Some Notes on Theme, Character, and Symbol in “Rosmersholm”

Extract

The talent which Ibsen had for arousing controversy among his contemporaries is well known. Beginning with Love's Comedy as early as 1863, and reaching a climax with the challenging cluster of social reform plays A Doll's House, Ghosts, and An Enemy of the People in the years 1879-82, Ibsen's plays fulfilled as no other Scandinavian literature of the day Georg Brandes’ dictum that literature should “put problems into debate.” All literate Scandinavia in the late 1870's and early 1880's may be described as a gigantic debating society, in which people of sharply opposing views on social, political, and religious subjects came to grips with each other. In such discussions Ibsen's plays more often than not provided the point of departure for the clash of opinion.