Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/626

 622 Stur levant instance, in the character of Lona Hessel; there is no assumed air of democractic vulgarity nor a display of masculine prerog- atives. Her strong hand guides her son's future destiny, and his ultimate victory over himself is directly due not only to his mother's new system of social education but also to the fact that she first triumphed over her degenerate husband. Thus, both mother and son are saved, while with Ibsen's Nora the children are left to their own fate in order to save the individual integrity of the mother's character. Magnhild too represents this modern type of woman, but Magnhild has no children and since the full and free develop- ment of her own individuality is not restricted by the considera- tion for the future destiny of her offspring, Bj^rnson here resorts to the traditional course of desertion as the only solution possible under the circumstances, thus avoiding the ethical dilemma into which Ibsen leads us. It is, of course, natural that Bj0rnson should have idealized the mother's character, in order to bring out into sharper relief the injustice of her position in family life. So far as the father is concerned, however, it can hardly be assumed that Bj0rnson has exaggerated the state of things in actual life. Nils Skraedder, Harald Kas and the elder Kurt are, like Oswald's father in Ibsen's play, by no means rare examples of moral degeneracy due to the pernicious influence of strong drink and to the con- ventional double standard of morality. On the other hand, it is evident that in the delineation of the wife's character Bj0rn- son has infused a great deal of that Romantic idealism which pervades the whole atmosphere of his stories. In none of his tales, for instance, does the wife, thru contact with a coarse and brutal husband, herself become brutalized or forfeit even the least part of her natural sympathy or her fineness of feeling. When Rafael, for instance, finally comes to a spiritual awakening, he realizes that he had gone astray because he had not followed the finer instincts of his nature; the Kurt blood had won the victory. Bj0rnson depicts with great skill the gradual degeneration which took place in Rafael's character in direct contrast with that ideal moral refinement which his mother in her own case had always kept intact. Mutual suffering at the hands of a cruel father exalts the mother's character and creates a bond of sympathy between