The father (Strindberg)
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| Title: | The father |
| Original title: | Fadren |
| Genus: | tragedy |
| Original language: | Swedish |
| Author: | August Strindberg |
| Publishing year: | 1887 |
| Premiere: | November 14, 1887 |
| Place of premiere: | Copenhagen |
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Der Vater (original Swedish title Fadren ) is a drama by August Strindberg , which premiered on November 14, 1887 in Copenhagen and premiered on October 12, 1890 in Berlin . The play consists of three acts .
action
The three-act play takes place in the living room of the Rittmeister's house.
1st act
Nöjd had a relationship with Emma, who is now pregnant . However, he questions his fatherhood and draws Ludwig into the relationship. The court should ultimately decide. Rittmeister and pastor discuss the family situation in the house. There are also some ambiguities in the marriage between Laura and Rittmeister. The Rittmeister wants to get his daughter Bertha out of the house because she should become something sensible - a teacher. Laura, on the other hand, wants her daughter to become an artist / painter. The main conflict in the house is that men and women are played off against each other every day.
The pastor leaves the house, the Rittmeister begins to calculate. Laura comes into the room and the next argument begins, this time about the tenant who doesn't pay. The Rittmeister then tells that their daughter is to come to town. In the evening the new doctor comes to dinner. Laura tells him her husband is insane and that he buys loads of books. When the Rittmeister comes into the room, he reports on his discovery of the meteorites. Then he meets the wet nurse in the hallway, who brings up the subject of the daughter and Laura again. However, this degenerates into a dispute. Suddenly they hear Bertha screaming. She claims that the grandmother wants to harm her. So they come to talk about the city, Bertha wants to go. But Laura, who comes in, is not very enthusiastic. So she claims that the Rittmeister does not know whether he is definitely Bertha's father. Full of anger, he orders the boy to harness the sled.
2nd act
In the conversation between Laura and the country doctor, she turns the previous conversation between her and the Rittmeister in her favor. In the meantime Bertha comes to the wet nurse Margret because she thinks there is a ghost in the house. When the Rittmeister comes home, he indirectly talks to the doctor about his paternity and past (horse and zebra). Laura listens at the door, but this does not remain hidden from the Rittmeister. The two of them are discussed and he remembers that they spoke to the lawyer at the time about his property and inheritance in the event of death. He also accuses her of someone else being Bertha's father. Laura, on the other hand, declares him insane and swears he is the father.
They then talk about the time when he was sick and she assumed more of a motherhood than a woman. So she was the superior. When the Rittmeister woke up and wanted to get his honor back, Laura resisted. She admits that she hates him sometimes and he comes to the conclusion that one of them will lose the power struggle - the weaker one. Laura already sees herself as a winner and threatens to incapacitate him. Full of anger, he throws a lamp at Laura, who has withdrawn through the door next door.
3rd act
The nurse steals the key to the secretary from the Rittmeister's jacket, Laura barricades the doors and opens the drawers with the finances. Upstairs you can hear saws. The doctor, Laura and the pastor decide to put a straitjacket on him, then they consider taking him to the insane asylum or prison . Suddenly the Rittmeister stands in the room with a pile of books and reads from them, as proof that he had not collected them but read them. In desperation, he gives her the choice of killing him. Bertha enters the room and asks why he threw the lamp and whether he was sick. She unconsciously says that if he talks like this, he is not her father, but Herr Rittmeister takes it differently. Desperate, he hugs her.
He gets up and takes a revolver, Bertha runs out of the room in a panic. The nurse comes in, sits him down and tells about the past. Meanwhile, she stands behind him with the straitjacket. With a story from childhood, she coaxes the revolver from him and puts on his jacket. Without a thought he lets everything do with him. He wakes up furious from the story. He asks Nojd to forcibly take the nurse away. Laura waves him away and tries to apologize to her husband. He wants to sleep on the wet nurse's lap with anger and fatigue. Suddenly he falls over and the doctor diagnoses a fatal stroke .