Ghosts | Page 4

than as a creator--an author who cares more for ideas and doctrines
than for human beings. Though Mrs. Alving, Engstrand and Regina are
rounded and breathing characters, it cannot be denied that Manders
strikes one as a clerical type rather than an individual, while even
Oswald might not quite unfairly be described as simply and solely his

father's son, an object-lesson in heredity. We cannot be said to know
him, individually and intimately, as we know Helmer or Stockmann,
Hialmar Ekdal or Gregors Werle. Then, again, there are one or two
curious flaws in the play. The question whether Oswald's "case" is one
which actually presents itself in the medical books seems to me of very
trifling moment. It is typically true, even if it be not true in detail. The
suddenness of the catastrophe may possibly be exaggerated, its
premonitions and even its essential nature may be misdescribed. On the
other hand, I conceive it, probable that the poet had documents to found
upon, which may be unknown to his critics. I have never taken any
pains to satisfy myself upon the point, which seems to me quite
immaterial. There is not the slightest doubt that the life-history of a
Captain Alving may, and often does, entail upon posterity
consequences quite as tragic as those which ensue in Oswald's case,
and far more wide-spreading. That being so, the artistic justification of
the poet's presentment of the case is certainly not dependent on its
absolute scientific accuracy. The flaws above alluded to are of another
nature. One of them is the prominence given to the fact that the Asylum
is uninsured. No doubt there is some symbolical purport in the
circumstance; but I cannot think that it is either sufficiently clear or
sufficiently important to justify the emphasis thrown upon it at the end
of the second act. Another dubious point is Oswald's argument in the
first act as to the expensiveness of marriage as compared with free
union. Since the parties to free union, as he describes it, accept all the
responsibilities of marriage, and only pretermit the ceremony, the
difference of expense, one would suppose, must be neither more nor
less than the actual marriage fee. I have never seen this remark of
Oswald's adequately explained, either as a matter of economic fact, or
as a trait of character. Another blemish, of somewhat greater moment,
is the inconceivable facility with which, in the third act, Manders
suffers himself to be victimised by Engstrand. All these little things,
taken together, detract, as it seems to me, from the artistic completeness
of the play, and impair its claim to rank as the poet's masterpiece. Even
in prose drama, his greatest and most consummate achievements were
yet to come.
Must we, then, wholly dissent from Björnson's judgment? I think not.

In a historical, if not in an aesthetic, sense, Ghosts may well rank as
Ibsen's greatest work. It was the play which first gave the full measure
of his technical and spiritual originality and daring. It has done far
more than any other of his plays to "move boundary-posts." It has
advanced the frontiers of dramatic art and implanted new ideals, both
technical and intellectual, in the minds of a whole generation of
playwrights. It ranks with Hernani and _La Dame aux Camélias_
among the epoch-making plays of the nineteenth century, while in
point of essential originality it towers above them. We cannot, I think,
get nearer to the truth than Georg Brandes did in the above-quoted
phrase from his first notice of the play, describing it as not, perhaps, the
poet's greatest work, but certainly his noblest deed. In another essay,
Brandes has pointed to it, with equal justice, as marking Ibsen's final
breach with his early-one might almost say his hereditary romanticism.
He here becomes, at last, "the most modern of the moderns." "This, I
am convinced," says the Danish critic, "is his imperishable glory, and
will give lasting life to his works."

GHOSTS (1881)
CHARACTERS.
MRS. HELEN ALVING, widow of Captain Alving, late Chamberlain
to the King. [Note: Chamberlain (Kammerherre) is the only title of
honour now existing in Norway. It is a distinction conferred by the
King on men of wealth and position, and is not hereditary.] OSWALD
ALVING, her son, a painter. PASTOR MANDERS. JACOB
ENGSTRAND, a carpenter. REGINA ENGSTRAND, Mrs. Alving's
maid.
The action takes place at Mrs. Alving's country house, beside one of the
large fjords in Western Norway.
GHOSTS
A FAMILY-DRAMA IN THREE ACTS.

ACT FIRST.
[A spacious garden-room, with one door to the left, and two doors to
the right. In the middle of the room a round table, with chairs about it.
On the table lie books, periodicals, and newspapers. In the foreground
to the left a window, and by it a small