in
their case.

Nordan. You don't know it?

Mrs. Riis. No, I tell you that I did not think so! We believe that the
man our daughter is going to marry is so much better. We believe that
in their case there are stronger guarantees--that the circumstances are
altogether different. It is so! It is a kind of illusion that takes hold
of us.

Christensen. When there is a prospect of a good marriage, yes! I
entirely agree with you, Mrs. Riis--for the first time. Moreover, I
think there is another side to it. Isn't it possible that women have not
suffered so much after all from the fact that men are men? What? I
fancy the suffering has been more acute than serious--something like
sea-sickness; when it is over--well, it is over. And so when it is the
daughters' turn to go on board, the dear mothers think: "Oh, they will
be able to get over it too! Only let us get them off!" For they are so
anxious to get them off, that is the truth!

Mrs. Riis (getting up and coming forward). Well, if it is so, surely it
is nothing to make fun of! It only shows what a woman can sink to, from
living with a man.

Christensen Indeed!

Mrs. Riis. Yes--because each generation of women is endowed with
a stronger and stronger aspiration for a pure life. It results
unconsciously from the maternal instinct, and is intended as a
protection for the defenceless. Even worthless mothers feel that. But if
they succumb in spite of it, and each generation of married women in
its turn sinks as deep as you say, the reason of it can only be the
privilege that men enjoy as part of their education.

Christensen. What privilege?

Mrs. Riis. That of living as they please when they are bachelors, and
then having their word of honour believed in when they choose to enter
the married state. As long as women are powerless to put an end to that
horrible privilege or to make themselves independent of it, so long will
one half of the world continue to be sacrificed on account of the other
half--on account of the other half's lack of self-control. That one
privilege turns out to be more powerful than all the striving for
liberty in the world. And that is not a laughing matter.

Christensen. You are picturing to yourself a different world from this,
and different natures from ours, Mrs. Riis. And that--if you will excuse
my saying so--is obviously all the answer that is necessary to what you
say.

Mrs. Riis. Well, then, give that answer openly! Why do you not openl