Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/625

 The Family in Bjjrnson's Tales 621 and even brutality at the hands of a degenerate husband. In other words, Bjo'rnson's mother stands the supreme test of humanity in order to realize the grand ideal of her life, viz., motherhood. For instance, at Nils Skraedder's death Arne's mother says: "Arne, you must remember it is for your sake that I have borne all this." Even Kirsten Ravn, with her refined instincts and sensitive pride, endured for the sake of her son Rafael the most outrageous insults that could be inflicted upon a decent woman. It is inconceivable how she could have endured such tyranny, had she not been willing to sacrifice even her self-respect in order to retain her influence over her son. With Ibsen's Nora, self-respect is the prime consideration, but with Kirsten Ravn it is her son's future welfare, not her own, which is at stake; all else is sacrificed to this end. This is the purely womanly type of mother, who possesses those traits of character peculiar to the Romantic ideal of womanhood, which Ibsen so often depicts (such as Inga in Kongsemnerne, Solveig in Peer Gynt, etc.). Tomasine Rendalen, on the other hand, represents an approach to the more masculine ideal of womanhood, which enables the wife to cope with her husband on much more equal terms. Like Ibsen's Nora she rebels against an authority which is crushing out her life, but unlike Nora she does not solve the difficulty by avoiding the situation or by renouncing her duties as a mother, but takes up arms against her oppressor. The old order of things, which Nora leaves behind her, is destroyed by the supremacy of a new ideal of womanhood. Nora becomes morally emancipated but, a victim of the old social order, she lacks the efficiency and mental equipment to force a victory over her husband without at the same time forfeiting a mother's most precious heritage, viz., her children. The 'modern' ideal of womanhood, on the other hand, oversteps the narrow, conventional limits of woman's education and activities which resulted in Nora's inefficiency, and equips the woman to meet the situation which confronts her. Toma- sine Rendalen takes up a course of physical and mental training which enables her to become both the physical and intellectual master of her degenerate husband. But Bj^rnson's ideal of the 'modern' woman in Tomasine Rendalen is not marred by a caricature of masculine traits, such as Ibsen protrays, for