The Washington herald., 1908-03-15
THE WOMEN IN IBSEN
RUSSIAN ACTRESS DISCUSSES THEIR CHARACTER
PORTRAYAL ON THE STAGE


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them because Ibsen was not at hand to
introduce them TO you. That is why you
have TO go 10 the theater TO see them.
Just as the stage is merely room with
one wall gone, so Ibsen opens window
into the soul of his characters through
which you can look and see them as they
are-and often see something of yourself,
too.
II IS a mistake TO talk of 'Ibsens
heroines'' Ibsen has no heroines; he has
women. Shakespeare has heroines. There
is a simplicity and grandeur about them
that makes them seem very remote from
us and very difficult for us 10 interpret
and present on the stage Sometimes
when 1 read Shakespeare think it all so
simple and plain that there is nothing to
study in the parts. I have played them
all-Rosalind. Juliet. Desdemona. and the
rest-and they seemed 10 take well, but
I have a fear that I was a failure IN
them. Shakespeare women seem more
like types. ideals. than real persons. They
are clear and definite, either good or bad.
coduettish or demure vixenish or humble
and what they are at the beginning Of
the play. that they stay until the curtain
falls.
Perhaps women really were like that
three hundred years ago. and Shakespeare
drew them as he saw them. But the pO-
sition Of women has changed so much
since then, and we ourselves have
changed. Our Russian women three hun
dred years ago were good housewives
and slaves and nothing else. Now see;
they are leaders Of the revolutions. The
modern woman is more complex and she
lives in more complex world. She
knows more; her nerves are exaggerated.
Little things loom larger in our lives. Our
characters are apt TO be swamped in the
mass Of petty details.
Now, Ibsens women mean more to US
OF to-day than do Shakespeare's. because
they are complex instead of primitive
They are in a way difficult 10 understand,
II Is true, not because they are artfully
mysterious. but because they are real. and.
therefore. like all real people, are not TO
be classified by a simple formula They
are full OF the pettiness. the peculiarities.
the Inconsistencies. the contradictions
that we find In everybody that we know
intimately. That is what makes them so
fascinating: that is why we want TO learn
more Of them.
Take Hedda, for example. She has a
little of all women In her. She is weak
and strong capricious and determined
petty and powerful yet always herself
always real She is true 20 life. Ibsen
did not exaggerate her: no. he had to
make her smaller 10 get her on the stage
l know that some critics. especially
William Archer and John COrbin, have
found fault with my Interpretation Of
Hedda Gabler on the ground that I ex-
aggerated her physiological condition: but
] cannot change my conception of the
part 10 suit them. Her condition does not
change Heddas character; it only serves
10 accentuate her natural peculiarities
and make them more dramatic. Ibsen
might just as well have left that point
out. only IL would have been more diff
cult then TO make the character efectuaL
Nora in "A Dolls House. is equally
real but altogether different It is curl
Gus that men are more interested in He'd
da; women in Nora 1 played them alter
nately last year, and I could have told by
looking a the audience through the peep
hole in the curtain which play was to be
given, because there were so many more
men in the audience on the Hedda nights
But all men do not hate Nora Some
point Of view. They realize that her ac-
2 ton in leaving her dolls house" was
forced upon her I received letter from
a man who had seen a Dolls House" a
beautiful letter that I prize very highly
for il shows what an influence the drama
can have on people. He thanked me for
having taught him salutary lesson
which would he thought, be the saving
of his married life. He realized that he
that he had treated his wife as a child
and a plaything, and he said he was go
ing 20 change it all and make a real home
and his wife a real wife ! wrote to him
that / was glad If / had helped him. But
] do not know. after all, that I did help
him. Can a man reform his dolls hOuse2
Does It not have to be done by the wo-
man herself? Is not that the whole les
Of the play2 The husband may spoil
his wife. but he cannot make her into an
independent woman. an individual stand
ing upon her own feet and knowing her
self
Many times people ask me: "Why did
Nora go away? Was she not happy? Did
she not have a kind and indulgent hus-
band2 How could she leave those chill
dren. whom she loved and who loved
herr"
She has 10 so away 70 grow Up. She
could not help herself so long as she re-
mained in those surroundings. She had 10
get out of it all. Her children were bet
ter off without her; she saw that. What
could she do with them except to spoil
them as she had been spoiled?
It was the misfortune of Nora that she
had been made into a doll through her
trainlng-first by her father, then by her
husband. and lastly by her children. She
has brains There is the material for a
good woman in her if she has a chance
TO develop. See what a friend she is to
DR.. Rank. There is hope for Nora She
can change. There is no hope for Hell
jmer. How can he change when he thinks
everything he does is just exactly right?
She could not help him; he could only
hinder her. That is why she never came
back How could she? II she came back
IL would only be TO fit into her old place.
10 take UP her old role and she had al
ready grown too large for that when she
passed out Of the door.
Nora goes out OF mans life forever as
she closes the door behind her Hlda
comes INTO a mans life to influence and
inspire him when, as the younger gem
Grafton" she comes knocking at the door
of The Master Builder" She has nur-
tured her ideal in her girlish imagination
from the day, ten years before. when he
had looked down upon her from the top
of the steepie. II was only a village
church. but it seemed to her so high.
reaching into heaven, and the man who
could climb it as one OF the gods
AS she grew up and her ideas changed
her co ception of him grew also When
she came to find him a timid and pre-
maturely aged man. afraid of his cierlS