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Generally regarded as the finest dramatist Sweden has produced since Strindberg, Hjalmar Bergman is a conspicuous example of the writer who is obsessed by a single motive. In his case the motive was the fear of father, and his entire dramatic production may be viewed as little more than variations on this theme. However, in tracing this theme through the plays of Bergman, I am less interested in showing the development of a personality than in revealing the struggles of an artist as he seeks a form in which he can not only express his personal feelings but get a wide audience to share those feelings openly with him.
Born in 1883, Bergman was a sickly, weak, fat, and extremely sensitive child, the butt of his playmates’ jokes. His father was a stern, successful, small-town businessman who completely dominated the thought and activities of young Hjalmar.
1 Bakom masker (Stockholm, 1,949), pp. 87-96.
2 Linder, Erik Hjalmar, Hjalmar Bergman (Stockholm, 1940), p. 170.Google Scholar
3 Sjöman, Vilgot, “Overklighetsproblemet hos Hjalmar Bergman,” B.L.M. (Bonniers litterära magasin), XX, No. 6 (1951), 451.Google Scholar
4 Hjalmar Bergmans samlade skrifter, ed. Edfelt, Johannes (Stockholm, 1948ff.), IX, p. 131.Google Scholar
5 Skrifter, IX, p. 9.
6 Théâtre (Paris, 1918), I, ix-x.
7 Skrifter, IX, pp. 417-8.
8 Ibid., pp. 544-5.
9 Lindberg, Bakom masker, p. 88.
10 This play bears a superficial resemblance to Mirbeau's, Octave Les affaires sont les affaires, which was performed in Stockholm in 1904.Google Scholar
11 Skrifter, XIV, p. 347.
12 Ibid., pp. 348-9.
13 “The success of The Rabble was due largely to the acting of Gösta Ekman, matinee idol of the Swedish stage, for whose talents the principal role was especially tailored. Lamm, Martin says in “Mina minnen av Hjalmar Bergman,“ B.L.M., XX, No. 8 (1951), 597Google Scholar, that the characters of the Jewish father Joe Meng and his daughter were modeled on Mauritz Stiller and his protégée Greta Garbo.
14 Skrifter, XIV, p. 6.
15 Ibid., p. 388.
16 Ibid., pp. 10-11.