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The Lady from the Sea (1888)

   

Brief description

The Lady from the Sea was written in Munich in 1888. The earliest extant draft is dated 5 June 1888, but as usual Ibsen had been thinking about the subject for some time. A number of elements derive from his stay in Molde in the summer of 1885. It is assumed that Ibsen not only used Molde as his model for the little «town by a fjord in the northern part of Norway» where the action takes place; he was also said to have heard two legends during his stay that made an impression on him, and which he used in the play. One of them told of a Norwegian of Finnish stock whose magically compelling eyes lured a parson`s wife away from her husband and home. The other one told of a seaman who had been away from home so long that he was thought to be dead, until he suddenly appeared and found his wife married to another man.

In 1886 Ibsen had written Rosmersholm. In the summer following its publication he was in North Jutland in Denmark, where he spent six weeks from mid-July until the end of August 1887 in Sæby on the east coast of the peninsula. It was there he collected material and found inspiration for The Lady from the Sea and – not least – enjoyed being near the open sea.

The sea was intended to be the central motif of the play right from the start. In his first notes for the play, dated 5 June 1888, Ibsen writes:

The lure of the sea. Longing for the sea. People's affinity to the sea. Tied to the sea. Dependent on the sea. Compulsion to return to it. A species of fish forming a prototype in the development of species. Are there still rudiments of this in the human mind? In the mind of some individuals?
The images of the turmoil of life in the sea and of «what is eternally lost».
The sea has power over moods, has its own willpower. The sea can hypnotize. Nature can in general. The great secret is the dependency of the human will on «what is without willpower».
She has come from the sea, where her father's parsonage lay. Grew up out there – by the free, open sea. Became secretly betrothed to the irresponsible young mate – an expelled sea-cadet – , who spent the winter ashore in an outlying harbour on account of a shipwreck. Had to break off the relationship in accordance with her father's wishes.
[see the notes in original handwriting]

The first fully worked-out version is entitled «The Mermaid». Ibsen then made a number of changes, deletions and additions. Dates in the manuscript of the first draft show that the second act was completed in a new version on 18 August. Two days later he began the third act, and on 31 August he began the fourth act. We do not know exactly when the new draft was finished and work on the fair copy started, but this was sent to Jacob Hegel from Munich on 25 September 1888.

The Lady from the Sea came out on 28 November 1888 at Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) in Copenhagen and Christiania in an edition of 10 000 copies. On 27 December 1887 Ibsen's friend and publisher for 22 years, Frederik Hegel, had died. His son Jacob Hegel was ready to take over, and thus became the publisher of The Lady from the Sea.

The book had a mixed reception. In general the reviewers were more positive than in the case of the previous play, Rosmersholm, most of all, probably, because of the play's optimistic ending. But the only reviewers who were wholly enthusiastic were Edvard Brandes in Politiken and J. A. Runstrøm in the Swedish Ny Illustrerad Tidning.

The Lady from the Sea was first staged on 12 February 1889 in two places: at Hoftheater in Weimar and at Christiania Theater. The latter production was directed by Bjørn Bjørnson, and the parts of Dr. Wangel and Ellida were played by Sigvard and Laura Gundersen. According to a congratulatory telegram to Ibsen this production was received with «very great acclamation», and it had 26 performances in less than two years.

The play was then produced at Det Kongelige (Royal) Teater in Copenhagen (first night 17 February), the Finnish theatre in Helsingfors (22 February) and Kungliga (Royal) Dramatiska Teatern in Stockholm (first night in March).

(From ibsen.net)

Plot summary

Doctor Wangel is a doctor in a small town on the west coast of Norway. He has two daughters from his first marriage, Bolette and Hilde. After the death of his first wife, he married Ellida, who is much younger than he is. She is the daughter of a lighthouse-keeper, and has grown up where the fjord meets the open sea. Ellida and Wangel had a son who died as a baby. This put an end to their marital relations, and Doctor Wangel fears for his wife's mental health. He has written to Bolette's former tutor, Arnholm, and invited him to come and visit them, in the hope that this will be beneficial to Ellida. But Arnholm misunderstands, thinking Bolette is waiting for him, and proposes to her. Reluctantly, Bolette agrees to marry her former teacher, seeing it as her only possibility of getting out into the world.

Ten years earlier Ellida had been engaged to a seaman. After murdering a captain he had to escape, but asked her to wait for him to come back and fetch her. She tried in vain to break the engagement. This stranger has great, compelling power over her, and when he returns after all these years to take her away with him, Dr. Wangel realizes that he must give Ellida the freedom to choose between staying with him or going away with the stranger. She chooses to stay with her husband, and the play ends with the stranger leaving, while Ellida and Dr. Wangel take up their life together again.

(Source: Merete Morken Andersen, Ibsenhåndboken, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995.)

Read The Lady from the Sea (in Norwegian)

In the online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe), you can read The Lady from the Sea 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 The Lady from the Sea 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. 

Translations

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Published July 10, 2023 1:33 PM - Last modified July 26, 2023 2:00 PM
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