Henrik Ibsen. Brand

West coast of Norway. Cloudy weather, morning twilight. Brand, a middle-aged man in black clothes and with a knapsack over his shoulders, makes his way through the mountains to the west to the fjord, where he lies home village. Brand is held by fellow travelers - a peasant with his son. They prove - a direct path through the mountains is deadly, you need to go around! But Brand does not want to listen to them. He shames the peasant for cowardice - he has a daughter at death, she is waiting for him, and the father hesitates, choosing a roundabout way. What would he give to have his daughter die peacefully? 200 thalers? All property? What about life? If he does not agree to give his life, all other victims do not count. All or nothing! Such is the ideal rejected by compatriots mired in compromises!

Brand breaks out of the hands of a peasant, and goes through the mountains. As if by magic, the clouds dissipate, and Brand sees young lovers - they are also in a hurry to the fjord. Recently met Agnes and the artist Einar decided to join their lives, they enjoy love, music, art, communication with friends. Their enthusiasm does not evoke sympathy from the oncoming sympathy. In his opinion, life in Norway is not so good. Passivity and cowardice soar everywhere. People have lost the integrity of nature, their God now looks like a bald old man with glasses, condescendingly looking at laziness, lies and opportunism. Brand, a theologian by education, believes in another God - young and energetic, punishing for lack of will. The main thing for him is the formation of a new person, a strong and strong-willed personality who rejects deals with conscience.

Einar finally recognizes Brand as a school friend. The straightforwardness and ardor of his reasoning are repulsive - in Brand's theories there is no place for ingenuous joy or mercy, on the contrary, he denounces them as relaxing a person's beginnings. Those who met disperse along different paths - they will meet later on the shore of the fjord, from where they will continue their journey on the steamer.

Not far from the village of Brand, another meeting awaits - with the insane Gerd, a girl who is haunted by an obsession with a terrible hawk that lies in wait for her everywhere; she finds salvation from him only in the mountains on the glacier - in a place that she calls the "snow church". Gerd does not like the village below: there, according to her, "stuffy and cramped." After parting with her, Brand sums up his travel impressions: for a new person, he will have to fight with three "trolls" (monsters) - stupidity (rolled by the routine of life), frivolity (thoughtless pleasure) and nonsense (a complete break with people and reason).

After years of absence, everything in the village seems small to Brand. He finds the inhabitants in trouble: in the village - hunger. The local administrator (Vogt) distributes groceries to those in need. Approaching the audience, Brand, as always, expresses an extraordinary opinion: the situation of the starving is not so bad - they will have to fight for survival, and not idleness that kills the spirit. The villagers almost beat him for mocking their misfortune, but Brand proves that he has the moral right to treat others down - only he volunteers to help the dying man, who could not stand the sight of his hungry children and killed in a fit of insanity younger son, and then, realizing what he had done, he tried to lay hands on himself and now lies dying in his house on the other side of the fjord. No one dares to get there - a storm is raging in the fjord. Only Agnes dares to help Brand at the crossing. She is struck by the strength of his character, and she, contrary to Einar's calls to return to him, or at least to her parents, decides to share her fate with Brand. locals, also convinced of the firmness of his spirit, ask Brand to become their priest.

But Brand makes very high demands on them. His favorite motto "all or nothing" is as uncompromising as the famous latin proverb: "Let the world perish, but justice will prevail." The new priest denounces even his old mother - for her prudence and money-grubbing. He refuses to give her communion until she repents and distributes to the poor the property she has acquired and so much loved. Being near death, the mother sends for her son several times: she asks him to come, promising first to distribute half, then - nine-tenths of everything that she owns. But Brand disagrees. He suffers, but he cannot go against his convictions.

He is no less demanding of himself. In the house under the rock, where they have lived with Agnes for three years now, the sun rarely looks, and their son imperceptibly languishes. The doctor advises that in order to save Alpha, you must immediately move to another area. Staying is out of the question. And Brand is ready to leave. “Maybe other Brands should not be too strict?” the doctor asks him. Brandu and one of his parishioners reminds of duty: people in the village now live differently, more fair rules, they do not believe the intriguing Vogt, who spreads rumors that Brand will leave as soon as he receives his mother's inheritance. Brand is needed by people, and he, having made an unbearably difficult decision, forces Agnes to agree with him.

Alf is dead. Agnes' grief is immeasurable, she constantly feels the absence of her son. The only thing she had left was the child's things and toys. A gypsy woman who suddenly breaks into the pastor's house demands that Agnes share her wealth with her. And Brand orders to give things to Alpha - every single one! One day, seeing the child of Agnes and Brand, the mad Gerd said: “Alf is an idol!” Brand considers his grief and Agnes to be idolatry. Indeed, do they not revel in their grief and find perverted pleasure in it? Agnes resigns herself to her husband's will and gives away the last child's bonnet hidden from her. Now she has nothing left but her husband. She does not find comfort in faith - their God is too harsh with Brand, faith in him requires more and more sacrifices, and the church downstairs in the village is cramped.

Brand clings to a randomly dropped word. He will build a new, spacious and high church, worthy of the new man he preaches. Vogt prevents him in every possible way, he has his own plans of a more utilitarian nature (“We will build a workhouse / in connection with the arrest house, and an outbuilding for gatherings, meetings / and festivities, coupled with crazy house”), moreover, the Vogt is against the demolition of the old church, which he considers a cultural monument. Having learned that Brand is going to build with his own money, the Vogt changes his mind: he praises the courage of Brand's enterprise in every possible way, and from now on considers the old ruined church dangerous for visiting.

A few more years pass. The new church is built, but by this time Agnes is no longer alive, and the ceremony of consecrating the church does not inspire Brand. When an important church official starts talking to him about cooperation between church and state and promises him awards and honors, Brand feels nothing but disgust. He closes the building with a padlock, and the assembled parishioners are carried away to the mountains - on a campaign for a new ideal: from now on, the whole earthly world will be their temple! Ideals, however, even when they are precisely formulated (which Ibsen deliberately avoids in the poem), are always abstract, while their achievement is always concrete. On the second day of the campaign, Brand's parishioners were beating their legs, tired, hungry and desperate. Therefore, they easily allow themselves to be deceived by the Vogt, who informs them that huge schools of herring have entered their fjord. Former followers of Brand instantly convince themselves that they are deceived by him, and - quite logically - stone him to death. Well, Brand complains, such are the changeable Norwegians - quite recently they swore that they would help their Danish neighbors in the war against Prussia, which threatens them, but they were shamefully deceived (meaning the Danish-Prussian military conflict of 1864)!

Left alone in the mountains, Brand continues on his way. An invisible choir inspires him with the idea of ​​the futility of human aspirations and the hopelessness of a dispute with the Devil or with God (“you can resist, you can reconcile - / you are condemned, man!”). Brand yearns for Agnes and Alpha, and then fate presents him with another test. Brand has a vision of Agnes: she consoles him - there are no serious reasons for despair, everything is fine again, she is with him, Alf grew up and became a healthy young man, their small old church stands in its place in the village. The trials that Brand went through, he only dreamed of in a terrible nightmare. It is enough to give up three words hated by her, Agnes, and the nightmare will dissipate (three words, Brand's motto is "all or nothing"). Brand stands the test, he will not betray either his ideals or his life and its suffering. If necessary, he is ready to repeat his path.

Instead of an answer from the fog, where the vision had just been, a piercing sound sounds: “The world does not need it - die!”

Brand is alone again. But the insane Gerd finds him, she brings Brand to the "snow church". Here the grace of mercy and love finally descends on the sufferer. But Gerd has already seen the hawk on top of the enemy and is shooting at him. An avalanche comes down. Carried away by the snow, Brand manages to ask the universe the last question: is the human will really as insignificant as a grain of sand on the powerful right hand of the Lord? Through the peals of thunder, Brand hears the Voice: “God, He is deus caritatis!” Deus caritatis means "God is merciful".

Highly intelligent parsing:

"Brand" cannot be considered a religious drama, let alone a Christian one. Some, however, thought so. In 1873, Ibsen was asked whether this drama, in accordance with the original plan, was supposed to reflect the biblical truth that through one's own efforts a person cannot be justified before God. To which Ibsen replied: “You are mistaken. When I wrote "Brand", my only desire was to portray an energetic personality. Brand himself in the play says that he considers it his main calling to heal the current sick generation, and the question of whether he is a Christian is of secondary importance.

BRAND (Norwegian Brand) - the hero of G. Ibsen's dramatic poem "Brand" (1865). Usually this image is reduced to stubbornly defending the position of "all or nothing." The moral dominant of the hero is associated by researchers with the influence of the Danish thinker and writer S. Kierkegaard with his “either-or”; also indicate real prototypes: the preacher Lamers from Ibsen's hometown of Skien, the young theologian K. Brun.

Born in a loveless marriage (B.'s mother married for convenience, leaving her beloved), the hero has been poisoned from childhood with the poison of pretense and hypocrisy. He is painfully truthful and demands the same of his fellow men. Among the characters of the play, immersed in specific everyday problems, B. is alone in his predestination and speculation so much that his lengthy, confused monologues sometimes produce a grotesque comic effect. They are, as a rule, abstract and untimely: for example, an appeal to peasants dying of hunger to rejoice in their position, because it contributes to their moral awakening: “... it’s a sin to help you now: God decided to raise you from darkness.” B. is the antagonist of Ibsen's "compromise hero" Peer Gynt, but he also dreams of "being completely himself", although the goal of him, a rural pastor, is different: "The goal is one, one road: to be the living tablet of God." In people, he is repelled by "frivolity, slow-wittedness and madness" - the "triple alliance", which gave rise to dilapidated dogmas that fetter the freedom of the human spirit. But in a deadly way for the position of the hero, he is close to the insane Gerd, the daughter of a lover abandoned by her mother, a degraded person (apparently a peripheral character, in fact, directly comparable to B.). Gerd, who considers the ice temple on top of the rocks the only true church, because it is crowded in any other church, turns out to be B's spiritual "sister". At first, the parishioners perceive him as a comforting pastor, a savior pastor. But he does not love them, just as he does not love anyone in the world at all. And if the coldness in relation to the mother is explained by the memories of a sad childhood, then the predominance in the feeling for Agnes and the son of the consciousness of masculine and paternal duty, and not love, is a consequence of the initially cold nature. Only the loss of loved ones awakens living feelings in the hero, allowing him to gradually overcome spiritual schematism. B. turns into a martyr of his own will, he goes to the end and, rejected by everyone, dies under an avalanche along with his sister. swarm" Gerd.

One of Ibsen's most published plays, The Brand has relatively little stage history. In Norway, the play was fully staged only in 1895. On the Russian stage in an abbreviated version - on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater (1906) with V.I. Kachalov in the title role; in 1907 the entire play was performed by P.N. Orlenev at the Bergogne theater in Kiev. Bonus from Cyril:

Brand (1865)

Originally conceived as an epic poem, several songs were written

dramatic poem

5 actions

The meter changes depending on the character.

Few remarks

Little action, more discussion of the idea and attempts to convey it to the viewer

Some characters are not given names, simply because they are not even close to people, and it does not matter what they are called there, their character is important

Including why the whole play is in verse

The second reason is that the play is confidently romantic, it is a tribute to

Brand Image: Ibsen's Perception

Cruel

Old Testament god

Demanding

There is no place in the heart for love

As for me: wants to help, regardless of whether people need his help, and whether they want it

“Let’s make everyone feel good, and whoever doesn’t want to do well, he doesn’t understand the full depth of my plan, cattle”

A fanatic fixated on the perception of himself as a messiah, a messenger of God, a prophet

All or nothing, of course

Ideology, worship of one idea

Humanism

Humanity is that powerless word

What became the slogan for the whole earth,

To them, like a cloak, any insignificance

Trying to cover up and failing

And unwillingness to accomplish a feat;

Love cowardly explains to them

Fear - victory for the sake of risking everything.

Hiding behind this word, with a light heart

Everyone breaks his vows

Who managed to repent of them cowardly.

Perhaps soon according to the recipe for small ones,

Insignificant souls all people will turn

The apostles of humanity. Was there

Is God the father humane to his son?

Of course, if he ordered

Then your god, he would have spared his son,

And the work of redemption would come down

To a diplomatic heavenly "note".

He leads everyone to his goal, like an artist, but the same artists often consider themselves geniuses, so it cannot be said that Brand wishes people well. He wants to fulfill the mission that he believes God has entrusted to him.

Brand perceives himself as a "superman", that is, he quotes Nietzsche. Again, "All the gods have died" and in Brand's text there is every kind of renunciation of various idols.

Characters

His mother.

School teacher.

Gerd.

Einar, artist.

Peasant.

His son, teenager.

Agnes.

Vogt.

Second Peasant.

Doctor.

Woman.

Probst.

Second woman.

Kister.

Clerk.

Clergy, representatives of the village administration.

People: men, women and children.

Tempter in a desert. Chorus of the invisible. Voice.

The action takes place in the sixties of the XIX century, partly in the village itself, located near the fjord on the western coast of Norway, partly in its vicinity.

Act one

Mountain fields covered with snow, shrouded in thick fog. Cloudy weather: morning twilight. , all in black, with a stick and a knapsack, climbs up in a westerly direction. Peasant with teenage son follow him at some distance.

Peasant(following Brand)

Passer-by, do not hurry! .. Where did you go?

Peasant

Get lost! The fog thickened
And in two steps you can not see anything ...

Peasant

There are cracks, do you hear?

And we lost all trace.

Peasant(screaming)

Stop!
Save the Lord! .. We hit the glacier!
It's fragile here! Don't step so hard!

(listening)

And I hear the waterfall...

Peasant

The stream washed
A bed under the ice crust.
Here the depth - you can't reach the bottom!
You will fail, so remember what your name was.

My path leads there - forward - you heard.

Peasant

Yes, if you do not defeat him!
Look - you are walking on a fragile, hollow crust! ..
Stop! Is life not precious?

I am sent; I dare not disobey
who sent me.

Peasant

Peasant

Peasant

At least like this:
But even if you are a probst or a bishop himself, -
And the sun will not rise - you will ruin yourself,
Walking along the edge of the washed ice.

(Cautiously approaching him.)

Listen, no matter how smart, learned,
Don't overcome what you can't.
Come back! don't be stubborn! It's not about two
We are heads! If we add this, there is nowhere
Another one to take. To the nearest village
Seven versts, the fog - at least they drank with a saw!

In dense fog, but they won’t lure us
A wandering light on a false path.

Peasant

But there are frozen lakes all around,
And they are in trouble!

We will cross them.

Peasant

Will you walk on water? It hurts too much
You take over; look - do not hold back!

But someone proved that with faith you can
And on the sea, as on dry land, to pass.

Peasant

Well, you never know what time it was!
Try our who - will go to the bottom.

(Wants to keep going.)

Peasant

You are going to die!

Please God
Send me death - I welcome it!

Peasant(quiet)

He has a screw loose.

Son(almost in tears)

Father, come back!
After all, it is clear that there will be rain and bad weather.

(stopping and approaching them again)

Listen, you said to me: your daughter
From there I sent you a message from the fjord
That her death is near: but in peace
She cannot leave without seeing each other
With you for the last time?

Peasant

Holy truth.

And gave you time until today?

Peasant

Peasant

Hurry to her!

Peasant

Yes, if unbearable? .. Let's go back!

(looking straight at him)

For her to die peacefully
Would you give a hundred thalers?

Peasant

Peasant

And I would give the whole house and belongings, only
She closed her eyes in peace!

Peasant

And what about life?.. Oh, dear man!..

Peasant(scratching behind ear)

Oh Lord Jesus
Everything, I tea, there is a measure in the world.
Don't forget - I have a wife, I have children ...

And the One whom you named had a mother.

Peasant

Again it was that at the time it was!
Then many miracles were performed;
Now don't hear about them.

Come back!
You are dead, although you are alive. Don't know God
And He doesn't know you.

Peasant

Son(pulls him)

Peasant

Let's go, let's go, let's go
For him to go.

Peasant

Not if you
God forbid, you will perish, but people will know, -
You can't hide from them that we went out together.
I will be taken to court. And there is
In the crevice or in the lake is your corpse.
So shackle me!

you will suffer
For the cause of God then.

Peasant

I care
Neither before Him, nor before your deeds,
His mouth is full. Come back with us!

Goodbye!
There is a dull roar in the distance.

Son(shouts)

(to the peasant who grabbed his collar)

Peasant

Let it go!
Son
Let's go to!..

Peasant(fighting brand)

Oh, damn me!

(breaking out and knocking him into the snow)

Maybe
Take it in the end!

(Exits.)

Peasant(sitting in the snow and rubbing his shoulder)

Oh oh!
What a stubborn and strong man! .. And this
He calls the work of God!

(Rising, screaming.)

He's already upstairs

Peasant

Yes, I see - out!

(Screams again.)

Listen, you! Do you remember where we got lost?
From what place did they take it the wrong way?

(out of the mist)

You don't need a cross at the crossroads -
You are walking down the path.

Peasant

Oh give me something
Lord! Then we are at home in the evening!

(He turns east with his son.)

(he appears above and listens, turning in the direction where his companions left)

They wander home. “You miserable slave! Oh if only
In your chest beat the key and only
Lacked strength, I would cut
Your path: I would gladly carry you
On my own tired shoulders, I would walk
A wounded foot is easy and cheerful!
But help those who do not even want
That which cannot, is not needed.

Hm ... life! .. The trouble is, how everyone cherishes life!
Any cripple gives her weight
Such as if the salvation of the world
And the healing of human souls to him
Laid on feeble shoulders.
They are ready to sacrifice, but only
Not life, no! She is the most precious!

(As if remembering something and smiling.)

Two thoughts occupied my mind in childhood,
Laughed endlessly, for which more than once
I'm strong from the mentor-old woman
And got it. Suddenly I imagine
An owl with a fear of darkness or a fish
With hydrophobia, and let's laugh!
I drove those thoughts away - it was not there!
But what, exactly, gave rise to laughter?
Yes, a vague consciousness of discord
Between what is and what should be.
Between duty - a heavy burden to bear,
And the inability to bear it.
And almost every my countryman is healthy,
The patient is a fish or an owl.
Work in depth and live in darkness,
His lot, and that's just it.
He is afraid. Oh the shore beats in fear
And he is afraid of his dark cell:
He prays for the air and the bright sun!

(stops, as if struck by something, and listens)

Like a song?.. Yes! And laughter and singing.
Now "cheers" sounds ... more, more ...
The sun rises and the fog thins;
I again embrace the distance with my eyes.
There is a cheerful society on the ridge
It stands in the radiance of the morning rays;
Saying goodbye and shaking hands...
Everyone else turned east
And two keep their way to the west.
The last "sorry" hand, handkerchiefs
And they send hats to each other ...

(The sun is getting brighter and brighter through the fog. Brand stands for a long time, peering at the two travelers.)

From these two, the radiance seems to be pouring:
The fog itself seems to give them a way,
Heather lays like a carpet under their feet,
And smiles towards the sky.
These two must be brother and sister.
They run hand in hand, as if in a dance.
She barely touches the ground
And he's agile and flexible. She fluttered
Suddenly to the side ... Behind her he ... Overtook,
Caught ... No, slipped out, dodged! ..
They run, playing; laughter sounds like a song.

Einar And Agnes, in light travel dresses, both out of breath, heated, run out to the site. The fog cleared. In the mountains, a clear sunny morning.

Einar

I long to catch you by playing!
I will tie the loops from the songs, and into the snare
You will get caught, frolicking and fluttering.

Agnes(dancing, turning to face him and not letting himself be caught)

I'm a moth, so let me fly
Reveling in the juice of honey flowers;
You love, naughty little boy, you play, -
Run after me, don't try to catch me!

Einar

Agnes, my tender beauty moth,
An invisible network is woven for you:
Be you faster than the naughty breeze, -
You will fall into captivity to me, unsociable!

Agnes

I am a moth, so from flower to flower
Let me flutter in the dewy glades;
If you lure me into a snare -
Don't touch my golden wings!

Einar

Carefully, with a gentle hand, moth,
I will lift you up, I will cover you in my heart,
You will play in it all your life, my friend.
Amuse yourself with the sweetest game!

Both, without noticing it themselves, approach a steep cliff and stand almost at the very edge.

(shouting)

Hey watch out! From the abyss you are one step away.

Einar

Agnes(pointing up)

Take a look there...

Save yourself
Before it's too late! you are on the edge
A canopy of snow, over the very abyss!

Einar(hugging Agnes, laughing)

There is nothing to fear for us!

Agnes

before us
All life is for laughter and fun!

Einar

The path is outlined for us, illuminated by the sun;
It will end in hundreds of years, not earlier.

So you will only fall into the abyss then?

Agnes(waving veil)

Oh no, then we will rise to heaven!

Einar

First, an age of bliss, intoxication.
With wedding lights from night to night,
One hundred years of the game of love ...

Einar

Then - home again, to the heavenly chamber.

From there, you mean?

Einar

And then from where?

Agnes

Well, yes, now we're going, of course,
From that valley yonder to the east.

I saw you on the pass there.

Einar

Yes, we just said goodbye to friends there.
Hugs, a strong handshake
And kisses of remembrance
So dear to us, imprinted.
Come down here, I'll tell you.
How wonderful God the Lord arranged everything.
And our delight will become clear to you.
Yes, it's enough for you to stand like a pillar of ice!
Thaw quickly! - Here you go. So,
First you need to know - I am an artist;
And for that alone I'm grateful
I am from the soul to Him: He inspired
My fantasy and gave me strength
Magic - from a dead canvas
Call life as He calls
From a dead cocoon of a moth! .. -
All the best is that he is in the bride
Agnes gave me! I'm from the south, from afar
He walked with his travel box ...

Agnes(with animation)

as if
The king is cheerful, proud and calm! ..
And how many songs he knew! .. Without counting, right!

Einar

And just like that, I ended up in that village,
Where to live her doctors sent -
Drink the mountain air there, the light of the sun.
Dew and the scent of resinous pines...
The Lord himself sent me to the mountains:
A secret voice kept telling me to look for
The beauties of nature I am along the mountain rivers,
Under the pines and on the tops of the rocks.
That's where I created my masterpiece:
A ruddy dawn on Agnes's cheeks,
In her beautiful eyes - a glint of happiness ...
Meet my flying smile! ..

Agnes

But you yourself did not realize what you were doing;
He drank carelessly from the cup of life,
Until one day I became
Before me, ready to go back!

Einar

And just then the thought flashed through my mind -
You forgot to propose to her!
Hooray! Wooed soon, immediately
Consent received and - everything is in order!
Our old doctor was so glad that the holiday
Started in honor of us, and three more days
We spent there dancing and having fun.
And Phot, and Lensman, and the pastor himself,
Not to mention the local youth,
Everyone turned up for the feast.
Already at night we set off; but a holiday
It did not end there: to see us off
Everyone went in a crowd with flags and singing ...

Agnes

And we did not walk along the valley - we danced.
Either in pairs, or in a round dance as a whole ...

Einar

From the spell of silver wine we drank ...

Agnes

And in the silence of the night songs sounded ...

Einar

Fog, creeping into the valley from the north,
Obediently gave way to us!

Where is your path now?

Einar

Everything is straight.
To the city…

Agnes

Einar

At first
We must pass those peaks
Then go down to the fjord, where we are waiting for
Aegira is a horse with a wavy smoky mane;
At full speed, he will rush us to the wedding.
And there - like swans, their first flight
We will direct to the south blessed!

Einar

There life awaits us together, bliss
Beautiful, like a fairy tale, and like a dream,
The dream is great! .. After all, this morning,
Among the snows, without a pastor's word,
We are engaged to a carefree life;
Wed happily!

Who married you?

Einar

All the same crowd of friends seeing us off.
She swore under the clink of glasses
Forever the slightest cloud of misfortune.
What could darken our horizon;
From our everyday life in advance
Sinister words banished everything
And blessed us with joy!

(wants to go)

Einar(startled, looks at him more closely)

Wait ... it seems to me
Are you familiar…

(Cold)

Einar

But I remember
We met somewhere - in the family or at school.

We were school friends, yes.
I was a boy then, now I am a man.

Einar

(Suddenly screams.)

You are Brand! Yes, yes, he is the best!
Now found out!

And I have you for a long time.

Einar

Greetings from the bottom of my heart, comrade!
Look at me ... Well, yes, still the same
An eccentric, that, satisfied with his society,
He shunned the games of his comrades!

I was a stranger among you. You, however,
I loved, I remember, although you,
Like everyone from the southern districts, otherwise
Zakala was than I - in the shadow of the treeless,
Gloomy rocks born by the fjord.

Einar

Yes, where is your home parish somewhere?

My path leads through it.

Einar

Oh, yes, far ... Past the house where I am
I saw the world.

Einar

(smiling)

Not yet;
Just a chaplain. How does a hare crouch
Now under one, then under another Christmas tree,
So I am here today and there tomorrow.

Einar

But where is the limit of your wanderings?

(quick and hard)

Einar

(changing tone)

And yet,
I'll leave on the same ship
Which is waiting for you...

Einar

Our marriage ship? ..
Brand and I are fellow travelers, do you hear, Agnes!

But I'm going to the funeral.

Agnes

Are you at the funeral?

Einar

And who died?
Who are you going to bury?

Yes god
whom you called yours.

Agnes(recoiling)

Einar

Long wrapped in a shroud
It's time to openly bury God
Slaves of the earth and everyday affairs!
It's time for you to understand what you've done
He's decrepit for a hundred hundred years.

Einar

You're sick, Brand.

Oh no, I'm healthy and fresh
Like mountain pines, like wild juniper;
But the human race - it is sick in our time,
Needs treatment. All of you
You just want to play, joke, laugh.
And to believe, to hope, without reasoning.
Want the burden of all sin and sorrow
Lay on the shoulders of the one who appeared,
As you heard, suffer for you.
He is the crown of thorns, the long-suffering one,
Put it on, and - you can start dancing!
Dance, but where - a sad question -
Will dancing turn you on at the last hour?

Einar

Ah, I get it! Yes, with this new song
We began to listen here.
You belong, then, to a new sect,
What teaches life to consider a vale of sorrow
And trying to make everyone in the world
Sprinkle ashes on your head?

Oh no; I'm not a preacher, I'm a juryman
Not as a priest I speak now;
Whether I'm even a Christian, I don't know;
But I know for sure that I am a man,
And I see the evil, the disease that has befallen the country.

Einar(with a smile)

I still haven't heard
So that our good country is
Too cheerful country.

Indeed, joy is not in full swing here;
If that were the case, it would have gone nowhere.
If you are a slave of joy, then be it
Always, from morning to night, all my life;
Don't be one yesterday, another today,
And tomorrow, in a month, the third. Be
Whatever you want, but be completely; be whole
Not half-hearted, not fragmented!
Vakhant, Silenus - an understandable, integral image,
But the drunkard is only a caricature.
Walk around the country, listen to people, -
You will know what everyone has learned here
To be a little of everything - both this and that:
Serious - on holidays at the service in the church;
Stubborn - where customs touches
Such as supper for the coming dream.
Yes, tightly, like our fathers and grandfathers;
An ardent patriot - at feasts,
To the sounds of songs about native rocks
And solid as a rock, our people
Who did not know the slave yoke and stick;
By nature, wide, toriform -
On promises over a wine cup;
Fisted when discussing sober -
Fulfill them or not. But this or that
Only little by little everything always happens;
Neither virtues in him, nor vices
Just do not fill in "I"; he is a fraction
And in small and in big, and in evil and in good.
Worst of all is that which kills
Any fraction is part of the remainder of the whole.

Einar

It is not difficult to scourge, but it is better for us to be
More merciful.

Maybe it's better
But not so useful.

Einar

I won't
Challenging human sinfulness:
But explain to me: what is the connection
Between her and the fact that it's time to bury
The One I call my God.

You are an artist, so draw it for me.
I heard you already wrote it
And your picture touched my heart.
You introduced him as an old man, didn't you?

Einar

With gray hair
And a long silver beard?
In the face of benevolence and severity.
Capable ... to drive the kids to sleep?
The question is, did you put him in shoes
Or no, we'll leave it, but it would come in handy
Put on a yarmulke and glasses for him.

Einar(angrily)

Why are you so...

Oh, I'm not laughing.
This is exactly what it looks like
Our people's god, the god of fathers and grandfathers.
Catholics turn into a child
Savior; you are God in an old man.
Ready to fall into childhood from decrepitude.
Like the governor of Peter, the pope,
In the hands of the keys to paradise have turned
In fake lockpicks, so you
The Lord's kingdom has narrowed into a church.
From faith, from the teaching of the Lord
You have separated life and there is no one in it
You don't even have to be a Christian;
In theory, you honor Christianity,
Strive for perfection in theory
You live according to completely different precepts.
And you need such a God, so that through your fingers
I looked at you. Like the very human race.
He had to grow old, and you can
He is portrayed with glasses and bald.
But this god is only yours and yours, not mine!
My God - He is a storm where your wind is;
Relentless, where yours is only indifferent,
And merciful, where yours is only good-natured;
My God is young; rather Hercules.
What a decrepit grandfather. My God is at Sinai
As thunder rumbled to Israel from heaven,
Burned with a bush of thorns, without burning,
Before Moses on Mount Horeb,
Stopped the run of the sun at Nun
And would still work miracles,
Don't be the whole human race so stupid, lazy!

Einar(with a grin)

And should it be recreated now?

Yes Yes; I am also convinced of this
As in the fact that I was sent to the world as a healer.
As a doctor for the souls of the sick, mired in sins!

Einar

Do not extinguish, though it smokes, torches,
As long as there is no lantern in your hands.
Do not banish old words from the language,
Until you create new ones.

I am not planning something new;
I want to establish the eternal truth.
I do not seek to glorify the church,
Not dogmas. Had their first day
So, surely, they will see the last evening.
Beginning presupposes everything
End; harbors the end of the germ of everything,
What is created, created, and the place
The coming form of being will yield.
But there is something that exists forever -
An uncreated spirit enslaved
In the spring of the first being and again
Then only he who gains freedom
When a bridge will be thrown from the flesh
He is to his source - the bridge of Faith.
Now the spirit is crushed thanks
The view of mankind on God;
So it should be from scraps of souls,
The wreckage of the pitiful spirit recreate
Again, something whole, so that he could know
It has a crown of its creation -
Young Adam - the Lord the Creator!

Einar(interrupting)

Goodbye! I see it's better for us to part.

To the west you - so I will move to the north;
Both these roads lead to the fjord
And they are equal in length. Goodbye!

Einar

(turning around)

But distinguish from the true light
Deceptive; And remember, life is art

Einar(waving hand)

Well, remake, as you know, the light,
I will hold on to my God!

Draw him on crutches.
And I'll come and bury him!

(Goes down the path.)

Einar takes a few silent steps, looking down after him.

Agnes(stands for a minute as if in oblivion, then shudders, looks around in fear and asks)

Has the sun already set?

Einar

For a cloud only ...
Yes, here it is!

Agnes

How cold it suddenly became.

Einar

We smelled the wind from the gorge.
Now it's time for us to go down.

Agnes

Such a wall
Gloomy was not in front of us before.

Einar

It was, but you did not notice it
Behind the jokes and laughter that he screams
He interrupted his. But let him be with God now
He walks his steep path, but we
Let's start the fun game again!

Agnes

Oh no, I'm tired...

Einar

Perhaps.
And I'm a little; and the descent is not easy. -
Not like dancing in the valley!
But just go down, on purpose again
Let's join hands and let's go
Again, dancing and frolicking, forward ...
Do you see the blue line there?
She shines in the light of the sun,
That will charge; that glitters with silver
That is golden amber. That is the sea!
And do you see the smoke creeping along the shore?
And the black dot that goes around
Mouse away? After all, this is a ship
Our wedding ship! He's on course now
To the fjord, and in the evening - from the fjord to the sea
We will be carried away with you ... It is thickening again
Fog in the distance ... You noticed, Agnes,
How wonderfully the sea merged with the sky there?

Agnes(looks blankly into space)

Yes, yes ... did you notice? ..

Einar

Agnes(without looking at him, with some reverence)

When he spoke, then ... as if he had grown!

(Starts down the mountain. Einar follows her.)

A mountain path along a rocky wall: an abyss to the right: in front and behind you can see even higher mountain peaks covered with snow.

(going down the path, stops on a ledge and looks down)

I recognize my home again!
I've known everything here since childhood.
Every hillock, and slope, and canopy,
Every house and bush.
Birch clumps, alder by the stream,
Old dark church...
It only seems that everything is colorless,
It seems to have become smaller;
As if hung even harder
Snow caps from the cliffs
Narrowing that strip of heaven,
What was seen in the valley -
Light, space reduced there.

(Sits down on a ledge and looks out into the distance.)

Fjord. Is it really so narrow
Was he always so pathetic?
It's raining down there...
Light boat, spreading the sails,
Flying like a bird; sheltered
Pier and boats in the shade near the cliff.
Gloomy, hanging, and then -
With a red roof house, "widow's house",
The house where I was born.
Memories are crowded! ..
There, among the stones of the coastal,
Since childhood, I wandered, lonely in soul,
Oppression weighs on me -
The burden is heavy, the burden of kinship
With a base spirit that pulled
Forever to earth and heavenly seeds
Seedlings in the soul drowned out!
As if in a fog I see now
Great plans, dreams,
What I cherished, once in my soul.
Courage changed me
The will weakened, the soul withered.
Having returned to his native land,
I don't recognize myself alone,
Like Samson awakened
Pitiful, powerless, hairless
In the hot arms of Delilah!..

(Looks down again.)

What is the movement in the valley? People -
Women, children, men -
Hurry, crowds are going somewhere ...
That along the bends of the valley
Stretches with a motley ribbon-snake,
That disappears behind the hills
To then emerge again there,
Near the church is wretched.

(Rises.)

I can see right through you stupid people
You are sluggish souls, empty breasts!
The prayer given to you, "Our Father"
Deprived of the will of wings and inspiration,
And from it brings your babbling
Before God, only the "fourth petition."
After all, it is the slogan of all good people,
The password of the country, the people from ancient days.
From general connection torn, strong
Seated in the hearts of people, it
Stored like a fragment, a sliver
From the faith of all, perished long ago!..
Get away from this stuffy hole as soon as possible!
There the air is stale, as in a mine underground;
The fresh wind will not blow, blowing,
And no banner will be raised there!

(He wants to go, when suddenly a stone rolls down the slope at his feet from above.)

Hey, who's throwing rocks?

Gerd(a girl of about fifteen, runs along the crest of a mountain, picking up a full apron of stones)

Shouted!
I got it!

(Throws another stone.)

Yes, stop fooling around!

Gerd

There, there he sits: he has little grief, -
Swinging on a bent branch!

(Throws another stone and screams.)

It flies ... huge, scary, at me!
Oh oh! Save! Will peck!

Gerd

Shh... Who are you?.. Stop, don't move! Flies!

Gerd

Haven't you seen a hawk?

Where? Here? Didn't see it, no.

Gerd

Huge, ugly!
There is a crest on the forehead, and angry eyes
With a border of yellow-red around!

Where are you going?

Gerd

So with you
I'm on my way.

Gerd

With me? I need to go up the hill.

(pointing down)

But the church is there.

Gerd(smiling contemptuously)

Certainly.
Let's go together...

Gerd

No, it's gross.

Gerd

And it's cramped and stuffy.

Where is more spacious?
Have you seen?

Gerd

Spacious? I know!
Goodbye!

(Starts climbing up.)

So this is where your path leads!
The ridge is steep, rocky and deserted.

Gerd

Come with me and you will see the church
From ice and snow there!

From ice and snow?
Oh yes, I remembered! There is a gorge in the rocks, -
They called it the "snow church".
I heard a lot of stories about him in my childhood.
Perched on the frozen lake,
As on a foundation, vaults of snow.

Gerd

Well, yes, look - all the snow and ice around,
But this is a church.

Do not go there, -
Pretty wind stormy gust
Or shoot, even a simple cry,
To break the avalanche, and ...

Gerd(not listening)

Let's go to!
I will show you a herd of deer;
The collapse crushed them, and only
When the water passed, they became visible.

No, don't go there, it's dangerous!

Gerd(pointing down)

And you go there - it's crowded, stuffy, disgusting.

Well, God is with you. Goodbye!

Gerd

Come with me!
There waterfalls will sing mass to us,
And the wind will say such a sermon,
What will throw you into the heat and into the cold - it's nice!
And the hawk no longer flies into the church.
His home is there.
On the Black Peak; sit and sit
Ugly, like a weathercock,
On the very spire of my temple!

Your soul is wild, as wild is your path.
Apparently, the strings in this lute have broken.
But everything is flat and low
And so it will remain forever:
And evil can be turned into good.

Gerd

There, there it flies already, noisy wings!
Hurry, hurry, get under my roof!
He does not dare to touch me in the church!
Farewell ... Oh, what an evil flies and terrible!

(Screams.)

Do not dare! Do not dare! I will launch a stone!
Cling your claws - I'll whip with a branch!

(Running up the path.)

(after a short pause)

And this one went to the church, like those below.
And which of them chose the right path?
Who wanders in the worst darkness, who wandered
From the right harbor, further from the world:
That frivolity that is over the cliff
Jumped one step from the abyss, laughed?
Or stupidity, that, know for yourself,
Wandering the usual beaten path?
Ile finally senselessness, whose gaze
Does he see beauty in place of evil?
The fight against their tripartite union is the goal
Mine from now on. Here is my calling!
Like a ray of sunshine through the crack in the door,
And my radiance lit up the darkness!
Now I see my way; it is clear:
These three trolls will fall - the world is saved,
If only we could bring them to the grave, -
And the poison of sin will lose its power! ..
Forward! Arm yourself with a sword, my spirit,
And for the likeness of God, rush into battle!

(Begins to go down to the village.)

These two quotations already precede everything that will be discussed in this chapter. The drama about the priest Brand is perhaps the least understood of the works of Ibsen, and indeed of all Norwegian literature in general. Today this fact has become even more obvious. Perhaps the reason is that in the drama "Brand" the writer challenges the entrenched in European culture humanistic traditions that are associated with Christianity. One gets the impression that Brand (and, according to some, Ibsen himself) denies love for one's neighbor as an ethical principle, discarding it altogether as unnecessary. This is the question we are going to discuss here. We will also discuss what Ibsen's intentions were and what tasks he set for himself when writing this poem.

"Brand", no doubt, was one of the most beloved creations of the writer. This is a poem full of deep ideological meaning, a kind of dramatic " crusade", in which Ibsen participated. The voice of a lonely writer in the desert. A fire burns in Brand's chest, bursting out in moments of despair:

It's terrible to be always alone Everywhere death is a sign to meet: It's terrible to receive stones, When I'm bread, I'm thirsty!..

As you know, Ibsen was prompted to start writing this poem by the feeling of anger and indignation that he experienced in 1894. At that time, the Danes had to fight the Prussians one on one, and the Norwegians showed complete indifference to this war. Outraged to the core by this circumstance, Ibsen decided to give his hero the symbolic name Kold (Cold). But in the course of further work on the work, he decided to rename it Brand (which means Fire). This image was to become a "pillar of fire" for Ibsen's contemporaries - ordinary inhabitants, people who were downtrodden and extremely mundane. “Brand is myself in best moments my life,” said the writer. Strongly said. Few of his contemporaries, and even those who lived later, reacted with confidence to these words. At least they weren't taken literally. And yet, some of the younger generation appreciated the noble idealism that burned in the soul of the writer.

Although the work itself and its main character were received extremely negatively, although critics spoke sharply and intolerantly about them - it was Brand that brought Ibsen fame in Scandinavia. The “legislator of literary tastes” of the then Norway, Professor Monrad, praised the poem very restrainedly, but since it really was a challenge to society, society considered it that way. Vigne did not believe in the sincerity and seriousness of Ibsen's creative intention, and Bjornson could not finish reading the poem to the end, claiming that he became ill from reading. Only many years later "Brand" received universal recognition. Even in our time, when the provocative power of this poem has become much less relevant, and even less noticeable, we can observe that the image of Brand continues to be comprehended and discussed as the image of a negative character that causes antipathy. There are many reasons for which, and I will return to this topic later.

Another surprising paradox is the fact that for many years the figure of Brand was treated as reprehensible, while Brand's "brother" Peer Gynt did not arouse such condemnation from the public. It is known that Ibsen himself held just the opposite opinion. In his eyes, Peer Gynt personified those negative qualities that Ibsen found in himself. Therefore, the way the "Brand" was perceived by the public, quite surprised the author.

In June 1869, he wrote to Georg Brandes: “Brand was misunderstood, at least not in accordance with my intentions. (You can, of course, reply to this that criticism does not care about intentions.) The root cause of the misinterpretations seems to be that Brand is a priest and that the problem posed is religious. But both of these circumstances are completely unimportant. I could construct the same syllogism by taking a sculptor, a politician, as well as a priest. I could pour out my spiritual mood that made me create, and in the plot, the hero of which would be instead of Brand, for example, Galileo (with the only difference that he, of course, would not give up, would not recognize that the earth is motionless). But who knows, if I had been born a hundred years later, I might have taken you as a hero with your struggle against the “philosophy of compromise”. In general, there is more disguised objectivity in Brand than has hitherto been noticed, which I am proud of as a poet" (4: 684).

This letter reveals many interesting details to us. First, it convincingly proves that the so-called intentional interpretation, based on the statements of the author himself regarding the intention of his work, is not necessarily the best and most correct. In one of the schools literary criticism last century - the so-called "new criticism" - a similar principle of interpretation with light hand American literary scholar Wimsutt has been labeled as "a deliberately erroneous conclusion". The author can create a much more ambiguous work, completely different from what he saw it at the stage of conception. The finished and published text begins to take on a life of its own - this text has already completely broken away from its prototype. But it is not at all necessary that it will be this way and not otherwise. In any case, it is interesting how the writer perceives his own offspring, and the author's opinion cannot be ignored. And the fact that critics and researchers tend to be mistaken is no secret to anyone.

Secondly, the above letter proves that Ibsen was well aware of the active role readers play in the final development of the text. He often complained about the lack of understanding and openness, but this is what he expressed in 1898 about the perception of the reader's perception of his work: “My task was to portray people. However, it always happens, perhaps, that the reader, if the image is at least somewhat true, also puts his feelings and moods into it. This is attributed to the poet; but no, not at all; each recreates the work of the poet in his own way, according to his individuality, decorates it, finishes it. Not only writers create, but also readers; they are partners in creativity; and often the reader is more of a poet than the poet himself" (4: 663).

Ibsen also understood that the relationship between the text that the author sees and creates and the text that the readers then perceive can be quite complex. True, he himself did not think to go as far as some literary critics do - supporters of granting readers unlimited freedom in interpreting the author's text. Only once, towards the end of his life, having already laid aside his pen, would Ibsen speak out in favor of such a radical position.

As he himself admitted, this problem affected him especially painfully in the case of "Brand" - more precisely, with how the public perceived the poem. The problem has not lost its relevance over time. And today the reaction of the audience is often the same as before - people are simply seething with moral indignation. They completely lose sight of what exactly Ibsen wanted to say, what kind of idea the creator wanted to convey to the reader and viewer. dramatic poem Brand.

As can be seen from the above letter, Ibsen especially emphasized: if Brand is a priest in the plot, and the main problem of the poem is religious, this does not mean anything. He repeated that he was talking primarily about "syllogism", that is, about the logical conclusion to which he leads the reader, presenting him with evidence on concrete examples based on certain indisputable premises. That is why he draws a parallel between two cases, which, in his opinion, clearly demonstrate how, alas, the behavior of a fighter for truth in the fight against the personification of evil is changing: the first case is Galileo, and the second is Georg Brandes, an opponent of the “philosophy of compromise”. Thus, even in 1869 Brand remains for Ibsen an unconditionally positive hero, an uncompromising seeker of truth.

Anyone will agree that Ibsen portrayed Brand as a man with an extraordinary will, who is able to fight to the end for his beliefs. But is this image so unambiguous? Didn't he endow Brand with a certain defect of character - a lack of human warmth, an inability to love and compassion? A similar point of view was expressed over the years by many, including Frederik Engelstad and Vigdis Yustad. Per Thomas Andersen in 1997 published the article "A Storm in the Mountains", which is sustained in the same spirit and contains, it should be noted, a very subjective reading of the poem. Andersen chose a rather strange interpretation, where the objective-structural analysis of the work is replaced by bare realism, psychologism and moralizing. Brand in his eyes is a tyrant and a fundamentalist. At the end of his article, he writes: "If Brand is saved, then I do not want to find salvation in the same heaven as he."

I have already mentioned what exactly is behind such a familiar interpretation of the poem, and in particular the character of Brand himself. As Ibsen pointed out, negative responses to the poem are largely due to those beliefs and prejudices, those life experiences and attitudes with which every reader begins to read a literary text. In addition, it is impossible not to notice how often literary critics interpreted Ibsen's works contrary to himself: for example, they saw the line of succession in the poem "On the Heights", then in the "Comedy of Love" and then in "Brand". All three works can be called "tendentious", since they deal with what Ibsen in 1872 designated as "ideal requirement". This requirement is that a person clearly understands what is the ideal and what is the reality and how they relate to each other. In "Brand" there is no realistic image of a person and there is no psychology in the generally accepted sense. "Brand" reflects Ibsen's ideas about the ideal - a person with a will.

Brand's image is the embodiment of these ideas about perfect person. Everything in this image is subject to the desire to become an ideal - his whole life, all his struggles, all his actions, all his sufferings. And his whole character, his whole "ethos". Brand is a Human in an evil and hostile "World". His position can be compared with that of Falk and Swanhild in the Comedy of Love. The “world” is trying to break Brand, to remake him into a “normal” person, that is, one who shares the norms and values ​​that prevail in Everyday life the townsfolk. Brand has a completely different destiny and goals for humanity and for its individual members. That is why he is waging his desperate and trials-filled struggle - the struggle with the "Mir". And this is not an easy fate.

non-religious drama

So, "Brand" cannot be considered a religious drama - especially a Christian one. Some, however, thought so. In 1873, Ibsen was asked whether this drama, in accordance with the original plan, was supposed to reflect the biblical truth that through one's own efforts a person cannot be justified before God. To which Ibsen replied: “You are mistaken. When I wrote Brand, my only desire was to portray an energetic personality. Brand himself in the play says that he considers it his main calling to heal the current sick generation, and the question of whether he is a Christian is of secondary importance:

I'm not a preacher I'm not a church set of ideas, Whether I'm a Christian, I don't know But from head to toe I am a man and curse The vice that weakened the country.

A little later he says:

I am not looking for new words. I tell you about the eternal truth, - Not a church and not a dogma now I want to elevate to a shrine.

If Ibsen turned out to be so “globally” misunderstood, then this is partly his fault: he himself led readers to such a perception of the drama.

Inspiration, thanks to which Brand was born, Ibsen drew from the Book of Books. William Blake, and later Northrop Fry, called the Bible the great key to all Western culture. Ibsen himself admitted that the Bible was his only reading during the period of work on the play. The harsh power inherent in this Book left an indelible imprint on the image of Brand and on the text of Ibsen. It is also well known that a clear idea of ​​​​how the future work should look like first came to the writer during his visit to St. Peter's Cathedral. However, Ibsen again and again strongly denied both the religious background of the play and the suggestion that Søren Kierkegaard's struggle against semi-official Christianity inspired him to write it.

In a letter in which he calls Brand the embodiment of the best features of himself, he also says: “It is a pure misunderstanding that I depicted in him the life and fate of Søren Kierkegaard (I generally read very little, and understood even less). The fact that Brand is a priest is essentially unimportant; the commandment "all or nothing" retains its meaning in all areas of life - in love, and in art, etc. Brand - I myself in the best moments of my life, this is just as true as what I found through self-anatomy many traits of Peer Gynt and Stensgard” (4: letter to Peter Hansen). And in a letter to Frederick Hegel, he writes that the depiction of human life, the purpose of which was to serve an idea, is always in a certain sense will coincide with the life of Kierkegaard (4: 676). The Dane Frederik G. Knudzon, who was trying to find common ground between Kierkegaard and Brand, met Ibsen in Rome. He claims that Ibsen had no idea about the writings of the Danish philosopher and he himself lent Ibsen one of Kierkegaard's books.

And in subsequent years, Ibsen continued to insist that "Brand" is not a religious poem, that this is the purest example artistic creativity without any moral message that agitates in favor of a certain way of life. In 1870 he writes to Laura Keeler that the poem is entirely a work of pure art and nothing else. Whether it has any secondary - destructive or creative - effect, he, as he writes, does not concern him at all.

Ibsen spoke in this spirit more than once. In only one single case did he give some interpreters a reason to interpret the play in a religious way, which allowed them to come to far-reaching and extremely dubious conclusions. It's about about the letter of 1876 to the German translator of Brand, Baron Alfred von Wolzogen. This letter was written in a specific situation: Ibsen openly sought to expand his fame in the German-speaking world. He understood that the baron could be very useful in this regard - for example, to strengthen Ibsen's reputation in the eyes of King Oscar II, who was supportive of art. Ibsen asks the translator to send one copy of the work to the king and thanks him for the laudatory preface, in which von Wolzogen also inclines towards a Christian-religious interpretation of the drama. Despite this, Ibsen had every reason to be pleased with the work of von Wolzogen, therefore his gratitude is not surprising. But that was an exceptional - and generally ambiguous case. There are many more examples of how Ibsen spoke about "Brand" in a completely different way.

Brand's betrayal - or "betrayal"

Ibsen's poem "Brand", undoubtedly, should be considered a tragedy - both for an individual and for humanity as a whole, although numerous interpreters see in it only an individual tragedy. The idea of ​​the presence of a tragic element in the poem prevails in the above-mentioned articles by Frederik Engelstad, Vigdis Yustad and Per Thomas Andersen. Engelstad sees Brand as a fanatical moralist and a dangerous person. By the way, this opinion completely coincides with the characterization of Brand, which Sigurd Höst gives in 1927: "a narrow-minded fanatic, tyrant and executioner." According to Engelstad, Brand's fanaticism is due to his religious vocation. As he argues, Brand's problem is that he is blinded by his faith and therefore is the culprit of many terrifyingly ridiculous events. Brand is morally bankrupt because he does not understand that moral behavior impossible without genuine love for others. Morality is not just a set of certain rules. Engelstad considers Brand's lack of love for his neighbors to be a direct consequence of his upbringing - an upbringing devoid of human feelings. Thus, he gives the image of Brand a psychological interpretation.

A similar hypothesis is proposed by Vigdis Yustad. She argues that Brand's main internal conflict is not a conflict between will and love, but a conflict between love and hate. Yustad emphasizes that this is about "an existential aversion to life, originating in the general human fear of the diversity of existence." Thus, Agnes appears to her as the antipode and opponent of Brand, embodying everything that he is so afraid of, namely, real life and boundless love. The tragedy of Brand, according to Yustad, lies in the misunderstanding of all this - only towards the end does he begin to realize what his main mistake was. And then he changes - he is no longer the all-destroying, cold and closed person that he was before. Eustad seems to believe that Brand is sacrificing himself, trying to reconcile the two opposing aspects of existence - love and hate - through a voluntarily chosen death.

Here, in her interpretation of this model of conflict, we find some ambiguity. Should hatred, which expresses fear, isolation and self-centeredness, be combined with love to form a free human personality? Apparently, this is the opinion of Yustad. But is this the main paradox of the internal conflict who survives Brand? And is it true that Brand's attitude towards the world around him is essentially insane and tragic, as Per Thomas Andersen claims, and is it true that Brand is unable to recognize the many-sided and complex nature of life? A person who, with some kind of pleasure, torments those around him, without even experiencing suffering and longing for those close to him who have passed away? Is this Brand Ibsen painted in his work?

These questions are no doubt rhetorical. And now, perhaps, the time has come to take the text and read Ibsen through the eyes of Ibsen himself. After all, this is possible! Maybe then we will gain some clarity on the question of whether Brand was really an insensitive fanatic who was driven by hatred, and whether this hatred was caused by fear of life and contempt for people. Or maybe they were driven by something completely different.

The Demand of Idealism: All or Nothing

Judged from the conventional point of view and consider Brand as real person, then he, of course, seems to be a very tough and cold person. But his uncompromising attitude has a real justification. Brand must remain adamant, for his thoughts about what man is and what he should be are infinitely sublime. He strives to maintain the greatness of man in the light of eternal biblical truths and the truth of this day, when every second a new representative of humanity is born. At the same time, Brand relies on own experience, which tells him what everyday life does to a person and how a person changes on the path of life. Therefore, Brand cannot compromise and afford to be lenient. Because he believes in love. Moreover, he loves a person who is able to regain the lost nobility. And with this man, Brand is forced to treat cruelly.

Thus, his mentoring severity stems from his love for humanity. In the third act, the doctor tells Brand that he lacks the usual mercy. It comes at the moment when Brand refuses to soften his heart even for the sake of his dying mother. He explains it this way:

Love! - no understanding So not contaminated with lies: With demonic cunning it Hides their flaws of will.

A person by all means tries to elude any obligations and justifies his behavior with the so-called "love". When it comes to specific actions and real victims, a person pretends not to notice them. It is against this life position and Brand performs so fiercely and energetically. A person must gather his will and try to accomplish even what seems impossible, in the worst case, accept martyrdom, endure any suffering, if only to take place as a person. Only then can love take its dominant place:

Only if by will You won this fight Love comes times; Like a dove, a branch of life for you She carries - then an olive branch! But now people are a lazy race: There must be hatred here Love, hate is needed here ... (in fear) Fight with the whole world! The fight is tough! A simple little word!

It is to this statement that Vigdis Yustad refers, who claims that Brand is possessed by an existential hatred and contempt for life. No. Rather, he thinks in fear and trembling about what severe demands the struggle makes on him: only with the help of harsh methods can he count on at least some success in awakening to life a mankind mired in laziness and licentiousness.

Brand by no means denies the fundamental meaning of love. On the contrary, love and tenderness are something that a person must earn and experience - if only he becomes a person in the true sense of the word. Such love is central to the life Brand is fighting for. And it is this kind of love that drives Brandom - love for the ideal that a person should become.

On the contrary, Brand despises that, as he says, ugly love, which condescendingly allows everything to remain as it is. In addition, the above quotation shows that, according to Ibsen's plan, Brand himself is horrified by his own thoughts: hatred of the licentiousness of mankind will inevitably involve him in a difficult struggle with the world. He already vaguely guesses at what price he will have to pay for this. Immediately after Brand says the word "hate", he rushes to look for his little son. It is through the son that all the power of his love can be revealed. Agnes understands this too. She says:

He knelt over his son, Bent over like he's crying He pressed his head to the bed, As one who is deprived of help ... Oh how love lives abundantly In his soul, harsh, strong! They love Alf: the snake of the world The child has not yet stung in the heel ...

A child is an innocent being who has not yet imprinted pernicious influence peace. But Brand also loves Agnes - mature, strong-willed and just as innocent. (Her name just means “pure”, “innocent”. In the Roman Catholic tradition, St. Agnes is glorified for steadfastly resisting the pressure of the sinful world until the very hour of her death.) It is love for her loved ones that makes Brand suffer so much, for Agnes and the child represent the connection between him and ordinary human life. They are the most precious thing Brand has, without which he cannot live.

Only when the real danger of losing them arises before him does he realize that his own teaching is turning against him. He experiences a genuine tragedy as the all-or-nothing demand begins to affect him. own life. Previously, he was adamant and sure of his own rightness. Brand had no doubt that he personally was always ready to sacrifice everything. But when it comes to loved ones, he begins to hesitate, overcome by doubts and confusion. In this position, he can not be called a man of hatred.

The child is terminally ill and needs to be taken away from the unhealthy climate. This means that Brand will also have to leave: he must leave his flock and give up everything that he considers his calling. Initially, he intends to do so. The doctor, who still does not suspect how adamant Brand is, says that for the first time he notices humanity in him, thanks to which Brand has grown in his eyes:

Relentless to the crowd of people, But yielding to himself! For them, not too much and not too little. But only everything or nothing. But immediately the courage fell, Only a draw for it She pointed out the native lamb!

But the doctor does not reproach Brand at all for not following his own teaching. On the contrary, he says:

You just became a father. I do not reproach you this time: Like this - with a broken wing - Greatness has become more in you, Than in such a wrestler-titan! Farewell! Mirror in store I to you, - seeing myself in it, Sigh: “God! That's what A hero who storms the gods.

Brand intends to fight both the zeitgeist and the spirit of self-sacrifice inherent in ordinary people. He says:

So empty, gone in their hearts, Their outlook on life has become so low...

Everywhere you will meet only one thing: The dreams of a slave are the lands of dreams.

The weakness of a person, which does not allow him to rise to his feet, may be worthy of indulgence. But one cannot justify cowardly humility, lethargy, laziness and unwillingness to rise. That's why Brand says:

I see through death and sorrow Morning fiery dawns!

Here Agnes admits he was right and throws herself on his neck, promising to faithfully follow him. She is not against Brand. And she will not become an opponent even when his inflexibility makes her suffer. For she shares Brand's opinion that in decisive life situations you need to follow a different logic. Yes, she has already proved it during the storm by going in a boat with Brand (in the second act).

In the depths of her soul, she realizes what Brand is fighting for, she also understands that the truth is on his side. She says that she does not need to make a choice - her choice has already been made. Brand will have to choose, and his choice is also a foregone conclusion. In that tense scene, when Agnes is about to die, and Brand is faced with the most difficult and painful choice of all that has fallen to him, he repeats her words: “I have no other choice, no! Forever chose the path. Even in this situation, Agnes thanks Brand:

Oh thanks for that too! It's true, you led me to the light!

Many researchers of Ibsen's work overlook these words, because Brand's behavior in this scene seems blatantly inhuman. It is worth noting that Ibsen here is risky balancing between philosophical and poetic symbolism - and a breathtakingly realistic depiction of a specific life situation.

Real deep grief is depicted here, so the reader can easily fall into some kind of psychological trap and condemn Brand for the lack of that unconditional love, which the doctor calls the Latin word "caritas", that is, "mercy".

Of course, based on universal human logic, Brand's behavior in this scene cannot be justified by anything. But Ibsen's "syllogism" has a different perspective. Agnes cannot believe that the dead child has found bliss in heaven; she is attached to her earthly, "slave" way of thinking. With Brand's help, she gets rid of her doubts, and in the same scene we see a joyful and grateful Agnes. Even when she realizes that vitality she was exhausted and that the hour of death is approaching, she still thanks Brand for his steadfastness and gently hugs him with the words: “Oh, thank you for this too! It's true, you led me to the light!

So, is Agnes the opposite of Brand, personifying everything that frightens him? No! And what about the interpretation of her image by Per Thomas Andersen? He views Agnes both as a kind of protective buffer behind which Brand takes refuge from the problems encountered on his way, and as the highest court that passes sentence on him. Andersen does not understand that this is an unclean spirit, "the spirit of compromise", took the form of Agnes and sentences Brand to death with the words: "So die - do not needed by the world!" The image of Agnes in the appropriate interpretation often appears on stage. But is this the same Agnes that Ibsen portrayed in his play? Again, no.

Agnes is first given the task of showing the gravity of the conflict in which a person who decides to follow the teachings of Brand is involved. Agnes - voice real life, which predicts what the attempt to implement the ideal requirements will lead to. This is what she eventually dies for. But life taken by itself is not highest value neither for Ibsen nor for Agnes herself.

It is only when she is near death that Brand is forced to admit that his teachings have turned against him. He again faces the choice that he faced when the life of Alpha was in danger: either you need to abandon your teachings, that is, to compromise, or remain as adamant. To compromise means to come to terms with human weakness and adapt to the established worldly "wisdom". But then he will also have to admit his defeat:

Well, the souls of sick visions I was presented for a moment, Or an unforgotten image Initially hidden in the heart, Or clothed in flesh.

This is the question tormenting Brand at the very end of the play, when his path is almost over: maybe he made a mistake, devoting his whole life to the struggle for a doomed cause? Maybe this fight can't be won at all?

The temptation of the Prince of Peace and his defeat

And so, when Brand hesitates, alone and abandoned by all who followed him to the shining heights, the "Peace" strikes him with a precisely calculated blow. To begin with, an invisible choir sings that a person is just a worm who cannot hope for more than to live his life according to worldly laws and customs. All the efforts of man and all his sacrifices are in vain. After that, Brand is himself the "Prince of this World" - "The Tempter in the Desert", as he appears in the list of characters.

And he appears, insidiously taking the form of Agnes. He comforts Brand - they say, everything is still being formed. What Brand lost in his life - the son of Alf and Agnes - he can find again. But only on one condition. Brand must do what the wise doctor advised, namely, cross out three words from his sacred tablet - "All or nothing." It turns out that in the eyes of Satan the doctor is wise. This, in theory, was to reason with the interpreters of Ibsen, who put the doctor as a witness in their own trial against Brand!

The root of evil and the cause of your madness, Satan tells him, is the commandment "All or nothing." In critical situations, tempters, of course, pervert everything. Brand turns away from the false Agnes and is no longer deceived. Despite the fact that his most cherished desire has always been to resurrect Agnes and Alpha, he cannot change his beliefs about what is the main flaw of humanity.

Although he has no chance of realizing his ideals in real world, he cannot but strive for them. Compromise is impossible for him, and he does not have to choose. Thus, he rejects the temptation and remains determined to live it all over again. Brand brings his fight to a victorious end. He drinks his cup to the bottom, and the evil tempter, this "spirit of compromise", defeated, is taken away. But before he leaves, Satan curses Brand with words reminiscent of the bitter truth: "So die - not needed by the world."

In a sense, he is right - yes, right. The world has nothing to do with Brand and his inexorable demands. But this curse also means the recognition of the rightness of Brand. For the "World" is a negative force, presented in the drama as the worst enemy of man. And most importantly - do not break down, do not bow before the world, even if this requires superhuman efforts. It is not easy to resist a powerful hostile element that seeks to destroy all who rebel against the order established by it.

Death is not the end for us, Brand had said a little earlier. And he remained true to his words to the end. For life in itself - as already mentioned - is not the highest value in the play.

Before Brand meets his fate, alone, abandoned, stoned - like St. Stephen - he will have to go through one more temptation. This temptation will appear to him in the form of Gerd, the same one who, throughout the whole drama, led her own hawk hunt, who wanted to be with Brand in the mountains, in the majestic but cold Ice Church. The symbolism associated with Gerd and this strange church on top of a mountain is not biblical. But it is very important for Brand's image. In addition, at a key moment, Gerd becomes part of a world permeated with biblical symbolism.

Gerd is another woman in Brand's life

Gerd also plays essential role in Brand's life - mainly the role of his inner voice. She, like Agnes, follows him - at least within the limits of the drama. There is also a third woman in Brand's life, who plays, however, a less significant role - his mother. She personifies earthiness, slavish dependence on the material. The fate of the mother is associated with the biblical parable of the rich man, the camel and the eye of the needle. She is a challenge to the teachings of Brand, which, however, is not able to shake him.

Gerd often appears on stage in situations where Brand has to make a decisive choice. Her image is written in such a way that she is perceived more as a symbol than a living one, real character. She is the opposite of Agnes, for she embodies Brand's inner voice, threatening and tempting. Agnes is love and warmth in Brand's life, she leads him to the "sunny treasures of life", light and tenderness. Gerd is cold, these are the dangerous tendencies that are present in any consistent idealism and threaten its living core - tendencies in relation to which a reasonable person must be on the alert all his life.

The paths of Brand and Gerd cross again when Satan fades into the background, taking on the form of a hawk. At that moment, Brand understands with whom he has to fight - the hawk is one of the incarnations of the "Prince of Peace", the diabolical "spirit of compromise". Here we have a reason to stop and take a closer look at what is happening in this scene. As soon as the hawk disappears, Gerd immediately appears. For a moment it seems to her that the wounded Brand is Christ himself. She asks if she should fall before him and turn to him in prayer, a clear parallel with the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. “You are the chosen one, you are above all!” But Brand never had any doubts about who he was, so he replies to her: "Piss off ... An insignificant worm, dust of the earth!"

Brand's victory and death

Brand has come to the end of his journey. He withstood all temptations and strengthened his determination to follow what had always led him through life. The sky above the mountain peaks parted, and Brand sees that in front of him is the Ice Church - the opposite of the church built by human hands. Previously, he did not want to enter the church that he built himself, because it personified the "spirit of compromise." But now, for nothing in the world, he wants to be in this lonely Ice Church, in front of which he stands. He dreams of flying away a thousand miles from here and cries from the thirst for warmth and tenderness that has seized him.

Thus, he affirms the values ​​that he denied in his rebellion against Satan. But this is not surprising, because Brand felt the need for love throughout his life. It's just that the struggle he devoted himself to always demanded something different from him. The severity, which he called "hatred", was simply the result of intransigence towards unprincipled compliance and lack of will. Here we begin to understand what the Ice Church symbolizes in the picture of the world where Brand is waging his lonely struggle. She symbolizes temptation for him - the temptation to isolate himself from everyone and everything in his sublime perfection and cold hatred for fallen humanity. Severity, hatred and arrogance were indispensable means in the struggle waged by Brand. But the means should not replace the end.

Brand had to be a "scorpion of callousness" in order not to fall into the trap of the human tendency to compromise. From the generally accepted point of view, such a position may seem elementary "madness" (this word is used by Satan in relation to Brand, and earlier Brand himself in relation to Gerd). But Brand would not have made it to the end if he had not decided to stick to this position. For his life was an endless walking through torments - so heavy was the burden that he took upon himself. Gerd is wrong when he asks Brand why he has never cried before. In fact, he wept more than once, desperately praying for heaven to shed light on his path. He always obediently followed his inner voice, which both in the poem and in the language of Brand himself was called the call of the law:

One goal, one road: Be a living tablet of God!

Brand is convinced that the Law, which, according to the biblical tradition, was carved on the tablets, will again take effect at the very end of his journey. Brand's tears, testifying that he never forgot about the greatest value in the world - life, make a strong impression on Gerd and transform her. She exclaims:

So, dripping down, The eternal shroud of ice is melting, So the ice on the heart melts Tears in my heart...

Even nature around is changing. The Ice Church begins to melt. In this transformation, the secret of what Gerd and the Ice Church personify is revealed to us - probably something inside Brand himself, something in his mind and soul. The name Gerd means "protector", "guardian", "protector". She is the embodiment of one of the sides of his personality, which is expressed in cold inflexibility, in an uncompromising struggle with the "spirit of compromise" and in the "heavy ammunition" of obsession. All this led him to the Ice Church at the top of the mountain.

But this is not the end of his life's journey. For Brand manages to defeat Gerd within himself. His relationship with her was necessary to trap the hawk. It would be madness to enter the Ice Church and stay there. Brand should have walked towards her - but past her - and on. As he continues on his way, he leaves the Ice Church behind. As a result, Brand understands that consistent idealism and the desire to implement the Law at any cost turn your life into an Ice Path. But at the end of this path, a thirst for warmth, tenderness and love will seize you with unprecedented force. Brand has talked about this before:

Only if by will You won this fight Love comes times.

This is how, in joy and relief, he would like to end his journey:

I've been in the frosty darkness for a long time Walked the path of the Law formidable, - Now everything is covered with light! Until now I have been looking for shares - To be the tablet of God's will, But from now on by the sun of summer My life will be warm. The ice cracked: I can pray Love the world, shed tears!

The focus here is on the time perspective. In order to understand the text in this apparently decisive part of the drama, it is necessary to remember that there are several dissimilar periods in Brand's life. There is a time for fighting and there is a time for peace. An indicative fact is that it is here that Gerd finally manages to catch the hawk - the “spirit of compromise”. This is a sign that Brand is really close to his goal. But the yoke of reality still weighs on him - in this world there is no place for Brand with his idealism. Therefore, at the hour of his triumph, he becomes a prisoner of those metamorphoses that he himself caused. "Mir" takes revenge, but before that Brand and Gerd realize that the "spirit of compromise" is finally defeated. Now they find themselves in the "Great Church of Life" that Brand has always fought against. This is the very form of being, which was cherished by the "spirit of compromise", embodied in the guard - the hawk. In her final speech, Gerd speaks about the miraculous changes in the world around her and about the hawk that she managed to catch, because the hawk also miraculously changed. Gerd says:

Ten times the tent of heaven He became more like he disappeared! Here he rolls! Do you hear the chuckle? Away with all fears ... So it took off ... Look - he has become white as a dove! ..

The dove is a symbol of peace and reconciliation. It also symbolizes enlightenment in Brand's life, which our hero longed for. This transformation of a hawk into a dove marks the fact that Brand brought his fight to the end - he won. He stands on the threshold new era- the era of the world. Final words drama says a voice breaking through the roar of an avalanche: "He is deus caritatis!" It would be a gross mistake to assume that these words mean the curse of Brand, his life and his deeds. Rather, these words indicate that Brand has finally achieved his goal. He achieved love and peace. This is the central logical line of the work, on the basis of which the entire symbolic structure is built.

Brand perishes not because he is a victim of his own arrogance - hybris and universal blind delusion - hamartia. For he was by no means such a victim and did not at all deny the dominant place of love in this life. Brand is a suffering and at the same time a triumphant hero - a fighter for returning to humanity the greatness that it has lost, but lost forever. He strives to preserve freedom, nobility and purity in people - to make them wake up and break the shackles of "worldly slavery". After all, it is the “World” with its licentiousness and materialism that is sick, and seriously sick - this disease is called life without ideals, without great thoughts and without personality:

The face where the spirit is imprinted, You covered with mud, mold; Winged spirit in the worldly crowd You have deprived your wings of fuss.

The statement of the fact that there is no place for Brand in this world is an accusation not against Brand, but against the world itself. Francis Bull once wrote that Ibsen's criticism of his compatriots in Brand and the demands he made of them seem excessively cruel. But after all, at critical moments, people need to be reminded that they do not have the right to live as they please, like Peer Gynt. The evolution of Francis Bulle in relation to "Brand" is reminiscent of the evolution of Bjornson, who at one time categorically rejected "Brand", and later admitted that it was this work of Ibsen that could have a beneficial effect on his own life. Bull, who was imprisoned in the Grini concentration camp during the German occupation, writes the following: “Until April 9, 1940, I personally had some kind of rejection of Brand. Both the hero and the work itself seemed to me somehow inhuman and tortured, somehow hysterical. But the circumstances in which I found myself led me to believe that Brand had deep meaning, and gradually I realized that Brand could mean a lot to those who are in danger or who are fighting.”

Ibsen's provocation

"Brand" is, without a doubt, a powerful, indignant challenge to his contemporaries. It is not difficult to understand why audiences were reluctant to see Brand's story as symbolic or allegorical. His image was supposed to show them what human nobility, independence, inflexibility and spiritual integrity are. Such a free personality can be formed only as a result of a conscious choice of a person, and this choice in certain situations can be quite painful.

Wasn't that what Ibsen was thinking about during his first visit to Italy, when he was working on Brand? He thought that the fact that a nation has a great history in itself means little and has almost no effect on the lives of individuals. The heroic struggle of the Italians for freedom under the leadership of Garibaldi showed Ibsen that people are capable of unconditional self-sacrifice and that spiritual integrity is the most important value for a person. This was new to him.

In the same sunny Italy, he saw that the light and joy of life is also one of the fundamental values. In the minds of some idealists, the realization of this may cause a conflict between the selfless desire to fight and the elementary, legitimate need to live a simply happy life. But Ibsen doubted that in the then Norwegian society there were many people who could understand this. It was dominated by petty, mundane thinking, characteristic, as Ibsen put it, of "souls in a pocket format." This type of thinking imposed its own rules of life on society - along with lies and hypocrisy aimed at making people in society behave simply like fish in a flock.

Ibsen challenged his contemporaries with Brand, just as he had previously done with the Comedy of Love. Only with even greater power - primarily creative. And the reaction of contemporaries was not long in coming. Bjornson spoke sharply against the "Ibsen abstraction", which revolts public opinion. Vigne argued that it would be "criminal" on Ibsen's part to take "Brand" seriously. Norwegian critics wrote about the "madness" and "maximalism" of the protagonist. Of course, there were those who spoke out in defense of Ibsen, and in Sweden his poem caused a wave of imitations.

But Ibsen later said more than once that he was completely misunderstood. Just like in the case of the Comedy of Love. The society of that time lacked the "discipline of thought and mental training", without which it is impossible to understand that the true ideal has nothing in common with the so-called ideals of the majority. Ibsen ridiculed what in Norway was then called healthy realism, because it was equally unhealthy and unrealistic. Ibsen wrote about this in 1867 in the preface to the second edition of The Comedy of Love - there he argued that the "requirement of the ideal" is still relevant. Undoubtedly, Ibsen meant "Brand".

Regrettably, Ibsen's words that the most significant work of his youth is completely misunderstood are also still relevant. So-called healthy realism, relativism and the general fascination with psychoanalysis - all this prevents many from understanding that "Brand" is an abstraction, Ibsen's idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhow a person should be. Ibsen was not a fool and understood perfectly well that there was no place in the world for people like Brand. But that didn't stop him from portraying some ideal - as a reminder, as a warning, as a vital utopia, if you will.

The significance of utopia lies in the fact that it is able to tell something about the reality from which it springs. The idea, to which Ibsen constantly returned in difficult moments, boiled down to the fact that all of humanity "has gone astray" and that world history is moving towards a general shipwreck in which only a few will be able to escape. Constantly present in Ibsen's work is also the idea that a person has lost his nobility and must regain it at any cost. When dark forces in the person of the "Prince of Peace" they curse the apostle of idealism, arguing that there is no place in the world for people like him - this can only be considered a caustic irony on the part of the author.

That is why Brand is a genuine "Ibsen's man" (this is Ibsen himself "in the best moments of his life") and a positive hero. He is not cold as ice - he is warm, no matter what. He is neither a religious fanatic nor a fundamentalist, as many researchers and theater directors have claimed. Too often they interpreted the events of Brand and Agnes' lives in terms of the protagonist's "coldness". But through such scenes, Ibsen showed the presence of a clear parallel between Brand and Agnes - only Agnes goes ahead and leads him along the road of freedom, for which she is fighting in the same way. At the end of the life of Brand and Agnes, both of them, according to Ibsen's plan, begin to literally radiate light. It is said of Agnes that her face shone with joy, and Brand himself, in his dying scene, is clear, radiant, and as if rejuvenated.

That is why the role of Brand in the theater should be played with all possible warmth, as a suffering, full of feelings person, convinced that victory is possible, but at the same time afraid that people will miss this chance. For he clearly sees what the human tragedy is, and his most cherished desire is to serve humanity. Brand should be portrayed, endowing him with strength and hidden sympathy, despite all his outward coldness, which is already striking and which is so easily frightened. If we fail to discern this latent warmth in it, it will not be visible on the stage. This has happened way too often. Brand's situation is akin to Hamlet's:

The time is out of joint: Oh, cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!

But the world that Brand is so eager to save is the inner world of people. He dreams of a healthy human nature, natural and uncorrupted, but does not see the slightest opportunity to change the impenetrable and hostile reality. In those moments when Ibsen himself was plunging into a gloomy melancholy, it was Brand's "striving" that seemed to him the way to better world. "Brand" tells us about the meaning of suffering and "aspiration" for creative activity. First of all - for the work of Ibsen himself.

Despite all the criticism and rejection that Brand has faced and continues to face, it was with this poem that Ibsen proved to the world what a unique poetic gift he possessed. "Brand" changed his status as a poet both in his own eyes and in the eyes of those around him. There was no trace of his doubts about his vocation. The Thirst for Liberation brought him into a position where he could view the human life- the same life from which he kept his distance.

The hunter - the hero of the poem "On the Heights", Falk and Brand - all three of them convincingly prove that self-realization is the path to loneliness. It seems that in his next work, "Pere Gynte" (1867), Ibsen set out to show us a slightly different idea of ​​what it means to realize oneself or to be oneself.

When Ibsen, at the age of seventy, first saw "Brand" on stage - this happened at the Dagmar Theater in Copenhagen - he was said to have been shocked. He could not hold back his tears, and he himself admitted that the performance made a strong impression on him. “That was my youth, which I have not remembered for thirty years,” said Ibsen. Would he have been so shocked if he had made it his task to portray an odious character, a religious fanatic? There is no reason to attribute such an attitude to Brand to Ibsen. Brand is, undoubtedly, Ibsen himself "at the best moments of his life." He remembered that, and that was what shocked him. We can say that he had a chance to meet face to face with his radiant youthful idealism. And he wept because the radiance had already faded irrevocably.

A powerful play that sings a hymn to the spiritual world, published in 1956 in the Soviet Union in 150,000 copies, is an amazing phenomenon. Perhaps the secret is that Ibsen's God turned out to be so majestic that it seemed to the censors ... a kind of caricature. And do you know what the play “turned out” according to the interpretation of V. Admoni, who wrote the introduction (either out of ignorance, or thanks to the conscious dexterity of circumventing censorship)?
It turns out that the main point is that "Brand is confronted with the modern bourgeois state, which is represented primarily by Brand's superior in the church hierarchy." "Brand is confronted with the necessity of entering into an open struggle with bourgeois society, of turning to revolutionary means of struggle." Further - according to the known scheme. “Despite Brand's phrases that his former path was a mistake,” he did not become a red revolutionary. And therefore "the reader and viewer are deceived in their expectations caused by Brand's growing struggle with bourgeois society"!
No other review has ever inspired me with so much amazement and amusement.

Let lovers of brief announcements forgive me, but this time I will write in detail, counting on those who read, "deceived in their expectations."

Brand is a person who aspires to God, who has set himself an uncompromising motto: "All or nothing." Every person has many imperfections and delusions; Brand, every time he notices even a small crafty shadow in himself, immediately decides to smash it. This is his great strength ... but it lacks a measure of humanity. Knowing only the path of crystal-clear honesty and unbending will, he wants to lead everyone around in this very path and does not think of any others. You can't say that Brand is heartless! But he tells his heart to burn for humanity, not realizing that humanity is made up of very different characters. He does not know how to feel a living person, as well as the living presence of God, and he himself suffers from this.
Brand is surprisingly purposeful, this force is instantly felt by all those around, they themselves are ignited by its rushing flame. But the "borrowed" burning is unstable and ready to die out under the first wind. What is happening. By the end of the play, Brand, like Moses, undertakes to lead the people away from their former places into a new life, and in the first impulse the people follow him, but at some point they are frightened and turn back.

Brand suffers cruelly: in fact, for the sake of raising the spirit of the people (and always - according to the calls of the people!) He actually sacrificed his wife and son, who could not bear the exorbitant burden of service. And now he is stoned, everyone turned away from him! The spirits of the fog angrily whisper to him that he is doomed, and barely hearing that he turns to the image in grief faithful wife, immediately appear to tempt him in her allegedly resurrected appearance, gently demand to renounce their ideals. But since the hero persists, the spirits of the fog again repeat that God is in principle unattainable for man: “But he expelled, do not forget, Man out of paradise, He dug an abyss without edge, You will not cross the abyss of ether!”
Only Brand is adamant even in despair: “The path of aspiration is open to us!”
The fog, having failed, flies away from Brand with curses, thickening over the village. And Brand himself is buried under an avalanche, which was caused by a shot of a half-crazy, but rather a holy fool girl Gerd: she wanted to shoot clots of evil fog with a silver bullet in order to free the people from evil in this way.

And this ending causes opposite interpretations of the author's intention. The townsfolk are firmly convinced: Brand lost. He lost his family, the crowds turned away, the outcome of life near a mad woman is symbolic, and in the end Brand lost his life. Losing in pure form- in all respects! And even the last words of the play about God, uttered in a roar by a kind of supernatural voice: “He is - Deus caritatis”, that is, the god of mercy, seem to pass judgment on Brand's severity.

But! But! You need to know Ibsen better and better understand spiritual world not to be embarrassed by the death of the physical body.
Ibsen is a seeker who, during his lifetime, may not have found an answer for himself, what should be the ideal path on earth. The truths that he felt spiritually were not embodied in what he saw around him. Therefore, in Ibsen's works, characters who have reached spiritual heights in some area greater than the average mass usually die or part - the author, as it were, does not know what to do with them further. Here is Brand's wife Agnes, in whom both devotion to Brand's ideas and at the same time humanity are embodied in equal measure, repeats several times: "He who sees God will die." Brand, minutes before the avalanche in the mountains, finally finds God not only in the idea, but also in his heart - now he is “clear, shining”, with exclamations of love for the world. Although what exactly Brand-Ibsen saw and experienced at that moment did not fully know, therefore we, the readers, cannot see this in a few unfounded remarks. But despite this, Brand's path, a courageous and wholesome path, leads to God and his wife, helping her to renounce earthly illusions, and in the end, himself. Undoubtedly, severity alone is not enough to win. And yet, the God of mercy, which sounded at the end, does not in the least cancel the God of aspiration, but complements it to harmony. The death of the hero - in this case - a symbol of his high enlightenment, and by no means defeat.
"What you couldn't - you will be forgiven, what you don't want - never" - this is also the key to Brand's image.

It is a pity that Ibsen could not show us in life the radiance of Brand, who finally acquired the facet that was missing in him - but this, perhaps, would already be some kind of new Gospel. So let's accept what is - a hymn to the great fiery self-denial and a hymn to humanity, which, only merging together, will give true harmony and true victory.

Editions: Henrik Ibsen. Collected works in 4 volumes. Moscow: Art, 1956. (In volume 2). Translation by A.V. Kovalensky. There are illustrations - photos from performances.
Reissues of Brand is not known to me.
Reviewer: Ekaterina Gracheva