Ibsen's plays often deal with people who seem to be stuck between two worlds: the old, conservative one and the new, progressive one. Like his play Ghosts, Rosmersholm tries to explore the feelings of those who yearn for freedom but find themselves bound to old traditions and duties. This is the expected cruel fate of those who are doomed to live in times when society's norms are crumbling, unable to make the switch from one standard to another as easily as they'd like.

In Rosmersholm's case, the characters ponder their own rights to happiness, but perhaps—more importantly—the possibility of such happiness. Both Johannes Rosmer and Rebecca West make valiant efforts to yank themselves free of life's expectations, but they ultimately fail—or possibly succeed, whichever way the reader chooses to interpret the last few pages of the play. The one thing they find to be absolutely insurmountable is the problem of a clean, carefree conscience. Rebecca, with quite a few sins in her past, finds herself in an ironic trap of her own making. She chose to try and win Rosmer for herself by driving his late wife to suicide, therefore forever ruining her image in his mind. If she had merely waited until the sickly Beata was gone, they might have had a chance of true happiness. Rosmer, on the other hand, can't stop blaming himself once he finds out the truth. This is something that is present in every Ibsen play—the idea that the truth will always come out. Like the metaphorical symbol of Ghosts, this play also deals with the past never really leaving the living alone. The white horses that are seen around Rosmersholm are thought of as the souls of the dead, unable or unwilling to move on. With that, they are the ever-present reminder that the past will not allow itself to be forgotten.

Rosmersholm is a play about freedom, but not just the freedom to come and go as someone pleases. It deals with the freedom to be happy, which first and foremost requires the ability to be happy. Rebecca and Rosmer only achieve that at the very end. Until then, despite the play giving the impression that society forces them to act in certain ways and according to certain expectations, they stand entirely in their own way. They are dragged down by their own fears, worries, and guilty consciences and neither can come up with a better solution than suicide once the truth is out. In that regard, Rosmersholm the place is thought to be responsible. It is a place where children don't cry and adults don't laugh. It's a cold, dark, and humorless prison of the free spirit, and while both main characters know that, they can't break free from it. Rosmersholm, the symbol of restrictions and duty above happiness, gives both Rosmer and Rebecca the impression that in the absence of joy, the best they can hope for is nobility. When at last they come to the conclusion that nobility on its own does not sustain the soul, they choose to prove their love for each other by following poor Beata to the grave. They go "with joy" at last.