The Father

It's wonderful how, the moment you talk about God and love, your voice becomes hard, and your eyes fill with hatred. No, Margret, you certainly haven't the true faith.

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?

One gets more and more humble the longer one lives, and in the shadow of death many things look different.

Ah woe is me, how sad a thing Is life within this vale of tears, Death’s angel triumphs like a king, And calls aloud to all the spheres— Vanity, all is vanity. Yes,

All that on earth hath life and breath To earth must fall before his spear, And sorrow, saved alone from death, Inscribes above the mighty bier. Vanity, all is vanity. Yes,

Ah, what is then this earthly life, But grief, affliction and great strife? E’en when fairest it has seemed, Nought but pain it can be deemed.

Because the child bound us together; but the link became a chain.

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 unfortunately, I am a man, and there is nothing for me to do but, like a Roman, fold my arms across my breast and hold my breath till I die. DOCTOR.

Do you suppose that he would have spoken if he had been alive? And do you suppose that if any of the dead husbands came back they would be believed?

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.

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.

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.

Now you have fulfilled your function as an unfortunately necessary father and breadwinner, you are not needed any longer and you must go.

You do much worse things- you who can see to other planets."- Bertha, "The Father

This house is full of women who all want to have their say about my child.

PASTOR. And because she is your wife she is the best of wives? No, my dear fellow, it is she who really wears on you most. CAPTAIN.

LAURA. There are some circumstances in a family which through honor and conscience one is forced to conceal from the whole world—— DOCTOR.

DOCTOR. Exactly. One can make the insane believe anything, just because they are receptive to everything. LAURA.

NURSE. There, there, there. A father has something besides his child, but a mother has nothing but her child. CAPTAIN.

CAPTAIN. Well, you dear, have I forgotten it? You have been like a mother to me, and always have stood by me when I had everybody against me, but now, when I really need you, you desert me and go over to the enemy. NURSE.

CAPTAIN. It’s a strange thing that you no sooner speak of God and love than your voice becomes hard and your eyes fill with hate. No, Margret, surely you have not the true faith. NURSE.

LAURA. Because the mother is closer to the child, as it has been discovered that no one can tell for a certainty who the father of a child is. CAPTAIN.

LAURA. Suppose that I was prepared to bear anything, even to being despised and driven out, everything for the sake of being able to keep and control my child, and that I am truthful now when I declare that Bertha is my child, but not yours. Suppose—— CAPTAIN.

LAURA. Oh, we women are really too clever. CAPTAIN.

LAURA. Yes, it’s queer, but I have never looked at a man without knowing myself to be his superior. CAPTAIN.

My daughter became my enemy when she had to choose between me and you. And you, my wife, you have been my archenemy, because you never let up on me till I lay here lifeless. LAURA.

Oh, it is sweet to sleep against a woman’s breast, a mother’s, or a mistress’s, but the mother’s is sweetest. LAURA.

My child? A man has no children, it is only woman who has children, and therefore the future is hers when we die childless.