Brief description
Like Ibsen's previous play, Emperor and Galilean, Pillars of Society also underwent a long creative process. In a letter dated 14 December 1869 Ibsen reveals to Frederik Hegel that he is planning a «new, serious, contemporary drama in three acts». The first notes stem from 1870, but five years passed before Ibsen worked on these sketches again. During this period he was busy with, among other things, four publications: Poems (1871), Emperor and Galilean (1873), and new editions of Lady Inger of Østråt (1874) and Catiline (1875).
It was not until October 1875 that Ibsen started work on the play. The family had then moved from Dresden to Munich. In November the first act was finished in a fair copy, but had to be re-worked several times. For the next eighteen months the play was constantly being re-worked. In a letter to Frederik Hegel dated 24 June 1877 Ibsen was finally able to announce that the play was finished and that he was making a fair copy. The final manuscript was then sent to Hegel in five parts between 29 July and 20 August.
Pillars of Society was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) on 11 October 1877 in Copenhagen. The first edition comprised as many as 6 000 copies and was sold out in the course of seven weeks. A re-print of 4 000 copies was issued on 30 November. The majority of the press reviews were favourable, but curiously enough, several of the Christiania papers, including Morgenbladet and Dagbladet, refrained from reviewing the book.
It was with this play that Ibsen really made his mark in Germany, and even before the end of November 1877 the German translation was available.
Pillars of Society was staged for the very first time at the Odense Teater by August Rasmussen's theatre company on 14 November 1877. Ibsen had long since been performed outside Norway, but this was in fact the first world première to take place on a stage outside Norway. The production was well received both by the public and in the press.
Only four days later Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen had its first staging of this play. Emil Poulsen played the part of Consul Bernick. The first performance in Norway was at Den nationale Scene in Bergen on 30 November 1877. Ibsen deliberately refrained from handing the play over to Christiania Theater in protest at the theatre's dismissal of Ludvig Josephson. Ibsen had no regard for his successor, Johan Vibe. In a letter to Hegel dated 23 August 1877 Ibsen writes:
«I do not intend to hand in my play to Christiania Theater at present. The new director is a completely incompetent man, and as soon as the play is on sale I shall announce in a Norwegian paper that I shall break off all connection with this theatre as long as this man is director.» [read the letter in HISe]
On 13 December 1877 the play had its first performance in Sweden at Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern in Stockholm.
Pillars of Society was Ibsen's greatest theatrical success so far, above all at German theatres. According to Michael Meyer the play is said to have been staged at no fewer than 27 theatres in Germany and Austria by the end of 1878!
(From ibsen.net)
Plot summary
Consul Karsten Bernick is a wealthy businessman and owner of a shipyard in a small Norwegian port. He has based his success on more or less unscrupulous business dealings, but is highly respected by his fellow citizens as a man of impeccable morals. He is married to Betty, and they have a son of thirteen, Olaf.
In his youth Bernick had jilted his sweetheart Lona Hessel for the sake of her step-sister's greater inheritance. While engaged to Betty, fifteen years before the opening of the play, he had been discovered in a mistress's bedroom, an event which had dramatic consequences. In order to avoid the scandal, he let Betty's brother Johan, who was about to emigrate to the USA, take the blame. Bernick also started a rumour that Johan had stolen a sum of money. This rumour was to cover up the fact that Bernick's firm was insolvent.
When the play opens, he and other leading citizens are planning to bring a railway to the town, and have secretly bought up land along the site of the railway. When Johan returns from the USA, along with his step-sister Lona, and threatens to reveal the secrets of the past, Bernick is in a difficult position, since his business plans are dependent on his reputation as an irreproachable pillar of society. Bernick allows a ship to be launched which he knows is not seaworthy, and only after the ship has sailed does he discover that his own son, who has run away from home, is onboard. Johan threatens revenge when he finds out how Bernick has misused his loyalty and made him a scapegoat in the town. He takes Dina Dorf, daughter of Bernick's former mistress, on Bernick's ship to America, where he will marry her, though he says he intends to come back. The consul believes that three of his own people will go down with the unseaworthy ship, but it turns out that the ship has not sailed after all.
Under pressure and encouragement from the sweetheart of his youth, Lona Hessel, Bernick confesses his sins in a speech to all his fellow citizens, who have come to celebrate him as a pillar of society. He urges them all to judge his guilt freely and to start a new and better life without the hitherto hypocritical life-style of the small community
(Source: Merete Morken Andersen, Ibsenhåndboken, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995.)
Read Pillars of Society (in Norwegian)
In the online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe), you can read Pillars of Society in various formats. This content is currently only available in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read the play:
Introduction to the work (in Norwegian)
The online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe) offers extensive information about Pillars of Society in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read about various aspects connected to the play.
Reviews
Here you can find reviews in full text and an overview of registered reviews in various languages.
- Reviews from Ibsen's life time in full text
- Reviews registered in the Ibsen bibliography (nb.no)
- Reviews registered in «Norsk litteraturkritikk» (UiO)
Translations
- The Multilingual Ibsen
- Translations in various languages
- Overview of translations from Ibsen's lifetime (HISe)