Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (268 page)
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Authors: Henrik Ibsen
Wangel. You must go to the pier with Hilde. Be quick! I’m sure she wants to hear the music.
Lyngstrand. Yes; we were just going there, doctor.
Wangel. Perhaps we’ll follow you. We’ll come directly.
Hilde
(whispering to LYNGSTRAND)
. They’re hunting in couples, too!
(HILDE and LYNGSTRAND go out through the garden. Music is heard in the distance out at the fiord during the following.)
Ellida. Come! He is here! Yes, yes — I feel it.
Wangel. You’d better go in, Ellida. Let me talk with him alone.
Ellida. Oh! that’s impossible — impossible, I say.
(With a cry.)
Ah! do you see him, Wangel?
(The STRANGER enters from the left, and remains on the pathway outside the fence.)
The Stranger
(bowing)
. Good-evening. You see I am here again, Ellida.
Ellida. Yes, yes. The time has come now.
The Stranger. And are you ready to start, or not?
Wangel. You can see for yourself that she is not.
The Stranger. I’m not asking about a travelling dress, or anything of that kind, nor about packed trunks. All that is needed for a journey I have with me on board. I’ve also secured a cabin for her.
(To ELLIDA.)
So I ask you if you are ready to go with me, to go with me — freely?
Ellida. Oh! do not ask me! Do not tempt me!
(A ship’s bell is heard in the distance.)
The Stranger. That is the first bell for going on board. Now you must say “Yes” or “No.”
Ellida
(wringing her hands)
. To decide — decide for one’s whole life! Never to be able to undo it again!
The Stranger. Never. In half an hour it will be too late.
Ellida
(looking shyly and searchingly at him)
. Why is it you hold to me so resolutely?
The Stranger. Don’t you feel, as I do, that we two belong together?
Ellida. Do you mean because of the vow?
The Stranger. Vows bind no one, neither man nor woman. If I hold so steadfastly to you, it is because I cannot do otherwise.
Ellida
(in a low, trembling voice)
. Why didn’t you come before?
Wangel. Ellida!
Ellida
(bursting out)
. Ah! All that attracts, and tempts, and lures into the unknown! All the strength of the sea concentrated in this one thing!
(The STRANGER climbs over the fence.)
Ellida
(stepping back to WANGEL)
. What is it? What do you want?
The Stranger. I see it and I hear it in you, Ellida. After all, you will choose me in the end.
Wangel
(going towards him)
. My wife has no choice here, I am here both to choose for her and to defend her. Yes, defend! If you do not go away from here — away from this land — and never come back again — Do you know to what you are exposing yourself?
Ellida. No, no, Wangel, not that!
The Stranger. What will you do to me?
Wangel. I will have you arrested as a criminal, at once, before you go on board; for I know all about the murder at Skjoldviken.
Ellida. Ah! Wangel, how can you?
The Stranger. I was prepared for that, and so —
(takes a revolver from his breast pocket)
— I provided myself with this.
Ellida
(throwing herself in front of him)
. No, no; do not kill him! Better kill me!
The Stranger. Neither you nor him, don’t fear that. This is for myself, for I will live and die a free man.
Ellida
(with growing excitement)
. Wangel, let me tell you this — tell it you so that he may hear it. You can indeed keep me here! You have the means and the power to do it. And you intend to do it. But my mind — all my thoughts, all the longings and desires of my soul — these you cannot bind! These will rush and press out into the unknown that I was created for, and that you have kept from me!
Wangel
(in quiet sorrow)
. I see it, Ellida. Step by step you are slipping from me. The craving for the boundless, the infinite, the unattainable will drive your soul into the darkness of night at last.
Ellida. Yes! I feel it hovering over me like black noiseless wings.
Wangel. It shall not come to that. No other deliverance is possible for you. I at least can see no other. And so — so I cry off our bargain at once. Now you can choose your own path in perfect — perfect freedom.
Ellida
(stares at him a while as if stricken dumb)
. Is it true — true what you say? Do you mean that — mean it with all your heart?
Wangel. Yes — with all my sorrowing heart — I mean it.
Ellida. And can you do it? Can you let it be so?
Wangel. Yes, I can. Because I love you so dearly.
Ellida
(in a low, trembling voice)
. And have I come so near — so close to you?
Wangel. The years and the living together have done that.
Ellida
(clasping her hands together)
. And I — who so little understood this!
Wangel. Your thoughts went elsewhere. And now — now you are completely free of me and mine — and — and mine. Now your own true life may resume its real bent again, for now you can choose in freedom, and on your own responsibility, Ellida.
Ellida
(clasps her head with her hands, and stares at WANGEL)
. In freedom, and on my own responsibility! Responsibility, too? That changes everything.
(The ship bell rings again.)
The Stranger. Do you hear, Ellida? It has rung now for the last time. Come.
Ellida
(turns towards him, looks firmly at him, and speaks in a resolute voice)
. I shall never go with you after this!
The Stranger. You will not!
Ellida
(clinging to WANGEL)
. I shall never go away from you after this.
The Stranger. So it is over?
Ellida. Yes. Over for all time.
The Stranger. I see. There is something here stronger than my will.
Ellida. Your will has not a shadow of power over me any longer. To me you are as one dead — who has come home from the sea, and who returns to it again. I no longer dread you. And I am no longer drawn to you.
The Stranger. Goodbye, Mrs. Wangel!
(He swings himself over the fence.)
Henceforth, you are nothing but a shipwreck in my life that I have tided over.
(He goes out.)
Wangel
(looks at her for a while)
. Ellida, your mind is like the sea — it has ebb and flow. Whence came the change?
Ellida. Ah! don’t you understand that the change came — was bound to come when I could choose in freedom?
Wangel. And the unknown? — It no longer lures you?
Ellida. Neither lures nor frightens me. I could have seen it — gone out into it, if only I myself had willed it. I could have chosen it. And that is why I could also renounce it.
Wangel. I begin to understand little by little. You think and conceive in pictures — in visible figures. Your longing and aching for the sea, your attraction towards this strange man, these were the expression of an awakening and growing desire for freedom; nothing else.
Ellida. I don’t know about that. But you have been a good physician for me. You found, and you dared to use the right remedy — the only one that could help me.
Wangel. Yes, in utmost need and danger we doctors dare much. And now you are coming back to me again, Ellida?
Ellida. Yes, dear, faithful Wangel — now I am coming back to you again. Now I can. For now I come to you freely, and on my own responsibility.
Wangel
(looks lovingly at her)
. Ellida! Ellida! To think that now we can live wholly for one another —
Ellida. And with common memories. Yours, as well as mine.
Wangel. Yes, indeed, dear.
Ellida. And for our children, Wangel?
Wangel. You call them ours!
Ellida. They who are not mine yet, but whom I shall win.
Wangel. Ours!
(Gladly and quickly kisses her hands.)
I cannot speak my thanks for those words!
(HILDE, BALLESTED, LYNGSTRAND, ARNHOLM, and BOLETTE come into the garden. At the same time a number of young townspeople and visitors pass along the footpath.)
Hilde
(aside to LYNGSTRAND)
. See! Why, she and father look exactly as if they were a betrothed couple!
Ballested
(who has overheard)
. It is summertime, little Missie.
Arnholm
(looking at WANGEL and ELLIDA)
. The English steamer is putting off.
Bolette
(going to the fence)
. You can see her best from here.
Lyngstrand. The last voyage this year.
Ballested. Soon all the sea-highways will be closed, as the poet says. It is sad, Mrs. Wangel. And now we’re to lose you also for a time. Tomorrow you’re off to Skjoldviken, I hear.
Wangel. No; nothing will come of that. We two have changed our mind — tonight.
Arnholm
(looking from one to the other)
. Oh! — really!
Bolette
(coming forward)
. Father, is that true?
Hilde
(going towards ELLIDA)
. Are you going to stay with us after all?
Ellida. Yes, dear Hilde, if you’ll have me.
Hilde
(struggling between tears and laughter)
. Fancy! Have you!
Arnholm
(to ELLIDA)
. But this is quite a surprise — !
Ellida
(smiling earnestly)
. Well, you see, Mr. Arnholm — Do you remember we talked about it yesterday? When you have once become a land-creature you can no longer find your way back again to the sea, nor to the sea-life either.
Ballested. Why, that’s exactly the case with my mermaid.
Ellida. Something like — yes.
Ballested. Only with this difference — that the mermaid dies of it, it, while human beings can acclam — acclimatise themselves. Yes yes. I assure you, Mrs. Wangel, they can ac-climatise themselves.
Ellida. In freedom they can, Mr. Ballested.
Wangel. And when they act on their own responsibility, dear Ellida.
Ellida
(quickly holding out her hand to him)
. Exactly.
(The great steamer glides noiselessly out beyond the fjord. The music is heard nearer land.)
ER
Translated by Edmund Gosse and William Archer
First published in 1890, this famous play premiered in
It is uncertain when Ibsen first conceived the idea that resulted in
Hedda Gabler
. In the summer of 1889 he was in Gossensass, a small Alpine village in the Tyrol. It was here that he made the acquaintance of 27-year-old Emilie Bardach from Vienna. His relationship with her culminated in his falling in love with her in spite of the great difference between their ages. After Emilie Bardach’s return to Vienna and Ibsen’s to Munich, they wrote a number of letters to each other. It is widely considered that Bardach served as the inspiration of the character Hedda Gabler.
The play was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag in Copenhagen and Christiania on December 16th
The play was first performed in Munich at the Königliches Residenz-Theater on 31 January 1891, with Clara Heese as Hedda. Ibsen was present at the first night and is said to have been discontented with the actress Heese. He felt that her acting was too declamatory; the critics were reserved in their judgement. The play’s reception by the audience was mixed, with both applause and booing. Those applauding seem to have been in the majority, but this may have been due more to Ibsen’s presence than to the performance itself. The first British performance was at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 20 April the same year, starring Elizabeth Robins, who directed it with Marion Lea playing Thea. Robins also played Hedda in the first American production, which opened on March 30, 1898 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York City.
The protagonist’s married name is Hedda Tesman and Gabler is her maiden name. On the subject of the title, Ibsen wrote: “My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than her husband’s wife.” In the drama, Hedda Gabler, daughter of an aristocratic general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania from her honeymoon. Her husband is Jørgen Tesman, an aspiring, reliable, though not brilliant academic, who has combined research with their honeymoon. It becomes clear in the course of the play that she has never loved him, but has married him for reasons pertaining to the tedious nature of her life. It is also suggested that she may be pregnant. The appearance of Tesman’s academic rival, Ejlert Løvborg, throws their lives into disarray. Løvborg, a writer, is also a recovered alcoholic who has wasted his talent until now. Due to a relationship with Hedda’s old schoolmate, Thea Elvsted, who has left her husband for him, Løvborg shows signs of rehabilitation and has just completed a literary work in the same field as Tesman. When Hedda and Ejlert talk privately together, it becomes apparent that they are former lovers and the critical success of his recently published work transforms Løvborg into a threat to Tesman.