Ghost by Henrick Ibsen Essay

Words: 2093
Pages: 9

GHOST Outline Our lives are build out of experiences. Depending on where we live, what we are going through, or our state of mind, we build our personal lives by making some concessions and adjustments in order to cope with others. In the play GHOST by Henrik Ibsen, Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders are two characters whose stories differ because of secrets, misunderstandings, and masquerade.
I. Mrs. Alving's life is full of unbelievable secrets. A. She is the widow of Captain Alving.
B. Mrs. Alving's confession to pastor Manders.
C. Mrs. Alving is honoring he husband's memories by building the orphanage as a memorial to her late husband, who was an honored member of the community.
D. Mrs. Alving's only son chocking revelations.

It would have been considered more of a crime for a woman to object to such actions. Captain Alving was an awful man who was unfaithful throughout. After this revelation, The Pastor asked Mrs. alving "Do you mean that the whole of your married life-all those years with your husband was nothing but a whited sepulchre? " (p50). When her only son named Oswald started revealing his own problem to his mother, she almost crumble under stress, pity, and the fear to lose the only son her belly ever bear. she cries "I can't bear it! I can't bear it...never! Where did he put them? Here! No no no...yes!...No no....". (pg 102). Osvald Alving is an unfortunate character in that he is doomed to living a life based on `the sins of his father'. As a result of Captain Alving's promiscuous ways, Osvald has inherited the genetic sexually transmitted disease syphilis. The play does not actually state that it is syphilis but it is implied. People would not have been educated enough to know about syphilis because it was never spoken of in public and also it was quite uncommon. However, the public would have known enough to know it was `bad' and that there was a stigma associated with the condition. People's sex lives were private in those days and were not on show for the general public. Any mention or implied intention of a sexually transmitted disease would have been considered quite shocking. The fact that Oswald inherited this condition