The Father

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1887

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Summary

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I

Act II

Act III

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Act IChapter Summaries & Analyses

Act I, Scene 1 Summary

The play begins in the sitting room of a family home belonging to Captain Adolf, an officer in the cavalry. The Captain is married to a woman named Laura and they have a daughter named Bertha. The Captain calls for an orderly and tells the man to send in Nojd, a wayward young man who has been "cutting up with the servant-girl again" (13). Emma, the servant, is now pregnant. The Captain has tried punishing Nojd in the past in vain, so now he brings in his brother-in-law, a pastor, as a new disciplinary method.

Act I, Scene 2 Summary

Nojd defends himself by claiming that Emma led him astray. He has no idea whether he is the father of the girl's child. The pastor encourages Nojd to support the baby, but he does not see why a person should be "slaving all your life for another man's child" (14). After Nojd exits, the pastor admits that he feels sorry for Nojd, whose entire life may be ruined if he is dismissed from the Captain's military unit. The Captain agrees to leave the issue to the courts.

Act I, Scene 3 Summary

The Captain and the pastor discuss Bertha. The Captain resents that he lives in a house full of women, all of whom have an opinion on how he should raise his daughter. His wife Laura wants Bertha to be an artist, his mother-in-law wants her to be a spiritualist, and even the servants give him their opinions about her future. The Captain, who believes he has the final say, has chosen to send Bertha away from home. He asks the pastor for advice—the Captain does not believe that Bertha should grow up around so many argumentative, strong-willed women. The pastor knows his sister well and agrees that once Laura has set her mind to something, it is hard to convince her otherwise. Laura is so passionately argumentative that the Captain sometimes worries that she is ill. The Captain believes that Bertha should become a teacher, a career which will allow her to support herself well enough, but which will not prevent her from getting married. Though others believe that Bertha is a talented painter, the Captain does not. He also fears that the female members of his household are not fighting fairly. The pastor understands. He makes his excuses and departs.

Act I, Scene 4 Summary

Laura enters and speaks with her husband, the Captain. He mentions to her that the family's finances are not in a good shape. Laura refuses to feel guilty, even though she strongly vouched for a tenant who now refuses to pay his rent. The Captain complains that all the women in the house also vouched for this tenant. The Captain remains certain of his plan for Bertha, who will leave in two weeks to live with a lawyer named Safberg. The Captain insists that women like Laura have no say in their children's upbringing as they gave up any such rights by getting married. Laura refuses to give up on her plan for her daughter's future. She also disagrees with the Captain's judgment regarding Nojd. The Captain exits, asking Laura to inform him as soon as the doctor arrives.

Act I, Scene 5 Summary

Laura's mother enters the room, ready for her tea. When the doctor arrives, Laura greets him, telling him "that Captain is out, but he'll be back shortly" (47). The doctor is new to the area and Laura hopes that they will get along well. Laura tells the doctor that her husband is "mentally ill" (48). The doctor is surprised. Laura reveals that the Captain buys crates of books that he never reads, believes he can see another planet through his microscope, and is incapable of sticking to any decisions he makes, even though he insists on having his own way. The doctor wishes to examine the Captain. In the meantime, he recommends that Laura avoid any subjects that might excite her husband.

Act I, Scene 6 Summary

The Captain enters and greets the doctor. He mentions his excitement regarding a potential new scientific discovery but complains that a Parisian bookseller is not sending him enough books—innocuous topics that now sound ominous because of Laura's manipulative warnings. Changing the subject, the Captain offers the doctor a choice between living in a far wing of the Captain's house or in the previous doctor's accommodation. The Captain becomes irritated when the doctor does not decide. Eventually, the doctor agrees to live in the family home and departs for his new home in the empty wing.

Act I, Scene 7 Summary

The Captain talks to Margret, the nurse. She is the only person he can listen to "without being driven wild" (50). Margret tries to convince the Captain to come to an agreement with Laura regarding Bertha. He rejects her suggestions, reminding her that she is his employee, not his friend. Margret is offended, as she raised the Captain when he was a child. The Captain accuses the nurse of betraying him. He suspects that everyone is against him. The Captain and Margret argue, but he apologizes before asking her for help. They hear a strange scream.

Act I, Scene 8 Summary

Bertha runs into the room, asking her father for help. She is worried that her grandmother wants to hurt her. Her grandmother is trying to train Bertha to become a spiritualist, so, during an automatic writing session Bertha memorized lines of poetry and pretended they were messages from the dead. Bertha does not know whether she believes in spiritualism, but her grandmother would never lie to her. The Captain insists that spiritualism is not real—he only believes in science and reason. Bertha cannot see a different between science and spiritualism. The Captain asks whether she would like to move out of the house and "go and live in town and learn something useful" (53). Bertha says she would, so the Captain insists that she must explain this desire to her mother.

Act I, Scene 9 Summary

Laura interrupts the conversation between Bertha and the Captain. Laura is happy that everyone has gathered, as she wants to come to a final agreement on Bertha's future. The Captain refuses to give up his rights, insisting that he and he alone can make the decision on Bertha's future. Laura wants Bertha to decide for herself, but Bertha leaves. The Captain claims to know what Bertha wants and accuses Laura of possessing "a truly satanic power" (53) to make her change her mind. He accuses Laura of forcing out the old doctor to bring in the new one who will agree with her on everything. The Captain insists that he has made his final decision and that Bertha will leave the house in two weeks. Laura states that she will fight back, archly pointing out that the Captain's judgment in Nojd's case shows that only a woman can ever be sure that she is the biological parent of her child. The Captain cannot believe that Laura has been unfaithful to him. The argument intensifies until Margret calls them to supper. The Captain sulks in his chair, refusing to eat. In a pique of anger, he storms out of the house.

Act I Analysis

Although The Father foregrounds family drama and takes place entirely in one household, its core topic is the misogyny and sexism that pervades 19th century Swedish society. The Captain and the pastor casually dismiss the case against Nojd, clearly prioritizing not upending his life over ruining the life of Emma, the unmarried woman who will become a pariah when she has Nojd's child. The men's lack of concern about the situation is all the more shocking and cruel because they ostensibly represent two institutions of discipline and moral authority: the army and the church. It then comes as no surprise that the Captain also sees no issue with waging war against his own wife and dismisses all women as villains. Confident that the law will surely side with him in any argument he has with Laura, the Captain cannot imagine giving way to any woman's opinion.

Laura is determined to break apart her husband's stranglehold on power however she can. Without legal standing, Laura must rely on cunning schemes, lies, and manipulation, such as casting her husband's eccentricities as a sign of mental illness in the doctor's mind. Ironically, her battle against her husband turns her into the stereotypical scheming harpy the Captain imagines all women to be. However, while the Captain believes that women are ultimately weak and easily overpowered, Laura becomes an unstoppable force by faking motherly and wifely concern.

If the power struggle battle between husband and wife represents early attempts at female empowerment, its resolution will ultimately affect primarily the next generation. It is striking then, that although all of the play's adults are fighting about her future, Bertha herself barely features in Act I: She doesn't appear until Scene 8 and leaves midway through Scene 9. No one has Bertha's best interests at heart. The Captain asks Bertha what she wants to do, but her answer is irrelevant—he has already made up his mind that she will get a suitably feminine job and then marry. Laura's mother, meanwhile, demands Bertha subscribe to the faddish cult of spiritualism, becoming a medium that supposedly channels the spirits of the dead. The Captain dismisses spiritualism in favor of science, but it is clear when Bertha says she sees no difference that the Captain has skimped on her education. Laura seems to want to improve society for all women, arguing that Bertha must pursue her dubious artistic talent—but Laura never asks Bertha's opinion, nor demonstrates any actual interest in Bertha's art. None of these visions for Bertha's future offer hope.

Finally, Act I establishes The Father as a work of naturalistic theater. Inspired by French playwright Émile Zola’s 1881 manifesto “Naturalism in the Theatre,” Strindberg prizes characterization over plot as the play’s chief dramatic elements. Moreover, the characters use everyday speech patterns rather than the exaggerated, overly-written dialogue found in melodramas popular in Strindberg’s day. Naturalism is also evident in the plausibility of the play’s central conflict: an argument between a mother and father over their daughter’s future. Although the characters will go to extraordinary lengths in pursuit of their wants and needs, their actions never betray the realistic psychological profiles Strindberg has built for them.

The fact that Bertha’s fate will ultimately be decided by an amalgam of psychological, legal, religious, and cultural factors is also representative of naturalism. Like real-life humans, the characters’ motivations are shaped by a host of environmental and hereditary realities. The power struggle between Laura and the Captain mirrors the rapidly shifting cultural dynamics of the late 19th century, as traditional Christian belief systems—systems which reinforced the male-dominated gender status quo—were challenged by Darwinism and occult spiritualism.