732 THE DEAMA 



' I take to be the relation of the individual to his social and personal 

 surroundings. Everyone who has given a moment's serious attention 

 to social facts knows that our personal and individual life comes to 

 us in and through our " human environment," and can only express 

 itself fully and richly when it goes out towards, and in some sense loses 

 itself in, the life of others. And yet this " life of others " constantly 

 presents itself to us as a hampering and dwarfing power, forcing con- 

 ventions and unveracities upon us, and preventing us from ever be- 

 coming ourselves. " To be oneself is to slay oneself." Yes, but, un- 

 happily, there are many other ways of slaying oneself besides self- 

 realization ; and many there be that find them. 



Now, there is one special case of this problem of self-surrender and 

 self-realization so obvious and so complex, that it cannot fail to have 

 a quite specific attraction for Ibsen; and, moreover, conventional mor- 

 ality and tradition choose persistently to ignore its true nature. It is 

 the problem of a woman's life when she marries. Here is a special 

 field for the bold questioner, whose voice, once heard, may be cursed 



or ridiculed, but cannot be forgotten. 



If a woman has a life and individuality of her own before she 

 marries, she is called upon to reconcile self-realization with self'sur- 

 render in a manner so conspicuous that the blindest cannot fail to see 

 it, when once their attention is called to.it. Fatherhood is an inci- 

 dent. Motherhood is an occupation. A man marries and apparently 

 remains himself. When a woman marries she becomes someone else. 

 She changes her name; she changes her home; she changes her 

 occupation; and her new name, her new home, and her new occupa- 

 tion, are determined by her husband and her children. Hence mar- 

 riage, regarded from the woman's point of view, is the problem of 

 society, focussed and epitomized the problem of self-realization in 

 and through self-surrender. The same problem meets us all, men 

 and women, in all the relations of life; but in none is it so obvious 

 and so tangible as it is here. Again, the change in a woman's life 

 when she marries is so great that it may seem to offer her an almost 

 complete escape from conditions that oppress and confine, or haunt, or 

 tease her. She may have at least the appearance of reason on her 

 side if she separates herself from her circumstances and refuses to 

 believe that she is herself the greatest and most important factor in 

 her own life. She may pant for an escape, and may believe that mar- 

 riage will give her a career. A man may look to marriage for many 

 things, but hardly as in itself opening a career to him. Hence, a 

 woman's temptation to a refined form of mercenary motive in mar- 

 riage. When she seems to be giving her heart to the man who loves 

 her, she may be in truth bartering herself to him for a position and 

 a career. 



