Paper on Henry Ibsen's Play Ghosts
Paper on Henry Ibsen's Play, Ghosts
Ghosts by Henry Ibsen is a play that pokes fun of the society in Norway around the 1880’s; how people are very closed minded and are not open to new ideas. The scene being looked at is about how society holds men up high in comparison to women. Pastor Manders is an example of narrow minded member of society, where as Mrs. Alving is starting to think for herself and not just falling society.
In society the father is the appropriate and only role model for a young boy. A young boy should watch and study his father so that he can strive to be like him. Sending a child away or not surrounding him by his father would be harmful to the child’s growth. Manders disagrees with Mrs. Alving’s decision to send her son away at such a young age; because he feels that “…a child’s proper place must always be his father’s house”. That is why Manders is so delighted when Osvald walks into the room looking like his father with a pipe in hand; because even though he didn’t grow up with his father, Manders can still see Mr. Alving in him. The man of the house seems to always hold the upper hand, the one to be looked up to, no matter what he does.
Men’s tricks and games that are inappropriate are looked at as all in good fun, but if a women ever tried to pull a trick on her son she would be looked down upon. In the scene being looked at Osvald tells the story of the first time he smoked a pipe with his father. When he was a young boy his father took him on his knee and had him smoke his pipe and Osvald sucked in till he was sick and all Mr. Alving did was laugh. While Mrs. Alving helped him back to the nursery. When Osvald asks if his father always played tricks like that, he replies, “When he was young he was full of high spirits…” Manders does not praise Mrs. Alving for taking care of her son, but rather stands up for the man who played a mean trick on his little son. On the other hand, if Mrs. Alving had done what Mr. Alving did, she...