"Peer Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen: a summary. "Peer Gynt": characters, plot, theme

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

People say that it is impossible to bypass fate, everyone will experience what is destined for him. The main thing is not to betray yourself, to believe in love. The famous Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen addressed this topic in his work "Peer Gynt". It was created during the years of the junction of the realistic with the romantic. The author was afraid that the poem "Peer Gynt" would not be understood outside of Norway, as it is very rich in the features and characteristics inherent in this country. But the work gained worldwide fame, it was translated into many European languages. Later, the composer Edvard Grieg wrote great music, which made the work even more popular. Ibsen's drama has already been filmed several times, many directors staged it.

A little about the author

Popularityplays by the famous Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in European countries has grown relatively recently. If we talk about the masters of modern literature, then his name can be put next to such talents as Zola and Tolstoy. Ibsen's worldwide fame is associated with the ideas he preaches in his works. His work is an achievement of realistic Western European drama, which had a huge impact on world art.

Ibsen forced the viewer to be his co-author and think along with the characters. The writer considered the presence of the author's idea to be the most important thing in dramas. He portrayed people in clashes, everyday conflicts, leaving the ending to the reader's fantasies. Most often, the playwright portrayed representatives of we althy Norwegian families, for whom money problems were important. At the same time, each of his stories is considered from the point of view of humanity, so that readers can discuss.

The main characters of Ibsen are people who understand their duty, analysts who choose their own type of behavior, strive for the truth by any means. Thanks to this, Henrik Ibsen became a symbol of realistic art. His work is aimed at the renewal and inner freedom of man. His earlier plays were "Struggle for the Throne", "Comedy of Love", "Warriors in Hengeland". Readers fell in love with his poem "On the Heights", the play "Brand". Actual themes of reality were touched upon by the author in the plays "Ghosts", "Woman from the Sea", "Wild Duck", "Doll's House" and others. Ibsen's tragic and penetrating work was the play "When we, the dead, awaken." The worldview of the playwright was significantly influenced by the psychological trauma he suffered in childhood. After the ruin of his prosperous father, he had to move to the lowest social classes and earn his living.

The history of the creation of the play "Peer Gynt"

Being already famous and receiving a writing scholarship, Henrik Ibsen moves with his family to Italy. There he worked diligently for two years on the creation of two masterpieces - the plays "Brand" and "Peer Gynt". Many theater critics consider these plays as a whole, because they have similar ideas - self-determination and the formation of a person's personality.

For a whole year (1867) the playwright worked on the play. He wrote to his friends that he dreamed of releasing it by Christmas. The name of the poem "Peer Gynt" is identical to the name of the protagonist of the work. Ibsen took a lot of useful material for the play by studying the work of Asbjerson. From his fairy tales, the writer borrowed the name Peer Gynt.

Creating his character, the playwright decided to turn to Norwegian folklore. Along with folk art, topical problems sounded with a distinct social sound. The writer tried to show satirical sketches of that society, to portray the reactionary circles in Norway. Many readers were able to see caricatures of statesmen in the heroes of the poem.

Initially, the play consisted of five acts and was not divided into pictures. The action moved from one place toother. The premiere of the play on the stage, with Grieg's music already written for it, took place in 1876. The first season had 36 performances.

The main characters of the poem

Henrik Ibsen's poem is replete with a variety of all kinds of characters. Here are the main and secondary characters of "Peer Gynt":

• widowed peasant woman Oze (Per's mother);
• Per Gynt is the main character;
• blacksmith Aslak;
• the elder of the wedding feast, his guests and musicians;
• migrant family;
• daughters of immigrants - Helga and Solveig (the second is Per's beloved);
• the gentleman on the farm - Hegstad;
• his daughter Ingrid;
• shepherds;
• Dovr sage;
• major and minor trolls, their children;
• witches;
• pack of gnomes, goblins, kobolds;
• ugly creature (supposedly Per's son);
• cries of birds;
• travel society;
• thief;
• daughter of the Bedouin leader Anitra;
• groups of dancers, slaves, Arabs;
• manager of a lunatic asylum in Cairo;
• Minister Hussain;
• patients and caretakers of the lunatic asylum, etc.

Summary of "Peer Gynt"

Where the drama doesn't happen! First, these are the Norwegian mountains, then the cave of the Dovre Elder. After that, the main character falls into the Egyptian sands. The next place of his stay is a lunatic asylum. At the end, he gets into a shipwreck and gets out of the raging sea.

Summary of "Peer Gynt"introduces us to the Norwegian countryside. The main character Per is a guy from this settlement. His father, Johann Gynt, was once a respected man, but later became an alcoholic and lost his entire fortune. Peru really wants to return everything that his dad squandered. It is natural for a young man to fantasize, show off, imagine himself a brave hero.

Per Oze's mother loves her son very much and worries that he is too popular with girls. She offers the young man to marry the farmer's daughter Ingrid. But he falls in love with the daughter of a peasant sectarian - Solveig. The wedding nevertheless took place, but Per soon left Ingrid, as he was fascinated by Solveig's unusualness. The young man had to hide.

Next, the plot of "Peer Gynt" is transferred to the forest. On the way of the hero there is a Woman in a Green Cloak, whose father was the King of Dovre. Peru wanted to marry her and become a prince. The Dovra elder sets an impossible condition for the young man - to become a troll. The inhabitants of the forest beat the guy, but Oze and Solveig come to the rescue, who loves him immensely.

It would seem that everything is going well, but suddenly the daughter of the Dovre elder brings a little freak to Peru and says that this is his son, who is ready to kill his father with an ax. She demands that Per leave Solveig. He goes on the run. Before leaving, he manages to visit his sick mother.

So it's been 50 years. Peer Gynt became a prosperous man and an arms dealer. One day he gets into the company of monkeys, to which he was also able to adapt. Then fate takes him to the Sahara desert, he meets with the Arabs.

After this readers briefthe content of "Peer Gynt" takes us to Egypt, where the hero imagines himself to be a historian and archaeologist. Being completely gray-haired, he decides to return to his native places. After many ups and downs, the aged Solveig joyfully meets him at the doorstep. It helped her all these years to wait for her beloved that she saw herself in him. This is the summary of "Peer Gynt" - a play where the hero is a dreamer, a person incapable of action, unable to find his place in life.

Main issues and themes of the play

Many literary scholars believe that in the image of Peer Gynt, the author showed a typical hero of the 19th century. Per is an irresponsible opportunist, an unreliable person. The main problem can be called the impersonality of Ibsen's contemporaries, which was inherent in bourgeois society. Many young people of that time did not have a special strong-willed core. Ibsen very clearly raises the problem of the gray existence of the middle peasants. Per grew up on his mother's fairy tales, which is why he became such an odious figure. Dreams and reality mingled in his mind. The theme of "Peer Gynt" is relevant to this day.

The meaning of Peer Gynt's image

The main character of the famous playwright's poem is the personification of the Norwegian folk ideology. It has already been mentioned above that he had a historical prototype. Ibsen enveloped him in legends and fiction, gave him the features of a typical representative of his country contemporary to him. At first, Per appears as a bold and charming hero, without a goal, like many other Scandinavian characters. The young man does not care where to go, he easily goes alongunknown path. His main fear is to be able to go back in difficult cases. Per does not choose his environment - he communicates with trolls, slavers, monkeys … The main thing is that everything is reversible.

The all-conquering power of love

Per Gynt did not fulfill his human destiny: he buried his talent as a poet, he does not even really know how to sin. His creation was an ugly freak troll. The hero sees how much Solveig loves him, he is tormented by pangs of conscience. What did Gynt want to achieve? He so wanted to merge creativity and life into one … Solveig had been waiting for her beloved all her life. At the end of the poem, the hero escapes punishment for his dissolute life, because his main creation was love.

Performing a play on stage

Every summer in Norway (Vinstra) there is a festival dedicated to the poem. This is just an incredible outdoor action that accurately conveys the color and mystery of the legends of the Norwegian people.

In 1993, Russian artist Antonina Kuznetsova performed a solo performance "Peer Gynt". In 2011, Anton Shagin played the main role in the play "Peer Gynt", directed by Mark Zakharov. In Russia, performances with the same name have also been staged in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

Music for the motives of the poem

The famous composer Edvard Grieg, a contemporary of Ibsen, wrote beautiful music for the play "Peer Gynt". Already in the 20th centurycomposer Werner Egk released an opera of the same name. In 1986, a three-act ballet was staged with an epilogue by Alfred Schnittke.

Screening of the poem

Starting from 1915, Ibsen's work was filmed 12 times. This was done in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, France, Hungary, Norway. In 2006, director Uwe Janson released the latest version of Peer Gynt.

The meaning of the work in world culture

Only love makes a person whole and gives meaning to his life - this Ibsen idea has firmly entered the world culture. The Peer Gynt Sculpture Park has been created in the Norwegian city of Oslo. The famous artist N. Roerich made beautiful scenery for the production of the play at the Moscow Art Theater. Astronomers in honor of one of the heroines of the poem named the asteroid Aas. The image of Peer Gynt in world culture is as eternal as the images of Don Quixote, Faust, Prince Myshkin, Odysseus… He captivates many creative people, thanks to which Ibsen gained worldwide fame.