Ibsen’s poetic ability enables him to enrich the prose plays with symbols that have broad as well as narrow meanings. Especially allusive is Ibsen’s concept of light and darkness. Oswald’s last plea for the sun, for instance, sums up his need for the “joy of life” in himself as well […]
Read more Critical Essays Symbols in GhostsCritical Essays Structure and Technique in Ghosts
As in most of Ibsen’s problem plays, Ghosts begins at the collective climax in the lives of its characters. The play deals only with the consequences of these past lives and does not need to take place in more than one twenty-four hour vigil. Although the relationships among the characters […]
Read more Critical Essays Structure and Technique in GhostsCritical Essays Theme of Ghosts
As if to answer the hosts of critics who denounced the “vulgar untruths” they discovered in A Doll’s House, Ibsen developed another facet of the same idea when he published Ghosts two years later. According to Halvdan Koht, one of his biographers, “Mrs. Alving is in reality nothing but a […]
Read more Critical Essays Theme of GhostsHenrik Ibsen Biography
Once the subject of public controversy, defended only by the avant-garde theater critics of the nineteenth century, Ibsen’s prose dramas now appear as successful television plays and are an essential part of the repertory theaters all over the world. No longer inflaming audience reactions, the dramas are now acceptable fare […]
Read more Henrik Ibsen BiographyCharacter Analysis Jacob Engstrand
Jacob Engstrand, made cynical by his experiences as a member of the lower class, preys upon the established society for his maintenance. Using the same tools of hypocrisy and deceit that Pastor Manders accepts as social principles, Engstrand gains in power and prestige. He personifies how Manders’ pious idealism degenerates […]
Read more Character Analysis Jacob EngstrandCharacter Analysis Regina
Regina Engstrand is another victim of society’s “ghosts” which destroy the “joy of life” in its female members. Limited by her sex and status, she is unable to channel this vitality into a constructive mode of life. Unable to marry into another social level, Regina has no resources with which […]
Read more Character Analysis ReginaCharacter Analysis Oswald Alving
Oswald Alving, although important in the play, is merely a minor character and represents the doomed product of a diseased society. Artistically gifted by having inherited his father’s “joy of life” he finds he cannot work at home where the “sun” of self-expression is obscured by the “fog” of duty […]
Read more Character Analysis Oswald AlvingCharacter Analysis Mrs. Alving
Mrs. Alving, raised as a dutiful girl to become a dutiful wife and mother, would easily fall in love with the virtuous Manders. Certainly a man with Alving’s exuberance and vitality would not be a suitable husband for her. However, desperate circumstances forced Mrs. Alving to reassess the values she […]
Read more Character Analysis Mrs. AlvingCharacter Analysis Pastor Manders
Pastor Manders, simple-minded and self-involved like Torvald Helmer, exists in an imaginary world where people and events conform to his stereotypes. Depositions such as “It is not a wife’s part to be her husband’s judge” and “We have no right to do anything that will scandalize the community” show how […]
Read more Character Analysis Pastor MandersSummary and Analysis Act III
Summary The scene still takes place in Mrs. Alving’s home, but it is night time. By now the fire is out, the entire orphanage burned to the ground. While Mrs. Alving has gone to fetch Oswald, Regina and Manders receive Engstrand. “God help us all,” he says piously and clucking […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act III