Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (241 page)

GREGERS.
You have been having breakfast, I see.

HIALMAR.
The body sometimes makes its claims felt too.

GREGERS.
What have you decided to do?

HIALMAR.
For a man like me, there is only one course possible. I am just putting my most important things together. But it takes time, you know.

GINA
[with a touch of impatience.]
Am I to get the room ready for you, or am I to pack your portmanteau?

HIALMAR
[after a glance of annoyance at GREGERS.]
Pack — and get the room ready!

GINA
[takes the portmanteau.]
Very well; then I’ll put in the shirt and the other things.
[Goes into the sitting-room and draws the door to after her.]

GREGERS
[after a short silence.]
I never dreamed that this would be the end of it. Do you really feel it a necessity to leave house and home?

HIALMAR
[wanders about restlessly.]
What would you have me do? — I am not fitted to bear unhappiness, Gregers. I must feel secure and at peace in my surroundings.

GREGERS.
But can you not feel that here? Just try it. I should have thought you had firm ground to build upon now — if only you start afresh. And, remember, you have your invention to live for.

HIALMAR.
Oh don’t talk about my invention. It’s perhaps still in the dim distance.

GREGERS.
Indeed!

HIALMAR.
Why, great heavens, what would you have me invent? Other people have invented almost everything already. It becomes more and more difficult every day —

GREGERS.
And you have devoted so much labour to it.

HIALMAR.
It was that blackguard Relling that urged me to it.

GREGERS.
Relling?

HIALMAR.
Yes, it was he that first made me realise my aptitude for making some notable discovery in photography.

GREGERS.
Aha — it was Relling!

HIALMAR.
Oh, I have been so truly happy over it! Not so much for the sake of the invention itself, as because Hedvig believed in it — believed in it with a child’s whole eagerness of faith. — At least, I have been fool enough to go and imagine that she believed in it.

GREGERS.
Can you really think Hedvig has been false towards you?

HIALMAR.
I can think anything now. It is Hedvig that stands in my way. She will blot out the sunlight from my whole life.

GREGERS.
Hedvig! Is it Hedvig you are talking of? How should she blot out your sunlight?

HIALMAR
[without answering.]
How unutterably I have loved that child! How unutterably happy I have felt every time I came home to my humble room, and she flew to meet me, with her sweet little blinking eyes. Oh, confiding fool that I have been! I loved her unutterably; — and I yielded myself up to the dream, the delusion, that she loved me unutterably in return.

GREGERS.
Do you call that a delusion?

HIALMAR.
How should I know? I can get nothing out of Gina; and besides, she is totally blind to the ideal side of these complications. But to you I feel impelled to open my mind, Gregers. I cannot shake off this frightful doubt — perhaps Hedvig has never really and honestly loved me.

GREGERS.
What would you say if she were to give you a proof of her love?
[Listens.]
What’s that? I thought I heard the wild duck — ?

HIALMAR.
It’s the wild duck quacking. Father’s in the garret.

GREGERS.
Is he?
[His face lights up with joy.]
I say you may yet have proof that your poor misunderstood Hedvig loves you!

HIALMAR.
Oh, what proof can she give me? I dare not believe in any assurance from that quarter.

GREGERS.
Hedvig does not know what deceit means.

HIALMAR.
Oh Gregers, that is just what I cannot be sure of. Who knows what Gina and that Mrs. Sorby may many a time have sat here whispering and tattling about? And Hedvig usually has her ears open, I can tell you. Perhaps the deed of gift was not such a surprise to her, after all. In fact, I’m not sure but that I noticed something of the sort.

GREGERS.
What spirit is this that has taken possession of you?

HIALMAR.
I have had my eyes opened. Just you notice; — you’ll see, the deed of gift is only a beginning. Mrs. Sorby has always been a good deal taken up with Hedvig; and now she has the power to do whatever she likes for the child. They can take her from me whenever they please.

GREGERS.
Hedvig will never, never leave you.

HIALMAR.
Don’t be so sure of that. If only they beckon to her and throw out a golden bait — ! And oh! I have loved her so unspeakably! I would have counted it my highest happiness to take her tenderly by the hand and lead her, as one leads a timid child through a great dark empty room! — I am cruelly certain now that the poor photographer in his humble attic has never really and truly been anything to her. She has only cunningly contrived to keep on a good footing with him until the time came.

GREGERS.
You don’t believe that yourself, Hialmar.

HIALMAR.
That is just the terrible part of it — I don’t know what to believe, — I never can know it. But can you really doubt that it must be as I say? Ho-ho, you have far too much faith in the claim of the ideal, my good Gregers! If those others came, with the glamour of wealth about them, and called to the child:—”Leave him: come to us: here life awaits you — !”

GREGERS
[quickly.]
Well, what then?

HIALMAR.
If I then asked her: Hedvig, are you willing to renounce that life for me?
[Laughs scornfully.]
No thank you! You would soon hear what answer I should get.
[A pistol shot is heard from within the garret.]

GREGERS
[loudly and joyfully.]
Hialmar!

HIALMAR.
There now; he must needs go shooting too.

GINA
[comes in.]
Oh Ekdal, I can hear grandfather blazing away in the garret by himself.

HIALMAR.
I’ll look in —

GREGERS
[eagerly, with emotion.]
Wait a moment! Do you know what that was?

HIALMAR.
Yes, of course I know.

GREGERS.
No you don’t know. But I do. That was the proof!

HIALMAR.
What proof?

GREGERS.
It was a child’s free-will offering. She has got your father to shoot the wild duck.

HIALMAR.
To shoot the wild duck!

GINA.
Oh, think of that — !

HIALMAR.
What was that for?

GREGERS.
She wanted to sacrifice to you her most cherished possession; for then she thought you would surely come to love her again.

HIALMAR
[tenderly, with emotion.]
Oh, poor child!

GINA.
What things she does think of!

GREGERS.
She only wanted your love again, Hialmar. She could not live without it.

GINA
[struggling with her tears.]
There, you can see for yourself, Ekdal.

HIALMAR.
Gina, where is she?

GINA
[sniffs.]
Poor dear, she’s sitting out in the kitchen, I dare say.

HIALMAR
[goes over, tears open the kitchen door, and says:]
Hedvig, come, come in to me!
[Looks around.]
No, she’s not here.

GINA.
Then she must be in her own little room.

HIALMAR
[without.]
No, she’s not here either.
[Comes in.]
She must have gone out.

GINA.
Yes, you wouldn’t have her anywheres in the house.

HIALMAR.
Oh, if she would only come home quickly, so that I can tell her — Everything will come right now, Gregers; now I believe we can begin life afresh.

GREGERS
[quietly.]
I knew it; I knew the child would make amends.
[OLD EKDAL appears at the door of his room; he is in full uniform, and is busy buckling on his sword.]

HIALMAR
[astonished.]
Father! Are you there?

GINA.
Have you been firing in your room?

EKDAL
[resentfully, approaching.]
So you go shooting alone, do you, Hialmar?

HIALMAR
[excited and confused.]
Then it wasn’t you that fired that shot in the garret?

EKDAL.
Me that fired? H’m.

GREGERS
[calls out to HIALMAR.]
She has shot the wild duck herself!

HIALMAR.
What can it mean?
[Hastens to the garret door, tears it aside, looks in and calls loudly:]
Hedvig!

GINA
[runs to the door.]
Good God, what’s that!

HIALMAR
[goes in.]
She’s lying on the floor!

GREGERS.
Hedvig! lying on the floor!
[Goes in to HIALMAR]

GINA
[at the same time.]
Hedvig!
[Inside the garret]
No, no, no!

EKDAL.
Ho-ho! does she go shooting, too, now?
[HIALMAR, GINA and GREGERS carry HEDVIG into the studio; in her dangling right hand she holds the pistol fast clasped in her fingers.]

HIALMAR
[distracted.]
The pistol has gone off. She has wounded herself. Call for help! Help!

GINA
[runs into the passage and calls down.]
Relling! Relling! Doctor Relling; come up as quick as you can!
[HIALMAR and GREGERS lay HEDVIG down on the sofa.]

EKDAL
[quietly.]
The woods avenge themselves.

HIALMAR
[on his knees beside HEDVIG.]
She’ll soon come to now. She’s coming to — ; yes, yes, yes.

GINA
[who has come in again.]
Where has she hurt herself? I can’t see anything —
[RELLING comes hurriedly, and immediately after him MOLVIK; the latter without his waistcoat and necktie, and with his coat open.]

RELLING.
What’s the matter here?

GINA.
They say Hedvig has shot herself.

HIALMAR.
Come and help us!

RELLING.
Shot herself!
[He pushes the table aside and begins to examine her.]

HIALMAR
[kneeling and looking anxiously up at him.]
It can’t be dangerous? Speak, Relling! She is scarcely bleeding at all. It can’t be dangerous?

RELLING.
How did it happen?

HIALMAR.
Oh, we don’t know —

GINA.
She wanted to shoot the wild duck.

RELLING.
The wild duck?

HIALMAR.
The pistol must have gone off.

RELLING.
H’m. Indeed.

EKDAL.
The woods avenge themselves. But I’m not afraid, all the same.
[Goes into the garret and closes the door after him.]

HIALMAR.
Well, Relling, — why don’t you say something?

RELLING.
The ball has entered the breast.

HIALMAR.
Yes, but she’s coming to!

RELLING.
Surely you can see that Hedvig is dead.

GINA
[bursts into tears.]
Oh my child, my child —

GREGERS
[huskily.]
In the depths of the sea —

HIALMAR
[jumps up.]
No, no, she must live! Oh, for God’s sake, Relling — only a moment — only just till I can tell her how unspeakably I loved her all the time!

RELLING.
The bullet has gone through her heart. Internal hemorrhage. Death must have been instantaneous.

HIALMAR.
And I! I hunted her from me like an animal! And she crept terrified into the garret and died for love of me!
[Sobbing.]
I can never atone to her! I can never tell her — !
[Clenches his hands and cries, upwards.]
O thou above — ! If thou be indeed! Why hast thou done this thing to me?