IO Text 1

1. extract

1. extract

Ibsen explores the capacity for family wrongdoings to transcend time and pervade the present in the following extract through firstly, the ability of the past to haunt individuals in the present, and secondly, for past family transgressions to alter the perception of what is deemed truthful. This extract from Act 1 of ‘Ghosts’ is Mrs Alving’s monologue, reflecting on the haunting she feels after hearing Oswald make sexual advancements on Regine the maid, mirroring the proxemics of her husband Captain Alving’s promiscuous advancements in previous years.

2. extract

Mrs Alving is unable to free herself from her familial past which she refers to as ‘ghosts’, a central metaphor throughout the play. In line 2 she states that she ‘can never properly get rid of’ them. Ibsen uses the metaphor of ghosts to evoke a sense of lingering of the past, and its intangible influence that pervades characters’ lives. The inclusion of metaphorical ghosts creates a binary between the tangible and the spiritual, with the supernatural undertone hyperbolising the pervasiveness of this family’s wrongdoings, as it supersedes Mrs Alving’s physical understandings.

3. extract

The motif of ghosts is continued, however adapted to discuss how past actions affect the truth. In lines 10-11, Ibsen uses visual imagery as Mrs Alving reflects on the haunting influence of the past and how it impacts the present perception of truth. She  , ‘I’ve only to pick up a newspaper and I seem to see ghosts gliding between the lines.’ The image of the metaphorical ghosts intertwined with the newspaper, a traditional symbol of truth, is used to comment on how her past will always linger and taint her interpretation of truth in the present.

4. extract

This aversion and obscurity associated with the truth is revealed to be as a consequence of pervading family wrongdoings, as Ibsen concludes with, ‘And here we are, all of us, abysmally afraid of the light.’ This ironic fear of the light, which symbolises truth and clarity, serves to demonstrate to the audience that Mrs Alving possesses an aversion from the truth of her family past, as the shame of her familial transgressions persists in her present consciousness.

5. extract

And so, the extract explores the global issue through the haunting influence of Captain Alving’s actions, but also provides the perspective on how pervasive familial past impacts the present truth.

1. wider body

Focusing now on the wider body of work, Ibsen uses the extended metaphor of ghosts throughout the play to represent past family wrong doings that return to ‘haunt’ the characters and expose hidden truths. The plot follows characters such as Mrs Alving and Oswald attempting to escape these past ‘ghosts’ and start a new life, breaking the cycle of their families’ wrongdoings.

2. wider body

For instance, Mrs. Alving's decision to build an orphanage with Captain Alving's inheritance serves as a symbolic attempt to expunge the ghosts of lies and repressions from her life. Mrs Alving states that, ‘the orphanage was meant as it were to kill any rumours, sweep away any misgivings.’ By trying to link Captain Alving’s memory to this charitable place, Mrs. Alving is seeking to perpetuate the lie of his honour and protect the family's reputation. When a fire ultimately destroys the orphanage, this symbolically represents how one’s past will always remain, no matter what measures are taken to escape it.

3. wider body

Family history can have a corruptive influence, seen in Captain Alving’s wrongdoings prompting Mrs Alving to send her son to boarding school to escape his fathers ‘ghosts’. At the end of Act 1, Mrs Alving reasons that she ‘felt the child would somehow be poisoned by simply breathing the foul air of this polluted house.’ At the time, Oswald, being a child, symbolises an innocence that, in the presence of Captain Alving, will be metaphorically poisoned and corrupted. This shows that regardless of the temporal distance between relatives, their negative influence can be highly pervasive.

4. wider body

This concept of familial corruption develops towards the end of Act 2, as Ibsen uses the biblical repetition of ‘The sins of fathers are visited upon the children’ to portray the sins of Captain Alving reverberating through subsequent generations, exemplifying a cycle of suffering due to his actions.

5. wider body

Therefore, the wider body explores characters trying to escape familial past through symbolic attempts and familial distance, however this is futile as the lies and corruption remain.