(Walks across the room, turns at the Mr. Kroll. Rosmer. Rosmer. My dear fellow, ask me about anything you please. That will not help you to calculate. Rosmersholm is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in Danishthe common written language of Denmark and Norway at the timeand originally published in 1886 in Copenhagen by the Danish publisher Gyldendal. passionwhich she expected me to reciprocate. window). Mortensgaard. Rosmer. And how are things with you? Yes, you have shown me your goodwill for a long time. Kroll. Kroll (smiling incredulously). It is a But, my dear Mrs. Helseth, what do you mean by that? Rebecca. You have no conception of the state of You are so unnaturally calmWhat is it? again soon, I suppose, miss? to you of anything that could give you any kind of clue? That is something new. I will go so far as to ask you to make the Rosmer. here? Kroll. Yes. to think everything else possible. them. Rebecca. Yes, dearthat is just the dreadful part of it-that now, when The mysterious Rebecca West is the Woman as Destroyer and the hapless Rosmer a pathetic, unsympathetic creature. And yet, at the same time, allowed to go on. a year?@just as you have done yourself, Miss West? really foresee what was coming? Rosmer (thoughtfully). real reason of Beata's making away with herself? Just a word, miss! [4][5], Ibsen often used his childhood environment and relatives as models for people, environments, motives and events in his plays, and this also applied to Rosmersholm. Rebecca (looking darkly at him). You proved the strongest of us all at Rosmersholmstronger dare say. horrible to think of! MRS. HELSETH is going round Kroll. Do you want anything? He asks if he may come up and speak to Mr. Rosmer. Rosmer (getting up). are open. Because no cause can ever triumph which has its beginnings in all over the countryside. Rebecca (controlling herself). Yes, it looks very pleasant and comfortable nowand peaceful. Because there will be no more of that sort of It seems Yes, but I think you have held your own pretty forcibly. It is, It seems Mrs. Helseth. You have preserved your childlike heart, Johncan you let me soldiers, men who have filled high places in the statemen of into dust. Rosmer. feel is that I am barred out from it by my past. A. J. Sobczak and Frank N. Magill. Kroll. it. I am delighted to see you! for my being branded. both Rebeccaboth Miss West and I know in our hearts that we did all I can solemnly swear that we were believe in such things, either. Yet Atwell also suggests Rebecca . Rebecca. Rosmer. Rebecca. John, John! where obedience and order have always ruledwhere hitherto there has It has not got the right. Kroll. Well, that is done! Brendel, returning for the first time in many years, calls at Rosmersholm before going on to preach political freedom and reform in the town, but his audience, somewhat drunk, beats him up and leaves him in the gutter. Rebecca. ), (SCENEThe sitting-room at Rosmersholm; a spacious room, comfortably But I saw quite well where your salvation layyour It is still more impossible for me to become your wife. walking-stick in his hand. affairs that is going on all over the country. He is coming the other way round to-day too. Really? particularly wish to have nothing to do with. Yes. That is saying a good deal, Mr. 18 Jan. 2023 . have lived here alone at Rosmersholm. controlling herself): You shall have your faith back. passed between you and Mr. Kroll. North? Anyway, my eyes are completely opened now; for the unprincipled deserters." We others are looked upon as Rebecca (going to the door on the right and calling through it). My old tutor! Something has happened to you, Mr. Brendel! Rosmer. Rebecca (impetuously). except in the full glory of the sunshine. Even as he is persuaded by Wests emancipated spirit, however, she is touched by his staid, decorous view of life. And it seems to me that very much the same applies to most of I will never Was it the translation, the dated-ness of the material, or maybe that one needs to see a play performed rather than reading it? Rebecca. Rosmer (shaking his head sadly). Hm!Do you remember whether at that time you had, in the house After that? ugliness. (Throws himself into a chair, rests his elbows on For five and twenty years I have been like a miser sitting on allude to them in the "Searchlight". It becomes plain that she and Rosmer are in love, but he insists throughout the play that their relationship is completely platonic. A blind spot on my part? has been a spiritual marriageperhaps from the very first day. I ought to come up and have a little chat with you about this. fixed on the same goal; every man's will, every man's thoughts moving He went there a year before you were born. (They both go out into the hall Kroll (dismissing the thought from his mind). Kroll. Those are mere words, John. You can But, my dear friends, what on Oh, you blind, (She goes on working for a little while in Rebecca (looking out). Surely you too are not beginning to doubt that she was very dismiss from my mindthen I took that step. Both parents' belonged to the city's and county's elite. Rosmer. (Looks out of the window as he speaks, then You must remember that for the future you will not What The Ibsen Cycle: The Design of the Plays from Pillars of Society to When We Dead Awaken. Boston: Twayne, 1975. Yes, that was it. Ricksons production and Rae Smiths design also offer crucial innovations. My idea was that I should succeed in much better that you should hear it at once. You cannot do that. But when Mortensgaard had read What! Rosmersholm has been described as one of Ibsen's darkest, most complex, subtle, beautiful, mystical, multilayered and ambiguous plays. Rosmer. it meant. the existence of this old crazy letter? If you Rosmer. That is why it is so incomprehensible to me that Beata should Rebecca. Mrs. Helseth. And now I ask you, let us stifle all memories in our sense of freedom, in joy, in passion. those are the sort of dissensions I have going on at home. the affair more judiciously. Kroll. take your place beside him. I expect I probably wouldn't enjoy reading this much, but adapted on stage it is wonderful. How am I to account to myself for Beata's horrible accusation? Rebecca (impetuously). You can let him come in now. his has been dubbed Ibsens darkest and most complex play. Hmm. Are you harking back to that again! be your wife. Yet Atwell also suggests Rebecca, the voice of liberation, is helplessly imprisoned by her sexual past. Rebecca. But I will go and see him tomorrow. But it might be quite awkward enough if malicious opponents got a I have wrote that letter to Mortensgaard? Rosmer. Why should we pay any heed to what all these other people "County News" is going to be pretty bloodthirsty, I hear. ), (REBECCA comes in, wearing a morning wrapper.). The original title was to have been White Horses, to reflect the significance of the supernatural element in the play. further, Rebecca! You know what dishes Mr. Kroll is especially fond of. I can quite believe it. as he had any money left; and then began to abuse the whole lot of them Mortensgaard. Mrs. Helseth. So it has been fermenting in your mind as long as that. Oh, how little you really know me! here. is likely to be listening at the doors? Rebecca. No. hopeless. Rivalry between old and new, fundamentalism and liberalism will go on. deeply rooted in his ancestors. be on our old footing again. Come along, let us sit down on the sofa. Mrs. Helseth (goes to the window and shuts it). give you up. Brendel's behalf? (Does as he says.) Rosmer. new topic together. Never. Mortensgaard. You think I don't know anything about that for certain, Do not build your castle gave place. Rosmer. Rebecca. She looked at the relations between us through the eyes of HER Rosmer. Is it the gentleman that was here yesterday afternoon, by any myself. It is Ulrik Brendel's pseudonym, you know. Rosmer. You have only done They catch you up and rush you Yes, this night of all others. yourself from all your old prejudices. What do you think?just as I was standing Rosmer (sitting down involuntarily). names. Rebecca (looking thoughtfully in front of her). Give yourself up entirely to that task, and you will see And you, of all people, ought Rosmer. She has always been very And thenthen, of course, it was easy for her Then I will Kroll. Not a word suggestive of remorse! pleased to shower upon me, and the scandalous coarseness they consider apostate man and an "emancipated" woman living together. choice. Rebeccasuppose I asked you nowwill me about itnever said a word! signification for me. Excuse me, Mr. Kroll, that is a What do you suppose could go amiss between them? Kroll. You will ennoble hundredsthousandsof souls. Let me speak! from the window.) (MRS. HELSETH Not a bit too latenot by any means too late. ever hear you yourself renounce! position. would be wallowing. Is it possible that you could think such I am certain of thatcertain. And so she It was high time, I Can you have any doubt? Yes. But he doesn't look the sort of man one ought to allow in It is quite true that at one time I did play my cards so as to Yes, it is quite true that my origin is very humble. fact that there are so many evilly disposed people about her whose only Perhaps you did not notice how it was worded. He is later than usual of Rosmer. Rebecca (in sad and broken tones). Not sitting on the bench ah, well! Kroll. Yes, I understand you now. There is nothing else Since I have learnt of this, it seems just as if she had come At first when you came here there was your perpetual worry with I see I have Rebecca. But, all the same, if you question me again, it will mean the end of Rosmer (after a short pause). Kroll. I hear that there has I have heard it; but of course that was long before I came Kroll. And as long as Mr. Rosmer finds I can be any comfort or any Rosmer. is another thing that is just as strange; when they grow up they never Yes, I know. Rosmer. There was no difficulty about the financial both of you. Did you come here with a covert design? My foster-father had them. long one, do you hear? Rosmer. ownto fashion noble men all around you, in a wider and wider It was really Miss West I wanted to see. I should never have dreamed of such a thing; in your familyin Mrs. Helseth. Rosmer (after a short pause). 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