Monologue

Captain Monologue from The Father

From The Father by August Strindberg

male · anguished · 2:13 min

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(Rises). Laura, save me and my reason. You don't seem to understand what I say. If the child is not mine I have no control over her and don't want to have any, and that is precisely what you do want, isn't it? But perhaps you want even more--to have power over the child, but still have me to support you. (LAURA: Power, yes! What has this whole life and death struggle been for but power?) To me it has meant more. I do not believe in a hereafter; the child was my future life. That was my conception of immortality, and perhaps the only one that has any analogy in reality. If you take that away from me, you cut off my life. (LAURA: Why didn't we separate in time?) Because the child bound us together; but the link became a chain. And how did it happen; how? I have never thought about this, but now memories rise up accusingly, condemningly perhaps. We had been married two years, and had no children; you know why. I fell ill and lay at the point of death. During a conscious interval of the fever I heard voices out in the drawing-room. It was you and the lawyer talking about the fortune that I still possessed. He explained that you could inherit nothing because we had no children, and he asked you if you were expecting to become a mother. I did not hear your reply. I recovered and we had a child. Who is its father?

About this piece

The Captain reflects on the complexities of his marriage and the implications of fatherhood, revealing a deep sense of betrayal and confusion about his identity and relationships.

30s · confusion · identity · family · betrayal · power

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