How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue. We used William Archer's translation.
Quote #4
MANDERS. [Quickly.] I left it down at the inn. I shall sleep there to-night.
MRS. ALVING. [Suppressing a smile.] Are you really not to be persuaded, even now, to pass the night under my roof? (1.147-148)
Manders guards against temptation – or probably more accurately, the gossip of the neighbors. In the first minutes of their reunion, Mrs. Alving recognizes with amusement the old, familiar foibles of her good friend.
Quote #5
MANDERS. Just think of it – for a miserable three hundred dollars, to go and marry a fallen woman!
MRS. ALVING. Then what have you to say of me? I went and married a fallen man.
MANDERS. Why – good heavens! – what are you talking about! A fallen man! (2.29-31)
Mrs. Alving isn't too proud to equate herself with Engstrand. She sees the transactions as identical, only with different price tags. Pastor Manders can't get beyond gender and class to understand her point.
Quote #6
MANDERS. What are they to do? Let me tell you, Mr. Alving, what they ought to do. They ought to exercise self-restraint from the first; that is what they ought to do.
OSWALD. That doctrine will scarcely go down with warm-blooded young people who love each other.
MRS. ALVING. No, scarcely! (1.329-331)
Pastor Manders preaches abstinence. Oswald and Mrs. Alving acknowledge the reality of sex. In society today, this conflict is still alive and kicking.