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The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 04 (of 11) cover

The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 04 (of 11)

Chapter 3: CHARACTERS.
By Henrik Ibsen
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About This Book

A braggart, imaginative young man deserts duty and drifts through episodic adventures that mix folktale fantasy, social satire, and personal reckoning. He pursues illusory successes, consorts with folkloric beings, travels abroad, and repeatedly chooses self-interest over fidelity to family and a devoted woman who remains his moral counterpoint. Encounters range from comic to grotesque and culminate in a metaphysical trial before a mysterious arbiter who threatens to annihilate inessential lives. The drama probes identity, responsibility, and the cost of self-deception while alternating lyric, folkloric scenes with biting commentary on ambition, nationalism, and the possibility of redemption.

PEER GYNT
(1867)

CHARACTERS.

  • Åse,[20] a peasant’s widow.
  • Peer Gynt,[21] her son.
  • Two Old Women with corn-sacks. Aslak, a smith. Wedding Guests. A Kitchen-Master, A Fiddler, ETC.
  • A Man and Wife, newcomers to the district.
  • Solveig and Little Helga, their daughters.
  • The Farmer at Hegstad.
  • Ingrid, his daughter.
  • The Bridegroom and His Parents.
  • Three Sæter-Girls. A Green-Clad Woman.
  • The Old Man of the Dovrë.
  • A Troll-Courtier. Several Others. Troll-Maidens and Troll-Urchins. A Couple of Witches. Brownies, Nixies, Gnomes, ETC.
  • An Ugly Brat. A Voice in the Darkness. Bird-Cries.
  • Kari, a cottar’s wife.
  • Master Cotton, Monsieur Ballon, Herren Von Eberkopf and Trumpeterstråle, gentlemen on their travels. A Thief and A Receiver.
  • Anitra, daughter of a Bedouin chief.
  • Arabs, Female Slaves, Dancing-Girls, ETC.
  • The Memnon-Statue (singing). The Sphinx At Gizeh (muta persona).
  • Professor Begriffenfeldt, Dr. phil., director of the madhouse at Cairo.
  • Huhu, a language-reformer from the coast of Malabar. Hussein, an eastern Minister. A Fellah, with a royal mummy.
  • Several Madmen, with their Keepers.
  • A Norwegian Skipper and His Crew. A Strange Passenger.
  • A Pastor. A Funeral-Party. A Parish-Officer. A Button-Moulder. A Lean Person.

(The action, which opens in the beginning of the present [that is the nineteenth] century, and ends towards our own days [1867], takes place partly in Gudbrandsdale, and on the mountains around it, partly on the coast of Morocco, in the desert of Sahara, in a madhouse at Cairo, at sea, etc.)

Footnotes:

20. Pronounce Oasë. The letter å is pronounced like the o in “home.”

21. Pronounce Pair Günt—the G hard, the y like the German modified ü.

PEER GYNT.