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    When We Dead Awaken
    When We Dead Awaken
    When We Dead Awaken
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    When We Dead Awaken

    By Henrik Ibsen

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    "When We Dead Awaken" was Henrik Ibsen's final drama, which was first published in 1899. It is the story of a married couple, Arnold and Maia Rubek who while traveling find themselves romantically drawn to others, in the case of Maia it is Ulfheim, a brutal hunter, who is the object of her desire, for Arnold it is Irene, a beautiful woman from his past. In these desires the two find themselves questioning the choices that they have made in life and whether or not they have ever really lived at all. One of Ibsen's most despairing plays; in its tragic conclusion it is as if Ibsen is asking if the fulfillment of life's desires is ever really achievable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781596747166
    Author

    Henrik Ibsen

    Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) is the Norwegian playwright deemed the “father of realism.” Born in Skien, Norway, Ibsen was exiled in 1862 to Italy, where he wrote the tragedy Brand. After moving to Germany in 1868, he wrote A Doll’s House (1879), one of his most famous works; Hedda Gabler (1890), the title character of which is one of theater’s most notorious roles; and many other plays. In 1891, Ibsen returned to Norway, where he remained until his death.

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      Book preview

      When We Dead Awaken - Henrik Ibsen

      WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN

      BY HENRIK IBSEN

      TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM ARCHER

      A Digireads.com Book

      Digireads.com Publishing

      Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-3086-3

      Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59674-716-6

      This edition copyright © 2011

      Please visit www.digireads.com

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION.

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

      ACT I.

      ACT II.

      ACT III.

      WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN

      INTRODUCTION.

      From Pillars of Society to John Gabriel Borkman, Ibsen’s plays had followed each other at regular intervals of two years, save when his indignation over the abuse heaped upon Ghosts reduced to a single year the interval between that play and An Enemy of the People. John Gabriel Borkman having appeared in 1896, its successor was expected in 1898; but Christmas came and brought no rumour of a new play. In a man now over seventy, this breach of a long-established habit seemed ominous. The new National Theatre in Christiania was opened in September of the following year; and when I then met Ibsen (for the last time) he told me that he was actually at work on a new play, which he thought of calling a Dramatic Epilogue. "He wrote When We Dead Awaken, says Dr. Elias, with such labour and such passionate agitation, so spasmodically and so feverishly, that those around him were almost alarmed. He must get on with it, he must get on! He seemed to hear the beating of dark pinions over his head. He seemed to feel the grim Visitant, who had accompanied Alfred Allmers on the mountain paths, already standing behind him with uplifted hand. His relatives are firmly convinced that he knew quite clearly that this would be his last play, that he was to write no more. And soon the blow fell."

      The Literary Remains contain some preliminary jottings for When We Dead Awaken, and a rejected draft of the final scene. From the jottings it appears that the play was to have been called The Resurrection Day, and that Ibsen originally thought of introducing at least two characters whom he ultimately suppressed—the Physician at the Baths, a youngish, intelligent man, and the Tattling Lady from the capital who is considered immensely amusing by the patients, and is malicious out of thoughtlessness. At the end of a rough scenario of the first act there occurs the following curious reflection; In this country it is only the mountains which have any resonance [literally give and echo] not the people. In the draft of the last scene, Rubek, Irene, Ulfheim and Maia are all assembled outside Ulfheim's hut. The fragment begins thus:

      MAIA. (interrupting) Is it not strange that we four should meet here in the middle of the wild mountains?

      RUBEK. You with an eagle-shooter, and I with—(to IRENE)—with what shall I say?

      IRENE. With a shot eagle.

      MAIA. Shot?

      IRENE. Winged, madam.

      ULFHEIM unlocks the hut, and produces from it champagne and glasses, which he fills.

      ULFHEIM. (to MAIA) What shall we drink to, honoured lady?

      MAIA. Let us drink to freedom! (She empties her glass at one draught.)

      RUBEK. Yes, let us drink to freedom. (He drinks.)

      IRENE. And to the courage which dares to use it. (She takes a sip from her glass and pours the rest on the ground.)

      After ULFHEIM and MAIA have departed, RUBEK and IRENE have a last conversation which ends thus:—

      IRENE. The craving for life is dead in me. Now I have arisen, and I see that life lies a corpse. The whole of life lies on its bier—(The clouds droop slowly down in the form of a clammy mist). See how the shroud is drooping over us, too! But I will not die over again, Arnold!—Save me! Save me, if you can and if you will!

      RUBEK. Above the mists I see the mountain peak. It stands there glittering in the sunrise, We must climb to it—through the night mists, up into the light of morning.

      The mists droop closer and closer over the scene. RUBEK and IRENE descend into the mist-veil and are gradually lost to sight.

      The SISTER OF MERCY'S head, spying, comes in sight in a rift in the mist.

      High up above the sea of the mist, the peak shines in the morning sun.

      And that is the end.

      When We Dead Awaken was published very shortly before Christmas 1899. He had still a year of comparative health before him. We find him in March 1900, writing to Count Prozor: I cannot say yet whether or not I shall write another drama; but if I continue to retain the vigour of body and mind which I at present enjoy, I do not imagine that I shall be able to keep permanently away from the old battlefields. However, if I were to make my appearance again, it would be with new weapons and in new armour. Was he hinting at the desire, which he had long ago confessed to Professor Herford, that his last work should be a drama in verse? Whatever his dream, it was not to be realised. His last letter (defending his attitude of philosophic impartiality with regard to the South African war) is dated December 9, 1900. With the dawn of the new century, the curtain descended upon the mind of the great dramatic poet of the age which had passed away.

      When We Dead Awaken was acted during 1900 at most of the leading theatres in Scandinavia and Germany. In some German cities (notably in Frankfort on Main) it even attained a considerable number of representatives. I cannot learn, however, that it has anywhere held the stage. It was produced in London, by the State Society, at the Imperial Theatre, on January 25 and 26, 1903. Mr. G. S. Titheradge played Rubek, Miss Henrietta Watson Irene, Miss Mabel Hackney Maia, and Mr. Laurence Irving Ulfheim. In New York it was acted at the Knickerbocker Theatre, the part of Irene being taken

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