Uhri

"Uhri" by Kaarle Halme is a three-act play written in the early 20th century. The drama centers on merchant Otto Hirvola, whose cheerful facade hides reckless, criminal handling of bank funds; to cover his tracks he seeks to barter his daughter Aune’s future to the domineering timber magnate Samu Kolkko, even though Aune loves Dr. Martti Majaniemi. It is a tense domestic study of power, blackmail, and moral sacrifice, with Alma, the frail mother, caught between duty and conscience. The opening of the play sets the characters and tones with explicit stage notes, then moves into a rainy-day household where Aune banters with her mother about heredity, duty, and marriage, and quietly reveals she has accepted Dr. Majaniemi’s proposal. Business intrudes: a farmer’s withdrawal request rattles Hirvola, Kolkko arrives to throw his weight around, and Hirvola nervously tries to get the doctor to write a poison prescription under the pretext of putting down a dog. In Act II, Hirvola confesses to Alma that he has misused savings-bank funds and needs Kolkko’s help; Alma denounces him, but Aune agrees to stall Kolkko’s suit for a few days—on the condition Hirvola accepts her marriage to Martti—hoping a big waterfall sale will save the situation. A telegram then crushes that hope: the foreign buyer has gone bankrupt. At the start of Act III, Hirvola begs Aune to marry Kolkko to rescue him, and she refuses, urging honesty over further wrong; Majaniemi rushes back in alarm about the potent medicine left in the house, and Aune, shaken, finds the bottle safe—for now.

Summary written by Project Gutenberg, by machine.