Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/627

 The Family in Bjtfrnson's Tale* 623 mother and son. " There are only two of us now, and we have suffered so much together," says Arne's mother. The mother also realizes that her son cannot be held responsible for inher- ited weaknesses; thus the boy's love for his mother is enhanced by her humane charity. Arne's mother, for instance, does not upbraid her son for getting drunk like his father, but is all the more tender to him on this account. And however despotic Rafael's mother is in the exertion of her authority, she is, nevertheless, exceedingly charitable and perhaps far too lenient with him as regards his moral waywardness, which she knows is largely due to an inherited weakness. There is much of Bj0rnson's own love of humanity reflected in the character of these women. The mother in Bj0i^p.son's tales struggles for the possession of her child, not for the purpose of asserting her authority over her husband (as in the case of Ibsen's Fru Gunhild in John Gabriel Borkman) nor from motives of jealousy (as in the case of Allmers' wife in Lille Eyolf), but in order that her child may escape from a life of moral depravity and misery which other- wise must be its lot. Woman's sense of devotion is never thus divided (as with Ibsen) between husband and child, so long as the husband by his arrogance and depravity has not rightly forfeited her love (as in the case of Nils Skraedder or of Harald Kas). For instance, in Mors Hander (1892) the mother pre- serves marital and parental devotion undivided, inasmuch as her husband, even tho morally weak, had never proved himself untrue to her or unworthy of her love. Indeed, it is chiefly weakness in human nature which appeals to woman's love both for her child and for her husband. Thus, the mother in Mors Hander says: "We women do not love that which is noble (hjbarent) simply because it is noble. No, the object of our love must also be weak and must in someway stand in need of our help. We must see a mission. We women must lo-ve in order to believe." Bj0rnson here has struck the same chord of ideal devotion in woman's character as does Ibsen, who, however, does not always succeed, as Bj0rnson does, in reconciling the mother's conduct with this primitive instinct. For instance, when Helmer (Et Dukkehjem, Act III) confronts his wife with the argument (which to the masculine mind is irrefutable) that "no one for