Mrs. Alving: “But I tend to think we're all ghosts, Pastor Manders; it's not just the things we inherited from our fathers and mothers that live in us, but all kinds of old dead ideas and ideas. beliefs and things like that. They are not really alive in us, but they are still rooted there, and we cannot get rid of them. Just grab a journal and do it. As I read it, I feel like I see ghosts slipping between the lines. I should think there must be them all over the country – as innumerable as grains of sand. And we are all so pitifully afraid of the light. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In this seminal passage from his play “Ghosts,” playwright Henrik Ibsen uses Mrs. Alving’s monologue to vividly express her growing dissent. towards the traditions and social norms that prevailed in Norway at the end of the 19th century. The play was written as a social commentary, and Ibsen anticipated some controversy upon its release and intended to express his views on the human condition at the time. Throughout the play "Ghosts", and especially in Mrs. Alving's memorable monologue, he indicts the dominant ideology of Norwegian society for its oppressive atmosphere and ideals. Clearly outdated and hypocritical social expectations are still perpetuated and strictly adhered to by the majority. , ruining their integrity and morality. Throughout this scene, Mrs. Alving repeatedly mentions her cowardice, finally emphasizing that it is the "ghosts" who subjugate her and make her hide the truth from her son. Ibsen defines these ghosts as "all kinds of old ideas and old dead beliefs", using parallelism to emphasize that current traditions and norms are in fact archaic. The repetition of “dead” highlights the decadence of these values, implying not only that these ideas are wrong, but also that they do not correspond to the present. However, they continue to haunt and oppress the community. Ibsen extensively uses the binary opposition between “dead” and “living” to blur the line between characters and ghosts. Like the dominant ideals that "are not really alive...but...anchored there all the same", the characters will live in the present, but remain trapped in a repetitive cycle of the past, unable to progress. The social expectations held by the Norwegian public seem to restrict any possibility of freedom and personal contentment. They appear everywhere, as Mrs. Alving suggests when she says, "I seem to see ghosts slipping between the lines" of the newspaper. The newspaper motif highlights the constant presence of conventions in media, and Ibsen uses the gentle alliteration of "hovering ghosts" to further emphasize the unconscious oppression of the people. After the monologue, Pastor Manders criticizes any deviation from this restrictive and dominant ideology, exclaiming that Mrs. Alving's problems stem from the "terrible, subversive, free-thinking books" she reads. Ibsen juxtaposes the harmful connotations of the first two adjectives with that of "free thought", clearly demonstrating that freedom of thought and expression has been condemned, while archaic ideals promoted in the media are accepted. The bleakness of the setting also reinforces the idea that this society clings to outdated beliefs and traditions that discourage openness and change within the community..