we should have
to admit that in _Little Eyolf_ he was guilty of the latter fault, since
in point of sheer "strength," in the common acceptation of the word, the
situation at the end of the first act could scarcely be outdone, in that
play or any other. The beginner, however, is far more likely to put too
little than too much into his first act: he is more likely to leave our
interest insufficiently stimulated than to carry us too far in the
development of his theme. My own feeling is that, as a general rule,
what Freytag calls the _erregende Moment_ ought by all means to fall
within the first act. What is the _erregende Moment_? One is inclined to
render it "the firing of the fuse." In legal parlance, it might be
interpreted as the joining of issue. It means the point at which the
drama, hitherto latent, plainly declares itself. It means the
germination of the crisis, the appearance on the horizon of the cloud no
bigger than a man's hand. I suggest, then, that this _erregende Moment_
ought always to come within the first act--if it is to come at all There
are plays, as we have seen, which depict life on so even a plane that it
is impossible to say at any given point, "Here the drama sets in," or
"The interest is heightened there."

_Pillars of Society_ is, in a sense, Ibsen's prentice-work in the form
of drama which he afterwards perfected; wherefore it affords us numerous
illustrations of the problems we have to consider. Does he, or does he
not, give us in the first act sufficient insight into his story? I am
inclined to answer the question in the negative. The first act puts us
in possession of the current version of the Bernick-Toennesen family
history, but it gives us no clear indication that this version is an
elaborate tissue of falsehoods. It is true that Bernick's evident
uneasiness and embarrassment at the mere idea of the reappearance of
Lona and Johan may lead us to suspect that all is not as it seems; but
simple annoyance at the inopportune arrival of the black sheep of the
family might be sufficient to account for this. To all intents and
purposes, we are completely in the dark as to the course the drama is
about to take; and when, at the end of the first act, Lona Hessel
marches in and flutters the social dovecote, we do not know in what
light to regard her, or why we are supposed to sympathize with her. The
fact that she is eccentric, and that she talks of "letting in fresh
air," combines with our previ