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    Symbolism in "Ghosts" by Ibsen

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    Sabyasachi Mukherjee
    Ibsen uses symbolism throughout "Ghosts" to enhance the themes and characters. The weather is dismally dark, representing the darkness of the family's secrets. Oswald pleads for sunlight, symbolic of his desire to know the truth about his father. When Mrs. Alving reveals the truth, the sun comes out, lifting the darkness. Mrs. Alving had also tried to honor her husband through an orphanage, perpetuating the lie about his character, but a fire destroys the orphanage, symbolically cleansing the family of deceit. Both Engstrand and Oswald are symbolic characters that comment on society. The play is filled with the ghostly

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    Symbolism in "Ghosts" by Ibsen

    Uploaded by

    Sabyasachi Mukherjee
    1K views2 pages
    Ibsen uses symbolism throughout "Ghosts" to enhance the themes and characters. The weather is dismally dark, representing the darkness of the family's secrets. Oswald pleads for sunlight, symbolic of his desire to know the truth about his father. When Mrs. Alving reveals the truth, the sun comes out, lifting the darkness. Mrs. Alving had also tried to honor her husband through an orphanage, perpetuating the lie about his character, but a fire destroys the orphanage, symbolically cleansing the family of deceit. Both Engstrand and Oswald are symbolic characters that comment on society. The play is filled with the ghostly

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    Ibsen uses symbolism throughout "Ghosts" to enhance the themes and characters. The weather is dismally dark, representing the darkness of the family's secrets. Oswald pleads for sunlight, symbolic of his desire to know the truth about his father. When Mrs. Alving reveals the truth, the sun comes out, lifting the darkness. Mrs. Alving had also tried to honor her husband through an orphanage, perpetuating the lie about his character, but a fire destroys the orphanage, symbolically cleansing the family of deceit. Both Engstrand and Oswald are symbolic characters that comment on society. The play is filled with the ghostly

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views2 pages

    Symbolism in "Ghosts" by Ibsen

    Uploaded by

    Sabyasachi Mukherjee
    Ibsen uses symbolism throughout "Ghosts" to enhance the themes and characters. The weather is dismally dark, representing the darkness of the family's secrets. Oswald pleads for sunlight, symbolic of his desire to know the truth about his father. When Mrs. Alving reveals the truth, the sun comes out, lifting the darkness. Mrs. Alving had also tried to honor her husband through an orphanage, perpetuating the lie about his character, but a fire destroys the orphanage, symbolically cleansing the family of deceit. Both Engstrand and Oswald are symbolic characters that comment on society. The play is filled with the ghostly

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Symbolism in "Ghosts" by Ibsen

    Ibsen's poetic ability enables him to enrich the prose plays with symbols that have broad as well as
    narrow meanings. Especially allusive is Ibsen's concept of light and darkness. Oswald's last plea for the
    sun, for instance, sums up his need for the "joy of life" in himself as well as in his work. He needs
    sunlight in which to paint and he needs illumination on the nature of his father. A pall hangs over the
    entire landscape of the play; if there is no rain at the moment, the scene outside the window is obscured
    by mist. The weather finally clears when Mrs. Alving faces the truth, but it is too late. Thrust into
    darkness, Oswald weakly cries out for the sun. His last monosyllabic plea has a twofold significance: not
    only symbolizing the "light of truth," it might stand for the morphia powders which would dispel the
    lingering darkness that enshrouds Oswald's diseased mind.

    Henrik Ibsen's play "Ghosts" does not include literal ghosts. Instead, the play is riddled with the figurative
    ghosts of the past. Helen Alving is planning to dedicate an orphanage in the memory of her dead husband.
    Meanwhile, her son comes home from traveling abroad in Europe, and family secrets are revealed. Ghosts
    and other symbols are used throughout the play to enhance the characterizations and add another layer of
    meaning to the text.

    The weather is dismal throughout the majority of the play. The clouds and rain create a darkness that is
    symbolic of the darkness that the family has lived in by being shrouded in secrets. Oswald appears the
    most affected, and he pleads for sunlight, which he calls "the joy of life." This is symbolic of Oswald's
    need to know the truth about his father, whose mistakes are repeating themselves in Oswald's life. When
    Mrs. Alving finally tells him the full story, the sun comes out, cutting through the darkness. In the same
    way, the truth frees them of the burden of their secrets.

    Mrs. Alving is helping to open an orphanage in her husband's honor. Doing so would compound her lie
    since the orphanage is associated with innocence, while her husband was a drunk and a philanderer who
    died after contracting syphilis. By trying to link his memory to this charitable place, Mrs. Alving is
    seeking to perpetuate the lie of his honor and protect the family's reputation. When the fire destroys the
    orphanage, it also symbolically destroys the illusions that the family has created. The fire is a purifying
    symbol. When Mrs. Alving tells the truth, she cleanses the family of its deceit.

    Both Engstrand and Oswald are symbols in the play. Engstrand may be a crippled man, but he has a
    strong ethical foundation. He is a symbol of society, which includes some unscrupulous elements -- such
    as people like Mr. Alving -- but that overall has a strong sense of morality. Meanwhile, Oswald is a
    symbol of what can happen when society does not adjust its strict moral codes to changing times. The
    pastor chastises Oswald for living out of wedlock, but Mrs. Alving reflects that allowing such
    arrangements could prevent men like her husband from falling from grace. Eventually, Oswald succumbs
    to the same disease as his father.

    The play includes multiple symbolic ghosts. The ghost of Mr. Alving is ever present, as his wife
    continues to try to protect her family from his lecherous legacy. Oswald also tries to overcome Mr.
    Alving's ghost, but he finally lets the ghost embody him as he also becomes an alcoholic and a
    philanderer. Ghosts in the play also include outdated social mores and ideals, such as the idea that men
    and women can't live together outside of marriage.

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