Courage And Cowardice
All successful drama consists of conflict, whether between or
within characters. Henrik Ibsen's works are no exception: among other
contests, each is marked by a struggle between the courage to act and
cowardice over the consequences of those actions. Each of Ibsen's plays
describes an early incident, either of courage or cowardice, which drives
the drama forward. The play as a whole then explores the repercussions of
that act, leading up to a final decision by the main character that
confirms the choice for either courage or cowardice.
A Doll's House, Ibsen's first great success, studies
Nora's early courage and her confirmation of that courage at the end of
the play. Nora's strength of character in forging her father's signature
on a loan, and the repercussions of that act, provide much of the driving
force for the drama. But Nora's great choice remains until the last act.
She speaks of "the most wonderful thing," she has countless
opportunities to escape from her dilemna through the assistance of
Krogstad or Rank, but it is not until the final pages of Act IV that her
final decision, and that resounding door slam, emphasize Nora's final
courageous choice to leave her husband and unhealthy marriage.
If A Doll's House takes an early act of courage as
its driving force, its successor, Ghosts, uses one of cowardice.
Mrs. Alving's early failure to reveal her husband's true character and
actions to his children provides the "tragic flaw" for the only
play Ibsen described as a "Tragedy." Much of the action in this
play -- Osvald's depression and disastrous love for Regine -- stems from
that early decision. Mrs. Alving spends much of the first two acts ago
nizing over her early cowardice -- "if we only had the courage to
sweep [the ghosts] all out and let in the light!" Mrs. Alving at
last brings herself to tell Osvald the truth about his father, but by then
it is too late. Her son is dying, and, bereft of any other company,
relies on her to help him end his misery. And the curtain slowly closes
on Mrs. Alving, still in agony in the cowardice of indecision, as
irresolute and uncertain at the end as she was in the beginning.
An Enemy of the People, Ibsen's next play, tries a
slightly different tack. Here the motivating incident -- Dr. Stockmann's
courageous decision to reveal that the baths are poisoned -- appears
during the first act, rather than before the opening curtain. The rest of
the play consists of a series of battles between Stockmann and those who
would draw him back to cowardice, to keeping the danger a secret. The
mayor blusters and threatens him, Aslaksen's timidity over angering those
in power gets in the way, Stockmann's wife advises him "there's so
much injustice in the world -- one must just put up with it," his
father-in-law, Morten Kiil, tries to blackmail him, and even Hovstad and
Billing, the bastions of the liberal press, fall prey to the cowardice
that infects the entire community. Stockmann does not make so much one
great decision, as the hero does in Ibsen's other plays, as several
smaller ones, leading to his and Petra's general spirit of courage and
resolution at the end of Act V.
One of Ibsen's later plays, Hedda Gabler, returns to
the usual pattern. The first few acts reveal Hedda's prior history as one
of cowardice -- she was jealous of Thea, because Thea has the love for
life Hedda cannot bring herself to feel; she broke off with Lovborg
because, as he says and she admits, she is "a coward at heart."
Hedda is unwilling, or rather afraid, to have a child: "No
responsibilities for me!" she tells Judge Brack. "Courage! If
one only had that... then life might perhaps be endurable, after
all...." she admits. She has none, and her life does indeed prove
unendurable. Hedda's suicide is the last expression of her cowardice, her
fear of, rather than joy in, life.
Ibsen's plays are studies in the conflict of courage and cowardice.
His main characters choose one or the other, and then are relentlessly
hounded by the consequences of that decision, forced to reinforce their
choice again and again. Each play builds on half of the pair, whether it
be courage in A Doll's House and An Enemy of the
People or cowardice in Ghosts and Hedda
Gabler, though the other half always makes inroads, trying to
swerve the characters' course. It is Ibsen's talent at setting up these
conflicts and posing the difficulties that make him a great dramatist.