The Stronger

by August Strindberg

Genre: Drama
Setting: International
Format of Original Source: Play
Recommended Adaptation Length:

Candidate for Adaptation? Promising

EXCERPT:

Poor Amelia! Do you know, I pity you all the same, for I know you are unhappy–unhappy as one who has been wounded, and malicious because you are wounded. I ought to be angry with you, but really I can’t–you are so small, after all–and as to Bob, why, that does not bother me in the least. What does it matter to me, anyhow? If you or somebody else taught me to drink chocolate–what of that? [Takes a spoonful of chocolate; then, sententiously.] They say chocolate is very wholesome. And if I have learned from you how to dress–tant mieux!–it has only given me a stronger hold on my husband–and you have lost where I have gained. Yes, judging by several signs, I think you have lost him already. Of course, you meant me to break with him–as you did, and as you are now regretting–but, you see, I never would do that. It wouldn’t do to be narrow-minded, you know. And why should I take only what nobody else wants? Perhaps, after all, I am the stronger now. You never got anything from me; you merely gave–and thus happened to me what happened to the thief–I had what you missed when you woke up. How explain in any other way that, in your hand, everything proved worthless and useless? You were never able to keep a man’s love, in spite of your tulips and your passions–and I could; you could never learn the art of living from the books–as I learned it; you bore no little Eskil, although that was your father’s name. And why do you keep silent always and everywhere–silent, ever silent?

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