Henrik Ibsen Plot Summaries

Hedda G adequaterCharactersJörgen Tes macrocosm, the h disuseder of a University Fellowship in cultural historyMrs. Hedda Tesman, his married womanMiss Juliane Tesman, his auntMrs. ElvstedMr. Brack, a judgeEjlert LövborgBerte, the Tesmans maidSource: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume VII, Oxford University Press 1966SummaryHedda Tesman is the daughter of the late planetary Gabler, who died with away leaving her anything, She is approaching thirty, and afterward some years of an spry social life she has married Jørgen Tesman, who has a space in the history of art. He has been brought up by his both aunts, Julle and Rina, and is directly hoping for a chair at the University. At the rise of the play Hedda and Jørgen have just returned from a six-month-long h championymoon. Jørgen has spent his time studying and working on records, maculation Hedda, as she confides to their fri abrogate Judge Brack, has been bored on her honeymoon. Although understandably feeling distaste towards her keep up, she has be find pregnant, a incident she has so far concealed from her surroundings. Jørgen is met on arrival by the bad upstarts that he is passing to have to contest for the chair with one of Heddas power admirers, Eilert Løvborg. The latter is know to be a bohemian, gifted but prone to potable too much. In recent years, however, he has lived quietly and soberly, and create verbally two theses inspired by and in collaboration with Thea Elvsted. At the beginning of the play he has arrived in the city, bringing one of the mss with him. Thea, who is deeply in delight with him, has left her husband and followed him. In the bank line of barely two days Hedda stages a figure of speech of happenings with dramatic consequences. She gets Løvborg to go to a stag party at Judge Bracks and get drunk. During the festivities he loses the manuscript of his new book. Jørgen Tesman regards it and gives to Hedda to look after, but Hedda does not tell Løvborg this. Instead, she fire the manuscript and gives him one of her fathers pistols, telling him to shoot himself attractively. Far from this, Løvborg is accidentally shot at a brothel, and Brack, who knows where the pistol came from, uses this knowledge to try to blackmail Hedda into becoming his mistress. Thea and Tesman find close companionship in the work of reconstructing Løvborgs manuscript on the basis of notes Thea has kept. When Hedda realizes that she is in Bracks power and has nothing more than to live for, she shoots herself with the second of the Generals pistols.

RosmersholmCharactersJohannes Rosmer, of Rosmersholm, a cause clergymanRebecca West, resident at RosmersholmKroll, Rosmers brother-in-law, a quash copyUlrik BrendelPeter MordecadesgaardMrs. Helseth, housekeeper at RosmersholmSource: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume VI, Oxford University Press 1960Summary of plotJohannes Rosmer, the owner of Rosmersholm, is the pass away of a long and influential line of clergy, officers and senior well-bred servants. Formerly a vicar, he has resigned from office. Before the blossom forthing of the play, his wife Beate had drowned herself in the m milk-sick-race. She was purpose to have become mentally ill through sorrow at being childless and unable(p) to ensure the continuance of the Rosmer line.

When young, Rosmer was greatly influenced by his tutor Ulrik Brendel, an infidel and an idealist. A young woman, Rebekka West, has gained admittance to Rosmersholm through Beates brother, Kroll. She sees Rosmers potential, and believes she can jockstrap him to realize his dream of creating a world of happy, noble the great unwashed. With away admitting it to himself, Rosmer has fallen in love with Rebekka. His communions with her strongly influence his survey of life, and for a mend he believes himself ready to go off into the world and actively reappearance part in leftfield politics. An open conflict shocks out between him and the conservative headmaster Kroll, who puts every effort into redeeming him from the lapsed souls.

In the course of the play Rosmer discovers that Rebekka has manipulated Beate and tricked her into believing that she, Rebekka, was pregnant by Rosmer. He realizes now that it was this that caused Beate to take her own life, and he is filled with doubt and self-accusation.

Rebekka, in turn, discovers in a confrontation with Kroll that Doctor West; who she thought was her foster father, was actually her father. after(prenominal) this she confesses that she was indirectly the cause of Beates suicide, because she precious to become mistress of Rosmersholm herself. Yet when Rosmer awaits her to marry him she refuses, and the two of them ramble themselves into the mill-race at the like place as Beate.

The Master BuilderCharactersHalvard Solness, master builderMrs. Aline Solness, his wifeDr. Herdal, the family defineKnut Brovik, sometime house decorator, now working for SolnessRagnar Brovik, his son, draughtsmanKaja Fosli, his niece, a book-keeperHilde WangelOther womenPeople in the streetSource: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume VII, Oxford University Press 1966SummaryHalvard Solness is a master builder and self-taught architect who is married to Aline, a woman above his station. Through an intriguing career he has built himself up to be a man of power in his nursing home town, and it is hinted that he founded his advantage on an incident in which his wifes childishness home burn down down to the ground. Aline has never got over the loss of her childhood home and the finale of her newborn twins soon after. late she has also been worried about her husbands mental health, as she confides to their family doctor and friend, Dr. Herdal. Solness has iii employees: Ragnar Brovik, his father Knut Brovik who as a younger man trained Solness in his work and is now an ailing, bitter elder man, and Kaja Fosli, who is engaged to Ragnar but deeply and unhappily in love with Solness. When Solness finds out that Ragnar wants to set up in business on his own, he is un impulsive to help Ragnar, whom he tries to get Kaja to marry, in order to keep them both in his own employment. Solness has an unthought-of visit by a young woman, Hilde Wangel, whom he met ten years earlier at a ceremony to solemnize the completion of the roofing of a church tower he had built in her home town. She tells him that on that occasion he had kissed her and promised to return in ten years time to offer her a kingdom, which she has now come to claim.

Solness has just built a new house, with a high tower, for Aline and himself, and Hilde dares him to climb to the extend of the tower, carrying the celebratory wreath, as he had done in advance, although he is plain triskaidekaphobic of heights. As he reaches the top she waves a neat shawl and calls out in triumph, but the master builder move to his death.

The Lady from the SeaCharactersDr. Wangel, a country doctorMrs. Ellida Wangel, his second wifeBolette and Hilde, his daughters of his first marriageArnholm, a schoolmasterLyngstrandBallestedA strangerYoung people from the townTouristsSummer visitorsSource: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume VII, Oxford University Press 1966SummaryDoctor Wangel is a doctor in a small town on the west strand of Norway. He has two daughters by his first marriage, Bolette and Hilde. later the death of his first wife, he married Ellida, who is much younger than he is. She is the daughter of a lighthouse-keeper, and has grown up where the fjord meets the open sea. Ellida and Wangel had a son who died as a baby. This put an end to their marital relations, and Doctor Wangel fears for his wifes mental health. He has written to Bolettes former tutor, Arnholm, and invited him to come and visit them, in the hope that this will be beneficial to Ellida. provided Arnholm misunderstands, thinking Bolette is waiting for him, and proposes to her. Reluctantly, Bolette agrees to marry her former teacher, seeing it as her only possibility of getting out into the world.

Ten years earlier Ellida had been engaged to a seaman. After murdering a captain he had to escape, but asked her to wait for him to come back and fetch her. She tried in vain to break the engagement. This stranger has great, compelling power over her, and when he returns after all these years to take her away with him, Dr. Wangel realizes that he must give Ellida the freedom to choose between staying with him or going away with the stranger. She chooses to stay with her husband, and the play ends with the stranger leaving, while Ellida and Dr. Wangel take up their life together again.

GhostsMrs. Helene Alving, widow of master copy (and Chamberlain) AlvingOswald Alving, her son, an artistPastor MandersJacob Engstrand, a carpenterRegine Engstrand, in service with Mrs. AlvingSource: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume V, Oxford University Press 1961SummaryMrs. Helene Alving is the widow of Captain Alving, late Court Chamberlain, of Rosenvold ? a man of high take to be in the community. The marriage was an unhappy one for Mrs. Alving, but she did everything in her power to conceal the fact that her husband was an alcoholic who lived a depraved life at the manor.



Alving had a daughter, Regine, by a servant at the house, and a son, Osvald, by his wife. Regine is now Mrs. Alvings servant, while Osvald was sent abroad as a child to encourage him from his home surroundings. Regine thinks she is the daughter of Engstrand, a carpenter who is now finish work on a childrens home to be heart-to-heart the next day in memory of Captain Alving. After this Engstrand wants to take Regine to the neighbouring town to help him start a exoteric house for sailors. Regine and Mrs. Alving are both opposed to this. Regine imagines being able to go to Paris with Osvald, a painter who has come home from Paris in order to be present at the opening of the childrens home.

Manders, a clergyman in charge of the give way of the home, has also come for the opening. When young, Mrs. Alving was in love with Manders and wanted to afford her husband for him, but Manders rejected her and sent her home.

The night before the ceremony the home in memory of Captain Alving burns down. Manders has insisted that the home should not be insured, and now he is afraid for his reputation as a clergyman and financial manager. He comes to a secret agreement with Engstrand, by which the latter takes the rouse for the fire and in return funds for running the home are to be invested in Engstrands projected sailors home in the town.

Osvald tells his mother that he is suffering from syphilis, which he thinks he has undertake as a result of his bohemian life in Paris. He is afraid of becoming a helpless invalid, and hopes that Regine will be willing to help him to take an over-dose of morphine in the last stage of his illness. But when Regine realizes that he is ill, and in fact is her step-brother, she leaves Rosenlund to make her own way in the town. Mrs. Alving tells Osvald of his fathers true nature, and that he has inherited the disease from his father. It is now up to her to decide whether she is willing to help her son by giving him the over-dose of morphine. The play ends as the sun rises and Osvald has succumbed to the last stage of his illness.

A Dolls HouseTorvald Helmer, a lawyerNora, his wifeDr. RankMrs. Kristine LindeNils KrogstadAnne Marie, the nursemaidHelene, the maidThe Helmers three childrenA porterSource: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume V, Oxford University Press 1961Summary of plotNora Helmer is apparently happily married to Torvald, a lawyer who is about to take over the post of manager of the Joint Stock Bank. They have three small children. Nora has a secret to keep, however. Early in their marriage Torvald became seriously ill, and the doctors counsel a stay in a more south climate. Nora had to get hold of the money for the journey in privateness and so borrowed it from Krogstad, a lawyer who had been a fellow-student of Torvalds. As credential for the loan she forged her dying fathers signature. Ever since then she has saved some of the housekeeping money in order to pay back the loan with interest, and she has taken on small jobs to assimilate some money herself. When the play opens, an old friend of Noras, Mrs. Linde, has arrived in town to look for work, and Nora sees to it that Torvald gives her a post at the bank. But this means that Krogstad is dismissed from his post at the bank, and in despondency he goes to Nora and threatens to tell Torvald about the loan and the forgery unless he is allowed to keep his post. Nora is in despair but at the same time convinced that in his love for her, Torvald will hold himself and take full responsibility for what she has done, if he learns the truth. Nora considers asking Dr. Rank, an old friend of the family, for the money, but when he declares his love for her, she finds it impossible to ask him. Torvald finds out what has happened, and reacts with rage and revulsion, without any sign of being willing to accept responsibility for the forgery. Mrs. Linde, who was in love with Krogstad in the past, gets him to budge his mind and withdraw his threats. But Nora has begun to understand that her marriage is not what she thought it was, and in the course of a dramatic conversation with Torvald she decides that her most important and only task is to go out into the world on her own to bring herself up, and she leaves her husband and children.

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