Ingeborg Holm -- Behavior
Background
Ingeborg Holm was first written as a play by Nils Krok. The play opened on November 5, 1906, then in 1913 the film adaptation was debuted. The play was based on Krok's past experiences with the poor-law system. Krok had had an encounter with a young widow who went to the Board of Guardians asking for relief. The Board of Guardians was a group of individuals who were appointed to manage the poor-law system. For Krok, this encounter with the woman played a significant role in the script and design of the play. The film illustrates the life of this poor widow and her negative experiences with the poor-law system.(2)Once Ingeborg’s husband died she attempted to run the family's shop with the assistant that had helped her husband before. She was unable to do so because he was more interested in wooing women than operating the business responsibly. Ingeborg lost the business and had to go to the Board of Guardians for help.
The poor-law system was at a critical point in 1906 when a Poor Relief Congress was convened. This Congress was assembled to make changes to the social welfare system, but changes in poor relief were not implemented until 1918.(3) It was in the intervening years that the film Ingeborg Holm was created. Although some believed that the design of the play was an act of political indictment against the Board of Guardians, according to Krok, he had no such intention.(4)
Family Structure in Early Twentieth Century Sweden
The beginning of the film shows the family working at a local garden together and enjoying their time together. Ingeborg and her husband are shown conversing about future plans. This illustrated how serious it could be for a family trying to start up a new business but also how supportive they were with each other. The family dynamic was happy and supportive until the day the father suffered a hemorrhage. The family was still very supportive of each other but the feeling the family gave was a very serious one. The strong, structured family relations at the beginning are, according to Anu Pylkkänen, historically accurate with times. Pylkkännen noted that a strong family unit was emphasized, and furthermore, the overall happiness of the family was very important.(5) Therefore, the behavior of the family prior to the father's (Sven’s) death were depicted with historical accuracy.Depiction of the Swedish Poor Law System
Following the death of her husband and her inability to financially recover from it, Ingeborg Holm experienced what many impoverished people did in early twentieth century Sweden as she fell into the hands of the Poor Law System. After she decided to stay at the workhouse everything was taken away from Ingeborg. The first thing she lost was her way of income which put her in this situation, then her home and possessions were taken away and eventually all of her children were placed with foster parents.After Ingeborg had been at the workhouse for awhile she learned that her daughter was sick. Ingeborg was not allowed to leave to visit her, and the workhouse was not willing to pay for the care of the child. Ingeborg ran away from the workhouse to try to see her child but the police were sent to find her and bring her back to the workhouse. Since she fainted upon capture, they allowed her to see her child and then returned her to the workhouse. This incident caused the workhouse to have to pay the police for the capture and transport, and the workhouse authorities were not happy with Ingeborg for what she had done.
The workhouse situation was hard on Ingeborg Holm. By the end of the film, the audience sees an age-riddled, mentally unstable Ingeborg Holm. Her eldest son finds her in hopes to reconnect and is saddened to see her deteriorating condition. Although she eventually realizes who he is, the film ends with this emotional scene with a depressing undertone. These behaviors, as well as those described above, depict a poor law system in Sweden that was not only ruthless and unmoving at the idea of allowing exit from the workhouse, but was also one that had lifelong negative effects on impoverished families. According to Edebalk, the poor system usually consisted of old people who were not being taken care of by their families and needed someplace to live. Workhouses such as the one depicted in the film would have had many different types of people living and working there. Some examples would be the “old, the chronically ill, mentally ill, orphans and alcoholics.”(6)
Women’s role in society
Women's main role in society in the early twentieth century was to take care of the household, for example cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children. Women had to rely a lot on their husbands since they provided most of the families' financial support. If the husband died a woman would have a hard time finding work, and women's wages were significantly lower than men’s. If she chose to go on welfare that would also be problematic since the welfare support for women was also a lot less than what men were offered, mainly because woman were viewed as contributing less to society. However in the beginning of the twentieth century it became more common for women to join the workforce. Industry jobs such as work in the manufacture of textiles, safety matches and medicine became an option for women. The change in attitudes towards women's work can also be seen in the film, when Ingeborg worked at the grocery store.(7)A critical response to Ingeborg Holm
Some contemporaries of Krok questioned the accuracy of the behaviors depicted in the film. Erik Hedling has described how Georg Nordfeldt, a high-ranking welfare bureaucrat at the time, wrote a public letter entitled “Unwholesome Film Art” to Stockholms Dagblad. Summarizing Nordfeldt's letter: “Ingeborg Holm gave an altogether false picture of the poor-law system. The film was thus both ‘unwholesome’ and ‘repulsive,’ and would probably cause considerable damage against the poor-law authorities." Additionally, in reference to the Board of Guardians in charge of the impoverished people, Nordfeldt explained that, “the board of guardians cannot detain a person in the workhouse against his or her will. Ingeborg Holm was thus entitled to leave the workhouse whenever she wanted to.”(8)Overall, Ingeborg Holm accurately portrays the behaviors of social welfare authorities that would have been present at the time of the poor-law system.
(1) Erik Hedling, “Swedish Cinema Alters History: Ingeborg Holm and the Poor Law Debate,” Scandinavica 39, no. 1 (2000): 47-48.
(2) Hedling, “Swedish Cinema Alters History," 47-48.
(3) Per Edebalk, "From Poor Relief to Universal rights - On the development of Swedish old-age care 1900-1950, (Working paper serien. Socialhögskolan, Lunds Universitet, 2009.), 3, accessed May 1, 2017, https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/ws/files/3160329/1514374.
(4) Hedling, "Swedish Cinema Alters History," 48.
(5) And Pylkkänen, "Women and Family Law in Scandinavia." SJFE: Women and Law in Europe, accessed March 29, 2017, http://www.helsinki.fi/science/xantippa/wle/wle41.html#Parenthood.
(6) Edebalk, "From Poor Relief to Universal rights, 3.
(7) Helen Fisher Hohman, Social Democracy in Sweden, accessed May 1, 2017, https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v3n2/v3n2p3.pdf.
(8) Hedling, "Swedish Cinema Alters History," 56.
Written and edited by Rachel Olson, Ulrik Sagbakken, Phil Kuball, Jacob Aberle and Tim Carlson.
