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Comrades 65
many women are refused that a man might put up
with it, and be made to feel it once."
In her triumph Bertha s attitude to Axel be
comes overbearing; she humiliates him, belittles
his art, and even plans to humble him before the
guests invited to celebrate Bertha s artistic suc
cess.
But Axel is tearing himself free from the meshes
of his decaying love. He begins to see Bertha as
she is: her unscrupulousness in money matters, her
ceaseless effort to emasculate him. In a terrible
word tussle he tells her:
"
I had once been free,
but you clipped the hair of my strength while my
tired head lay in your lap. During sleep you stole
my best blood."
In the last act Bertha discovers that Axel had
generously changed the numbers on the paintings
in order to give her a better chance. It was his
picture that was chosen as her work. She feels
ashamed and humiliated; but it is too late. Axel
leaves her with the exclamation,
"
I want to meet
my comrades in the cafe, but at home I want a
wife."
A characteristic sidelight in the play is given by
the conversation of Mrs. Hall, the divorced wife
of Doctor Ostermark. She comes to Bertha with
a bitter tirade against the Doctor because he gives
her insufficient alimony.
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