"The Irresistible Calling": The Idea of Vocation in Ibsen

"The Irresistible Calling": The Idea of Vocation in Ibsen CHARLES LELAND In a letter written on November 23, 1874, Henrik Ibsen, then living in Dresden, suggested to his publisher Frederik Hegel in Copenhagen that "the twenry-fifth anniversary ... of my debut as an author" be commemorated with a new edition of "Catiline, a drama in three acts, which was the first book of mine to be printed." Ibsen agreed with the critics who thought that this play "contains the germs of a good deal that has since come to light in my poetry.'" Hegel lost no time in acceding to Ibsen's request, and Ibsen quickly completed a revised edition of his play, which was published in March 1875. Why was Ibsen so intent on bringing out another edition ofhis youthful play? Certainly there were no happy memories associated with its writing; the days of the apothecary's apprentice in Grimstad were filled with unremitting labor. Only at night was there a little time for writing, a fact which Ibsen mentions specifically in the "Preface" to the new edition. Also in the "Preface," he elaborates the sentence in the letter to Hegel quoted above: "Catilille ... contains the germs of much that has come out in my writings." He tells us what these "genns" are: Much that my later work concerns itself with - the conflict between one's aims and one's abilities. between what man proposes and what is actually possible, constituting at once both the tragedy and comedy of mankind and of the individual - is already vaguely intimated in this work.2 There is much that might be said about this statement. What, for example, does Ibsen mean by "tragedy" and "comedy"? He is intrigued by the concepts, begging Hegel, for example, to send him a copy of Brandes's essay on the theory of comedy.' Could there be a relationship in Ibsen's mind between tragedy-comedy and "the conflict" noted in the "Preface" to CaUline, "between one's aims and one's abilities" ("motsigelsen mellom evne og higen")? Could 170 CHARLES LELAND the tragedy of man be that the absolute truth, goodness, and beauty to which he aspires constantly elude him, that the unattainable seems unattainable? Could the comedy be that nevertheless man continues to aspire, and that the unattainable can even be attained, if only through the ultimate dispossession and transcendence of self in death? We recall the famous entry in Emilie Bardach's album, written by Ibsen and dated Gossensass, 20 September 1889: "Hohes, schmerzliches Gluck - urn das Unerreichbare zu ringen!'" We recall also the joy and vision experienced by Agnes at the end of the Fourth Act of Brand, after she has surrendered the last physical remnant of little AIf, his cap: AGNES Robbed ... stripped of everything ... The last tie that bound me to the dust! [She stands motionless for a moment; little by little the expression on her face changes to radiant joy; Brand comes back; she rushes joyfully to meet him, throws her anns about his neck and cries:] I am free, Brand! I am free! BRAND Agnes! AGNES The darkness has gone. All the terrors That weighed like a nightmare on my mind Have now been cast out into the abyss. I have won the battle of the Will! All the mists have cleared away. All the clouds are swept away; Beyond the night, beyond the dark of death, I see the radiance of a rosy dawn!s Agnes joyfully attains the goal, "beyond the night, beyond the dark of death." She has found "the radiance of a rosy dawn," the place where "life and light are one." BRAND Ah, but far from this place, and far From all memories of grief, you'll find That life and light are one ,6 But this goal ofperfect freedom , where life and light are one, is attained only through complete self-sacrifice, dispossession, and acceptance of death. Otherwise the goal is unattainable ("unerreichbar"). Agnes shows the way Brand must go if tragedy is to be turned into a divine comedy, if "das Unerreichbare" is to be attained. She becomes the instrumental cause of his accepting the ultimate implications of his own exceptional calling...