An Inspector Calls and Other Plays Read online

  SALLY: I never thought he’d leave last night, without another word. I meant to tell him this morning to stay on, if he wanted to – after what Mr Ormund said – he’d made me sort o’ feel ashamed – and I was right upset when I found he’d gone. I think that started me off.

  SAM [with awkward tenderness]: Never mind, lass. We all mak’ mistakes.

  SALLY: But don’t think I’m the only one who’s feeling upset here. There’s some worse than me – yes, here in this house.

  SAM: Ay. I’ve hardly seen ’em today.

  SALLY: Neither have I. But I know.

  [FARRANT’s and JANET’s voices are heard. SAM looks that way, and picks up notebook. JANET and FARRANT enter, looking very serious.]

  SAM: Mr Farrant [showing notebook], Dr Görtler left this behind. It had got down side of his chair, way my tobacco pouch has done monny a time. I wor just wondering whether it wor of any importance. It’s i’ German, I reckon.

  FARRANT [taking notebook]: I’ll see.

  [Looks at first page, curiously.]

  JANET [very curious]: What does it say?

  FARRANT [puzzling over it]: Wiederkehr und Dazwischenkunft. That’s Return or Recurrence and – Interference or Intervention. This notebook, it says, is for problems and instances of Recurrence and Intervention.

  [Flicks the pages carelessly.]

  Yes –

  [Handing it back casually to SAM]

  he’s sure to want that back.

  JANET [who’s been thinking]: What could he mean by problems and instances of Recurrence and Intervention?

  FARRANT [shrugging]: God knows! But as I’ve told you before, I don’t think Görtler had quite retained his mental balance. It often happens when an elderly scholar suddenly has a lot of trouble.

  [Turns, rather sharply, to SALLY.]

  Mrs Pratt, I’m leaving tonight, so can I have my bill, please.

  And – Sam – would you mind getting my car out?

  SAM [surprised]: All right, Mr Farrant. [He goes.]

  FARRANT [to JANET]: I’ll pack now.

  [He goes to his room. SALLY looks after him in astonishment, then looks at JANET.]

  JANET: Do you know where my husband is, Mrs Pratt?

  SALLY [gravely]: He was up in his room, Mrs Ormund. I went in about quarter of an hour since, and he was there, writing letters. [She breaks off, then looking hard at JANET, moves a step nearer to her.] Mrs Ormund, are you going tonight, as well as Mr Farrant?

  JANET: Yes, we’re going together.

  SALLY: You’re leaving your husband?

  JANET: Yes.

  SALLY: Leaving him for good?

  JANET: Yes.

  SALLY [very earnestly]: But that’s a terrible thing to do, Mrs Ormund.

  JANET [steadily]: I know it’s a very serious thing, Mrs Pratt. But it happens to be the only possible – the only fair – thing to do – in the circumstances. You’ll have to believe that.

  SALLY: But have you thought, Mrs Ormund?

  JANET [with a rather wan smile]: I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.

  SALLY: Yes, but I mean – have you thought about what’ll happen to Mr Ormund? He’s your husband. And what will he do, left to himself? He seems such an unhappy sort o’ gentleman with all his drinking and what not.

  JANET: I’m afraid he is unhappy.

  SALLY: You’re not leaving him – surely – because he’s taken to drinking too much –

  JANET [cutting in]: No, Mrs Pratt. My husband always has been unhappy. There was a time when I tried very hard to make him happy, but somehow I couldn’t. It was my fault, not his, probably. I just couldn’t feel what I ought to have felt for him. No, it’s no use.

  SALLY [very earnestly]: But Mr Farrant too! Have you thought what might happen to him – with his school and everything? That’s where my Charlie is, you know. And if anything did happen to Mr Farrant!

  JANET [a trifle less sympathetically]: You can be sure I’ve thought about that too. We both have.

  SALLY: Oh – I knew there was something wrong. Mrs Ormund, please – I’ve lost my own man, and I’ve only this lad of mine – and I’m older than you – listen to me a minute. Don’t go snatching at what you think might be happiness, when you don’t really know. And please – please – don’t rush off and do something you might regret all the rest of your life. We haven’t just ourselves to consider, y’know, and the older you get, the more you see that. Mrs Ormund – please – give yourself a bit more time – think it over – for all our sakes –

  [She is disturbed by the entrance of ORMUND. He is completely sober. SALLY gives him one look and then hurries out. ORMUND waits until she has gone.]

  JANET [quietly but not without emotion]: I’ve just told Mrs Pratt that Oliver and I are going away.

  ORMUND: When?

  JANET: We’re going tonight.

  ORMUND [hopelessly]: I see.

  JANET: It’s the fairest and wisest thing to do, Walter – to make a clean break now, so that none of us has any more of this agony.

  ORMUND: I’ve no doubt you’re right.

  JANET: We’ve talked it all out. We’ve faced the worst that might happen – even lost the school because of possible scandal.

  ORMUND: You mean – you’ve talked about facing the worst that might happen – you haven’t actually faced it yet, y’know.

  JANET: Well, we’ve realized all that this might involve. We’re not going away with our eyes closed.

  ORMUND: I wonder?

  JANET: Why do you say that?

  ORMUND: Because I wonder how you know what the worst is that might happen. When we decided to come here together, I thought the worst that could happen would be that we’d have another of our rows. But now something much worse has happened. I’m losing you altogether. You see, we don’t know.

  JANET [rather wearily]: I realize that, Walter. I only said that we tried to face the possible consequences.

  ORMUND [looking curiously at her]: You’re going away. But you’re not happy, are you, Janet?

  JANET [with great sincerity]: No, I’m not. I’m miserable – and rather frightened. And perhaps it’s a good thing I am.

  ORMUND: Why?

  JANET [very seriously]: Because if I were all excited and feeling gay, I might be doing something foolish going away like this. As it is, I know what I feel for Oliver Farrant is absolutely real – now and for ever. I believe it’s always existed, always been part of me.

  ORMUND [rather wearily]: Perhaps it has. Who knows? We know so little that’s worth knowing about ourselves. We’re like children groping about in the dark.

  [FARRANT enters from his room carrying a suitcase, raincoat and hat. He stands stiffly when he sees ORMUND.]

  All right, Farrant, all right. Only put that damned gear of yours outside.

  FARRANT: My car should be there. [He crosses to the door, puts his things outside, returns immediately.]

  ORMUND: I was asking Janet if she was happy. She says she isn’t.

  FARRANT [stiffly]: I didn’t suppose she would be.

  ORMUND: What about you?

  FARRANT: No, of course I’m not. This is a hateful business. If I’d thought my clearing out would settle it, I’d have cleared out. But I knew it wouldn’t.

  JANET: And I knew it wouldn’t. We’ve talked it all out and we’ve agreed on that.

  ORMUND [to FARRANT]: You’re doing the only possible thing, you feel –

  FARRANT: Yes.

  ORMUND: You’re both deeply in love. I hope I’m not overstating it.

  FARRANT [curtly]: You’re not.

  ORMUND: And yet you’re feeling miserable about it. Why?

  FARRANT [shrugging]: I suppose it’s a bad case of conscience.

  ORMUND: Conscience? Come, come.

  FARRANT: I believe that a man and woman, feeling as Janet and I do, have a perfect right to do what we’re doing. But somewhere at the back of my mind, I’ve still to contend against centuries of belief that what we’re doing is wrong. I’m
being worried by my ancestors, as we are all the time. That’s about all it is.

  JANET [impulsively]: No, Oliver. I’m sure it isn’t that.

  FARRANT [surprised]: Well, what is it then?

  JANET [struggling with her thought]: I don’t know. I wish I did. But there’s something – some sort of influence – behind all that we do and say here – something compelling – and tragic –

  FARRANT: No, that’s simply being fanciful, Janet.

  ORMUND [with savage irony]: No – for God’s sake – don’t let’s be fanciful, not when we live in such a nice, simple, straightforward little world as this.

  FARRANT [with force]: There’s no sense in bewildering ourselves with mysteries of our manufacture. People have done that too long. The point is, we’re acting rationally and according to our own code, but our so-called consciences were made for us – during childhood – before we could make our own code. Therefore we can know we’re doing right and yet still feel, obscurely but quite strongly, that we’re doing wrong. And that’s what’s the matter with us.

  ORMUND: And I don’t believe that’s the half of it, Farrant. It’s all too damn simple, like a lot of your explanations.

  FARRANT: But perhaps things are really much simpler than you like to think they are.

  ORMUND: I suspect they’re even more complicated than I think they are. [Going nearer to FARRANT with marked change of tone] I don’t suppose I’ll ever see you again, Farrant. Let me give you one last word. Don’t be too sure you know it all. Don’t think you’ve got it all worked out. You bright young men, with your outlines of everything, are going to be horribly surprised yet. [As FARRANT begins to protest] No. Another word and I’ve finished. Don’t think you know it all, and she knows nothing. She knows more about what’s going on in this crazy universe than you or I do. She doesn’t get it out of books, because it isn’t in books. But she can guess right, now and then, and we can’t.

  FARRANT: But you’re not going to blame me for preferring knowledge and judgement to guesswork?

  ORMUND: No, but I’m not going to have you gassing about knowledge and judgement when you can’t really account for a single thing that’s happened to you these last two days. You can give us nice bright simple outlines of everything under the sun, but the minute something really important happens to you, you can’t make head or tail of it, and wonder if you’re going mad.

  JANET [urgently]: That’s true, at least, Oliver. You know we’re all equally bewildered. And there’s something more – something that hasn’t been accounted for yet – something that perhaps can never be explained – like so many things –

  [She breaks off, and looks across to the doorway. ORMUND and FARRANT look too. It has rapidly been growing dimmer in the room. DR GÖRTLER ’s figure – he does not wear a hat or carry a bag – stands very dark in the doorway.]

  ORMUND: It’s Görtler.

  DR GÖRTLER [at the door]: Yes. It is dark in here.

  [ORMUND turns on the light. DR GÖRTLER comes forward, gives a little bow to the three of them, rather casually.]

  Thank you. But I am not staying –

  ORMUND [gravely]: Just a minute, Doctor. [Goes and calls] Mrs Pratt, Mrs Pratt!

  SALLY [off]: Just coming, Mr Ormund.

  ORMUND [to DR GÖRTLER]: You see, you didn’t give us a chance last night to say how sorry we were that you – a stranger, an exile in this country – had been treated with such discourtesy. [SALLY appears.] Mrs Pratt, I’m apologizing to Dr Görtler.

  SALLY [coming forward humbly and with feeling]: Yes, Dr Görtler, I want to beg your pardon. I shouldn’t have asked you to leave. You’d done nothing wrong. I was blaming you just because you’re a foreigner. I’m sorry.

  DR GÖRTLER [rather embarrassed and touched]: No, please, please. I lost my temper too – that has always been my trouble – a bad temper – and so I behaved foolishly.

  SALLY: I hope you’ll stay, now you’ve come back.

  DR GÖRTLER: No, I cannot do that. I only came back because I have lost something – something very important – and I am hoping that I may have left it here –

  SALLY [holding up notebook]: Is this it?

  DR GÖRTLER [taking it eagerly]: Yes. Thank you. That is all I want.

  [He glances at the notebook, then looks up at SALLY, and gives her a smiling nod of dismissal. She looks at him hesitantly, then turns and goes.]

  I would not like to have lost this. There is a great deal of valuable work here. [Turns, smiling, and makes a move in the direction of the door.]

  ORMUND [stopping him]: Görtler! You’re not going?

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes. Why not?

  [He looks at ORMUND. ORMUND looks from him to the other two.]

  JANET [impulsively]: Dr Görtler, you know something, don’t you? Something that we don’t know.

  FARRANT [quietly]: That’s quite impossible, y’know, Janet.

  ORMUND: Is it, though? I’m not so sure.

  JANET [to DR GÖRTLER]: You know, don’t you?

  FARRANT [protesting]: Janet, really it’s –

  JANET [cutting him short]: Please, Oliver! [To DR GÖRTLER] You believe that something happened here before, don’t you?

  DR GÖRTLER: I know it did.

  FARRANT: How could it, seeing that not one of us has ever been here before?

  DR GÖRTLER: Are you sure you haven’t?

  FARRANT [very decidedly]: Of course I am. I’m quite capable of remembering exactly where I’ve been.

  DR GÖRTLER: Then there is nothing more to be said.

  JANET: Yes, there is. Please! What do you know about us?

  FARRANT: Wait a minute, Janet. We can’t possibly drag Dr Görtler into our private affairs.

  DR GÖRTLER: I have no wish to be dragged into them. [Looks at him with a slight smile.] Have you and Mrs Ormund planned to leave here tonight together?

  FARRANT: How did you guess?

  DR GÖRTLER: It is not guessing.

  ORMUND: Görtler, I don’t blame you for losing your temper. You were badly treated. But we’ve apologized. And things are serious here now -

  DR GÖRTLER [coolly]: They always were – very serious.

  ORMUND: All right then. Now – the truth, as simply as you can state it, please. You had some definite purpose in coming here, hadn’t you?

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes.

  ORMUND: What was it?

  DR GÖRTLER: I came to verify an experiment, and, if possible, to make a further experiment.

  ORMUND: But you didn’t do anything?

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes. Everything happened as I thought it would. I verified my experiment. But then, last night, I suddenly lost patience, because I felt I was being badly treated, so I did not try the further experiment. That does not matter very much. I can try that other experiment with some other example.

  JANET [urgently]: Dr Görtler, you mean it doesn’t matter to you or to your theory or whatever it is, but what about us?

  FARRANT [impatiently]: How can it matter to us, Janet?

  [DR GÖRTLER looks at them indifferently. A pause.]

  ORMUND [very forcefully]: Dr Görtler, last night you asked me a good many unusual questions – you remember? – and I told you things I had never told anybody else –

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes, that is true. You were very helpful, Mr Ormund.

  ORMUND: Now I am asking you something. It is your turn to be helpful. Why did you come to this inn? What was this experiment of yours?

  DR GÖRTLER [after short pause]: Very well. [Pauses, then begins in the brisk impersonal tone of the scientist.] In this notebook are some records of very unusual states of mind and feats of memory. Some of them came to me like clear dreams. They are quite vivid little scenes. [He rapidly turns the pages of the notebook to a place he wants, then glances at it.] In the best of them, I remember not only what I have seen, but also what has been said. I was fortunate enough to have a very good example about three months ago. I put down all the details here. [Looks at the notebook a moment, then a
t his listeners.] In this memory – this dream if you prefer it – I found myself a year or two older than I am now, but situated as I am now, an exile living in London. I was in rooms – cheap rooms not unlike those I am in now – but here the rooms above mine, very poor rooms, were occupied by two people, a man and his wife, still quite young, but very shabby, very poor, and very unhappy. They had been quarrelling bitterly and I had heard them, and because I was sorry, I went up to see what I could do. Then, I learned their history. [He stops. JANET stirs and draws a sharp breath.] This was not the woman’s first husband. She had been the wife of a rich man, older than herself, with whom she had fallen out of love. But they had gone on a little holiday together, at Whitsuntide, to a small inn, which they described. There she had instantly fallen in love with a younger man – the one now her husband – and they had run away. [He pauses again.]

  [JANET draws a sharp breath again and looks at FARRANT. He shakes his head impatiently.]

  JANET: Dr Görtler –

  DR GÖRTLER: Then there came, out of this, as they now realized, the ruin of many innocent lives. A great business collapsed, and many people, simple people – like this landlord and his daughter here – lost their money. Not only that, but there had been a great scandal, so that this young man had been driven out of his profession, and both of them had to endure poverty and loneliness. But what made them so bitter was that though their love for one another had compelled them to take this course, had made them poor and lonely and neglected, it had given them nothing in return. This love of theirs, it had died.

  JANET [very sharply, painfully]: No, it couldn’t have done that.

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes. They admitted that. There were too many shadows between them, too many reproachful faces. They could no longer be happy together, yet they could not be indifferent to one another, having suffered so much, so now they were quarrelsome, bitter –

  JANET [with a heart-broken cry]: Oh – God – no – not that –

  FARRANT [angrily]: But – Janet –

  JANET: It was us he saw, Oliver, of course it was us.

  FARRANT [angrily]: It’s only some fantastic dream of his.

  JANET: No. You recognized us here, didn’t you?

  DR GÖRTLER: Yes. At once.

  JANET [to FARRANT]: You see, I knew all the time, there was something –