hesitating 'Perhaps' when THE LADY wants to lead him to the
protecting Church; and at the end of Part II he exclaims: 'Come,
priest, before I change my mind'; but in Part III his decision is
final, he enters the monastery. The reason is that not even THE
LADY in her third incarnation had shown herself capable of
reconciling him to life. The wedding day scenes just before,
between Harriet Bosse and the ageing author, form, however, the
climax of Part III and are among the most poetically moving that
Strindberg has ever written.

Besides having his belief in the rapture of love shattered, THE
STRANGER also suffers disappointment at seeing his child fall short
of expectations. The meeting between the daughter Sylvia and THE
STRANGER probably refers to an episode from the summer of 1899,
when Strindberg, after long years of suffering in foreign
countries, saw his beloved Swedish skerries again, and also his
favourite daughter Greta, who had come over from Finland to meet
him. Contrary to the version given in the drama, the reunion of
father and daughter seems to have been very happy and cordial.
However, it is typical of the fate-oppressed Strindberg that in his
work even the happiest summer memories become tinged with black.
Once and for all the dark colours on his palette were the most
intense.

The final entry into the monastery was more a symbol for the
struggling author's dream of peace and atonement than a real thing
in his life. It is true he visited the Benedictine monastery,
Maredsous, in Belgium in 1898, and its well stocked library came to
play a certain part In the drama, but already he realised, after
one night's sojourn there, that he had no call for the monastic