Literary Analysis #2: Ghosts

General

1. The conflicts in this play lead to the main plot that is for Mrs. Alving to choose to give her son his wishes and kill off the ghost of her husband or to keep her son in fear of living without him. Her son Oswald is living his life unhappy like her husband had in life too, which causes her to feel her husband's ghost in the presence of her son. She kept the secret from Oswald that she was miserable with Mr. Alving for him never being happy and doing hurtful things to her. When Mr. Alving died she thought there'd be no need to tell Oswald, but then when Oswald told of his unhappiness she thought he deserved to know. Later he asked his mother to kill him from his unhappiness, but she couldn't do it. When he faced with an attack from his unhappy illness she was put to the test to give him his wish to pass.

2. I think the theme is that secrecy can only result in a bad outcome. Mrs. Alving keeps the truth of her husband's life from everyone and lets everyone think that he was just a nice, well mannered man. She also keeps the secret that Oswald and Regina are actually practically related which drives Regina to leave. The final secret kept is that Oswald is unhappy and shares it with no one. By the time he admitted it it had been too late and he had already became ill by it. All of the secrets kept led to negative outcome for the characters.

3. The author's tone is kind of mysterious and really builds up a suspense of each secret shared. The way they talk they prolong actually saying the secret they want to share which creates a sense of suspension. For example when Mrs. Alving is about to reveal her husband's secret life the pastor walks in and interrupts. Then when she tries to say it again the orphanage burns down. As a reader you're so curious to hear her speak, but interruptions keep occurring. Also when Oswald tried to tell his mother that he wanted her to kill him he kept delaying telling her, and kept having Regina come in the room. He stalled it all the way until the end of the play.

4. One literary element is flashbacks because Mrs. Alving sees a flashback of her husband's ghost when Oswald is in the kitchen with Regina. She hears Regina tell Oswald to stop and let her go just as Mrs. Alving had heard Regina's mom say to Mr. Alving. Another element is the setting because people were more religious at that time and what Mr. Alving did by cheating would make people hate him in that time. Oswald also creates a some what of symbolism of the father. He portrays the husband to Mrs. Alving and just like Mr. Alving she doesn't know how to deal with it except for try to keep him. Also the syntax helped the tone because it's what caused the suspense by the way the play was organized. Without all of the stalls in between the secrets then the suspense wouldn't be there. Finally the dialogue used was helpful. The dialogue helped because when Mrs. Alving talked to the pastor she was very open about all of her secrets, but with Oswald she was more scared of hurting him with the truth so she spoke in a nice way to him.

Characterization

1. The author uses direct characterization in the dislike of Regina to her dad. In the beginning of the play they argue because she doesn't want to have to live with him. Another example of direct characterization was towards the end of the play when Oswald admits to the liking of Regina and wanting to marry her. An example of indirect characterization was that Pastor Manders was very opinionated. The way he spoke about his beliefs was very assertive. A final example of indirect characterization is Oswald's own fear of his unhappiness. He never admits it, but by him not every telling anyone about it shows he was scared.

2. The author's diction changes for Engstrand into more formal. Regina's diction also changes to more formal when speaking to Mrs. Alving because she has respect towards her.

3. The protagonist, Mrs. Alving, is a dynamic character in the play. She starts off as a women who just has to do her duties as a wife and mother. She thinks that she can't tell Oswald about his father's life because it would ruin his ideals. Also she doesn't tell him because she thinks her duty as a mother is to let her son think his parents were good people with no problems as a family. She changes because at the end she realizes that her son just deserves to know the truth whether it upset him or not.

4. I definitely felt like I'd met a character after reading this. At some points I felt as if I was in the scene with them listening and relating to them. Especially when they were in the conservatory speaking of Oswald's problems I felt sympathy for him and felt apart of the play.