Ibsen Journal 5

No reading tonight, but we'll be reading Act 5 tomorrow night if you want to get ahead.

Tomorrow we'll finish the presentations and discuss the text.  I would like you to consider the following quotations for tomorrow as a starting place for our discussion, but we will probably branch off into some of the other topics as well.

Quotations:

Gina: Oh, well, he has plenty and to spare, he has.
Hjalmar: Light the lamp for me, please!
Gina [ (lighting the lamp).]: And, of course, we don't know as it's Mr. Werle himself; it may be Graberg --
Hjalmar: Why attempt such an evasion?
Gina: I don't know; I only thought -
Hjalmar: H'm!
Gina: It wasn't me that got grandfather that copying. It was Bertha, when she used to come about us.
Hjalmar: It seems to me your voice is trembling.
Gina [ (putting the lamp-shade on).] Is it?
Hjalmar: And your hands are shaking, are they not?
Gina[ (firmly).]: Come right out with it, Ekdal. What has he been saying about me?
Hjalmar: Is it true - can it be true that - that there was an - an understanding between you and Mr. Werle, while you were in service there?
Gina: That's not true. Not at that time. Mr. Werle did come after me, that's a fact. And his wife thought there was something in it, and then she made such a hocus-pocus and hurly-burly, and she hustled me and bustled me about so that I left her service.
Hjalmar: But afterwards, then?
Gina: Well, then I went home. And mother - well, she wasn't the woman you took her for, Ekdal; she kept on worrying and worrying at me about one thing and another - for Mr. Werle was a widower by that time.
Hjalmar: Well, and then?
Gina: I suppose you've got to know it. He gave me no peace until he'd had his way.
Hjalmar:[ (striking his hands together): And this is the mother of my child! How could you hide this from me?

2.
Gina: Do you repent of the fourteen -- the fifteen years we've lived together? Hjalmar [ (placing himself in front of her).]: Have you not every day, every hour, repented of the spider's-web of deceit you have spun around me? Answer me that! How could you help writhing with penitence and remorse? Gina Oh, my dear Ekdal, I've had all I could do to look after the house and get through the day's work --
Hjalmar: Then you never think of reviewing your past?
Gina: No; Heaven knows I'd almost forgotten those old stories.
Hjalmar: Oh, this dull, callous contentment! To me there is something revolting about it. Think of it -- never so much as a twinge of remorse!

3.
Hjalmar:  I want to know whether -- your child has the right to live under my roof.
Gina[ (draws herself up; her eyes flash).]:You ask that!
Hjalmar: You shall answer me this one question: Does Hedvig belong to me -- or -- ? Well!
Gina:[ (looking at him with cold defiance).] I don't know.
Hjalmar:[ (quivering a little).] You don't know!
Gina: How should I know. A creature like me --
Hjalmar:[ (quietly turning away from her).] Then I have nothing more to do in this house.
Gregers: Take care, Hialmar! Think what you are doing!
Hjalmar[ (puts on his overcoat).]: In this case, there is nothing for a man like me to think twice about.

4. (ACT 3)
Werle: Is it I, then, that have crippled your mind, Gregers?
Gregers: You have crippled my whole life. I am not thinking of all that about mother -- But it's thanks to you that I am continually haunted and harassed by a guilty conscience.
Werle: Indeed! It is your conscience that troubles you, is it?
Gregers: I ought to have taken a stand against you when the trap was set for Lieutenant Ekdal. I ought to have cautioned him; for I had a misgiving as to what was in the wind.
Werle:Yes, that was the time to have spoken.
Gregers: I did not dare to, I was so cowed and spiritless. I was mortally afraid of you -- not only then, but long afterwards.
Werle: You have got over that fear now, it appears.
Gregers: Yes, fortunately. The wrong done to old Ekdal, both by me and by -- others, can never be undone; but Hialmar I can rescue from all the falsehood and deception that are bringing him to ruin.
Werle: Do you think that will be doing him a kindness?
Gregers: I have not the least doubt of it. Werle: You think our worthy photographer is the sort of man to appreciate such friendly offices?
Gregers: Yes, I do.
Werle: H'm -- we shall see.
Gregers: Besides, if I am to go on living, I must try to find some cure for my sick conscience.
Werle: It will never be sound. Your conscience has been sickly from childhood. That is a legacy from your mother, Gregers -- the only one she left you.