Have you used it to
that end?

BORKMAN.
[Without looking at her.] Some one must generally go down in
a shipwreck.

MRS. BORKMAN.
And your own son! Have you used your power--have you lived and
laboured--to make him happy?

BORKMAN.
I do not know him.

MRS. BORKMAN.
No, that is true. You do not even know him.

BORKMAN.
[Harshly.] You, his mother, have taken care of that!

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Looking at him with a lofty air.] Oh, you do not know what I
have taken care of!

BORKMAN.
You?

MRS. BORKMAN.
Yes, I. I alone.

BORKMAN.
Then tell me.

MRS. BORKMAN.
I have taken care of your memory.

BORKMAN.
[With a short dry laugh.] My memory? Oh, indeed! It sounds
almost as if I were dead already.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[With emphasis.] And so you are.

BORKMAN.
[Slowly.] Yes, perhaps you are right. [Firing up.] But no,
no! Not yet! I have been close to the verge of death. But now
I have awakened. I have come to myself. A whole life lies before
me yet. I can see it awaiting me, radiant and quickening. And
you--you shall see it too.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Raising her hand.] Never dream of life again! Lie quiet where
you are.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Shocked.] Gunhild! Gunhild, how can you----!

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Not listening to her.] I will raise the monument over your
grave.

BORKMAN.
The pillar of shame, I suppose you mean?

MRS. BORKMAN.
[With increasing excitement.] Oh, no, it shall be no pillar
of metal or stone. And no one shall be suffered to carve any
scornful legend on the monument I shall raise. There shall be,
as it were, a quickset hedge of trees and bushes, close, close
around your tomb. They shall hide away all the darkness that
has been. The eyes of men and the thoughts of men shall no
longer dwell on John Gabriel Borkman!

BORKMAN.
[Hoarsely and cuttingly.] And this labour of love you will
perform?

MRS. BORKMAN.
Not by my own strength. I cannot think of that. But I have
brought up one to help me, who shall live for this alone. His
life shall be so pure and high and bright, that your burrowing
in the dark shall be as though it had never been!

BORKMAN.
[Darkly and threateningly.] If it is Erhart you mean, say so
at once!

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Looking him straight in the eyes.] Yes, it is Erhart; my son;
he whom you are ready to renounce in atonement for your own acts.

BORKMAN.
[With a look towards ELLA.] In atone