Henrik Ibsen

Ghosts Henrik Ibsen

Ghosts Danish: Gengangere is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Like many of Ibsen's plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th-century morality. Because of its subject matter, which includes religion, venereal disease, incest, and euthanasia, it immediately generated strong controversy and negative criticism. Since then the play has fared better, and is considered a "great play" that historically holds a position of "immense importance". Helen Alving is about to dedicate an orphanage she has built in memory of her late husband, Captain Alving. She reveals to Pastor Manders that her marriage was secretly miserable because her husband was unfaithful. She has built the orphanage to deplete her husband's wealth so that their son Oswald will not inherit anything from him. Pastor Manders once advised her to return to her husband despite his philandering, and she followed his advice in the hope that she could reform him. But her husband continued his affairs until his death, and Mrs. Alving stayed with him to protect her son from the taint of scandal and for fear of being shunned by the community.