Overview
- Female: 2
- Male: 0
Context
Frau Bergmann has returned home from her eldest daughter’s house - Ina has given birth to a little boy. Wendla is excited at this news, but confused. She is fourteen, and an aunt again, yet has no idea how babies happen, and refuses to believe in the stork anymore. She pesters Frau Bergmann to explain where babies come from, until she finally wears her mother down. Frau Bergmann, however, is anxious to avoid scandal (that she had talked with her daughter about sex), and instead presents a
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_Early morning in the front room of the Bergmann home, Frau Bergmann enters, beaming and excited. She wears her cape, a mantilla on her head and basket on her arm. _
FRAU BERGMANN: Wendla! Wendla!
Wendla appears in petticoats and corset in the doorway.
WENDLA: What's the matter, Mother?
FRAU BERGMANN: You are up already, child? Now, that is nice of you!
WENDLA: You have been out already?
FRAU BERGMANN: Get dressed quickly!——You must go down to Ina's at once. You must take her this basket!
Wendla dresses herself as they speak.
WENDLA: You have been to Ina's?—How is Ina?—Is she ever going to get better?
FRAU BERGMANN: Only think, Wendla, last night the stork paid her a visit and brought her a little baby boy!
WENDLA: A little boy?——A little boy!——Oh, that's lovely!——That's the cause of that tedious influenza!
FRAU BERGMANN: A fine little boy!
WENDLA: I must see him, Mother. That makes me an aunt for the third time——aunt to a little girl and two little boys!
FRAU BERGMANN: And what little boys!——It always happens that way when one lives so near the church roof!——To-morrow will be just two years since she went up the steps in her mull gown.
WENDLA: Were you there when he brought him?
FRAU BERGMANN: He had just flown away again.——Won't you put on a rose?
WENDLA: Why couldn't you have been a little earlier, Mother?
FRAU BERGMANN: I almost believe he brought you something, too——a breastpin or something.
WENDLA: It's really a shame!
FRAU BERGMANN: But, I tell you, he brought you a breastpin!
WENDLA: I have breastpins enough——
FRAU BERGMANN: Then be happy, child. What do you want besides?
WENDLA: I would have liked so much to have known whether he flew through the window or down the chimney.
FRAU BERGMANN: You must ask Ina. Ha! You must ask Ina that, dear heart! Ina will tell you that fast enough. Ina talked with him for a whole half hour.
WENDLA: I will ask Ina when I get there.
FRAU BERGMANN: Now don't forget, sweet angel! I'm interested myself to know if he came in through the window or by the chimney.
WENDLA: Or hadn't I better ask the chimney-sweep?——The chimney-sweep must know best whether he flew down the chimney or not.
FRAU BERGMANN: Not the chimney-sweep, child; not the chimney-sweep. What does the chimney-sweep know about the stork! He'd tell you a lot of foolishness he didn't believe himself——Wha——what are you staring at down there in the street?
_Looking out the window, Wendla points excitedly. _ WENDLA: A man, Mother,——three times as big as an ox!——with feet like steamboats——!
Frau Bergmann rushes to the window.
FRAU BERGMANN: Impossible! Impossible!
WENDLA: (At the same time.) He holds a bedslat under his chin and fiddles “Die Wacht am Rhein” on it——there, he's just turned the corner.——
FRAU BERGMANN: You are, and always will be a foolish child!——To frighten your old simple mother that way!——Go get your hat! I wonder when you will understand things. I've given up hope of you.
WENDLA: So have I, Mother dear, so have I. It's a sad thing about my understanding.——I have a sister who has been married for two and a half years, I myself have been made an aunt for the third time, and I haven't the least idea how it all comes about.——Don't be cross, Mother dear, don't be cross! Whom in the world should I ask but you! Please tell me, dear Mother! Tell me, dear Mother! I'm ashamed for myself. Please, Mother, speak! Don't scold me for asking you about it. Give me an answer——How does it happen?——How does it all come about?——You cannot really deceive yourself that I, who am fourteen years old, still believe in the stork.
FRAU BERGMANN: Good. Lord, child, but you are peculiar!——What ideas you have!——I really can't do that!
WENDLA: But why not, Mother?——Why not?——It can't be anything ugly if everybody is delighted over it!
FRAU BERGMANN: O——O God protect me!——I deserve——Go get dressed, child, go get dressed!
WENDLA: I'll go——And suppose your child went and asked the chimney-sweep?
Frau Bergmann sits in exasperation.
FRAU BERGMANN: But that would be madness!——Come here, child, come here, I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything——O Almighty Goodness!——only not to-day, Wendla!——To-morrow, the next day, next week——any time you want, dear heart——
WENDLA: Tell me to-day, Mother; tell me now! Right away!——Now that I have seen you so frightened I can never be peaceful until you do.
FRAU BERGMANN: I can't do it, Wendla.
WENDLA: Oh, why can't you, Mother dear!——I will kneel here at your feet and lay my head in your lap. You can cover my head with your apron and talk and talk, as if you were entirely alone in the room. I won't move, I won't cry, I will bear all patiently, no matter what may come.
FRAU BERGMANN: Heaven knows, Wendla, that I am not to blame! Heaven knows it!——Come here in God's name! I will tell you, child, how you came into this world.——Listen to me, Wendla.——
From under Frau Bergmann’s apron, Wendla speaks.
WENDLA: I'm listening.
FRAU BERGMANN: (Frantically.) But it's no use, child!——I can't justify it. I deserve to be put into prison——to have you taken from me.
WENDLA: Take heart, Mother!
FRAU BERGMANN: Listen, then——!
WENDLA: (Trembling under the apron.) O God! O God!
FRAU BERGMANN: In order to have a child——do you understand me, Wendla?
WENDLA: Quick, Mother, I can't stand it much longer.
FRAU BERGMANN: In order to have a child——one must love—the man—to whom one is married—love him, I tell you—as one can only love a man! One must love him so much with one's whole heart, so—so that one can't describe it! One must love him, Wendla, as you at your age are still unable to love——Now you know it!
Wendla stands.
WENDLA: Great——God——in heaven!
FRAU BERGMANN: Now you know what an ordeal awaits you!
WENDLA: And that is all?
FRAU BERGMANN: As true as God helps me!——Take your basket now and go to Ina. You will get chocolate and cakes there.——Come, let's look you over, the laced shoes, the silk gloves, the sailor blouse, the rose in your hair—your dress is really becoming much too short for you, Wendla!
WENDLA: Did you get meat for lunch, Mother?
FRAU BERGMANN: The Good God protect and bless you——I will find an opportunity to add a handbreadth of flounces to the bottom.
Wedekind, Frank. Spring Awakening: A Children’s Tragedy. Trans. Francis J. Ziegler, 1910. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35242/35242-h/35242-h.htm
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