1866
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From Act II
AGNES.
Into the night, and through the gates of death:
Beyond them gleam the rosy tints of dawn.
Transl. by G. M. Gathorne-Hardy.
| Brand 1866
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From Act II AGNES. Transl. by G. M. Gathorne-Hardy.
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The young minister Brand has an idealistic calling and condemns the easy-living Christian way of life. He regards the hunger and misery around him in the local community as a punishment from God. When he sails over the fjord during a full storm to administer the sacraments to a dying man, the young girl Agnes is so taken with him that she leaves her fiancée in order to follow Brand. He marries Agnes and they have a child, but his calling takes him to an exposed place that no baby should be taken to. Brand refuses to move, and the baby dies. After some time Agnes dies, too, resigned, but still believing in her husband’s calling. Brand’s old mother dies without being administered the last rites, because Brand condemned her for not giving away everything she owned. Brand’s reputation and position as a minister is rising, and his congregation supports him in the building of a new church. On the day the church is to be consecrated, Brand gets the idea that God must be sought in the mountains. He convinces the congregation to go with him part of the way. The locals have second thoughts and turn around, while Brand continues, and in the last scene he is killed in a rock slide. | |