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sakawara's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
“It is the very mark of the spirit of rebellion to crave for happiness in this life.”
Till now Mrs. Alving has lived a moral live for most part; she had to struggle to live with a husband who constantly cheats on her. She kept his adulteries in secret - even sending her son away to save him. However she didn't do it because it was the right thing to do; she did it to save her reputation. 'A cowardice' she now calls it frankly, when she began to question the very roots of morality.
In fact, as the play progress, she starts seeing her husband, now dead, as a victim of the old morality. "Oh, that perpetual law and order! I often think that is what dies all the mischief in this world of ours." She now comes to believe that her husband was just a man of free spirit who just happened to be in a wrong sort of world; a world where everything that can give one happiness had to be stolen. In fact the only person who ever gained anything from the old established order was an impostor.
You shall be amazed as to how many taboos got questioned in the small play; Ibsen has to be one of most realistic writer I have even seen.
Mr. Alving's actions, though he is now long dead, are not without consequences. His family would have to pay the price:
And these ghosts won't go anywhere. They are there to be; showing their gloomy faces forever:
Till now Mrs. Alving has lived a moral live for most part; she had to struggle to live with a husband who constantly cheats on her. She kept his adulteries in secret - even sending her son away to save him. However she didn't do it because it was the right thing to do; she did it to save her reputation. 'A cowardice' she now calls it frankly, when she began to question the very roots of morality.
In fact, as the play progress, she starts seeing her husband, now dead, as a victim of the old morality. "Oh, that perpetual law and order! I often think that is what dies all the mischief in this world of ours." She now comes to believe that her husband was just a man of free spirit who just happened to be in a wrong sort of world; a world where everything that can give one happiness had to be stolen. In fact the only person who ever gained anything from the old established order was an impostor.
You shall be amazed as to how many taboos got questioned in the small play; Ibsen has to be one of most realistic writer I have even seen.
Mr. Alving's actions, though he is now long dead, are not without consequences. His family would have to pay the price:
“I am half inclined to think we are all ghosts…it is not only what we have inherited from our fathers and mothers that exists again in us, but all sorts of old dead ideas and all kinds of old dead beliefs and things of that kind. They are not actually alive in us; but there they are dormant all the same, and we can never be rid of them.
And these ghosts won't go anywhere. They are there to be; showing their gloomy faces forever:
"And this ceaseless rain! It may go on week after week, for months together. Never to get a glimpse of the sun! I can't recollect ever having seen the sun shine all the times i've been at home.
sirenity's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
katja_konijn's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
organchordsandlightning's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Interesting read! Very sad.
libellum_aphrodite's review against another edition
3.0
I first learned of “Ghosts” from Chesterton’s unabashed displeasure with the play and its author in [b:Heretics|612143|Heretics|G.K. Chesterton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1416873240s/612143.jpg|1884008]. Chesterton proclaims Ibsen's main shortcoming is his incomplete ethical stance: he has no problem exposing evil, but fails to portray goodness.
"Ibsen does not profess to know how how virtue and happiness are brought about, in the sense that he professes to know how our modern sexual tragedies are brought about."
"There is no ideal man of Ibsen."
[Here come the spoilers.] For Acts 1 and 2, Ibsen does appear to hint at a stance on what is good. Mrs. Alving exposes the lies and hypocrisy of the presumably “respectable,” officially married, aristocracy at length. In contrast, Oswald describes the lives of the artists in Paris; despite their “sham-marriages,” they pose a tantalizing picture of love, respect, and happiness that eludes the families with the proper paperwork for their relationship.
But, alas, Ibsen snatches the goodness and joy away in short order in Act 3. The two characters with any hope of salvation from this cycle, Oswald and Regine, both fall as well as their elders. Despite no “reckless living” for Oswald, a brain illness, attributed to “the sins of fathers [being] visited upon the children,” smites him down. His last wish before losing his mind is just that someone please kill him out of mercy instead of having a comatose life. When Regine learns that she is the illegitimate daughter of Mr. Alving, instead of the legitimate daughter of the equally awful Mr. Engstrand, she exclaims, “Still, what the hell …! What difference does it make!” and storms out to work at her false father's new brothel for seamen, a career path she was adamantly against at the play’s opening scene. This felt almost as if Tess of the D’Urbervilles, in all of the messed up revelations and propositions that came her way, had just said “Fuck it. Why not?”
In conclusion, Chesterton nailed it; or, as Scott summed it up, “It’s assholes all the way down.”
"Ibsen does not profess to know how how virtue and happiness are brought about, in the sense that he professes to know how our modern sexual tragedies are brought about."
"There is no ideal man of Ibsen."
[Here come the spoilers.] For Acts 1 and 2, Ibsen does appear to hint at a stance on what is good. Mrs. Alving exposes the lies and hypocrisy of the presumably “respectable,” officially married, aristocracy at length. In contrast, Oswald describes the lives of the artists in Paris; despite their “sham-marriages,” they pose a tantalizing picture of love, respect, and happiness that eludes the families with the proper paperwork for their relationship.
But, alas, Ibsen snatches the goodness and joy away in short order in Act 3. The two characters with any hope of salvation from this cycle, Oswald and Regine, both fall as well as their elders. Despite no “reckless living” for Oswald, a brain illness, attributed to “the sins of fathers [being] visited upon the children,” smites him down. His last wish before losing his mind is just that someone please kill him out of mercy instead of having a comatose life. When Regine learns that she is the illegitimate daughter of Mr. Alving, instead of the legitimate daughter of the equally awful Mr. Engstrand, she exclaims, “Still, what the hell …! What difference does it make!” and storms out to work at her false father's new brothel for seamen, a career path she was adamantly against at the play’s opening scene. This felt almost as if Tess of the D’Urbervilles, in all of the messed up revelations and propositions that came her way, had just said “Fuck it. Why not?”
In conclusion, Chesterton nailed it; or, as Scott summed it up, “It’s assholes all the way down.”
sakshi03's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
jjjada's review against another edition
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
dreamdustwithmybooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25