Having
kept her for a week in deferential durance, and shown her that he was
not the inefficient nincompoop she had taken him for, he threw open the
prison gate, and said to her: "Go! I set you free!" The moment she saw
the gate unlocked, and realized that she could indeed go when and where
she pleased, she also realized that she had not the least wish to go,
and flung herself into her captor's arms. Here we have Ibsen's situation
transposed into the key of fantasy, and provided with the material
"guarantee of good faith" which is lacking in _The Lady from the Sea_.
The Duke's change of mind, his will to set the Lady Henrietta free, is
visibly demonstrated by the actual opening of the prison gate, so that
we believe in it, and believe that she believes in it. The play was a
trivial affair, and is deservedly forgotten; but the situation was
effective because it obeyed the law that a change of will or of feeling,
occurring at a crucial point in a dramatic action, must be certified by
some external evidence, on pain of leaving the audience unimpressed.
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