Excerpts from
A Mother
By Martin Andersen Nexø
The following excerpt, containing a description of the main character´s entry into the marriage state, is taken from Martin Andersen Nexo´s A Mother (1900). 18-year old Anna, who was raised by an elderly aunt, marries a 60-year old merchant, Oskar Berg. The passage provides an impression of the author´s penetrating naturalistic gaze, mediated by an ironic, understated style, which testifies to the debt Nexo owed to Henrik Pontoppidan´s writing.
Oskar Berg, a 60-year old merchant, had spent his life as a bachelor; yet, he lived well -- so far as the aunt knew. Everyone agreed that he was a bit of a standout for an old bachelor, and it was a standing joke among the masculine members of better society that he was sexless. Hence, no one could conceive what had come over him to make him openly propose to such a young girl who was, as part of the bargain, poor. Had she been rich, then it could be explained from a business standpoint. Or had she been older, then it could have been the urge for domestic bliss to which most bachelors sooner or later succumb. But she was a naive, inoffensive, very young girl.
As for the girl, there was no need of persuasion. She already felt the grown woman´s need to have a little domain over which to rule, and she had long been deathly tired of living with her well-meaning but prudish old aunt and her rules for how everything had to be done, right down to how one pulls one´s stockings on and off. And she had certain demands for comfort and luxury, which had never been honored. It seemed to her, therefore, that promenading down main street on the arm of an old man every afternoon was a small and reasonable price to pay for her new dresses, evenings at the theater and all the other pleasantries.
Her aunt, on the other hand, had grave reservations and almost advised against it. But she was of the old school that believed that one could only talk to young girls of jams and jellies and the trimmings on dresses. So, she kept to herself the grounds for her reservations. Nor did the young girl give any weight to her aunt´s scruples.
Thus, it was that the wedding took place, and it soon became apparent that marriage required more from her than a stroll down main street. Lightly dressed and shivering from cold and fear, she turned up on her aunt´s doorstep in the middle of the night and pulled the door chimes. With a gentle firmness -- for she was now a married woman and no longer an innocent young girl -- the old lady informed her of her wifely duties. And she pulled on her clothes and led her foster-daughter back to her ardent and not a little unhappy 60-year old husband.
Then, she cried, became resigned, grew familiar with her new relationship; and gradually, she won back her original, girlish view of it -- tit for tat, an equal exchange. She sought to acquire as much as she could out of it in the form of costumes, little trips and other diversions; and she made no scruples about it.
Of course, she had heard once of girls who sold themselves for a few coins, and it crossed her mind that there might be some comparison between them and her. But she was not good at drawing parallels and the idea slipped by before making any unsavory impression and left her only with a deep sorrow for those poor, poor girls.
Her circle of acquaintances also served to soothe her. As a married woman, she could take part in much from which she would be excluded as a maid. After dinner, when the men would withdraw to the smoking room to engage in conversations meant only for "gentlemen in shirtsleeves", the ladies would gather round and discuss topics suited rather "for married folk in their bedgowns". Their talk was open and plain -- only not, like the men, of themselves but of those absent. It became clear to her from these conversations that an exchange of some sort was present in most marriages. Often, the relationship was just like hers, but sometimes, it was the wife who had the purchasing power, keeping a "lapdog". In other connections, instead of purchasing marital rights, one bought a release from corresponding duties. And she thought she noticed that those wives had the greatest liberty where one or the other of these relationships were maintained. In the model marriage, however, it seemed to her that the wife was no more than a compliant, dutiful maidservant.
Translated by Russell Dees
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