These incidents point to a state of
unstable equilibrium in the relations between husband and wife;
wherefore, when we see Gar, at the end of the act, preparing to read
Ringve's poems, our curiosity is very keen as to how he will take them.
We feel the next hour to be big with fate for these two people; and we
long for the curtain to rise again upon the threatened household. The
fuse has been fired; we are all agog for the explosion.
In Herr Egge's place, I should have been inclined to have dropped my
curtain upon Gar, with the light of the reading-lamp full upon him, in
the act of opening the book, and then to have shown him, at the
beginning of the second act, in exactly the same position. With more
delicate art, perhaps, the author interposes a little domestic incident
at the end of the first act, while leaving it clearly impressed on our
minds that the reading of the poems is only postponed by a few minutes.
That is the essential point: the actual moment upon which the curtain
falls is of minor importance.
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