Ghosts PDF - Play by Henrik Ibsen

- - - - - - - - - - - - Act I summary: Regine Engstrand, a young girl in service for Mrs. Alving, appears in the garden. She tries to prevent her father, Jacob Engstrand, from entering. The rain makes the old man even more disreputable looking than usual, and Regine mak...

- - - - - - - - - - - - Act I summary: Regine Engstrand, a young girl in service for Mrs. Alving, appears in the garden. She tries to prevent her father, Jacob Engstrand, from entering. The rain makes the old man even more disreputable looking than usual, and Regine makes it clear she is ashamed of his coarseness and vulgar appearance. Engstrand has come to ask Regine to live with him and work for him in his planned \"seamen\'s home.\" He says he has saved enough money from doing carpentry work on the new orphanage to begin this enterprise and now that she has grown into \"such a fine wench\" she would be a valuable asset. He clearly implies that this seamen\'s home will be a high class brothel. Regine says she has her own plans for the future, especially since Osvald Alving has just returned from his studies in Paris. Pastor Manders enters after Engstrand has left. He talks with Regina about her father. Since Engstrand requires a strong influence to keep him from drinking, Manders suggests that Regine, out of filial duty, return to live with him and be \"the guiding hand\" in her father\'s life. Regina says she would rather seek a place in town as a governess. While the girl goes to fetch Mrs. Alving, Manders peruses some books on the table. He gives a start after reading the title page of one, and with increasing disapproval looks at some others. Cordially and affectionately, Mrs. Alving comes in to greet him. Politely inquiring after Oswald, Manders then asks who reads these books. Shocked to find they are hers, he wonders how such readings could contribute to her feeling of self-reliance, as she puts it, or how they can confirm her own impressions. What is objectionable about the books, she asks. \"I have read quite enough about them to disapprove of them,\" he answers. \"But your own opinion --- \" she pursues. He talks as if to a child: My dear Mrs. Alving, there are many occasions in life when one has to rely on the opinions of others. That is the way in the world, and it is quite right that it should be so. What would become of society otherwise? He now wishes to discuss their mutual business --- the Captain Alving Orphanage --- built by Mrs. Alving in honor of her late husband. Although she has left all the arrangements to Manders, he wants to ask whether they should insure the buildings. To her prompt \"of course,\" he raises objections since the orphanage is dedicated to \"higher causes.\" He points out that his fellow clergymen and their congregations might interpret the insurance to mean \"that neither you nor I had a proper reliance on Divine protection.\" As Mrs. Alving\'s advisor he himself would be the first attacked by \"spiteful persons\" who would publicly slander him. She assures him that under these conditions she would not wish the buildings insured. Speaking of insurance, Mrs. Alving mentions that the building nearly caught fire yesterday from some burning shavings in the carpenter\'s shop. She says she has heard that Engstrand is often careless with matches. Manders makes excuses because the \"poor fellow\" has so many anxieties. \"Heaven be thanked,\" he says, \"I am told he is really making an effort to live a blameless life. Why he assured me so himself.\" Manders thinks it would be best for Engstrand if Regina returned to live with him, but Mrs. Alving\'s firm \"No!\" is definitive. Oswald appears, bearing so much likeness to his dead father that Manders is startled; Mrs. Alving quickly insists that her son takes after her. During their conversation, Oswald shocks the pastor by depicting the fidelity and beauty of family life among the common-law marriages of his fellow painters in Paris. Disapproving of artists in the first place, Manders sputters indignantly at such circles \"where open immorality is rampant.\" He cannot understand how \"the authorities would tolerate such things\" and is even more dismayed when Mrs. Alving later declares that Oswald \"was right in every single word he said.\" In her loneliness, she continues, she has come to the same conclusions as her son, that the married men of good social standing are capable of the greatest acts of immorality. It is his duty to speak now, but not just as a friend, Manders says, \"it is your priest that stands before you just as he once did at the most critical moment of your life.\" He reminds her how she came to him after the first year of marriage, refusing to return to her husband. She softly reminds him that the first year was \"unspeakably unhappy.\" To crave for happiness is simply to be \"possessed by a spirit of revolt,\" he answers. Bound in marriage by a \"sacred bond\" her duty was \"to cleave to the man you had chosen\"; though a husband be profligate, a wife\'s duty is to bear the cross laid upon her shoulders by \"a higher will,\" Manders continues. It was imprudent for her to have sought refuge with him at the time, and he is proud to have had the strength of character to lead her back \"to the path of duty\" and back to her husband. Having defaulted in her wifely duty, she also neglected her duty as a mother, Manders goes on. Because she sent Oswald to boarding schools all his life rather than educating him at home, the child has become a thorough profligate. \"In very truth, Mrs. Alving, you are a guilty mother!\" Manders exhorts. These conclusions are unjust, Mrs. Alving answers, for Manders knew nothing of her life from that moment on. He must know now \"that my husband died just as great a profligate as he had been all his life.\" In fact, she tells him, a disease he contracted from his lifelong excesses caused his death. Manders gropes for a chair. To think that all the years of her wedded life were nothing but \"a hidden abyss of misery\" makes his brain reel. She says that her husband\'s scandalous conduct invaded the walls of this very house for she witnessed Alving\'s approaches to the servant Joanna. \"My husband had his will of that girl,\" Mrs. Alving continues, \"and that intimacy had consequences.\" Only later on does Manders discover that the \"consequences\" are Regina. Mrs. Alving goes on to describe how she sat up with her husband during his drinking bouts, being his companion so he would not leave the house to seek others. She had to listen to his ribald talk and then, with brute force, bring him to bed. She endured all this for Oswald\'s sake, sending him to boarding schools when he was old enough to ask questions. As long as his father was alive, Oswald never set foot in his home. Besides thoughts of her son, she also had her work to sustain her, Mrs. Alving tells Manders. Too besotted to be useful, her husband depended on her to keep him in touch with his work during his lucid intervals. She improved and arranged all his properties, and she is converting his share of the estate into the \"Captain Alving Orphanage.\" By this gesture Mrs. Alving hopes to \"silence all rumors and clear away all doubt\" as to the truth of her husband\'s life. None of his father\'s estate shall pass on to Oswald; \"my son shall have everything from me,\" she states. Grumbling at \"this everlasting rain,\" Oswald returns from his walk. When Regina announces that dinner is ready, Oswald follows her into the dining room to uncork the wines. Meanwhile Manders and Mrs. Alving discuss the dedication ceremony for the opening of the orphanage tomorrow. She regards the occasion as the end of \"this long dreadful comedy.\" After tomorrow she shall feel as if the dead husband had never lived here. Then \"there will be no one else here but my boy and his mother,\" she declares. They hear a quiet scuffle from the next room, then Regina\'s whisper, \"Oswald! Are you mad? Let me go!\" Horror-struck, Mrs. Alving hoarsely whispers to Manders, \"Ghosts." Analysis of Act I: As the first act functions to introduce the characters, the central problem of the play, as well as the essential storyline, the playwright carefully forewarns his audience of the themes he will develop in subsequent acts. In fact, the first scene of a well written drama often presents a complete analogy of the whole play. With this in mind, the author imparts special significance to the order of appearance of his characters. Regina is the first to appear, showing by dress and demeanor that she is a properly reared servant maid. As she talks with her father, the audience recognizes that, though she is of vulgar stock, she has aspirations to gentility. This is shown as she uses her little knowledge of French. Engstrand\'s appearance keynotes the theme of a depraved parent who ensnares his child in his own dissolution, especially as the carpenter asks Regina to join him in his planned enterprise. Implying that she is not his true-born daughter, Ibsen also introduces the theme that children, although unaware of their origins, inherit qualities from their parents. As Regina accuses her father of being able to \"humbug\" the reverend, and later on showing how Manders accepts Engstrand\'s hypocrisy for fact, Ibsen introduces the idea that society recognizes phrase-mongering rather than integrity of thought and action as a standard of moral respectability. Pastor Manders appears next; suggesting that Regina return to live with her father shows how he allies himself with Jacob Engstrand. The respectability and social orthodoxy which he expresses in phrases like \"daughter\'s duty\" rather than defining his principles through thoughtful investigations, show that Manders supports anyone who can\'t agree with his own. After Manders peruses the books, Mrs. Alving enters. The audience senses that she is separated from the pastor by an abyss created by her intellect and experience, as symbolized by the books. Arranged on the table which stands between them, these volumes are in fact their first subject of dissension. One does not have to read them to denounce them, Manders states. He is content to accept the opinions of others. By her answers, Mrs. Alving shows she is no longer satisfied by dogma; she must learn truth through her own experience. Since Manders indicates no ability to learn anything not expressed in pious formulas, we cannot expect his character to change during the drama. Mrs. Alving, on the other hand, welcoming controversy and opposing the results of her experience to what she has always been taught, is fully prepared to face the full impact of events forthcoming in the rest of the play. This quality marks Mrs. Alving as the protagonist of the drama. Having established these intellectual qualities of the mother, Ibsen now brings forth Oswald. As the entire product of Mrs. Alving\'s life, he presents the greatest problem she will confront. This arrangement of character introduction suggests the opposing tensions of the play. Regina, her dead mother, and Engstrand parallel Oswald, his mother, and the dead Mr. Alving. One side represents that part of society whose members have loose morals, aspirations to gentility, and who grab at whatever opportunity for self-betterment they can; the other side represents the best in society, a group whose members are cultured, propertied, and have strong ethics. In the middle, as if he were a fulcrum balancing the extremes, stands Pastor Manders. Already appearing as a moralizing but empty-headed standard of society, denouncing Mrs. Alving\'s intellectual inquiry and supporting Engstrand\'s hypocrisy, the character of Manders allows the audience to foresee the thesis of the drama: that a society which unwittingly destroys individuality and encourages deceit perpetrates disease --- physical as well as emotional --- upon its youthful members. Act I questions: **1. When Regine asks Pastor Manders if she should announce his arrival to Mrs. Alving, he responds, "Thank you, there's no hurry, my dear child" (200). Soon thereafter, however, he abruptly says, "Perhaps you'd be so kind as to fetch Mrs. Alving?" (201). Why do you think his tone suddenly changes?** Pastor Mander\'s tone changes because he feels that Regine should obey her father and live with him, but she\'s begging him for a position in town that he would give her, but she is not gonna stop asking him. During this conversation Regine says that "\...I think I can say I'm both able and willing. Doesn't the pastor know of any such position for me?/But dear, dear pastor- do you think of me at least if-" (201). This quote shows how she was begging him for a job in town so she didn\'t have to move. **2. Why does Manders take offense to the books Mrs. Alving is reading? Find at least one line where he explains his viewpoint & find at least one line where Mrs. Alving defends herself against his view.** Manders takes offense to the books Mrs. Alving is reading because the books are progressive and they are not in line with what the catholic church wants women to be like. A line where Manders explains his viewpoint is when he says "\...and I cannot blame you for wasting to acquaint yourself with intellectual trends which are, by all reports, current out in the wider world..."(203-204). Mrs Alving says "\...there's actually nothing new in these books at all...don\'t want to admit it"(203). **3. Manders accuses Mrs. Alving of neglecting her duties as a wife and as a mother. What does Mrs. Alving explain, which dispels him of his misconceptions? What might Ibsen be saying about human beings' tendency to judge others, including when we do not have accurate information?** Mrs Alving sent her son away because the father was sleeping around and not a good example. She feared this behavior could corrupt her son. From the outside it looks like she just abandoned her son but in reality she thought she was doing what was best for him. Ibsen may be saying that we judge others too quickly without knowing what is actually going on between the four walls of a home. **4. Mrs. Alving tells Manders that her husband "had his way with that girl -- and this relationship had consequences" (218). Do you know what the consequences were?** The consequences were that she could have had a baby, she could have gone and told people about it, also she thought that he was a changed man but he just reverted back into his old habits, ruining their marriage and making him a bad father to Osvald. **5. In the closing scene of this act, how does Osvald mirror his father? Mrs. Alving says, "Ghosts" as the act closes. What does she mean by this?** He mirrors the father by assaulting Regine just how the father assaulted the maid many years ago. She sees it as a reflection of her past and a bad memory, ghosts are seen as haunting and she\'s scared her past is coming back to haunt her and Osvald. Act II summary: The scene is unchanged, but now it has stopped raining and a mist obscures the outside landscape. With dinner finished, Oswald out for a walk, and Regina busy with the laundry, Mrs. Alving and Manders continue their conversation. She tells how she managed to hush up the scandal of Alving\'s conduct by providing Joanna with a handsome dowry and having her respectably married off to Jacob Engstrand. Manders is shocked that the carpenter lied to him by confessing his \"light behavior\" with Joanna and so deceived the pastor to perform the ceremony. How could a man, \"for a paltry seventy pounds\" allow himself to be bound in marriage \"to a fallen woman.\" Mrs. Alving points out that she was married to a \"fallen man,\" but Manders says the two cases are as different as night and day. Yes, his hostess agrees, there was a great difference in the price paid, \"between a paltry seventy pounds and a whole fortune\"; besides, her family arranged the marriage, for she was in love with someone else at the time. To answer her meaningful glance, Manders weakly concludes that at least the match was made \"in complete conformity with law and order.\" I often think that law and order are \"at the bottom of all the misery in the world,\" retorts Mrs. Alving. She regrets her lifelong cowardice. Were she not such a coward in the name of law and order, she says, \"I would have told Oswald all I have told you, from beginning to end.\" Manders points out that she taught her son to idealize his father and as a mother she must feel forbidden to shatter his illusions. \"And what about the truth?\" asks Mrs. Alving. \"What about his ideals?\" responds Manders, underlining Ibsen\'s basic equation that \"ideals\" equal \"lies\". Although Mrs. Alving wishes to quickly find a post for Regina before Oswald gets her in trouble, she regrets her cowardice. To prevent further deceit she should rather encourage the marriage or any other arrangement, she tells the pastor. Manders is shocked that she can suggest a relationship based on incest; as to her so-called cowardice, he denies there was any better way to tell Oswald of his father. By being a coward, Mrs. Alving explains, she succumbs to ghosts: I am frightened and timid because I am obsessed by the presence of ghosts that I never can get rid of... When I heard Regina and Oswald in there it was just like seeing ghosts before my eyes. I am half inclined to think we are all ghosts, Mr. Manders. 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. Whenever I take up a newspaper and read it I fancy I see ghosts creeping between the lines. There must be ghosts all over the world. They must be countless as the grains of the sands, it seems to me. And we are so miserably afraid of the light, all of us. Manders blames these strange ideas on her reading --- this \"subversive, free-thinking literature\" --- but she says her ideas come from suffering what Manders himself praised \"as right and just what my whole soul revolted against as it would against something abominable.\" You think it was wrong for me to entreat you as a wife to return to your lawful husband \"when you came to me half distracted and crying, \"Here I am, take me!\'\" asks the pastor. \"I think it was,\" she answers. Manders declares he can no longer allow a young girl to remain in her house and Regina must go home to her father\'s care. At this moment there is a knock at the door. Engstrand enters, respectfully requesting the reverend to lead \"all of us who have worked so honestly together\" on the orphanage building in some concluding prayers. Closely questioning Engstrand about his marriage and other matters, Manders offers the carpenter a chance to explain what must \"lie so heavy\" on his conscience. The old man makes a fine show of piousness and sensitive feelings as he tells his story. Manders, with tears in his eyes at his flawless life, offers Engstrand a strong handshake of faith and friendship. The pastor, turning to his hostess, asks if she doesn\'t think that we must be \"exceedingly careful\" before \"condemning our fellow men.\" \"What I think is that you are, and always will remain, a big baby, Mr. Manders,\" she answers, and thinks that \"I should like to give you a big hug!\" Hurriedly, the pastor goes out to conduct the prayer meeting. Discovering Oswald in the dining room, Mrs. Alving sits down with him for a chat. Her son complains that, besides being constantly tired, the lack of sunshine prevents him from painting. This is no ordinary fatigue, he tells his mother, but it is part of a sickness a Paris doctor diagnosed for him. He was told he had this \"canker of disease\" since his birth. Oswald continues that \"the old cynic said, \'The sins of the fathers are visited on the children.\'\" To prove that his father lived a dutiful, virtuous life, the boy read some of his mother\'s letters to the doctor. As Mrs. Alving softly repeats, \"The sins of the fathers!\" Oswald confesses of a single instance of \"imprudence\" that must have infected him. He despairs that he threw his life away for a brief pleasure and asks his mother for something to drink to drown \"these gnawing thoughts.\" Regina brings in a lamp and fetches champagne. \"I can\'t go on bearing this agony of mind alone,\" Oswald tells his mother. He would like to take Regina with him and leave home. Because she has \"the joy of life in her\" Regina will be his salvation. \"The joy of life?\" asks Mrs. Alving with a start, \"Is there salvation in that?\" Regina brings more wine and Oswald asks her to fetch a glass for herself. At her mistress\' nod, the girl obeys and takes a seat at the table. Mrs. Alving wants to know more about the \"joy of life.\" People here at home are taught to consider work as a curse and punishment for sin and that life is a state of wretchedness, Oswald explains. No one believes that in Paris, where \"the mere fact of being alive is thought to be a matter for exultant happiness. There is light there and sunshine and a holiday feeling,\" he says. Oswald says he must leave home. If not, \"all these feelings that are so strong in me would degenerate into something ugly here,\" he tells his mother. She regards him steadily for a moment. Now, for the first time, she murmurs, \"I see clearly how it all happened. And now I can speak.\" She is about to tell Oswald and Regina the truth when Manders suddenly enters, cheerful from having spent an \"edifying time\" at the prayer meeting. He says he has decided that Engstrand needs help with the sailors\' home and Regina must go and live with him. \"Regina is going away with me,\" Oswald states, and Manders turns to Mrs. Alving in bewilderment. \"That will not happen either,\" she declares, and despite the pastor\'s pleading, is about to speak openly. At this moment they hear shouting outside and through the conservatory windows they see a red glare. The orphanage is ablaze. \"Mrs. Alving, that fire is a judgment on this house of sin!\" cries Manders. As they all rush out to the orphanage, he is left wringing his hands. \"And no insurance,\" he moans, and then follows them. Analysis of Act II: Formally developing the drama, the second act brings out details and enlarges the action, characterizations and motives which were introduced in the first act. Moreover, the acceleration of events taking place in this scene, their effects heightened by the rich symbolism in Mrs. Alving\'s \"ghosts\" speech, leads the audience to await the final nemesis or judgment that will occur in Act III. More specifically, the purpose of this second part is to focus attention on Oswald and complete the characterizations of the secondary characters. By so doing, the playwright can fully disclose the consequences when individuals live by old beliefs and traditional dogma and then assess the guilt for this crime. Exposing the history of their previous relationship, the conversation between Mrs. Alving and Pastor Manders provides the audience with a completed portrait of the clergyman. First showing Manders\' hypocrisy and self-centeredness, Ibsen sums him up as a \"big baby.\" The dramatist, by allowing Engstrand to recite the humbug story of his virtuous life, fully depicts the moral irresponsibility of the carpenter. With these two characters completely developed, Ibsen may now investigate the problem of Mrs. Alving and dwell on the fruits of her cowardice, Regina and Oswald. Having in common their \"joy of life\" inherited through their father, Regina and Oswald show their youthful innocence by being unaware of their near-incest relationship. When Mrs. Alving discovers that Oswald, like his father before him, feels that this exuberance of life will degenerate in the sanctimonious home atmosphere, she suddenly understands why her husband became a dissipated drunkard. To prevent further deceit, she prepares Oswald and Regina to comprehend the truth of their origins and the nature of their heritage. As she begins to say the words that will raze these old lies of her past life, they discover the orphanage is ablaze. The symbol of hypocrisy and deceit --- a worthy institution to serve society --- is destroyed in the moment of truth. Act II questions: **1. Hypocrisy is a recurring theme in *Ghosts.* How do we see it illustrated in Act II? Is there a specific character who most strongly convey this theme?** Pastor Manders illustrates hypocrisy by condemning Ms Alving for her progressive reading and lies (saying that he does not know the real her anymore due to her beliefs and behavior towards her late husband), but then forgiving Engstrand for lying to him about his plans with Regine. "Yes, most certainly. And I do so with all my heart. Forgive me for misjudging you like this. And if I could show you some sign or other of my sincere regret and goodwill towards you..." (Ibsen 233). **2. Mrs. Alving tells Manders she is cowardly--is she truly a coward? What do you think?** Mrs Alving says she is a coward because she lacked the gall to step up and say something when her husband was treating her badly, saying "I should have never covered up Alving's lifestyle... That's how cowardly I was" (Ibsen 225). We do not consider her a coward because given the way society viewed women at the time, she would have likely been talked down to and told to just deal with it. 3**. As Act II begins, Mrs. Alving explains the truth of the situation with her husband to Manders. Briefly summarize in 1-2 sentences.** Mrs Alving explains to Manders that the maid who her husband had raped got pregnant, and had gotten married to Engstrand, posing her baby with Alving as her baby with Engstrand. She tells Manders the maid had paid Engstrand to lie, claiming she "\...dropped a hint...about how much money she had..." (Ibsen 223). 4\. **Discuss the use of light and dark imagery in this Act. Find at least two examples of where it is talked about or used to enhance the setting/mood/suspense/theme. What is Ibsen saying with this particular imagery?** The use of light and dark imagery in this Act is used as a way to show a shift from a happy and light tone to a saddened and melancholy mood. The first example comes when Mrs. Alving asks her son to take a walk with her, but denies due to the weather. "I thought you'd taken a little walk up the road/In this weather?" (Ibsen 235). The second example is from Osvald explaining how the dull weather affects his ability to work. "In this dull weather? Without a glimmer of sun all day? Oh, this inability to work..." (Ibsen 236). - - - - - - **5. On page 227, Mrs. Alving speaks of ghosts, which is obviously an important passage, since it relates directly to the title of the play. Explain what she is saying.** When Mrs. Alving speaks of ghosts, she means that it is like deja vu, ghosts are like the memories and the old opinions that used to be held about us. Everyone has ghosts and she sees them all the time. These ghosts are really haunting to Mrs. Alving as seen in this quote "They aren't alive in us; but they are lodged in there all the same, and we can never be rid of them"(Ibsen 227). She is saying that ghosts aren\'t real and alive, but it is almost like they are because of how they never go away. **6. What does Engstrand say when Manders tries to dismiss him?** In Act II Pastor Manders is disgusted by the lies told to him by someone who he considered to be a trusted friend, Engstrand. When Engstrand comes over to Mrs. Alving's estate he is bombarded with questions about his conscience and integrity by Manders, resulting in Engstrand to ask ,"In't it right and proper for a man to raise the fallen?" (Ibsen 231). Engstrand says this as a way to justify his actions. Engstrand tries to make Pastor Manders feel guilty for shaming him for "just trying to help the fallen". - - **7. How does Act II end?**\ Act II ends with Mrs. Alving about to tell Osvald that he and Regine are step-siblings but the orphanage goes on fire and they start to run towards the orphanage. This references back to Act I's discussion of whether or not to insure the orphanage when Manders reinforces that decision, saying "And not insured!" (Ibsen 246). Act III summary: The scene still takes place in Mrs. Alving\'s home, but it is night time. By now the fire is out, the entire orphanage burned to the ground. While Mrs. Alving has gone to fetch Oswald, Regina and Manders receive Engstrand. \"God help us all,\" he says piously and clucking sympathetically says that the prayer meeting caused the fire. Whispering that \"Now we\'ve got the old fool, my girl,\" he tells Manders, the only one carrying a candle, that he saw the pastor snuff the light and toss the burning wick among the shavings. The distraught reverend is beside himself. The worst aspect of this matter, he says, will be the attacks and slanderous accusations of the newspapers. By this time Mrs. Alving has returned. She considers the fire merely as a business loss; as to the property and the remaining capital in the bank, Manders may use it as he likes. He thinks he may still turn the estate into \"some useful community enterprise\" and Engstrand is hopeful for his support of the seamen\'s home. Gloomily, Manders answers that he must first await the published results of the inquiry into the cause of the fire. Offering himself as \"an angel of salvation,\" Engstrand says he will himself answer to the charge. Relieved and breathless, Manders eagerly grasps his hand. \"You are one in a thousand,\" he declares. \"You shall have assistance in the matter of your sailors\' home, you may rely upon that.\" United in friendship, Engstrand and Manders prepare to leave together. Announcing to Mrs. Alving that his enterprise shall be called \"The Alving Home,\" the carpenter concludes, \"And if I can carry my own ideas about it, I shall make it worthy of bearing the late Mr. Alving\'s name.\" The double entendre is unmistakable to everyone except Manders. Oswald returns so depressed that Regina is suspicious he may be ill. Mrs. Alving now prepares to tell them both what she started to divulge in the previous scene. What Oswald told her about the joy of life suddenly sheds new light upon everything in her own life, she tells them, for his father, so full of \"irrepressible energy and exuberant spirits\" in his young days \"gave me a holiday feeling just to look at him.\" Then this boy had to settle in a second-rate town which had none of the joy of life to offer him but only dissipations: He had to come out here and live an aimless life; he had only an official post. He had no work worth devoting his whole mind to; he had nothing more than an official routine to attend to. He had not one single companion capable of appreciating what the joy of life meant; nothing but idlers and tipplers --- and so the inevitable happened. What was inevitable, asks Oswald, and his mother answers that he had himself described how he would degenerate at home. \"Do you mean by that Father --- ?\" and she nods: Your poor father never found any outlet for the overmastering joy of life that was in him. And I brought no holiday spirit into his home either. I had been taught about duty and that sort of thing that I believed in so long here. Everything seemed to turn upon duty --- my duty or his duty --- and I am afraid that I made your poor father\'s home unbearable to him, Oswald. Then why did she not write him the truth in her letters, demands the son, and she can only say she never regarded it as something a child should know about. \"Your father was a lost man before ever you were born,\" says Mrs. Alving, and all these years she has kept in mind that Regina \"had as good a right in this house --- as my own boy had.\" To their bewilderment she answers quietly, \"Yes, now you both know.\" \"So Mother was one of that sort too,\" Regina muses. Then she announces her desire to leave them to make good use of her youth before it is wasted. With Oswald sick, she does not wish to spend her life looking after an invalid for \"I have the joy of life in me too, Mrs. Alving.\" From now on she shall make her home in the \"Alving Home.\" Mother and son are alone onstage. \"Let us have a little chat,\" says Oswald beckoning her to sit beside him. Before he divulges the truth about his fatigue and inability to work he warns her she mustn\'t scream. The illness itself is hereditary, he continues, and \"it lies here (touching his forehead) waiting. At any moment, it may break out.\" She stifles a cry. At the time he had a serious attack in Paris, Oswald goes on, the doctor told him he would never recover from another one. The disease is a lingering one --- the doctor likened it to a \"softening of the brain\" --- and it will leave him hopeless as a vegetable. Showing his mother a dozen morphia tablets, Oswald says he needed Regina\'s strength and courage to administer \"this last helping hand.\" Now that Regina is gone, however, his mother must swear that she will give him them herself when it is necessary. Mrs. Alving screams and tries to dash out for the doctor, but Oswald reaches the door first and locks it. \"Have you a mother\'s heart and can bear to see me suffering this unspeakable terror?\" he cries out. Trying to control herself, Mrs. Alving trembles violently. \"Here is my hand on it,\" she says. Outside day is breaking. Oswald is seated quietly in an armchair near the lamp. Cautiously bending over him, Mrs. Alving straightens up, relieved: It has only been a dreadful fancy of yours, Oswald \[she chatters\]... But now you will get some rest, at home with your own mother, my darling boy... There now, the attack is over. You see how easily it passed off... And look, Oswald, what a lovely day we are going to have. Now you will be able to see your home properly. She rises and puts out the lamp. In the sunrise the glaciers and peaks in the distance are bathed in bright morning light. Oswald, with his back toward the window, suddenly speaks. \"Mother give me the sun.\" Regarding him with amazement she quavers, \"What did you say?\" Dully, Oswald repeats, \"The sun --- the sun.\" She screams his name. As before, he only says, \"The sun --- the sun.\" She beats her head with her hands. \"I can\'t bear it! Never!\" she screams. Then, passing her hands over his coat, she searches for the packet of pills. \"Where has he got it? Here!\" Then she cries, \"No, no no! --- Yes! --- No, no!\" Mrs. Alving stares at her son in speechless terror. Oswald remains motionless. \"The sun --- the sun,\" he repeats monotonously, and the curtain falls. Analysis of Act III: As in a Greek tragedy, the protagonist\'s \"tragic flaw\" involves not only himself, but his children, in the consequences of guilt. In this act Mrs. Alving receives the full penalty for her guilt of substituting a sense of duty for the \"joy of life.\" Her submission to ancient social standards destroys the creative mind of her artist son and similarly destroys Regina\'s blooming womanhood. The \"ghosts\" of heredity reappear as Oswald succumbs to syphilitic paresis and as Regina goes to find her future in a brothel. Mrs. Alving can only administer the final stroke --- the mortal dose of morphia --- to complete the destruction of Oswald she had so unwittingly begun. With a dramatic flourish, Ibsen uses the environment as an ironic \"objective correlative\" to underscore the tragedy. As the dawn breaks over a spectacular mountain landscape, Oswald is thrust into the unending darkness of his lingering doom. The long awaited sunshine, so badly needed by Oswald to continue his painting, arrives only to illuminate catastrophe. By the same token, the light of truth has come too late for Mrs. Alving to avoid the consequences of her lifelong deceit. Act III questions: **1. As in *A Doll's House,* the theme of duty recurs throughout this play. How so? Through which particular character(s)?** Through the character of Mrs. Alving we see the theme of duty portrayed in Ghosts. Mrs. Alving believes it is a duty as a mother to shield her son from the disgusting past of his father. Also, the duty of being a mother is shown towards the end of Act III when Mrs. Alving comforts Osvald towards his end, and the audience is left unknown if she ultimately "lent a helping hand" and gave the morphine to her son. "You can depend on it, my darling only boy! I live for nothing else, just for you alone" (Ibsen 257). **2. The subjects of work, vocation, and happiness come up again in this act. What do the characters seem to say about these things?** Both Osvald's sources of work and happiness are stripped from him when becomes ill and is devoid of light because of the consistent rain. Mrs Alving recognizes his need for the sun and the will to live it gives him when she says "Dawn's beginning to break over the mountaintops. And it's going to be a clear day, Osvald! Soon you'll see the sun" (Ibsen 257). Mrs Alvings vocation is taking care of Osvald, she says without him she has no reason to live. The work she picked up to provide some sort of purpose when Osvald is away is the orphanage. **3. How does the orphanage set on fire? What is particularly unfortunate about the fire and Manders's handling of the orphanage's finances?** The orphanage is set on fire when a candle from a prayer service is supposedly left unattended and knocked over. It is likely that Engstrand set the orphanage on fire, as it is referenced earlier in the play, and Engstrand convinces Manders that it is his fault, saying "But there weren\'t nobody but the pastor carrying on with the candles down there" (Ibsen 248). Engstrand takes the blame regardless so Manders thinks he is of virtue. Unfortunately, the orphanage was left uninsured as to appease those who might suspect insuring it means doubt in God. **4. Describe Mrs. Alving as a mother to Osvald, including any thoughts you might have about her psychological and emotional being.** Mrs. Alving is a very protective mother to Osvald, in the beginning of the play we learn that she sent Osvald away to keep him safe from his father and his flaws. When she and Osvald are talking at the end of Act III, he's asking if she would do anything for him and she says "You can depend on it, my darling only boy! I live for nothing else, just for you alone"(Ibsen 257). In this quote we can see that she would do anything for Osvald, she would help him in any way that she could. This quote also suggests that if Mrs. Alving did give Osvald the morphine and he died, she would have no reason to live any longer. **5. Osvald reveals that he is extremely sick from syphilis. How is he suffering? Why does he show his mother the morphine tablets?** Towards the end of Act III, syphilis was beginning to eat at the lining of Osvald's brain, leading to absence seizures, causing him to decline further. Osvald shows his mother to morphine tablets because he does not want to suffer any longer. Osvald wants to take his death into his own hands before syphilis takes complete control of his body. "The disease that I've inherited, it -*\[points to his forehead and adds very quietly\]* it's lodged in here" (Ibsen 258). **6. Why does Regine leave, though Osvald wants her to stay to care for him (more than love and romance, that is)?** Regine leaves even though Osvald wants her to stay because Mrs. Alving revealed that Osvald and her are actually step-siblings. She leaves to go with Pastor Manders on a steamboat and she is going to try to find new joy in her life, but if all else fails she always has her dad's brothel to work at. Osvald wants her to stay because he knows that his mother may not want to help him kill himself, and Regine would help him because she wants to do whatever to help him. When Mrs. Alving asks Osvald why he needs Regine there to help when he already has his mother he says "You? No, Mother, that helping hand you will never give me..."(Ibsen 252). He is saying that she could never go through with helping her own son kill himself. **7. What deal does Engstrand make with Manders, in order to get money for his new hotel for sailors?** Engstrand manipulated Manders into believing the fire he set was Manders fault, but graciously offered to take the blame for the fire in exchange for some money to help fund his "hotel for sailors." Engstrand refers to himself as "\...an angel of deliverance..." (Ibsen 250) and offers to "\...take the blame upon himself..." (Ibsen 250). Manders then offers Engstrand the money, saying "\...you shall be helped too, with your sailors' refuge; on that you can depend" (Ibsen 250). **8. *Ghosts* ends on a sort of cliffhanger--do you think that Mrs. Alving ends up euthanizing Osvald?** Yes, I believe that Mrs. Alving will end up euthanizing Osvald because throughout *Ghosts* she said she would do anything her son wants. She constantly exclaims that her life\'s purpose is to help her son, and I believe that when the time comes to help, she will do it. Also, at the end of the act the stage directions explain that Mrs. Alving searches his chest urgently for the pills and then twists her hands in her hair with terror. This means that the pills would have been administered because they are no longer in her hands. "\...Where does he keep them? \[*Searching his chest urgently*\]\...*She stands a few steps away from him with her hands twisted in her hair and stares at him in speechless horror*" (Ibsen 261). **9. Because this is a piece of classic literature, it is likely significant that the play ends with the sun shining AND that Osvald's final words in the play are "The sun. The sun." Be the English professor and explain how these points might be significant.** Osvald repeating a couple words about the sun and the sun shining at the end of the play suggests truth that had been covered up finally coming to the surface. Throughout the whole play, it had been dark and raining, suggesting secrets being repressed. Some of these secrets are Alving's past, Osvald's illness, and Regine and Osvald being related. Once the final one of these secrets, Osvald planning on assisted suicide, is revealed, the sun finally comes out. This sheds complete light on all truths, which differs from a small light on specific truths, which is what is suggested when only a lamp is brought in. Mrs. Alving further drives this point when she is blabbering in denial, saying "This has all been a terrible figment of your imagination..." (Ibsen 260), going to turn off the lamp. But when the sun rises, the play ends with absolutely no secrets being kept, and no place for them to be kept, as there is no longer any option to hide in the dark. This is reinforced when Osvald suffers another episode from his sickness.