Ghosts

Significance of the title "Ghosts" by Ibsen?

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In every Ibsenian drama, society is a dead institution and is no longer relevant to the quotidian. This is why the play has been entitled ‘Ghosts’. It is the society, its dead customs, and its morals that act as ghosts, haunting and terrifying people. Helen Alving told Pastor Manders that she saw ghosts while listening to the conversation between Osvald and Regina. These ghosts are nothing but the “old, long dead ideas, all kinds of old, long dead beliefs” that “cling” to everyone. The title of the play reinforces the main theme of the play: the clash between moral courage and convention. The past of the characters haunts their present in the form of “ghosts” to plague them and keep them away from the joy of living.

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