Monologue

Irene Monologue from When We Dead Awaken

From When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen

female · anguished · 1:02 min

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(With malign eyes.) Because there is something apologetic in the word, my friend. Something that suggests forgiveness of sins--and spreads a cloak over all frailty. (With a sudden change of tone.) But I was a human being--then! And I, too, had a life to live,--and a human destiny to fulfil. And all that, look you, I let slip--gave it all up in order to make myself your bondwoman.--Oh, it was self-murder--a deadly sin against myself! (Half whispering.) And that sin I can never expiate! [She seats herself near him beside the brook, keeps close, though unnoticed, watch upon him, and, as though in absence of mind, plucks some flowers form the shrubs around them.

About this piece

Irene reflects on her past choices and the sacrifices she made for another, expressing deep regret and a sense of lost identity while seated beside a brook.

20s · sadness · identity · sacrifice · redemption · isolation

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