Feb 8, 2025
The new cast of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" – Hamish Linklater, Billy Crudup, Lily Rabe, Ella Beatty and Levon Hawke photographed by Pari Dukovic for The New Yorker
seen from Malaysia
seen from Spain
seen from Italy
seen from China
seen from Australia
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from Japan
seen from Spain
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Spain
seen from Armenia
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
The new cast of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" – Hamish Linklater, Billy Crudup, Lily Rabe, Ella Beatty and Levon Hawke photographed by Pari Dukovic for The New Yorker
"Oh, those horrible, revolutionary, freethinking books!"
Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts
“The most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom are the majority!” – Art of Quotation “The most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom are the majority!” Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian, playwright, from “An Enemy of the People” via “The most dangerous enemies of truth and freedom are the majority!” – Art of Quotation
Some reviews of the play Ghosts by Henrick Ibsen:
"Ninety-seven percent of the people who go to see Ghosts are nasty-minded people who find the discussion of nasty subjects to their taste, in exact proportion to their nastiness" – ''Sporting and Dramatic News''
"Ugly, nasty, discordant, and downright dull.... A gloomy sort of ghoul, bent on groping for horrors by night, and blinking like a stupid old owl when the warm sunlight of the best of life dances into his wrinkled eyes" – ''Gentlewoman''
"Lugubrious diagnosis of sordid impropriety.... Characters are prigs, pedants and profligates.... Morbid caricatures.... Maunderings of nookshotten Norwegians" – ''Black and White''
"Ibsen's positively abominable play entitled Ghosts.... An open drain: a loathsome sore unbandaged; a dirty act done publicly.... Gross, almost putrid indecorum.... Literary carrion.... Crapulous stuff" – ''The Daily Telegraph''
"The socialistic and the sexless.... The unwomanly women, the unsexed females, the whole army of unprepossessing cranks in petticoats.... Educated and muck-ferreting dogs.... Effeminate men and male women..... They all of them–men and women alike–know that they are doing not only a nasty but an illegal thing.... The Lord Chamberlain [the censor] left them alone to wallow in Ghosts.... Outside a silly clique, there is not the slightest interest in the Scandinavian humbug or all his works.... A wave of human folly" – ''Truth''
Someday, I hope to write something that gets this kind of reception.
Owl by Arthur Rackham, from Ibsen's Peer Gynt.
To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul. To write is to sit in judgement on oneself.
Peer Gynt, Henrik Johan Ibsen
More Than a Barbie
Nora lived a fantasy life with no real concept of reality. Without a grasp of how the real world works, she has nothing substantial within herself to keep her grounded as she went through her crisis. “Yes, take care of me, Torvald, please!”(Ibsen, 893) She completely panicked, and her resolve began to crumble. In her mind she was trying to keep Torvald from getting to that letter, but in her subconscious she was pleading with Torvald to take care of her no matter what happens next. He built her fantasy, so she needs him to keep her grounded instead of relying on herself. It is not completely her fault that she needs her husband to tell her who she is. It is the way their society was built. Men were to have control over everything, and women were to stand by and accept it. Because of this, she had to keep it a secret from Torvald that she borrowed the money to keep him healthy. “… Torvald, with all his masculine pride- how painfully humiliating for him if he ever found out he was in debt to me. That would just ruin our relationship.” (Ibsen, 867) Their relationship was structured to make sure that the Torvald was always happy. No real marriage is centered on one person. A marriage is a partnership not the camouflaged dictatorship that was Nora and Torvald’s relationship, and she can’t be a partner until she has an identity of her own.
Nora was completely dependent on her husband for everything, and she cannot make any major decisions without his consent. However, most of the time, he patronizes her. He’s trying to keep her perfect and doll-like. “In Nora’s scene with Torvald she is just like an ornament, admired for the delicacy and pleasure it brings, but which ultimately is not taken seriously.” (Fordp, 157) He defined her life; without him, she is nothing. This made the idea of losing him so terrifying to her because he is her life. She was so blinded by her need of him, that she did not realize how much she didn’t need him. It wasn’t until she found out his true feelings about what she did that she begins to see what he’s done to her. “You arranged everything to your own taste, and so I got the same taste as you….You are to blame that nothing’s become of me.”(Ibsen, 907) She saw through the sham that was their marriage, and realized how one-sided their relationship was. She did things because he wanted her to do them not because she wanted to do them, and when she had a thought of her own she was reprimanded. A marriage is a compromise between two people, and it can’t be a compromise when only one person is allowed to do the thinking. Nora’s decision to leave was founded because you cannot marry someone else until you know yourself.
Nora made the hard decision to leave her family, but she made that decision with herself in mind. It was a selfish; however, she needed to find herself. No one should be forced to live in a society where his or her thoughts aren’t allowed to be heard. People need to develop a sense of who they are based upon their own thoughts and feelings not because someone else tells them what to do. It robs them of their individuality, that one thing that makes everyone unique, and the differences in how people think is what makes the world beautiful.
Works Cited
Ford , Karen. "Social Constraints and Painful Growth in a Doll's House." Screen Education (2005). EBSCOhost.
Web.<http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=url&db=z0h&AN=16363588&site=ehost-live>.
Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." Making Literature Matter. Comp. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's , 2009. Print.
Im fucking disappointed there isn't a fuck-yeah-henrick-isben tumblr. He's the tits.
Me