Rosmersholm

“ From the point of view which would enter sympathetically into the soul of Ibsen and look out on the world from his eyes, there is no one of his plays more valuable in its purely theoretic way than Rosmersholm. It dissects the decrepitude of ancient formulas, it surveys the ruin of ancient faiths. The curse of heredity lies upon Rosmer, who is highly intelligent up to a certain point, but who can go no further. Even if he is persuaded that a new course of action would be salutary, he cannot move—he is bound in invisible chains. ”

“ There are, no doubt, many women like Ellida Wangel or xvHedda Gabler; but it is as individuals, not as members of a class, that they interest us; nor is their fate conditioned, like that of Nora or Mrs. Alving, by any social prejudice or pressure. But in Rosmersholm man is still considered as a “political animal.” The play, as we have seen, actually took its rise as a protest against a morbid condition of the Norwegian public mind, as observed by the poet at a particular point of time. ”

“ But Brendel is so clearly a piece of the poet’s own “devilment” as he used to call it, that it is rather idle to look for his “original.” The scene of the play is said to have been suggested to Ibsen by an old family seat near Molde. Be this as it may, Dr. Brandes is certainly mistaken in declaring that there is no such “castle” as Rosmersholm in Norway, and thence arguing that Ibsen had begun to write for a cosmopolitan rather than a Norwegian audience. Rosmersholm is not a “castle” at all; and old houses such as Ibsen describes are far from uncommon. ”

“ Rosmer (standing face to face with him) . Listen to me. For considerably more than a year to be precise, since Beata's death—Rebecca West and I have lived here alone at Rosmersholm. All that time you have known of the charge Beata made against us; but I have never for one moment seen you appear the least scandalised at our living together here.
Kroll. I never knew, till yesterday evening, that it was a case of an apostate man and an "emancipated" woman living together.
Rosmer. Ah! So then you do not believe in any purity of life among apostates or emancipated folk? ”

“ But first and foremost, of course, the play is a creative work, dealing with human beings and human destinies.”
Dr. George Brandes is our authority for associating Rosmersholm with the social episode above alluded to—an episode which came within Ibsen’s ken just while the play was in process of gestation. A Swedish nobleman, personally known to Ibsen, and remarkable for that amenity and distinction of manner which he attributes to Rosmer, had been unhappily married to a lady who shared none of his interests, and was intellectually quite unsympathetic to him. ”

“ No matter how autobiographical some of his best plays may be, he is too good an artist to allow them to lean on his personal experience; they have to stand firmly on their own feet. Ibsen, therefore, worked his conceptions to such a degree of hardness and self-consistency that he could detach them from himself and study them impersonally. That is why his plays are models of form. And if there be an Academy of Letters that takes its duties seriously, Rosmersholm and Ghosts are, we presume, in the hands of every young person within its sphere of influence. ”

“ May I announce in the “Beacon” that there has been a change in your views—that you have joined the party of freedom and progress?
Rosmer. Certainly you may. In fact, I beg you to make the announcement.
Mortensgård. Then it shall appear in to-morrow’s paper. It 73will cause a great sensation when it’s known that Pastor Rosmer of Rosmersholm is prepared to take up arms for the cause of light, in that sense too.
Rosmer. I don’t quite understand you.
Mortensgård. I mean that the moral position of our party is greatly strengthened whenever we gain an adherent of serious, Christian principles. ”

“ Rebecca, glorious heroine according to some admirers, "criminal, thief and murderess," as another admirer pleonastically describes her, is a sort of troll; nobody can explain—and yet an explanation seems requisite—what she does in the house of Rosmer. In his eagerness to work out a certain sequence of philosophical ideas, the playwright for once neglected to be plausible. It is a very remarkable feature of Rosmersholm that in it, for the first time, and almost for the last, Ibsen, in the act of theorizing, loses his hold upon reality. ”

“ Of course I thought the whole thing was merely wild, empty fancy—until yesterday evening.
Rosmer. Then you do not think so any longer?
Kroll. Did not Beata see clearly enough, when she saw that you were going to fall away from your childhood's faith?
Rosmer (staring in front of him) . Yes, I cannot understand that. It is the most incomprehensible thing in the world to me.
Kroll. Incomprehensible or not, the thing is true. And now I ask you, Rosmer, how much truth is there in her other accusation?—the last one, I mean. ”

“ Rosmer.
[Softly.] Be the new and living reality. It is the only way to put Beata out of the Saga. Shall we try it?
Rebecca.
Never! Do not—do not ask me why—for I haven't a notion—but never! [Nods slowly to him and rises.] White Horses would not induce me! [With her hand on door-handle.] Now you know!
[She goes out.
Rosmer.
[Sits up, stares, thunderstruck, at the stove, and says to himself.] Well—I—am——
Quick Curtain.
ACT THREE Sitting-room at Rosmershölm. Sun shining outside in the Garden. Inside Rebecca West is watering a geranium with a small watering-pot. ”

“ Rebecca. But how can you so accuse yourself for Beata's delusions?
Rosmer. It was for love of me—in her own way that—she threw herself into the mill-race. That fact is certain, Rebecca. I can never get beyond that.
Rebecca. Oh, do not think of anything else but the great, splendid task that you are going to devote your life to!
Rosmer (shaking his head) . It can never be carried through. Not by me. Not after what I know now.
Rebecca. Why not by you?
Rosmer. Because no cause can ever triumph which has its beginnings in guilt. ”

“ Rosmer. Have you the courage—are you willing—gladly, as Ulrik Brendel said—for my sake, to-night—gladly—to go the same way—that Beata went!
Rebecca (gets up slowly from the couch, and says almost inaudibly) : John—!
Rosmer. Yes, dear—that is the question I shall never be able to rid my thoughts of, when you have gone away. Every hour of the day I shall come back to it. Ah, I seem to see you bodily before me—standing out on the foot-bridge-right out in the middle. Now you lean out over the railing! You grow dizzy as you feel drawn down towards the mill-race! ”

“ I think it might be done. What happiness it would be to live one's life, then! No more hateful strife—only emulation; every eye fixed on the same goal; every man's will, every man's thoughts moving forward-upward—each in its own inevitable path Happiness for all—and through the efforts of all! (Looks out of the window as he speaks, then gives a start and says gloomily:) Ah! not through me.
Rebecca. Not—not through you?
Rosmer. Nor for me, either.
Rebecca. Oh, John, have no such doubts.
Rosmer. Happiness, dear Rebecca, means first and foremost the calm, joyous sense of innocence. ”

“ Rosmer. And it was this life of intimacy, with one another and for one another, that we took to be friendship. No, dear—the tie between us has been a spiritual marriage—perhaps from the very first day. That is why I am guilty. I had no right to it—no right to it for Beata's sake.
Rebecca. No right to a happy life? Do you believe that, John? ”

“ Kroll. You? I should think you did!
Rebecca. And as long as Mr. Rosmer finds I can be any comfort or any use to him, I will gladly remain here, undoubtedly.
Kroll (looking at her, with some emotion) . You know, there is something splendid about a woman's sacrificing the whole of her youth for others.
Rebecca. What else have I had to live for?
Kroll. At first when you came here there was your perpetual worry with that unreasonable cripple of a foster-father of yours—
Rebecca. You mustn't think that Dr. West was as unreasonable as that when we lived in Finmark. ”

“ Rosmer. Is that really true, Kroll? But why have you kept so obstinately away from us?
Kroll (seriously, and in, a subdued voice) . Because I did not want to come here like a living reminder of the unhappy time that is past—and of her who met her death in the mill-race.
Rosmer. It was a very kind thought on your part. You are always so considerate. But it was altogether unnecessary to keep away from us on that account. Come along, let us sit down on the sofa. (They sit down.) I can assure you it is not in the least painful for me to think about Beata. We talk about her every day. ”

“ Kroll. Yes, only test yourself, and you will see! And if it is true in your case, it is easy to recognise how true it must be in John Rosmer's. Of course it is madness, pure and simple. He will be running headlong to his ruin if he persists in coming openly forward and proclaiming himself an apostate! Just think of it—he, with his shy disposition! Think of HIM disowned—hounded out of the circle to which he has always belonged—exposed to the uncompromising attacks of all the best people in the place. Nothing would ever make him the man to endure that.
Rebecca. He MUST endure it! ”

“ Rebecca. But, Mr. Kroll, you know how little taste Mr. Rosmer has for that sort of thing.
Kroll. Then he has got to overcome that distaste now. You do not keep abreast of the times, John. You sit here and bury yourself in your historical researches. Goodness knows, I have the greatest respect for family pedigrees and all that they imply. But this is not the time for such occupations, unhappily. You have no conception of the state of affairs that is going on all over the country. Every single idea is turned upside down, or very nearly so. ”

“ Rosmer—
Rebecca. Ah!
Mrs. Helseth. What I mean is this—if a man can go over to Mortensgaard's religion, you may believe him capable of anything. And that's the truth.
Rebecca. Yes, very likely. But about me? What have you got to say about me?
Mrs. Helseth. Well, I am sure, miss—I do not think you are so greatly to be blamed. It is not always so easy for a lone woman to resist, I dare say. We are all human after all, Miss West.
Rebecca. That is very true, Mrs. Helseth. We are all human, after all.—What are you listening to? ”

“ Rosmer (laying down the paper) . Rebecca, this is the conduct of dishonourable men.
Rebecca. Yes, it seems to me they have no right to talk about Mortensgaard.
Rosmer (walking up and down the room) . They must be saved from this sort of thing. All the good that is in men is destroyed, if it is allowed to go on. But it shall not be so! How happy—how happy I should feel if I could succeed in bringing a little light into all this murky ugliness.
Rebecca (getting up) . I am sure of it. There is something great, something splendid, for you to live for!
Rosmer. ”

“ Kroll. Did that affect him so deeply, then?
Rebecca. Of course. A man of such gentle disposition as he—
Kroll. I imagined that one of your so-called "emancipated" men would know how to overcome any scruples. But there it is! Oh, yes—as a matter of fact it turned out just as I expected. The descendant of the men who are looking at us from these walls need not think he can break loose from what has been handed down as an inviolable inheritance from generation to generation.
Rebecca (looking thoughtfully in front of her) . John Rosmer's nature is deeply rooted in his ancestors. ”

“ Rebecca (standing behind him, with her arms on the back of his chair) . How beautiful it was when we used to sit there downstairs in the dusk—and helped each other to plan our lives out afresh. You wanted to catch hold of actual life—the actual life of the day, as you used to say. You wanted to pass from house to house like a guest who brought emancipation with him—to win over men's thoughts and wills to your own—to fashion noble men all around you, in a wider and wider circle—noble men!
Rosmer. Noble men and happy men. ”

“ Does my own boy not know that wherever Ulrik Brendel stands he is always in earnest about it? Look here, I mean to become a new man now—to emerge from the cloak of reserve in which I have hitherto shrouded myself.
Rosmer. In what way?
Brendel. I mean to take an active part in life—to step forward—to look higher. The atmosphere we breathe is heavy with storms. I want now to offer my mite upon the altar of emancipation.
Kroll. You too?
Brendel (to them all) . Has your public here any intimate acquaintance with my scattered writings?
Kroll. No, I must candidly confess that—
Rebecca. ”

“ Kroll. Does she really?
Rebecca (lighting the lamp) . Yes, it is really quite true.
Rosmer. She really does. We both think so affectionately of her. And both Rebecca—both Miss West and I know in our hearts that we did all that lay in our power for the poor afflicted creature. We have nothing to reproach ourselves with. That is why I feel there is something sweet and peaceful in the way we can think of Beata now.
Kroll. You dear good people! In future I am coming out to see you every day.
Rebecca (sitting down in an arm-chair) . Yes, let us see that you keep your word. ”