Spectres of duty. Silence in Ibsen's Ghosts

Abstract

The article considers Ibsen's Ghosts through the figure of duty. The two main characters embody different notions of duty. Pastor Manders's position is a religious one and Mrs Alving's a political one, but neither can stand on its own. They both infringe upon, and contaminate, each other. This process of self-contamination, which silence sets in motion, leads to an alternative understanding of duty as well as of the political. © 2009 The author.