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Plays: The Father; Countess Julie; The Outlaw; The Stronger

A >> August Strindberg >> Plays: The Father; Countess Julie; The Outlaw; The Stronger




DOCTOR. Good night, then, Captain. I'm afraid. I can be of no
further use in this case.

CAPTAIN. Are we enemies?

DOCTOR. Far from it. But it is too bad we cannot be friends. Good
night.

[Goes. The Captain follows the Doctor to the door at back and then
goes to the door at left and opens it slightly.]

CAPTAIN. Come in, and we'll talk. I heard you out there listening.
[Laura, embarrassed. Captain sits at desk.] It is late, but we must
come to some decision. Sit down. [Pause.] I have been at the post
office tonight to get my letters. From these it appears that you
have been keeping back my mail, both coming and going. The
consequence of which is that the loss of time has its good as
destroyed the result I expected from my work.

LAURA. It was an act of kindness on my part, as you neglected the
service for this other work.

CAPTAIN. It was hardly kindness, for you were quite sure that some
day I should win more honor from that, than from the service; but
you were particularly anxious that I should not win such honors,
for fear your own insignificance would be emphasized by it. In
consequence of all this I have intercepted letters addressed to
you.

LAURA. That was a noble act.

CAPTAIN. You see, you have, as you might say, a high opinion of me.
It appears from these letters that, for some time past you have
been arraying my old friends against me by spreading reports about
my mental condition. And you Dave succeeded in your efforts, for
now not more than one person exists from the Colonel down to the
cook, who believes that I am sane. Now these are the facts about my
illness; my mind is sound, as you know, so that I can take care of
my duties in the service as well its my responsibilities as a
father; my feelings are more or less under my control, as my will
has not been completely undermined; but you have gnawed and nibbled
at it so that it will soon slip the cogs, and then the whole
mechanism will slip and go to smash. I will not appeal to your
feelings, for you have none; that is your strength; but I will
appeal to your interests.

LAURA. Let me hear.

CAPTAIN. You have succeeded in arousing my suspicions to such an
extent that my judgment is no longer clear, and my thoughts begin
to wander. This is the approaching insanity that you are waiting
for, which may come at any time now. So you are face to face with
the question whether it is more to your interest that I should be
sane or insane. Consider. If I go under I shall lose the service,
and where will you be then? If I die, my life insurance will fall
to you. But if I take my own life, you will get nothing.
Consequently, it is to your interest that I should live out my
life.

LAURA. Is this a trap?

CAPTAIN. To be sure. But it rests with you whether you will run
around it or stick your head into it.

LAURA. You say that you will kill yourself! You won't do that!

CAPTAIN. Are you sure? Do you think a man can live when he has
nothing and no one to live for?

LAURA. You surrender, then?

CAPTAIN. No, I offer peace.

LAURA. The conditions?

CAPTAIN. That I may keep my reason. Free me from my suspicions and
I give up the conflict.

LAURA. What suspicions?

CAPTAIN. About Bertha's origin.

LAURA. Are there any doubts about that?

CAPTAIN. Yes, I have doubts, and you have awakened them.

LAURA. I?

CAPTAIN. Yes, you have dropped them like henbane in my ears, and
circumstances have strengthened them. Free me from the uncertainty;
tell me outright that it is true and I will forgive you beforehand.

LAURA. How can I acknowledge a sin that I have not committed?

CAPTAIN. What does it matter when you know that I shall not divulge
it? Do you think a man would go and spread his own shame broadcast?

LAURA. If I say it isn't true, you won't be convinced; but if I say
it is, then you will be convinced. You seem to hope it is true!

CAPTAIN. Yes, strangely enough; it must be, because the first
supposition can't be proved; the latter can be.

LAURA. Have you tiny ground for your suspicions?

CAPTAIN. Yes, and no.

LAURA. I believe you want to prove me guilty, so that you can get
rid of me and then have absolute control over the child. But you
won't catch me in any such snare.

CAPTAIN. Do you think that I would want to be responsible for
another man's child, if I were convinced of your guilt?

LAURA. No, I'm sure you wouldn't, and that's what makes me know you
lied just now when you said that you would forgive me beforehand.

CAPTAIN. [Rises]. Laura, save me and my reason. You don't seem to
understand what I say. If the child is not mine I have no control
over her and don't want to have any, and that is precisely what you
do want, isn't it? But perhaps you want even more--to have power
over the child, but still have me to support you.

LAURA. Power, yes! What has this whole life and death struggle been
for but power?

CAPTAIN. To me it has meant more. I do not believe in a hereafter;
the child was my future life. That was my conception of
immortality, and perhaps the only one that has any analogy in
reality. If you take that away from me, you cut off my life.

LAURA. Why didn't we separate in time?

CAPTAIN. Because the child bound us together; but the link became a
chain. And how did it happen; how? I have never thought about this,
but now memories rise up accusingly, condemningly perhaps. We had
been married two years, and had no children; you know why. I fell
ill and lay at the point of death. During a conscious interval of
the fever I heard voices out in the drawing-room. It was you and
the lawyer talking about the fortune that I still possessed. He
explained that you could inherit nothing because we had no
children, and he asked you if you were expecting to become a
mother. I did not hear your reply. I recovered and we had a child.
Who is its father?

LAURA. You.

CAPTAIN. No, I am not. Here is a buried crime that begins to
stench, and what a hellish crime! You women have been compassionate
enough to free the black slaves, but you have kept the white ones.
I have worked and slaved for you, your child, your mother, your
servants; I have sacrificed promotion and career; I have endured
torture, flaggellation, sleeplessness, worry for your sake, until
my hair has grown gray; and all that you might enjoy a life without
care, and when you grew old, enjoy life over again in your child. I
have borne everything without complaint, because I thought myself
the father of your child. This is the commonest kind of theft, the
most brutal slavery. I have had seventeen years of penal servitude
and have been innocent. What can you give me in return for that?

LAURA. Now you are quite mad.

CAPTAIN. That is your hope!--And I see how you have labored to
conceal your crime. I sympathized with you because I did not
understand your grief. I have often lulled your evil conscience to
rest when I thought I was driving away morbid thoughts. I have
heard you cry out in your sleep and not wanted to listen. I
remember now night before last--Bertha's birthday--it was between
two and three in the morning, and I was sitting up reading; you
shrieked, "Don't, don't!" as if someone were strangling you; I
knocked on the wall--I didn't want to hear any more. I have had my
suspicions for a long time but I did not dare to hear them
confirmed. All this I have suffered for you. What will you do for
me?

LAURA. What can I do? I will swear by God and all I hold sacred
that you are Bertha's father.

CAPTAIN. What use is that when you have often said that a mother
can and ought to commit any crime for her child? I implore you as a
wounded man begs for a death blow, to tell me all. Don't you see
I'm as helpless as a child? Don't you hear me complaining as to a
mother? Won't you forget that I am a man, that I am a soldier who
can tame men and beasts with a word? Like a sick man I only ask for
compassion. I lay down the tokens of my power and implore you to
have mercy on my life.

[Laura approaches him and lays her hand on his brow.]

LAURA. What! You are crying, man!

CAPTAIN. Yes, I am crying although I am a man. But has not a man
eyes! Has not a man hands, limbs, senses, thoughts, passions? Is he
not fed with the wine food, hurt by the same weapons, warmed and
cooled by the same summer and winter as a woman? If you prick us do
we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? And if you poison
us, do we not die? Why shouldn't a man complain, a soldier weep?
Because it is unmanly? Why is it unmanly?

LAURA. Weep then, my child, as if you were with your mother once
more. Do you remember when I first came into your life, I was like
a second mother? Your great strong body needed nerves; you were a
giant child that had either come too early into the world, or
perhaps was not wanted at all.

CAPTAIN. Yes, that's how it was. My father's and my mother's will
was against my coming into the world, and consequently I was born
without a will. I thought I was completing myself when you and I
became one, and therefore you were allowed to rule, and I, the
commander at the barracks and before the troops, became obedient to
you, grew through you, looked up to you as to it more highly-gifted
being, listened to you as if I had been your undeveloped child.

LAURA. Yes, that's the way it was, and therefore I loved you as my
child. But you know, you must have seen, when the nature of your
feelings changed and you appeared as my lover that I blushed, and
your embraces were joy that was followed by a remorseful conscience
as if my blood were ashamed. The mother became the mistress. Ugh!

CAPTAIN. I saw it, but I did not understand. I believed you
despised me for my unmanliness, and I wanted to win you as a woman
by being a man.

LAURA. Yes, but there was the mistake. The mother was your friend,
you see, but the woman was your enemy, and love between the sexes
is strife. Do not think that I gave myself; I did not give, but I
took--what I wanted. But you had one advantage. I felt that, and I
wanted you to feel it.

CAPTAIN. You always had the advantage. You could hypnotize me when
I was wide awake, so that I neither saw nor heard, but merely
obeyed; you could give me a raw potato and make me imagine it was a
peach; you could force me to admire your foolish caprices as though
they were strokes of genius. You could have influenced me to crime,
yes, even to mean, paltry deeds. Because you lacked intelligence,
instead of carrying out my ideas you acted on your own judgment.
But when at last I awoke, I realized that my honor had been
corrupted and I wanted to blot out the memory by a great deed, an
achievement, a discovery, or an honorable suicide. I wanted to go
to war, but was not permitted. It was then that I threw myself into
science. And now when I was about to reach out my hand to gather in
its fruits, you chop off my arm. Now I am dishonored and can live
no longer, for a man cannot live without honor.

LAURA. But a woman?

CAPTAIN. Yes, for she has her children, which he has not. But, like
the rest of mankind, we lived our lives unconscious as children,
full of imagination, ideals, and illusions, and then we awoke; it
was all over. But we awoke with our feet on the pillow, and he who
waked us was himself a sleep-walker. When women grow old and cease
to be women, they get beards on their chins; I wonder what men get
when they grow old and cease to be men. Those who crowed were no
longer cocks but capons, and the pullets answered their call, so
that when we thought the sun was about to rise we found ourselves
in the bright moon light amid ruins, just as in the good old times.
It had only been a little morning slumber with wild dreams, and
there was no awakening.

LAURA. Do you know, you should have been a poet!

CAPTAIN. Who knows.

LAURA. Now I am sleepy, so if you have any more fantastic visions
keep them till to-morrow.

CAPTAIN. First, a word more about realities. Do you hate me?

LAURA. Yes, sometimes, when you are a man.

CAPTAIN. This is like race hatred. If it is true that we are
descended from monkeys, at least it must be from two separate
species. We are certainly not like one another, are we?

LAURA. What do you mean to say by all this?

CAPTAIN. I feel that one of us must go under in this struggle.

LAURA. Which?

CAPTAIN. The weaker, of course.

LAURA. And the stronger will be in the right?

CAPTAIN. Always, since he has the power.

LAURA. Then I am in the right.

CAPTAIN. Have you the power already then?

LAURA. Yes, and a legal power with which I shall put you under the
control of a guardian.

CAPTAIN. Under a guardian?

LAURA. And then I shall educate my child without listening to your
fantastic notions.

CAPTAIN. And who will pay for the education when I am no longer
here?

LAURA. Your pension will pay for it.

CAPTAIN [Threateningly]. How can you have me put under a guardian?

LAURA [Takes out a letter]. With this letter of which an attested
copy is in the hands of the board of lunacy.

CAPTAIN. What letter?

LAURA [Moving backward toward the door left]. Yours! Your
declaration to the doctor that you are insane. [The Captain stares
at her in silence.] Now you have fulfilled your function as an
unfortunately necessary father and breadwinner, you are not needed
any longer and you must go. You must go, since you have realized
that my intellect is as strong as my will, and since you will not
stay and acknowledge it.

[The Captain goes to the table, seizes the lighted lamp and hurls
it at Laura, who disappears backward through the door.]

CURTAIN DROP.



ACT III.

[Same Scene. Another lamp on the table. The private door is
barricaded with a chair.]

LAURA [to Nurse]. Did he give you the keys?

NURSE. Give them to me, no! God help me, but I took them from the
master's clothes that Nöjd had out to brush.

LAURA. Oh, Nöjd is on duty today?

NURSE. Yes, Nöjd.

LAURA. Give me the keys.

NURSE. Yes, but this seems like downright stealing. Do you hear him
walking up there, Ma'am? Back and forth, back and forth.

LAURA. Is the door well barred?

NURSE. Oh, yes, it's barred well enough!

LAURA. Control your feelings, Margret. We must be calm if we are to
be saved. [Knock.] Who is it?

NURSE [Opens door to hall]. It is Nöjd.

LAURA. Let him come in.

NÖJD [Comes in]. A message from the Colonel.

LAURA. Give it to me [Reads] Ah!--Nöjd, have you taken all the
cartridges out of the guns and pouches?

NÖJD. Yes, Ma'am.

LAURA. Good, wait outside while I answer the Colonel's letter.
[Nöjd goes. Laura writes.]

NURSE. Listen. What in the world is he doing up there now?

LAURA. Be quiet while I write.

[The sound of sawing is heard.]

NURSE [Half to herself]. Oh, God have mercy on us all! Where will
this end!

LAURA. Here, give this to Nöjd. And my mother must not know
anything about all this. Do you hear?

[Nurse goes out, Laura opens drawers in desk and takes out papers.
The Pastor comes in, he takes a chair and sits near Laura by the
desk.]

PASTOR. Good evening, sister. I have been away all day, as you
know, and only just got back. Terrible things have been happening
here.

LAURA. Yes, brother, never have I gone through such a night and
such a day.

PASTOR. I see that you are none the worse for it all.

LAURA. No, God be praised, but think what might have happened!

PASTOR. Tell me one thing, how did it begin? I have heard so many
different versions.

LAURA. It began with his wild idea of not being Bertha's father,
and ended with his throwing the lighted lamp in my face.

PASTOR. But this is dreadful! It is fully developed insanity. And
what is to be done now?

LAURA. We must try to prevent further violence and the doctor has
sent to the hospital for a straightjacket. In the meantime I have
sent a message to the Colonel, and I am now trying to straighten
out the affairs of the household, which he has carried on in a most
reprehensible manner.

PASTOR. This is a deplorable story, but I have always expected
something of the sort. Fire and powder must end in an explosion.
What have you got in the drawer there?

LAURA [Has pulled out a drawer in the desk]. Look, he has hidden
everything here.

PASTOR [Looking into drawer]. Good Heavens, here is your doll and
here is your christening cap and Bertha's rattle; and your letters;
and the locket. [Wipes his eyes.] After all he must have loved you
very dearly, Laura. I never kept such things!

LAURA. I believe he used to love me, but time--time changes so many
things.

PASTOR. What is that big paper? The receipt for a grave! Yes,
better the grave than the lunatic asylum! Laura, tell me, are you
blameless in all this?

LAURA. I? Why should I be to blame because a man goes out of his
mind?

PASTOR. Well, well, I shan't say anything. After all, blood is
thicker than water.

LAURA. What do you dare to intimate?

PASTOR [Looking at her penetratingly]. Now, listen!

LAURA. Yes?

PASTOR. You can hardly deny that it suits you pretty well to be
able to educate your child as you wish?

LAURA. I don't understand.

PASTOR. How I admire you!

LAURA. Me? H'm!

PASTOR. And I am to become the guardian of that free-thinker! Do
you know I have always looked on him as a weed in our garden.

[Laura gives a short laugh, and then becomes suddenly serious.]

LAURA. And you dare say that to me--his wife?

PASTOR. You are strong, Laura, incredibly strong. You are like a
fox in a trap, you would rather gnaw off your own leg than let
yourself be caught! Like a master thief--no accomplice, not even
your own conscience. Look at yourself in the glass! You dare not!

LAURA. I never use a looking glass!

PASTOR. No, you dare not! Let me look at your hand. Not a tell-tale
blood stain, not a trace of insidious poison! A little innocent
murder that the law cannot reach, an unconscious crime--
unconscious! What a splendid idea! Do you hear how he is working up
there? Take care! If that man gets loose he will make short work of
you.

LAURA. You talk so much, you must have a bad conscience. Accuse me
if you can!

PASTOR. I cannot.

LAURA. You see! You cannot, and therefore I am innocent. You take
care of your ward, and I will take care of mine! Here's the doctor.

[Doctor comes in.]

LAURA [Rising]. Good evening, Doctor. You at least will help me,
won't you? But unfortunately there is not much that can be done. Do
you hear how he is carrying on up there? Are you convinced now?

DOCTOR. I am convinced that an act of violence has been committed,
but the question now is whether that act of violence can be
considered an outbreak of passion or madness.

PASTOR. But apart from the actual outbreak, you must acknowledge
that he has "fixed ideas."

DOCTOR. I think that your ideas, Pastor, are much more fixed.

PASTOR. My settled views about the highest things are--

DOCTOR. We'll leave settled views out of this. Madam, it rests with
you to decide whether your husband is guilty to the extent of
imprisonment and fine or should be put in an asylum! How do you
class his behavior?

LAURA. I cannot answer that now.

DOCTOR. That is to say you have no decided opinion as to what will
be most advantageous to the interests of the family? What do you
say, Pastor?

PASTOR. Well, there will be a scandal in either case. It is not
easy to say.

LAURA. But if he is only sentenced to a fine for violence, he will
be able to repeat the violence.

DOCTOR. And if he is sent to prison he will soon be out again.
Therefore we consider it most advantageous for all parties that he
should be immediately treated as insane. Where is the nurse?

LAURA. Why?

DOCTOR. She must put the straightjacket on the patient when I have
talked to him and given the order! But not before. I have--the--
garment out here. [Goes out into the hall rind returns with a large
bundle.] Please ask the nurse to come in here.

[Laura rings.]

PASTOR. Dreadful! Dreadful!

[Nurse comes in.]

DOCTOR [Takes out the straightjacket]. I want you to pay attention
to this. We want you to slip this jacket on the Captain, from
behind, you understand, when I find it necessary to prevent another
outbreak of violence. You notice it has very long sleeves to
prevent his moving and they are to be tied at the back. Here are
two straps that go through buckles which are afterwards fastened to
the arm of a chair or the sofa or whatever is convenient. Will you
do it?

NURSE. No, Doctor, I can't do that; I can't.

LAURA. Why don't you do it yourself, Doctor?

DOCTOR. Because the patient distrusts me. You, Madam, would seem to
be the one to do it, but I fear he distrusts even you.

[Laura's face changes for an instant.]

DOCTOR. Perhaps you, Pastor--

PASTOR. No, I must ask to be excused.

[Nöjd comes in.]

LAURA. Have you delivered the message already?

NÖJD. Yes, Madam.

DOCTOR. Oh, is it you, Nöjd? You know the circumstances here; you
know that the Captain is out of his mind and you must help us to
take care of him.

NÖJD. If there is anything I can do for the Captain, you may be
sure I will do it.

DOCTOR. You must put this jacket on him--

NURSE. No, he shan't touch him. Nöjd might hurt him. I would rather
do it myself, very, very gently. But Nöjd can wait outside and help
me if necessary. He can do that.

[There is loud knocking on the private door.]

DOCTOR. There he is! Put the jacket under your shawl on the chair,
and you must all go out for the time being and the Pastor and I
will receive him, for that door will not hold out many minutes. Now
go.

NURSE [Going out left.] The Lord help us!

[Laura locks desk, then goes out left. Nöjd goes out back. After a
moment the private door is forced open, with such violence that the
lock is broken and the chair is thrown into the middle of the room.
The Captain comes in with a pile of books under his arm, which he
puts on the table.]

CAPTAIN. The whole thing is to be read here, in every book. So I
wasn't out of my mind after all! Here it is in the Odyssey, book
first, verse 215, page 6 of the Upsala translation. It is
Telemachus speaking to Athene. "My mother indeed maintains that he,
Odysseus, is my father, but I myself know it not, for no man yet
hath known his own origin." And this suspicion is harbored by
Telemachus about Penelope, the most virtuous of women! Beautiful,
eh? And here we have the prophet Ezekiel: "The fool saith; behold
here is my father, but who can tell whose loins engendered him."
That's quite clear! And what have we here? The History of Russian
Literature by Mersläkow. Alexander Puschkin, Russia's greatest
poet, died of torture front the reports circulated about his wife's
unfaithfulness rather than by the bullet in his breast, from a
duel. On his death-bed he swore she was innocent. Ass, ass! How
could he swear to it? You see, I read my books. Ah, Jonas, art you
here? and the doctor, naturally. Have you heard what I answered
when an English lady complained about Irishmen who used to throw
lighted lamps in their wives' faces? "God, what women," I cried.
"Women," she gasped. "Yes, of course," I answered. "When things go
so far that a man, a man who loved and worshipped a woman, takes a
lighted lamp and throws it in her face, then one may know."

PASTOR. Know what?

CAPTAIN. Nothing. One never knows anything. One only believes.
Isn't that true, Jonas? One believes and then one is saved! Yes, to
be sure. No, I know that one can be damned by his faith. I know
that.

DOCTOR. Captain!

CAPTAIN. Silence! I don't want to talk to you; I won't listen to
you repeating their chatter in there, like a telephone! In there!
You know! Look here, Jonas; do you believe that you are the father
of your children? I remember that you had a tutor in your house who
had a handsome face, and the people gossiped about him.

PASTOR. Adolf, take care!

CAPTAIN. Grope under your toupee and feel if there are not two
bumps there. By my soul, I believe he turns pale! Yes, yes, they
will talk; but, good Lord, they talk so much. Still we are a lot of
ridiculous dupes, we married men. Isn't that true, Doctor? How was
it with your marriage bed? Didn't you have a lieutenant in the
house, eh? Wait a moment and I will make a guess--his name was--
[whispers in the Doctor's ear]. You see he turns pale, too! Don't
be disturbed. She is dead and buried and what is done can't be
undone. I knew him well, by the way, and he is now--look at me,
Doctor--No, straight in my eyes--a major in the cavalry! By God, if
I don't believe he has horns, too.

DOCTOR [Tortured]. Captain, won't you talk about something else?

CAPTAIN. Do you see? He immediately wants to talk of something else
when I mention horns.

PASTOR. Do you know, Adolf, that you are insane?

CAPTAIN. Yes; I know that well enough. But if I only had the
handling of your illustrious brains for awhile I'd soon have you
shut up, too! I am mad, but how did I become so? That doesn't
concern you, and it doesn't concern anyone. But you want to talk of
something else now. [Takes the photograph album from the table.]
Good Lord, that is my child! Mine? We can never know. Do you know
what we would have to do to make sure? First, one should marry to
get the respect of society, then be divorced soon after and become
lovers, and finally adopt the children. Then one would at least be
sure that they were one's adopted children. Isn't that right? But
how can all that help us now? What can keep me now that you have
taken my conception of immortality from me, what use is science and
philosophy to me when I have nothing to live for, what can I do
with life when I am dishonored? I grafted my right arm, half my
brain, half my marrow on another trunk, for I believed they would
knit themselves together and grow into a more perfect tree, and
then someone came with a knife and cut below the graft, and now I
am only half a tree. But the other half goes on growing with my arm
and half my brain, while I wither and die, for they were the best
parts I gave away. Now I want to die. Do with me as you will. I am
no more.

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