[Draft, 1940’s]
The fragments are in disarray, possibly originating from different texts. The exact year is also uncertain, so 1942 is an estimation.
"She hears footsteps upstairs."
About the text
Murder and suicide were among Bergman’s favourite themes during the 1940’s. Here, he gets to combine the two:
Martin is seated at his desk, slowly reading the freshly drafted letter before him.
Martin: Dear Brother Erik. Tonight, I intend to kill myself and Marta. I am in the grip of an insanity, closing in on two fronts. The first being the business with the man I refer to as Johan, and the second being the increasingly unbearable circumstances between me and Marta.
“Unbearable circumstances” is of course a familiar element in later Bergman, though the fixation on physical violence seems to have been a youthful fascination.
Sources
- Maaret Koskinen, I begynnelsen var ordet: Ingmar Bergman och hans tidiga författarskap, Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand, 2002, ss. 300 ff.
F:074
[91] sheets ; 18 x 23 cm
Handwritten draft. Undated. No title. Pages are in disarray, possibly originating from different texts. The first page refers to "The Sunday Fisher".