Illustration of a woman sitting on a couch with a man laying on the couch horizontally with his head on her lap

Ghosts

by Henrik Ibsen

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Ghosts Questions and Answers

What is the significance of the title of Ibsen's Ghosts?

Realism, symbolism, and ritualism are Ibsen's main dramatic elements in Ghosts. Discuss and elaborate.

What do you understand by "joy of life" in Ghosts?

Comment on the representation of women in Ghosts by Ibsen. 

What role do the ghosts play in Ibsen's "Ghosts"?

What is the metaphorical significance of Oswald's shouting, "the sun --the sun" in the last part of the play?

Analyse Ibsen's Ghosts as a critique of the nineteenth-century obsession with maintaining a facade of social responsibility.

Describe the theme of despair in Ibsen's "Ghosts"?

How are Ibsen's characters victims of society's expectations in Ghosts?

In "Ghosts," what secrets is Mrs. Alving keeping from Oswald and Regina?

In Ghosts, how can we analyze Mrs. Alving's character from  a feministic view?

In Ghosts, is Oswald a sympathetic or flawed character?

Discuss how Pastor Mander's traits and behaviours in Ghosts affect other characters in the play and how his character and actions relate to Templeton's quote, "the nastiness slowly forcing its way up through the tight bourgeois rigor of Mrs. Alving's parlor makes a mockery of her endless efficiency."

The Theatre of the Absurd does not engage with social experience.  Discuss. Please answer it with reference to Ibsen's Ghosts.

In Ibsen’s Ghosts, Mrs. Alving said, “Oh, law and order! I often think it is that that is at the bottom of all the misery in the world.” What’s your understanding of this sentence according to her life experience? Support yourself with concrete textual evidence.

In Ghosts, comment on the standards that haunt contemporary society and frustrate the "joy of life."  

In Ghosts, how does Ibsen reveal past events that are necessary to understand the present?

In Ghosts, to what extent does the 'ghostly past' dictate present action?

Explain how Oswald suffers as the result of Mrs. Alving's hidden truths in Ghosts. What effects does this have?

What does each of the characters symbolize/represent in the play?

In Henrik Ibsen's play, Ghosts, what are the characteristics of the relationship between mother and son?

How are the social and scientific theories that underpin naturalistic drama expressed in Ibsen's Ghosts?