Analysis of modern drama

Ghosts

Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts as the Prototypical Modern Drama

Henrik Ibsen is considered the father of modern drama for several reasons. He was not the first playwright to include contemporary political and social commentary in his plays, nor was he the first dramatist to focus on family issues. Ibsen, though, was the first major playwright to examine political and social issues and the private lives of otherwise ordinary individuals from a psychological viewpoint, and the first to view these things as worthy of drama in and of themselves. His combination of these factors in his plays such as a Doll's House and Hedda Gabbler represented a major departure form traditional forms of drama, and the scrutiny and honesty with which he dealt with these subjects lead to his frequent censorship.

One of his earliest and most controversial plays was Ghosts, which concerns, among other things, issues of infidelity, incest, and sexually transmitted diseases (most likely syphilis, though it is never mentioned by name in the play). The plot of this play is quite noticeably different form traditional drama mainly in the fact that its plot is, according to the traditional criteria, virtually nonexistent. Not a whole lot actually happens in the play; the orphanage burning down at the end is the only real "event" to speak of. Instead, Ibsen creates a situation and examines how the different characters involved in and affected by this situation deal with their troubles, and with each other. This makes it one of the first psychological dramas; the conflict and resolution are not dependent on external factors (again, excepting the orphanage burning down), but rather is driven by the internal motives and desires of the characters.

The characters themselves are also a large step removed from most characters in earlier dramas. In Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies, especially, the lines between good and evil are usually very clear Even in a play like Othello, where the title character is generally good but commits a heinous act out of jealous, it is quite clear that are sympathies are meant to align with him, his wronged wife Desdemona, and Cassio (to a degree), while Iago is to be purely reviled. Ibsen did not see the world in Black and white, nor did he present it as such. The characters of Ghosts are all flawed, making selfish and rash decisions out of poor motives, and yet at the same time they are all victims to one degree or another, not fully responsible for creating the situation they find themselves in, or necessarily capable of dealing with it.

There are also several social issues at work in Ghosts. One of the most prominent is the issues of infidelity and the sanctity of marriage. The Pastor in the play admonishes Mrs. Alving for her one-time decision to leave her husband, and hse ultimately stays with him out of fear of what the community would think of her were she to leave. Mr. Alving's many affairs on the other hand, including with their maid (resulting in Regina's birth), though not exactly condoned by society are not frowned upon as much as Mrs. Alving's leaving. This hypocrisy forms one of the central conflicts of the play, and is also one of the major sources of controversy.

Another issue that is raised in the play is inheritance. Mrs. Alving is building the orphanage at least in part so that no one, especially her son, can benefit from the fortune that her husband made. She considers everything that Mr. Alving ever touched to be corrupt, and therefore corruptive for others. She sent her son to live abroad so that he would not be exposed to his father's debauchery, but he seems to exhibit many of the same negative qualities that Mrs. Alving hated so much in her husband. The inheritance would have been yet one more thing passed from father to son that would have continued to corrupt the family. When Regina learns that she is actually Mr. Alving's daughter, she becomes determined to collect some share of the inheritance as well. Her ambition is seen throughout the play, suggesting that the character of her biological father passed on even without her knowing who he was, but her desire for the inheritance is the final an ultimate gesture of her greedy and corrupt nature.

These elements all make Ibsen radical by suggesting that the generally accepted decent nature of high society and the traditional markers of success can actually be evil and corruptive.