What is the significance of the title of Ibsen's Ghosts?
Norwegian playwright, Henrick
Ibsen’s play Ghosts is ah highly controversial play and the title can be
interpreted with multiple layers of meaning. The supreme significance of the
title can be attributed to the worn ideals and principles of law and order so
misapplied that they have no actual significance. Deception is one of the major themes of this play. Different
characters in the story conceal truths and keep secrets from each other,
resulting in a long-term effect of lying as the central theme in the plot.
All most all
characters are manifested by ghosts that they are unable to control. There are five
living characters in Ibsen’s Ghosts. Mrs Alving, a widow, and the play’s
protagonist; Osvald, her son; Pastor Manders, her denied love; Regina, the maid
and half-sister of Osvald; and Engstrand, Regina’s supposed father. Regina’s
true father is Captain Alving. Both Captain Alving and Regina’s mother Johanna
are dead, yet both are accountable for the unfolding tragedy. They are instances of the ghosts.
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 infidelity through benign acts which are again ghosts of empty social standards.
She is well acquainted with the immoral nature of her husband. But instead of
courageously facing the truth, she opts to cover her husband's licentiousness.
The second meaning is
applied to those ghosts who are the sins of the past, firmly rooted into the
present and haunting the future. An ancient axiom goes like this "Every
family has a skeleton in its cupboard". Thus every family has its own
secrets of the past which if unearthed will dishevel the future. The major
characters namely Mrs. Alving, Oswald and Regina are subjected to the sins of
the past and the ghostly imagery is of the late Mr. Alving.
The spectre which
haunts Mrs. Alving is of the infidelity and bad character of her husband. She
is forever traumatized by the indecent actions of her husband. Therefore, she
starts seeing the ghost of her husband's vices in other people. When she views
Engstrand a drunkard, she immediately associates it with an avatar of her
husband who too was a drunkard. After witnessing Oswald and Regina in a near
incestuous relation, the ghost of her husband's past start haunting her. This
ghostly imagery of the past was the seduction of the maid Johanna by Captain
Alving.
Oswald is the next
recipient who too, is haunted by his father's past and by the "legacy"
his father bestowed upon him. He represents the doomed product of a diseased
society. As the old doctor rightly says, "the sins of the father visited
the son", Oswald has become the recipient of genetic syphilis. Due to such
grave illness he has become a "living vegetable", incapacitated and
enfeebled. He is forever displayed in a sickly manner unable to live a youthful
life. His only joy of life is her paramour Regina who upon learning the
truth leaves him to a life of prostitution.
Regina is the last
receiver of Captain Alving's illicit sexual life. She is the daughter born out
of the illicit union of the captain and his housemaid Johanna. The housemaid is
later married to Engstrand in order to save Alving's reputation which eternally
devastates the legitimate right of Regina as the daughter of the house. She is
forced to live a penurious life under a carpenter's name and become the nurse
of her half-brother. The obfuscation of events leads to her unknowingly make
her half-brother her lover and ultimately turning to prostitution.
The final
interpretation of the title is through the dwindling character of Oswald.
Nothing is permanent and thus like Oswald, we ourselves are ghosts, just
waiting for our deaths. He knows he is going to die, and waiting for death
makes him a lunatic wheedling for euthanasia. He repeatedly pleads in front of
his mother to emancipate him so that he can embrace the sun. Thus, the sun is
the symbol of inevitable truth which reflects the evanescent nature of life and
that we all have to die one day. On the other hand, the sun is also a symbol of
hope which Oswald yearns. He is hopeful that in the next life he will truly be
blessed like an artist exploring the bounties of God freely and ultimately
attaining "the joy of his life".
Reference:
https://www.writing.com/
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