My criticism of the first act of _Pillars of Society_ may be summed up
in saying that the author has omitted to place in it the _erregende
Moment_. The issue is not joined, the true substance of the drama is not
clear to us, until, in the second act, Bernick makes sure there are no
listeners, and then holds out both hands to Johan, saying: "Johan, now
we are alone; now you must give me leave to thank you," and so forth.
Why should not this scene have occurred in the first act? Materially,
there is no reason whatever. It would need only the change of a few
words to lift the scene bodily out of the second act and transfer it to
the first. Why did Ibsen not do so? His reason is not hard to divine; he
wished to concentrate into two great scenes, with scarcely a moment's
interval between them, the revelation of Bernick's treachery, first to
Johan, second to Lona. He gained his point: the sledge-hammer effect of
these two scenes is undeniable. But it remains a question whether he did
not make a disproportionate sacrifice; whether he did not empty his
first act in order to overfill his second.
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