Invisible Economic Hegemony, Visible Patriarchal Ideology: Ibsen’s Critique of Bourgeois Society in John Gabriel Borkman and Pillars of the Community

This article juxtaposes Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman with Pillars of the Community to illuminate the bourgeoisie’s discriminatory attitudes toward the male protagonists’ sordid businesses. Through this comparison, the study reveals Ibsen’s differing approaches to critiquing bourgeois society across the two plays. By drawing on socio-economic and feminist theories, this analysis critically examines the social, political, and financial implications of capitalism’s invisible hegemony of the bourgeoisie and the visible ideology of patriarchy, highlighting Ibsen’s nuanced depiction of power dynamic within bourgeois society.