
Ghosts
by Henrik Ibsen
'Ghosts ' Summary
Helen Alving is about to dedicate an orphanage she has built in memory of her late husband. Despite his affairs, Mrs. Alving stayed with him to protect her son Oswald from the taint of scandal and for fear of being shunned by the community.
In the course of the play, she discovers that Oswald (whom she had sent away to avoid his being corrupted by his father) is suffering from syphilis that she believes he inherited from his father. She also discovers that Oswald has fallen in love with her maid Regina Engstrand, who is revealed to be the illegitimate daughter of Captain Alving and is therefore Oswald's half-sister.
A sub-plot involves a carpenter, Jacob Engstrand, who married Regina's mother when she was already pregnant. He regards Regina as his own daughter. He is unaware, or pretends to be, that Captain Alving was Regina's father. Having recently completed his work building Mrs. Alving's orphanage, Engstrand announces his ambition to open a hostel for seafarers. He tries to persuade Regina to leave Mrs. Alving and help him run the hostel, but she refuses. The night before the orphanage is due to open, Engstrand asks Pastor Manders to hold a prayer-meeting there. Later that night, the orphanage burns down. Earlier, Manders had persuaded Mrs. Alving not to insure the orphanage, as to do so would imply a lack of faith in divine providence. Engstrand says the blaze was caused by Manders' carelessness with a candle and offers to take the blame, which Manders readily accepts. Manders in turn offers to support Engstrand's hostel.
When Regina and Oswald's sibling relationship is exposed, Regina departs, leaving Oswald in anguish. He asks his mother to help him avoid the late stages of syphilis with a fatal morphine overdose. She agrees, but only if it becomes necessary. The play concludes with Mrs. Alving having to confront the decision of whether or not to euthanize her son in accordance with his wishes.
Book Details
Authors

Henrik Ibsen
Norway
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influentia...
Books by Henrik IbsenDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
Related books

Rejected Of Men; A Story Of Today by Howard Pyle
This novel reimagines the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in early 20th-century America. The story is narrated from the perspective of an outsider...

House In Town by Susan Warner
Published in 1862, "House in Town" is a novel set in the mid-19th century, focusing on the lives of the Carrol family in New England. The story revol...

Portrait de Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Le Portrait de Dorian Gray est une œuvre littéraire emblématique d'Oscar Wilde. L'histoire suit Dorian Gray, un homme d'une beauté extraordinaire qui...

pasiones del joven Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Las pasiones del joven Werther es una novela epistolar que narra la historia de Werther, un joven artista profundamente sensible que se enamora de Cha...

Probable Sons by Amy Le Feuvre
Little Milly is left an orphan after the death of her mother and sent to live with her bachelor uncle, who has no use for children, especially of the...

Silent Battle by George Gibbs
In 'Silent Battle,' lawyer Tom Gallatin, struggling with alcoholism, embarks on a solitary hunting trip in the Canadian wilderness seeking redemption....

Treny - Laments by Jan Kochanowski
The *Treny* (Lamentations) by Jan Kochanowski are a poignant series of nineteen poems that capture the profound sorrow and reflection of a father grie...

Indiana by George Sand
Indiana, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage, longs for a life of freedom and self-determination. Bound to a wealthy but uncaring older husba...

Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen
Rosmersholm is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in Danish—the common written language of Denmark and Norway at the time—and origina...
Reviews for Ghosts
No reviews posted or approved, yet...