Minna Canth

Minna Canth was a Finnish playwright and short-story writer who described women's position in the society and advocated contemporary radical social ideas in magazine articles. During the early years of the young Finnish Theatre, Canth's plays were performed on its stage more often than Shakespeare's. She was the first notable Finnish social realist, whose work showed the influence of Henrik Ibsen and Georg Brandes.

Minna Canth (Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnson) was born on March 19th in a Finnish city called Tampere. At that time her father, Gustaf Wilhelm Johnson, worked as an inspector in the biggest cotton mill in Finland. He rose in the position of a foreman and in 1853 the family moved to Kuopio, a small but culturally active town 500 kilometers from Helsinki, where Johnson worked as a shop manager. Even though Minna's father was poor he wanted to give the best education possible for the apple of his eye. Unfortunately there wasn't any fancy girls' schools in Tampere so Minna was supposed to go to Turku, to be trained to become a teacher. That was the highest goal her father could think of. Meanwhile, a "higher school for ladies" was founded in Kuopio, so Minna was able to study in her own hometown.

In 1863 the first public school teachers' seminary was founded in the town of Jyvaskyla. Minna got to study only two years before she got married to her natural science teacher, Johan Ferdinand Canth. Now she had to stay home and prepare meals, keep house and take care of her husband as a normal wife did those days. She was a quiet and devoted house wife but she wasn't happy. She was afraid to speak out and disagree. Finally, after a few years, she dared to express her own opinions and because of this her husband noticed how good her judgement was.

Eight years after their wedding, Johan began to edit a newspaper. Minna had denied herself all reading expect newspapers, so she was desperate to read and write. From 1874 to 1876 she wrote for the regional publications Keski-Suomi and later for Paijanne (1878-79). She wrote strictly against alcohol which caused fuss among people because the issues of temperance weren't exactly discussed yet. Unfortunately she had forgotten that the owner of the newspaper also owned a distillery. As a result, Minnas husband was fired and she had to get back to her needlework.

After a few years a new, bigger paper was started and Johan was hired as sub-editor. Minna wrote some articles about women's rights and she was proud of them. Nevertheless no response was awakened. It had been too early to discuss those issues.

"Even the most talented woman has a thousand times more obstacles and difficulties in her path than her male colleagues."

In the beginning of the 1880's, Minna adopted ideas from the work of such authors as Taine, Ibsen, Strindberg and Zola. She read widely social sciences, ethics, psychology, natural sciences, religious thinkers, and become interested in the position of women and workers and the conflict between religion and Darwin's ideas of evolution. At that time, the Finnish Theatre gave a few performances in Jyvaskyla and Minna became enthusiastic about playwriting. She wrote her first play, Murtovarkaus (The Burglary), in which a young girl is wrongfully suspected of stealing.

In the half-way point of the play, Minnas husband died of brain fever. They had been married for 13 years and had seven children, of whom the youngest was born a few months after her husband's death. Also her father had died a few years earlier, bankrupted, and her mother Ulrika lived in very pinched circumstances. Times were tough and Minna was on a verge of madness. She had to ask maids and her children to keep eye on her, because she was afraid she could take the life of her youngest child. She had no idea how to support her large family. Ignoring the possible risks, she moved to the town of Kuopio in 1880 and took charge of her father's shop. The draper's shop, the 'Tampereen Lankakauppa', selling Finlayson's fabrics, started to flourish, and Minna found more time to literary aspirations. At last she finished the writing of the Burglary and sent it to the manager of the Finnish Theatre, Kaarlo Bergbom.

"Honest work never hurt anyone."

Minnas new, more socially concerned plays, were attacked by conservative and religious autho-rities. She was, however, awarded by the Finnish Literature Society for Burglary. The play was produced for the first time by the Finnish Theatre in the spring of 1882. Burglary started a ten year cooperation with Bergholm and encouraged Canth to write ethnological, rustic comedies for the broad audience. However, this was not what the author wanted to do, although her next play, Roinilan talossa (In the House of Roinila) (1885), delighted Bergbom with its lively characters and folkdances. It also was received very warmly by the public as well as the critics.

In Tyomiehen vaimo (The Workman's Wife) (1885) Minna wrote bravely about the injustices women were subjected to by the law, men's boozing and wantonness, women's stupidity and shallowness in short, all the evil and madness in the world she could think of. It revealed the misery of a poor and submissive wife, Johanna, her husband's alcoholism, and the evils of prostitution. Johanna is exploited by her husband Risto, who controls her savings and spends the family's money on drink and steals the cloth his wife has woven. When Johanna is threatened by imprisonment, she breaks down and dies. The Workman's Wife made a massive impact. It was harshly criticized but also praised. Minna lost many of her friends and some parents even forbade their children to visit her house.

"Now I will tell you what has distressed my soul: women are too feminine, too patient, too docile, too forbearing, too tame, too soft-hearted, in a word, Christian."

The next play, Kovan onnen lapsia (The Children of Misfortune) was played only once, in the autumn of 1888. Further performances were banned by the authorities. The play tells about the misery of the poor ending with desperation, crime and imprisonment.

In 1889 Minna lost through death her dearest friends, E.R. Erkko and Hilda Asp as well as her grown-up daughter, Hanna Canth. Because of all this distress she became numb to the downs in life. At the same time the political conditions changed and she was afraid of the nations future. After a short period without playwriting (because of the rough criticism) she wrote a play Papin perhe (The Parsons Family) which was praised by both the public and the critics. The play describes the gab between the old and the new generation. Minna studied ideological battle inside a middle-class family where the old-fashioned father, Henrik Valtari, doesnt accept her daughter's theatrical career. His son Jussi refuses to join the reactionary newspaper which his father supports and chooses instead a progressive newspaper. When his children have began their own life, Valtari starts a reconciliation process. Minna herself didn't really like the play that much because she thought it was a bit tame and colorless. Actually she wasn't satisfied with any of her works so far.

The play, Sylvi, was performed in the Swedish Theatre in 1983 in Swedish. It was a great success. Ida Ahlberg took it to her tour program, but only several years later it got into the Finnish Theatre. The play is really psychological, and it's been compared to Ibsen's works. The main character, Sylvi, falls in love with a young man and poisons her husband. She ends up in jail and hears that her young lover has got engaged with another woman. The subject was taken from a recent incident that had happened in the town of Hameenlinna.

In 1889 1890 Minna edited in collaboration with A.B. Makela her own journal, Vapaita aatteita (Free ideas). It published without asking writings from Maupassant, Brandes, Tolstoy, and Hamsun and introduced to Finnish readers new findings in astronomy, psychiatry, biology, meteorology and other sciences.

Minnas last big drama was Anna-Liisa (1895) which is said to be her "most perfect" and successful piece of work. From the very first performance it was a huge success. On the other hand, it is also said that it was too much like Leo Tolstois play The Power of Darkness.

Although Minna was full of energy as a business woman and writer, her heath started to deteriorate in the 1890s, and she died on a severe heart attack on May 12, 1897 in Kuopio. She got her grave in the burial ground of Kuopio. The whole town honoured her on the day of the funeral.

Minna Canth depicted her characters with understanding and realism. The family was in her writings the basis, which mirrored larger social problems. With her brave approach to topical, polemic issues she was a constant target of conservative critics, especially clergymen, but at the same time her home in Kuopio attracted such writers and artists as Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Jean Sibelius, K.A. Tavastsjerna, and the Halonen family.

Canth's collected works appeared between the years 1917 and 1920. Her plays are still popular among amateur and professional theatre groups and she is considered by many critics the most outstanding Finnish playwright after Aleksis Kivi.

Skuld