The Burden of Respectability: Gender & Atriarchy in Ghosts

Henrik Ibsen’s concept of problem plays which emerged in the late 19th century served to bring out many evils of society that not many people dared to talk about. ‘Ghosts’ tackles many such issues including that of inheritance and social exploitations but one issue which often goes unnoticed is that of female agency and suppression which is embodied in the character of Mrs. Alving. This research paper seeks to closely examine how her character is silenced in the play and her oppression is deliberately hidden to uphold the positive image of her husband. Her suffering is deemed as an apt price to pay for maintaining their family’s reputation. Through the use of feminist critics like Simone de Beauvoir, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Elaine Showalter, one must argue why her husband’s reputation was worth more than her own happiness. Her sacrifice for her family was noble, but it is undeniably problematic and clearly portrays how women are confined within a domestic sphere. Through characters like pastor Manders and Regina, the paper highlights how religious and societal institutions become upholders of patriarchal subjugation and how they deliberately suppress women so that the man of the family may enjoy as he sees fit. The ‘ghosts’ that Mrs. Alving talks about are not merely that of tradition which come to haunt the Alving family but also of the oppressive practices that subjugate women and have become normalised over time. The most problematic phenomena is that the burden of maintaining the family’s appearance always falls on women. Captain Alving was never asked to amend his ways but it was the ‘duty’ of Mrs. Alving to accomodate them. Hence, the ‘respectability’ of a family is a socially constructed norm that will only be applicable on women and will always keep them on the margins of society.