Choudhary 1

Nirjhar Choudhary

BA English Honours

Professor Somya

14 April 2024

Henrik johan Ibsen (1828-1906) is world-widely known Norwegian dramatist, critic

and social reformer. He is known as the father of the realistic drama, the founder of

modernism and an advocate of women in English drama. He holds immense importance due

to the themes he tackles and the realistic views he adopts in his literary production. His plays

expose social realities. Ibsen wrote many dramas including an enemy of the people, a doll’s

house, the wild duck, the pillars of society and the play under discussion, Ghosts. Ghosts was

published in 1881 after the publication of A Doll’s house it follows the earlier play not only in

time but also in theme.

The title of the play is highly symbolic and of great controversy. It exposes the old

and dead social beliefs which hinder the social change and advancement. Ghosts does not

refer to ghosts in its connotative meaning but rather refers to the haunts of dead beliefs, false

values, incest, vices, social diseases and taboos which transmit from one generation to

another and become social ghosts for generations. Ibsen employs it here as a symbol ‘whose

significance runs throughout the play’.

The title ‘Ghosts’ suggests not only the continuing influence of dead father over his

son-discernible in latter’s lifestyle and hereditary disease-but also old beliefs and ideas which

continue to exert their impact on coming generations. When Mrs. Alving says that ‘there is in

me something ghostlike’, she refers to the ghosts of outdated ideas- ‘all kinds of dead ideas

and all sorts of old and obsolete beliefs. The word ‘ghosts’ symbolizes here the very past-all

that has happened in the past-which continues to haunt and condition the present. It carries a
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ominous implication traditionally associated with the idea of a ghost. The continuing

presence of the past is felt to be as ominous as the murky atmosphere that wraps the action of

the play. It is this conception of ‘ghosts’ which gives the play its motive and force. Robert

Brustein writes, “Idea and action are perfectly unified in central image of the work”.

The meaning of the title can be attributed to the worn ideals and principles of law

and order so misapplied that they have no actual significance. The play has characters like

pastor Manders and Mrs Alving which coagulate this notion. Pastor Manders appears as a

moralising yet empty headed standard of society representing the thesis of drama: that a

society which unwittingly destroys individuality and encourages deceit and perpetuates

disease-physical as well as emotional upon its youth. A blinkered conventionalist, the pastor

exists in his own stereotypes where people confirm to those stereotypes. Dispositions such as

“its not a wife’s part to be a husband’s judge” and “we have no right to scandalise the

community” shows how he accepts all verbal expressions of social principles but is unable to

deal with instances where doctrines do not apply. He readily accepts Engstrand’s decision of

setting up a sailor’s house which is nothing but a brothel further displaying his deranged

moral standards. He thus represents the ghosts of empty social standards, devoid of intellect

and spontaneity.

Mrs Alving though and idealist has superficial morality and social standards. The

greatest quintessence if the alleged covering of her late husband’s infidelity through benign

acts which are again the ghosts of empty social standards. She was well aware of her

husband’s character but instead of courageously facing the truth, she opts to cover her

husband’s licentiousness. This is reflected in her attempts such as marriage of the maid-

Johanna with Engstrand, sending her son to boarding school, and concealing the true identity

of regina. On the top of this, she dedicates an orphanage in the memory of late Mr. Alving.

She is trapped in the ghosts of the superficial standards of the society.

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An ancient axiom goes like this, “every family has a skeleton in its cupboard”.

Another meaning of the ‘ghosts’ can be traced down to this axiom, those ghosts who are sins

of the past firmly rooted in the present and haunting the future. The major characters, Mrs

Alving, Regina, Oswald are subjected to the sins of the past and the ghostly imagery is of the

late Mrs. Alving.

Our history determines and shapes our present, hence it is the source of our current

misery. The drama depicts two manifestations of this persistent and debilitating impact of the

past: hereditary illness and the dominance of antiquated notions and beliefs. The biological

and psychological components of one's cultural inheritance are, of course, two sides of the

same coin. However, it appears that the latter is given more weight. Mrs. Alving claims in a

speech (Act ) that appears to be a play on the play's title:

“I almost think we are all ghosts - all of us, Pastor Manders. It isn’t just what we

have inherited from our father and mother that walks in us. It is all kinds of dead ideas and all

sorts of old and obsolete [Link] are not alive in us ; but they remain in us nonetheless ,

and we can never rid ourselves of them.

Mrs. Alving is haunted by a ghost of her husband's adultery and depravity. The

inappropriate behavior of her spouse has left her permanently traumatized. She thus begins to

perceive her husband's vices' ghost in other people. She instantly connects Engstrand's

drunkenness with an avatar of her own spouse, who was also intoxicated. The specter of her

husband's past begins to haunt her once she witnesses Oswald and Regina engaging in a

nearly incestuous relationship. Captain Alving's seduction of Johanna, the maid, was the

source of this spectral vision of the past.

The next recipient is Oswald, who is also troubled by his father's background and the

"legacy" he gave him. He stands for the destined offspring of a sick civilization. Oswald has

contracted genetic syphilis, as the elderly physician correctly states, "the sins of the father
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visited the son." Because of his severe disease, he is now a weak, helpless "living vegetable."

He will always be seen as being sick and incapable of having a young life. His sole source of

happiness is her lover Regina, who abandons him for a life of prostitution after finding out

the truth.

The final recipient of Captain Alving's extramarital affairs is Regina. She is the

offspring of the captain's unlawful marriage to Johanna, his housemaid. In an effort to

preserve Alving's reputation, the housemaid later marries Engstrand, thus undermining

Regina's rightful claim as the house's daughter. She is made to become her half-brother's

nurse and lead a poor life under the alias of a carpenter. Due to her misrepresentation of the

facts, she ends up falling in love with her half-brother and becoming a prostitute.

In Ibsen’s plays the spectator is found confronted with a slice of reality as if there

was an invisible fourth wall. Ghosts is a scathing critique of a corrupt system that is

transferred from one generation to another. The physical disease oswald inherits is a

metaphor for a larger social malaise that affects the society. The rickety skeleton of morality

and duty passed on from one time segment to the next which restricts individuals, especially

women and prevents them from thinking and formulating independent views. Ghosts fulfills

the playwright's intentions of shifting the “boundary posts” to create a new vital force.

The characters in ghosts exemplify broader tendencies of orthodoxy and problematic

modernity standing in sharp conflict. Despite the fact that Ibsen created his play more than a

century ago, Ghosts nevertheless deals with topics that are relevant today just as they did in

1881. Although it is only mentioned in passing in the play, the venereal disease syphilis is

just as dangerous and contagious as AIDS. The societal shame and terror associated with

syphilis bear a startling similarity to some people's views toward AIDS patients, and as

syphilis takes possession of Oswald's life, the characters are confronted with the difficult

decision of whether to end his life.

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The sacrifices and the "secrets that kill," 4 where the ghosts of antiquated notions of

patriarchy and social decorum threaten to ensnare everyone, are the root of the Alving

family's unhappiness. Mrs. Alving fights against the historical ghosts that "sit" in her mind.

Her aspirations to understand and rid her life of the ghosts that dominate it conflict

dramatically with her attempts to maintain the image of propriety in a society that expects her

perfection and "duty" toward her husband and her church. Although Mrs. Alving's

commitment to her son Oswald is noble, her efforts to shield him are in fruitless as the

father's transgressions cause her son to contract the crippling illness syphilis. Beneath the

brutal tale Ghosts lies Ibsen's more somber and apathetic reflections on humanity as a whole,

highlighting the fanciful rebellions and hollow clichés of the times. Plotted as a series of

debates on traditional morality, it adheres to the thesis play's tenets.

In Ghosts, there are two main themes. It is, first and foremost, a vicious assault on

traditional morality. All that is said about Pastor Mander and his interactions with the outside

world is relevant to the conventions because he personifies all that Ibsen detested about those

practices—the "ghost" of the title. Manders, for instance, exhibits unconscious hypocrisy. In

the last scene, Manders' undoing is revealed to be his dread of what other people would think.

The Pastor is persuaded that Manders started the fire by the devious, willfully hypocritical

Engstrand after the orphanage had burned completely down. When Engstrand "accepts"

responsibility for the fire (and it is obvious that he started it), Manders, who is only

concerned with maintaining his reputation, agrees to financially fund Engstrand's "Sailor's

Home," which would obviously be little more than a brothel. Manders is tremendously

comforted by this development. The spiritual mentor consents to support immorality in order

to protect his own skin.

Ibsen delivers a scathing critique of society and its destructive powers. Ibsen's all-

out onslaught on bourgeois hypocrisy, smugness, and lying was just as offensive as the topic
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of inherited venereal illness. It is a critique aimed at the most amiable member of that

environment, the only aspect that defies authority. Ibsen's understanding of the bourgeois

rebel's mind is best illustrated by the way he presents Mrs. Alving's struggle against the

regressive impulses within of her. Mrs. Alving is a rebel who fears revolt, and she shares

some of the blame in this regard with the society that rejects the new "The truth and freedom"

and so opposes [Link] revaluation of their own inner lives also becomes for them a

showdown with the society, which has created the pre-conditions of their lives. Thus it is that

Ibsen here chooses the “woman” to lead the battle for “the revolution of the human spirit”

under the rallying-cry of “truth and freedom”

Obviously, the most common symbol is that of ghosts. The ghosts are worn-out

ideas and rules of law and order that have been used so incorrectly as to be meaningless. All

of Manders' unproven tenets and abstract doctrine are ghosts, just as Mrs. Alving's personal

cowardice has ghosts as its causes. Lies about the past that are told to the present and will

haunt the future are also considered ghosts. Last but not least, ghosts are the real and

metaphorical illnesses of heredity that rob the younger, more liberated generations of their

joy in life.

The title's ultimate meaning is revealed by Oswald's diminishing persona. Since

nothing lasts forever, much like Oswald, we are all ghosts who are only waiting to pass away.

He is aware that he will eventually die, and that waiting for death would be insane and a

pretext for euthanasia. In front of his mother, he begs again to be freed so that he might

embrace the sun. As a result, the sun represents the unavoidable reality that all things

eventually come to an end and that life is fleeting. On the other side, Oswald also associates

the sun with hope. In his future life, he hopes to be genuinely fortunate like an artist, freely

experiencing God's blessings and ultimately experiencing "the joy of his life."
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References

Critical Study of Mrs. Alving’s Failure in Her Domestic Life in Ghost by Henrik

Ibsen. (2018). Journal of Advances and Scholarly Research in Allied Education, 15(5), 83–

86. [Link]