Pillars of Society
Pillars of Society DRAMATIS PERSONAEACT I.ACT IIACT IIIACT IVCopyright
Pillars of Society
Henrik Ibsen
DRAMATIS
PERSONAE
DRAMATIS PERSONAEKarsten Bernick, a shipbuilder.Mrs. Bernick, his wife.Olaf, their son, thirteen years old.Martha Bernick, Karsten Bernick's sister.Johan Tonnesen, Mrs. Bernick's younger brother.Lona Hessel, Mrs. Bernick's elder half-sister.Hilmar Tonnesen, Mrs. Bernick's cousin.Dina Dorf, a young girl living with the
Bernicks.Rorlund, a schoolmaster.Rummel, a merchant.Vigeland and Sandstad, tradesmanKrap, Bernick's confidential clerk.Aune, foreman of Bernick's shipbuilding yard.Mrs. Rummel.Hilda Rummel, her daughter.Mrs. Holt.Netta Holt, her daughter.Mrs. Lynge.Townsfolk and visitors, foreign sailors, steamboat
passengers, etc., etc.(The action takes place at the Bernicks' house in one of the
smaller coast towns in Norway)
ACT I.
(SCENE.--A spacious garden-room in the BERNICKS' house. In
the foreground on the left is a door leading to BERNICK'S business
room; farther back in the same wall, a similar door. In the middle
of the opposite wall is a large entrance-door, which leads to the
street. The wall in the background is almost wholly composed of
plate-glass; a door in it opens upon a broad flight of steps which
lead down to the garden; a sun-awning is stretched over the steps.
Below the steps a part of the garden is visible, bordered by a
fence with a small gate in it. On the other side of the fence runs
a street, the opposite side of which is occupied by small wooden
houses painted in bright colours. It is summer, and the sun is
shining warmly. People are seen, every now and then, passing along
the street and stopping to talk to one another; others going in and
out of a shop at the corner, etc.In the room a gathering of ladies is seated round a table.
MRS. BERNICK is presiding; on her left side are MRS. HOLT and her
daughter NETTA, and next to them MRS. RUMMEL and HILDA RUMMEL. On
MRS. BERNICK'S right are MRS. LYNGE, MARTHA BERNICK and DINA DORF.
All the ladies are busy working. On the table lie great piles of
linen garments and other articles of clothing, some half finished,
and some merely cut out. Farther back, at a small table on which
two pots of flowers and a glass of sugared water are standing,
RORLUND is sitting, reading aloud from a book with gilt edges, but
only loud enough for the spectators to catch a word now and then.
Out in the garden OLAF BERNICK is running about and shooting at a
target with a toy crossbow.After a moment AUNE comes in quietly through the door on the
right. There is a slight interruption in the reading. MRS. BERNICK
nods to him and points to the door on the left. AUNE goes quietly
across, knocks softly at the door of BERNICK'S room, and after a
moment's pause, knocks again. KRAP comes out of the room, with his
hat in his hand and some papers under his arm.)Krap: Oh, it was you knocking?Aune: Mr. Bernick sent for me.Krap: He did--but he cannot see you. He has deputed me to
tell you--Aune: Deputed you? All the same, I would much
rather--Krap: --deputed me to tell you what he wanted to say to you.
You must give up these Saturday lectures of yours to the
men.Aune: Indeed? I supposed I might use my own
time--Krap: You must not use your own time in making the men
useless in working hours. Last Saturday you were talking to them of
the harm that would be done to the workmen by our new machines and
the new working methods at the yard. What makes you do
that?Aune: I do it for the good of the community.Krap: That's curious, because Mr. Bernick says it is
disorganising the community.Aune: My community is not Mr. Bernick's, Mr. Krap! As
President of the Industrial Association, I must--Krap: You are, first and foremost, President of Mr. Bernick's
shipbuilding yard; and, before everything else, you have to do your
duty to the community known as the firm of Bernick & Co.; that
is what every one of us lives for. Well, now you know what Mr.
Bernick had to say to you.Aune: Mr. Bernick would not have put it that way, Mr. Krap!
But I know well enough whom I have to thank for this. It is that
damned American boat. Those fellows expect to get work done here
the way they are accustomed to it over there, and
that--Krap: Yes, yes, but I can't go into all these details. You
know now what Mr. Bernick means, and that is sufficient. Be so good
as to go back to the yard; probably you are needed there. I shall
be down myself in a little while. --Excuse me, ladies! (Bows to the
ladies and goes out through the garden and down the street. AUNE
goes quietly out to the right. RORLUND, who has continued his
reading during the foregoing conversation, which has been carried
on in low tones, has now come to the end of the book, and shuts it
with a bang.)Rorlund: There, my dear ladies, that is the end of
it.Mrs. Rummel: What an instructive tale!Mrs. Holt: And such a good moral!Mrs. Bernick: A book like that really gives one something to
think about.Rorlund: Quite so; it presents a salutary contrast to what,
unfortunately, meets our eyes every day in the newspapers and
magazines. Look at the gilded and painted exterior displayed by any
large community, and think what it really conceals!--emptiness and
rottenness, if I may say so; no foundation of morality beneath it.
In a word, these large communities of ours now-a-days are whited
sepulchres.Mrs. Holt: How true! How true!Mrs. Rummel: And for an example of it, we need look no
farther than at the crew of the American ship that is lying here
just now.Rorlund: Oh, I would rather not speak of such offscourings of
humanity as that. But even in higher circles--what is the case
there? A spirit of doubt and unrest on all sides; minds never at
peace, and instability characterising all their behaviour. Look how
completely family life is undermined over there! Look at their
shameless love of casting doubt on even the most serious
truths!Dina (without looking up from her work): But are there not
many big things done there too?Rorlund: Big things done--? I do not
understand--.Mrs. Holt (in amazement): Good gracious, Dina--!Mrs. Rummel (in the same breath): Dina, how can
you--?Rorlund: I think it would scarcely be a good thing for us if
such "big things" became the rule here. No, indeed, we ought to be
only too thankful that things are as they are in this country. It
is true enough that tares grow up amongst our wheat here too, alas;
but we do our best conscientiously to weed them out as well as we
are able. The important thing is to keep society pure, ladies--to
ward off all the hazardous experiments that a restless age seeks to
force upon us.Mrs. Holt: And there are more than enough of them in the
wind, unhappily.Mrs. Rummel: Yes, you know last year we only by a hair's
breadth escaped the project of having a railway here.Mrs. Bernick: Ah, my husband prevented that.Rorlund: Providence, Mrs. Bernick. You may be certain that
your husband was the instrument of a higher Power when he refused
to have anything to do with the scheme.Mrs. Bernick: And yet they said such horrible things about
him in the newspapers! But we have quite forgotten to thank you,
Mr. Rorlund. It is really more than friendly of you to sacrifice so
much of your time to us.Rorlund: Not at all. This is holiday time, and--Mrs. Bernick: Yes, but it is a sacrifice all the same, Mr.
Rorlund.Rorlund (drawing his chair nearer): Don't speak of it, my
dear lady. Are you not all of you making some sacrifice in a good
cause?--and that willingly and gladly? These poor fallen creatures
for whose rescue we are working may be compared to soldiers wounded
on the field of battle; you, ladies, are the kind-hearted sisters
of mercy who prepare the lint for these stricken ones, lay the
bandages softly on their wounds, heal them and cure
them.Mrs. Bernick: It must be a wonderful gift to be able to see
everything in such a beautiful light.Rorlund: A good deal of it is inborn in one--but it can be to
a great extent acquired, too. All that is needful is to see things
in the light of a serious mission in life. (To MARTHA:) What do you
say, Miss Bernick? Have you not felt as if you were standing on
firmer ground since you gave yourself up to your school
work?Martha: I really do not know what to say. There are times,
when I am in the schoolroom down there, that I wish I were far away
out on the stormy seas.Rorlund: That is merely temptation, dear Miss Bernick. You
ought to shut the doors of your mind upon such disturbing guests as
that. By the "stormy seas"--for of course you do not intend me to
take your words literally--you mean the restless tide of the great
outer world, where so many are shipwrecked. Do you really set such
store on the life you hear rushing by outside? Only look out into
the street. There they go, walking about in the heat of the sun,
perspiring and tumbling about over their little affairs. No, we
undoubtedly have the best of it, who are able to sit here in the
cool and turn our backs on the quarter from which disturbance
comes.Martha: Yes, I have no doubt you are perfectly
right.Rorlund: And in a house like this, in a good and pure home,
where family life shows in its fairest colours--where peace and
harmony rule-- (To MRS. BERNICK:) What are you listening to, Mrs.
Bernick?Mrs. Bernick (who has turned towards the door of BERNICK'S
room): They are talking very loud in there.Rorlund: Is there anything particular going on?Mrs. Bernick: I don't know. I can hear that there is somebody
with my husband.(HILMAR TONNESEN, smoking a cigar, appears in the doorway on
the right, but stops short at the sight of the company of
ladies.)Hilmar: Oh, excuse me-- (Turns to go back.)Mrs. Bernick: No, Hilmar, come along in; you are not
disturbing us. Do you want something?Hilmar: No, I only wanted to look in here--Good morning,
ladies. (To MRS. BERNICK:) Well, what is the result?Mrs. Bernick: Of what?Hilmar: Karsten has summoned a meeting, you
know.Mrs. Bernick: Has he? What about?Hilmar: Oh, it is this railway nonsense over
again.Mrs. Rummel: Is it possible?Mrs. Bernick: Poor Karsten, is he to have more annoyance over
that?Rorlund: But how do you explain that, Mr. Tonnesen? You know
that last year Mr. Bernick made it perfectly clear that he would
not have a railway here.Hilmar: Yes, that is what I thought, too; but I met Krap, his
confidential clerk, and he told me that the railway project had
been taken up again, and that Mr. Bernick was in consultation with
three of our local capitalists.Mrs. Rummel: Ah, I was right in thinking I heard my husband's
voice.Hilmar: Of course Mr. Rummel is in it, and so are Sandstad
and Michael Vigeland, "Saint Michael", as they call
him.Rorlund: Ahem!Hilmar: I beg your pardon, Mr. Rorlund?Mrs. Bernick: Just when everything was so nice and
peaceful.Hilmar: Well, as far as I am concerned, I have not the
slightest objection to their beginning their squabbling again. It
will be a little diversion, any way.Rorlund: I think we can dispense with that sort of
diversion.Hilmar: It depends how you are constituted. Certain natures
feel the lust of battle now and then. But unfortunately life in a
country town does not offer much in that way, and it isn't given to
every one to (turns the leaves of the book RORLUND has been
reading). "Woman as the Handmaid of Society." What sort of drivel
is this?Mrs. Bernick: My dear Hilmar, you must not say that. You
certainly have not read the book.Hilmar: No, and I have no intention of reading it,
either.Mrs. Bernick: Surely you are not feeling quite well
today.Hilmar: No, I am not.Mrs. Bernick: Perhaps you did not sleep well last
night?Hilmar: No, I slept very badly. I went for a walk yesterday
evening for my health's sake; and I finished up at the club and
read a book about a Polar expedition. There is something bracing in
following the adventures of men who are battling with the
elements.Mrs. Rummel: But it does not appear to have done you much
good, Mr. Tonnesen.Hilmar: No, it certainly did not. I lay all night tossing
about, only half asleep, and dreamt that I was being chased by a
hideous walrus.Olaf (who meanwhile has come up the steps from the garden):
Have you been chased by a walrus, uncle?Hilmar: I dreamt it, you duffer! Do you mean to say you are
still playing about with that ridiculous bow? Why don't you get
hold of a real gun?Olaf: I should like to, but--Hilmar: There is some sense in a thing like that; it is
always an excitement every time you fire it off.Olaf: And then I could shoot bears, uncle. But daddy won't
let me.Mrs. Bernick: You really mustn't put such ideas into his
head, Hilmar.Hilmar: Hm! It's a nice breed we are educating up now-a-days,
isn't it! We talk a great deal about manly sports, goodness
knows--but we only play with the question, all the same; there is
never any serious inclination for the bracing discipline that lies
in facing danger manfully. Don't stand pointing your crossbow at
me, blockhead--it might go off!Olaf: No, uncle, there is no arrow in it.Hilmar: You don't know that there isn't--there may be, all
the same. Take it away, I tell you!--Why on earth have you never
gone over to America on one of your father's ships? You might have
seen a buffalo hunt then, or a fight with Red Indians.Mrs. Bernick: Oh, Hilmar--!Olaf: I should like that awfully, uncle; and then perhaps I
might meet Uncle Johan and Aunt Lona.Hilmar: Hm!--Rubbish.Mrs. Bernick: You can go down into the garden again now,
Olaf.Olaf: Mother, may I go out into the street too?Mrs. Bernick: Yes, but not too far, mind.(OLAF runs down into the garden and out through the gate in
the fence.)Rorlund: You ought not to put such fancies into the child's
head, Mr. Tonnesen.Hilmar: No, of course he is destined to be a miserable
stay-at-home, like so many others.Rorlund: But why do you not take a trip over there
yourself?Hilmar: I? With my wretched health? Of course I get no
consideration on that account. But putting that out of the
question, you forget that one has certain obligations to perform
towards the community of which one forms a part. There must be some
one here to hold aloft the banner of the Ideal.--Ugh, there he is
shouting again!The Ladies: Who is shouting?Hilmar: I am sure I don't know. They are raising their voices
so loud in there that it gets on my nerves.Mrs. Bernick: I expect it is my husband, Mr. Tonnesen. But
you must remember he is so accustomed to addressing large
audiences.Rorlund: I should not call the others low-voiced,
either.Hilmar: Good Lord, no!--not on any question that touches
their pockets. Everything here ends in these petty material
considerations. Ugh!Mrs. Bernick: Anyway, that is a better state of things than
it used to be when everything ended in mere frivolity.Mrs. Lynge: Things really used to be as bad as that
here?Mrs. Rummel: Indeed they were, Mrs. Lynge. You may think
yourself lucky that you did not live here then.Mrs. Holt: Yes, times have changed, and no mistake, when I
look back to the days when I was a girl.Mrs. Rummel: Oh, you need not look back more than fourteen or
fifteen years. God forgive us, what a life we led! There used to be
a Dancing Society and a Musical Society--Mrs. Bernick: And the Dramatic Club. I remember it very
well.Mrs. Rummel: Yes, that was where your play was performed, Mr.
Tonnesen.Hilmar (from the back of the room): What, what?Rorlund: A play by Mr. Tonnesen?Mrs. Rummel: Yes, it was long before you came here, Mr.
Rorlund. And it was only performed once.Mrs. Lynge: Was that not the play in which you told me you
took the part of a young man's sweetheart, Mrs.
Rummel?Mrs. Rummel (glancing towards RORLUND): I? I really cannot
remember, Mrs. Lynge. But I remember well all the riotous gaiety
that used to go on.Mrs. Holt: Yes, there were houses I could name in which two
large dinner-parties were given in one week.Mrs. Lynge: And surely I have heard that a touring theatrical
company came here, too?Mrs. Rummel: Yes, that was the worst thing of the
lot.Mrs. Holt (uneasily): Ahem!Mrs. Rummel: Did you say a theatrical company? No, I don't
remember that at all.Mrs. Lynge: Oh yes, and I have been told they played all
sorts of mad pranks. What is really the truth of those
stories?Mrs. Rummel: There is practically no truth in them, Mrs.
Lynge.Mrs. Holt: Dina, my love, will you give me that
linen?Mrs. Bernick (at the same time): Dina, dear, will you go and
ask Katrine to bring us our coffee?Martha: I will go with you, Dina. (DINA and MARTHA go out by
the farther door on, the left.)Mrs. Bernick (getting up): Will you excuse me for a few
minutes? I think we will have our coffee outside. (She goes out to
the verandah and sets to work to lay a table. RORLUND stands in the
doorway talking to her. HILMAR sits outside, smoking.)Mrs. Rummel (in a low voice): My goodness, Mrs. Lynge, how
you frightened me!Mrs. Lynge: I?Mrs. Holt: Yes, but you know it was you that began it, Mrs.
Rummel.Mrs. Rummel: I? How can you say such a thing, Mrs. Holt? Not
a syllable passed my lips!Mrs. Lynge: But what does it all mean?Mrs. Rummel: What made you begin to talk about--? Think--did
you not see that Dina was in the room?Mrs. Lynge: Dina? Good gracious, is there anything wrong
with--?Mrs. Holt: And in this house, too! Did you not know it was
Mrs. Bernick's brother--?Mrs. Lynge: What about him? I know nothing about it at all; I
am quite new to the place, you know.Mrs. Rummel: Have you not heard that--? Ahem! (To her
daughter) Hilda, dear, you can go for a little stroll in the
garden?Mrs. Holt: You go too, Netta. And be very kind to poor Dina
when she comes back. (HILDA and NETTA go out into the
garden.)Mrs. Lynge: Well, what about Mrs. Bernick's
brother?Mrs. Rummel: Don't you know the dreadful scandal about
him?Mrs. Lynge: A dreadful scandal about Mr.
Tonnesen?Mrs. Rummel: Good Heavens, no. Mr. Tonnesen is her cousin, of
course, Mrs. Lynge. I am speaking of her brother--Mrs. Holt: The wicked Mr. Tonnesen--Mrs. Rummel: His name was Johan. He ran away to
America.Mrs. Holt: Had to run away, you must understand.Mrs. Lynge: Then it is he the scandal is about?