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"Ghosts" By Henrik Ibsen: A Critical Essay
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The Effects Society Has On the Characters in “Ghosts” Henrik Ibsen drew ideas for his plays from events in his life. Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway. During this time there was some tension between the Danish and the Norwegians. This animosity between the two cultures played a large part in Ibsen’s life and his early work (Bloom 10). In Ibsen’s early childhood his parents were social and prosperous people. But when he was seven years of age his father was forced to mortgage their house and they went into financial ruin. He was forced to apprentice an apothecary to earn money, but he was shunned by the community when he had an illegitimate son at the age of eighteen. Although he never knew his son he still fulfilled his financial obligation to him. This event could be a prime example used by Ibsen for his play, “Ghosts” (Bloom 10). When Henrik Ibsen wrote “Ghosts” he had been living in Italy. Here he started to write a short autobiography. This work was probably the foundation for one of his later works, “An Enemy of the People.” Later, in June of 1881, he stopped all his works in progress to work on an idea he had been developing. By October “Ghosts” was completed and appeared as a book before Christmas. Right away it created the greatest scandal by any other book in Norwegian Literature (Beyer 122). One critic feels that the play “Ghosts” is a tragic drama. It is true to the definition of a tragedy stated by Aristotle. A true tragedy is defined by having unity of place, time and manner, and should also inspire intense feelings of pity for the tragic hero. Ibsen’s “Ghosts” has these qualities. It has been described as the most classically constructed of Ibsen’s plays by many critics (Meyer 490). In the play, the protagonist, Mrs. Alving, is constantly struggling with the pressure society puts on her. The guilt and the pressure that is put on her by society is her antagonist. It can take the form of a person or emotion at any time in the play. The entire cast of characters is introduced in the first act or the exposition. The play covers the span of one night. In this night the play tells a large part of the story through the characters’ retelling of the antecedent action of Mr. Alving’s dishonest and adulterous habits. From act to act the scene stays the same and each act is related through plot by extension. Throughout the course of the night the protagonist’s life of deceit falls apart and all is exposed.
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