDSTAD [enters quickly from the right, shouting, with his hand on the door handle]: You must come straight away, Mr Consul, sir. The entire railway hangs by a thread.
KARSTEN BERNICK [distractedly]: What’s that? What am I to –?
MISS HESSEL: You’re to go and uphold the community, brother-in-law.
SANDSTAD: Yes, come on now; we need every ounce of your moral weight.
JOHAN TØNNESEN [close to him]: Bernick – you and I will talk tomorrow.
He exits through the garden; CONSUL BERNICK, as if in a daze, goes out to the right with SANDSTAD.
Act Three
The garden room in Consul Bernick’s house.
CONSUL BERNICK, a cane37 in his hand, comes out in a fierce temper from the room nearest to the back on the left, leaving the door half-open behind him.
KARSTEN BERNICK: There; at long last I’ve finally shown him what’s what; I doubt he’ll forget that beating in a hurry. [To somebody in the room] What are you saying? – And I’m saying you’re an irrespo
nsible mother! You make excuses for him, give him approval in all his wicked pranks. – Not wicked? What do you call it then? Sneaking out of the house at night, going out to sea with the fishing boat, staying away until long into the day, and putting the fear of death into me when I’ve so much else to do. And then the scoundrel dares to threaten he’ll run away! Well, just let him try! – You? Oh, yes, I can believe that all right, you don’t worry yourself much over his welfare. Even if it cost him his life, I think you’d –! – Really? Yes, but I have a vocation to pass on after me here in this world; it won’t serve my interests to be made childless. – No objections, Betty; it’ll be as I’ve said; he’s grounded – [listens] Hush; don’t let anybody notice anything.
KRAP enters from the right.
KRAP: Have you got a moment, Mr Consul, sir?
KARSTEN BERNICK [throws the cane aside]: Yes, yes, of course. You’ve come up from the shipyard?
KRAP: Just now. Hrm –
KARSTEN BERNICK: Well? Nothing wrong with the Palm Tree is there?
KRAP: The Palm Tree can sail tomorrow, but –
KARSTEN BERNICK: So it’s the Indian Girl is it? I had a feeling that stiff-neck would –
KRAP: The Indian Girl can also sail tomorrow; but – she probably won’t get far.
KARSTEN BERNICK: What do you mean?
KRAP: Pardon me, Mr Consul, sir; that door is slightly ajar, and I think somebody’s in there –
KARSTEN BERNICK [closes the door]: Right. But what is it that nobody should hear?
KRAP: It’s this: it seems Aune’s of a mind to let the Indian Girl go to the bottom – crew and all.
KARSTEN BERNICK: But Lord preserve us, how can you think –?
KRAP: Can’t see any other explanation, Mr Consul, sir.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Well, tell me briefly, then –
KRAP: Right you are. You know yourself how slowly things have been going at the shipyard since we got the new machinery and the new, inexperienced workers.
KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes.
KRAP: But this morning, when I got down there, I noticed that the repairs on the American had taken a conspicuous leap forward; around the large valve in the bottom – you know, the area that’s rotten –
KARSTEN BERNICK: Yes, yes, what about it?
KRAP: Completely repaired – seemingly at least; sheathed; looked like new; heard that Aune had worked down there by lamplight all night.