that her life today is now crumbling before her eyes. She herself has done nothing wrong, but Captain Alving's philandering has caused their son, Oswald, to develop syphilis which might one day kill him. The sins of the father have been passed on to the son. Furthermore, because his philandering was able to continue unchecked, Oswald finds himself in the terrible situation of having fallen in love with his own half-sibling, Regina, who is Helen's maid.

The orphanage Helen Alving is building is an example of very performative social responsibility. It appears that Helen is trying to help children and doing so in the memory of her husband, but in reality, the orphanage is simply another attempt to fix what Captain Alving has broken, though Helen does not admit this to anyone else. She is building the orphanage in order to use up Alving's money, and Ibsen makes clear in the play that this performative social responsibility is folly when he has the orphanage burn down at the end. The orphanage was not insured because of a fear that this would suggest a lack of faith in God—again, performative morality. But as the symbol of Helen's social responsibility is destroyed, so too is the facade as a whole, and Helen is left with her syphilitic child, who asks his mother to kill him if necessary.