Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
Ghosts is a play that was written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1881 and first staged in 1882. In the plot of the play, Mrs. Alving is about to dedicate an orphanage that he has built to memorize her late husband. Mrs. Alving discloses to Pastor Manders that her husband was unfaithful. The main aim of Mrs. Alving building an orphanage is to deplete her late husband’s wealth so that their son Oswald will not inherit anything from his father. Captain Alving remained unfaithful to her wife till his death, and Mrs. Alving stayed with him just because of their son and to avoid a bad reputation by the public. Later in the play, Mrs. Alving discovers that her son is suffering from syphilis that she believes he inherited it from his father. Also, Mrs. Alvin, at the end of the play, realizes that her son has fallen in her love with her maid Regina. Therefore, the plot of the play was logical. Ghosts is a scathing commentary that expresses the morality of the 19th century, and although it has received negative criticism, it is considered as a great play.
The extent to which society invades personal lives is the central theme in the Ghosts. Mrs. Alving tries in her action to protect the reputation of her late husband. Mrs. Alving is also much obsessed with keeping up appearances. Because of the concern of Mrs. Alving to protect the reputation of her late husband, she ends up living a lie and building a memorial to her husband’s false reputation (Ibsen, 2016). Mrs. Alving actions result in ruining of lives of her husband’s two children, Oswald and Regina. Due to her concern on public opinion, Mrs. Alving ends up miserably and ruins the lives of innocent kids. Pastor Manders is also used in the paly to support the theme of the extent to which society invades personal lives. A neurotic concern for public opinion controls Pastor Manders. Because of her concern for public view, Pastor Manders leads a foolish life to the extent that he is tricked into the funding of Engstrand saloon. Pastor Manders is used in the play to demonstrate the connection that exists between public and duty. Pastor tells Mrs. Alving that she must save Oswald from sin. However, Pastor Manders comments are not motivated by his moral responsibility, but by public opinion.
The key metaphor of the play is established in Mrs. Alving’s speech on “ghosts.” Mrs. Alving narrates that the “ghosts” of duty and public opinion dominates and ruins generations of lives. Both Pastor Manders and Mrs. Alving are dominated by the “ghost” of public opinion. Mrs. Alving, in her speech, suspects that superstitions that exist in the community haunts people in their community, and also are haunted by their inheritances from certain people. In the Ghosts, the actors enhance the musicality of the play by use of a slow rhythm. The rhythm is used in the play to attract and retain the attention of the audience throughout the entire play (Slater & Kraus, 2016). The play utilizes the scenic design and costumes of the characters to distinguish from one character to another. Pastor Manders always appears in Overcoat, Hat, and a traveling bag. The scenic design of the play encourages the audience to continue watching the play.
The Ghosts play uses specific characters to build the themes of the play clearly. Mrs. Helene Alving is one of the main characters in the play. Mrs. Alving lives in a mansion in Norway’s countryside, and she was married to the late Captain Alving. Mrs. Alving had a horrible marriage, and she once ran away to pastor Manders, whom she was attracted, but she returned to her husband (Lynch & Vogel, 2015). Mrs. Alving defends her husband reputation, and she has established an orphanage to memorize the death of her husband. Pastor Manders, who is a local priest from the nearby town, is another important character in the play. Pastor Manders teaches others about religion but how easily he bends to the public opinion puts her moral duty to many questions. Oswald Alving is a son to Mrs. Alving. At the start of the play, Oswald Alving is a promising painter. At the end of the play, Oswald Alving feels listlessness, and he blames himself. Regina Engstrand is Mrs. Alving maidservant. At the end of the play, Regina is attracted to Oswald. All the characters in the play interestingly perform their roles to manifest the theme of the play to the audience.
The Plot of the Ghosts was logical to all the audience involved in the play. The plot ensured that the audience kept engaged because it created a certain level of suspense. The suspense created in the play made the audience always to have the zeal to know what was going to happen next. The extent to which society invades personal lives was the theme of the play. The theme is relevant to the present world as most of the individual’s characters are shaped by public opinion. The actors played their roles in a believable, relatable, and exciting manner to clearly bring the theme of the play. The music and rhythm of the language used in the play enhanced the play. The scenery, lighting, and costumes used in the play attracted the attention of the audience to concentrate until the end of the play. Therefore, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen is an interesting and great play that is relevant to the modern world.
References
Ibsen, H. (2018). The Correspondence of Henrik Ibsen (Classic Reprint). Ardent Media.
Lynch, G., & Vogel, C. (2015). Chasing the ghosts of ibsen: A computational stylistic analysis of drama in translation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.00841.
Slater, J., & Kraus, N. (2016). The role of rhythm in perceiving speech in noise: a comparison of percussionists, vocalists and non-musicians. Cognitive processing, 17(1), 79-87.