A Doll's House / Ghosts / An Enemy of the People / The Wild Duck

I had tried reading this collection of Ibsen plays years ago and found myself bored to near literal death. But I returned to it just recently with a, hopefully, more open mind. In a sense I’m glad, but in another it’s just a bit humbling and scarring. Ibsen depicts more or less normal people in his day and age destroyed by their societies values, and adherence to communal norms beyond logic, reason, and all but the most extreme tips of human compassion. And unlike many modern writers who seem to favor the oblique and obscure (wanting to say it all, plus nothing, plus everything else), Ibsen lays it bare with simple (at times too simple) dialogue and stories of real people involved in real small town actions. A warning, these plays show more are not uppers. I read them and was amazed at the ingenuity employed by Ibsen, but also more than a bit downcast afterwards from the too believable depictions of human ignorance and willingness to hide in the mass societal at the cost of compassion, dignity, and sometimes just common sense. show less

Two of my favorite plays ("The Wild Duck" and "An Enemy of the People") and two I've not yet read ("Ghosts" and "A Doll's House") or witnessed as a performance.

Ibsen is one of the great playrights. "An Enemy of the People" is a great tale of a man standing up to his nieghbors on a matter of principle . . . . on an issue of pollution. "The Wild Duck" is a fascinating look at the destruction of the social fabric when the lies that allow people to live in peace are shown to be false.

Going to see Ghosts in a few weeks, so I wanted to refresh my memory of Ibsen. All I really knew was A Doll's House, which was fun to reread. Ghosts seems so melodramatic I'm not sure how it will play. In today's world, congenital syphilis, while horrifying, does not seem as damaging a confession as it was then. The Wild Duck was the most satisfyingly complex of the plays, and I found the plight of the daughter, Hedvig, particularly moving. Ibsen seems to create intelligent women who are ruined by self-satisfied, deluded men (whom they manipulate with quiet skill). Can't wait to see the play.

Feminists have adopted Ibsen as a kindred spirit, and reading these plays, it's hard not to understand why (though there are some things in the introductory essays that seem to miss key aspects of these plays). While many of the things in these plays may seem dated, the struggle for something better is timeless. Ibsen catches despair well; he also struggles with some of life's big questions about truth vs. the comfortable lie, and most of all about the meaninglessness of life.

The four are "Doll's House," "The Wild Duck," "An Enemy of the People," and "Ghosts". All are overt criticisms of the hypocrisy common to the human condition -- for example, the hero of "An Enemy of the People" finds his hometown would rather exile him than spend the money to fix their polluted Baths. They are all excellent plays, although somewhat dated. When they were written, they were partially intended to shock. Although no longer shocking, they are still more than worth picking up. Ibsen writes excellent dialogue, and his skill at using close sets emphasizes the feeling of claustrophobia in his characters. 305 pps
9/10

Four plays that engage the mind and worth rereading.

Ibsen is wonderful.