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Summary Notes of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts( long essay type)
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Significance of the title Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen"Ghosts" is a play written by the Norwegian playwright Henric Ibsen. It was written during the
autumn of 1881 and was published in December of the same year. First staged in 1882, it is a
scathing commentary on nineteenth century bourgeois morality. Originally titled "Gengangere",
which translates as "The Revenants", the play was later translated as ghosts much to the dismay
of Ibsen. Unlike its predecessor "A Doll's House", the play failed to garner appreciation instead
became a black sheep in the history of 18th century literature. Derisive attacks came from all
sides and ultimately the book became a sorry figure both in terms of intellectualism and finance.
The paramount 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 living entities such as
Pastor Manders and Mrs. Alving which coagulate this notion. Pastor Manders appears as a
moralising but empty-headed standard of society representing the thesis of the drama: that a
society which unwittingly destroys individuality and encourages deceit and perpetuates disease-
physical as well as emotional upon its youthful members. All the untested maxims and abstract
dogma that Manders maintains are ghosts. This is proved in the unauthentic hypothesis of
Manders who views the society in a single frame. A blinkered conventionalist, the pastor exists
in his own stereotypes where people conform to those stereotypes. Dispositions such as "It is not
a wife's part to be her husband's judge" and "We have no right to scandalise the community"
shows how he accepts all the verbal expressions of social principles but is unable to deal with
instances where doctrine does not apply. This is best explained in his paradoxical statement "A
child should love and honour his father and mother". Mrs. Alving retorts "Don't let us talk in
such general terms. Suppose we say: Ought Oswald to love and honour Mr. Alving?" Thus, in
this instance he is not able to provide a justified explanation which points out his faulty
hypothesis. He readily accepts Engstrand decision to set up a Sailor's House which is nothing but
a brothel further displaying his deranged moral standards. He thus represents the ghost of empty
social standards, devoid of intellect and spontaneity.
Mrs. Alving, though an emancipated idealist follows some of the instances of superficial
morality and social standards. The greatest quintessence is the alleged covering of her spouse's
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