Ghosts (Danish: Gengangere) is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in Danish and published in 1881,[1] and first staged in 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, US, performed in Danish.[2]
Like many of Ibsen's plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th-century morality. Because of its subject matter, which includes religion, venereal disease, incest, and euthanasia,[3] it immediately generated strong controversy and negative criticism.
Since then, the play has come to be considered a "great play"[4] that historically holds a position of "immense importance".[5] Theater critic Maurice Valency wrote in 1963, "From the standpoint of modern tragedy Ghosts strikes off in a new direction.... Regular tragedy dealt mainly with the unhappy consequences of breaking the moral code. Ghosts, on the contrary, deals with the consequences of not breaking it."[6]
Ibsen disliked the English translator William Archer's use of the word "Ghosts" as the play's title, as the Danish or Norwegian Gengangere would be more accurately translated as "The Revenants",[7] which literally means "The Ones Who Return".
