things work ouf for them is not the war
things normally work eut in renl life. Vet,
confess that 1 derived more plgasure from
this glimsv. unreal comedy, than from the
serious, true-to-life episodes and characters
in Dr Bernhardi.“
Race and Religion
n Dr Bernbardi,“ the action passes In
Vienna, and the principal character is a dis¬
tinguished Jewish physician, who is the head
of a lecal hospital. We see him in the first
act at the hospital, specially concerned in i#c
fate oi a poor street girl whose mode of!
has led her to death’s door. She only has
hour or two to live, but docs not know it.
the contrary, the last phase of her illness is
slch that she believes she is getting well and
Dr Bernbardi decides to let her die happily,
without knowing that her end is near. But
Austria is a Catholie countrv, and it is the
custom, whien one of the Catholie faith i
dving, to inform the priest, who comes t
administer the. last sacraments and give
absolution. The priest
duly informed
by the authorities, withont Dr Bernhardi's
knowledge, and we see him arrive, prepared
to discharge his religious office.
Interesting Problem
Just as he is about to enter the ward, Dr
Bernhardi appears, and suggests tothe priest
that he should not go to the dying girl, as his
presence and the performance of the religious
rite would at once make her realise that her
life was approaching its close, But the priest!
waves these objections aside. He must do
his duty, not only to his Church but to the
girl, the fate of whose soul is at stake.
Here, then, is a problem of the greatest
Which
interest.
e two is right: the
priest who desire,
#ve the girl’s soul at
the expense of he¬
w moments of hap¬
piness, or the docten who deems it his dutyto
let the doomed girl pass away in blisskul
ignorance of what is about to happen to her?
Either way the case is a strong one. Butl
there is one circumstance which must be
allowed to weigh in arriving at a conclusion,
and this is hinted at, rather than emphasised,
in the play. It has to be borne in mind that
D. Bernhardi is a Jew living in a Christian
country. One may take for granted that in¬
refusingto let the priest go to the dying gir!
he is actuated only by a sense of duty.
the same time, it cannot be ruled out
that hie may have beer unconsciously in¬
fluenced by the natural religious opposition
that a Jew might entertain towards a Catholic
priest. Dr Bernhardi may not even himsel!
have been aware of this feeling of religious
and racial antagonism when he exercised his
prerogative as the girl’s physician and refused
admission to the priest.
Duty Versus Expediency
Tee meinbers of the jury of playgoers to
whom this problem is prepounded will each
have their own views as to which was in the
right-the doctor or the priest. My own feel¬
ing, as I was confronted with the problem,
was that Dr Bernhardi, being a Jew, ought to
have tempered his sense of duty by the know¬
Jedge that he was living
Christion
country where vital importence was attached
to religious aspects. He was entitled to make
his protest, but nothing more.
Morcover, it had also to be considered that
the girl was a Catholic and, in the eyes of her
Church, a sinner. Would she not have pre¬
ferred to know she was dying, if she held the
belief that without absolution her soul was in
peril? This circumstance ought also to have
been taken into accbunt by the doctor. As it
happens, the conflict between the doctor and
the pries“ is resolved by the girl herself, who
is told of the priest’s visit by the nurse, and
dies immediately from shock.
After that. Dr Bernhardi becomes the victim
wave of anti-Semitism, and the
authorities prefer a charge against him of
religious obstruction. He is forced to resign
his position and is sent to prison for two
months. ouly to be rehabilitated later, wien
the political situation in Austria changes. Thei
play has many strong situations, and is dis¬
tinguished by wonderful acting on the part of
Mr Abraham Sofaer as the Jewish doctor.
* Spring Tide“
When I ask myself why I enjoyed that
superficial comedy. Spring Tide.“ more than
the engrossing Dr Bernhardi,“ I am at a
Joss for an answer, except. perhaps, that thel
world is already so full of political troub½e
and that anti-Semitism is so much a real#gt