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conformity with law and order.

Mrs. Alving (going to the window). Oh, law and order! I often
think it is that that is at the bottom of all the misery in the
world,

Manders. Mrs. Alving, it is very wicked of you to say that.

Mrs. Alving. That may be so; but I don't attach importance to
those obligations and considerations any longer. I cannot! I must
struggle for my freedom.

Manders. What do you mean?

Mrs. Alving (taping on the window panes). I ought never to have
concealed what sort of a life my husband led. But I had not the
courage to do otherwise then--for my own sake, either. I was too
much of a coward.

Manders. A coward?

Mrs. Alving. If others had known anything of what happened, they
would have said: "Poor man, it is natural enough that he should
go astray, when he has a wife that has run away from him."

Manders. They would have had a certain amount of justification
for saying so.

Mrs. Alving (looking fixedly at him). If I had been the woman I
ought, I would have taken Oswald into my confidence and said to
him: "Listen, my son, your father was a dissolute man"--

Manders. Miserable woman.

Mrs. Alving. --and I would have told him all I have told you,
from beginning to end.

Manders. I am almost shocked at you, Mrs. Alving.

Mrs. Alving. I know. I know quite well! I am shocked at myself
when I think of it. (Comes away from the window.) I am coward
enough for that.

Manders. Can you call it cowardice that you simply did your duty?
Have you forgotten that a child should love and honour his father
and mother?

Mrs. Alving. Don't let us talk in such general terms. Suppose we
say: "Ought Oswald to love and honour Mr. Alving?"

Manders. You are a mother--isn't there a voice in your heart that
forbids you to shatter your son's ideals?

Mrs. Alving. And what about the truth?

Manders. What about his ideals?

Mrs: Alving. Oh--ideals, ideals! If only I were not such a coward
as I am!

Manders. Do not spurn ideals, Mrs. Alving--they have a way of
avenging themselves cruelly. Take Oswald's own case, now. He
hasn't many ideals, more's the pity. But this much I have seen,
that his father is something of an ideal to him.

Mrs. Alving. You are right there.

Manders. And his conception of his father is what you inspired
and encouraged by your letters.

Mrs: Alving. Yes, I was swayed by duty and consideration for
others; that was why I lied to my son, year in and year out. Oh,
what a coward--what a coward I have been!

Manders. You have built up a happy illusion in your son's mind,
Mrs. Alving--and that is a thing you certainly ought not to
undervalue.

Mrs. Alving. Ah, who knows if that is such a desirable thing
after all!--But anyway I don't intend to put up with any goings
on with Regina. I am not going to let him get the poor girl into
trouble.

Manders. Good heavens, no--that would be a frightful thing!

Mrs. Alving. If only I knew whether he meant it seriously, and
whether it would mean happiness for him.

Manders. In what way? I don't understand.

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