Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson, En Hanske [A Gauntlet]

Kathy Rees (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.5: Norwegian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London), Anja Tröger (University of Edinburgh)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1883

Places

Norway (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

The play addresses the question of the double standard of morality for men and women: Bjørnson asserts that men must be as chaste as women if marriage is to be truly fulfilling.

Act 1

Svava Rus, an energetic young woman who devotes herself to kindergarten charity work, has just got engaged to Alf Christensen: although they have known each other since childhood, “with a certain given moment [Alf] became in my eyes quite a different man” (28). The Christensen family is furthermore “one of the richest families in the country, and also one of the most honourable” (47).

Alf expects Svava to be pure and unsullied: “. . . when I see you among others – when I …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

898 words

Citation: Rees, Kathy. "En Hanske". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 May 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35916, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Save this article