Ghosts in Modern Drama: Ibsen, Strindberg, O'neill and Their Legacy.

Abstract

The image of the ghost, the quintessential figure of transition and dislocation, has re-emerged in the drama as a vital and persistent presence. This study explores the meaning of the ghost's modern renaissance by examining ghostly metaphors and characters in the work of three founders of the Western theatre--Ibsen, Strindberg, and O'Neill. Chapter one discusses the ghost's function in classical and Elizabethan drama, arguing that the ghost remained a figure of externalized horror until Shakespeare transformed it into an image of psychological depth and ambiguity in Hamlet and Macbeth. This legacy of psychological complexity then became a model for Ibsen as he searched for a dramatic vocabulary to express his characters' profound feelings of hauntedness and self-alienation. Chapter two discusses Ibsen's growth from a playwright struggling to voice his ghostly obsessions to a mature dramatist whose realistic plays are deepened and extended through the suggestion of ghostly repetitions, reprisals, and revelations, all of which have their origin in the conflicted minds of his characters. Chapter three reveals Strindberg's contribution to this theater of hauntedness, as the ghost inspires not only thematic but also formal changes in his plays. Using the figure of the revenant, the spirit that returns, Strindberg develops an expressionistic style that conveys his personal anguish as well as interest in mystical beings and events. Chapter four illustrates how O'Neill inherits both the psychological and mystical elements in Ibsen and Strindberg, as he gropes for stage equivalents to internal, psychic states. Finally, chapter five suggests ways in which the ghost emerges in contemporary theater as a continual reminder of humanity's existential predicament.