Considering Ibsen's Peer Gynt
Last year I planned to read 50 Plays and write a response to each one. I read far less than 50 and only wrote one response. But I figure I might as well share it with you so here it is.
Described as a play in five acts, Peer Gynt is very much an episodic narrative with the ongoing fantastic encounters of our ‘hero’ heading inexorably to the final conclusion where, Faust-like he gets an unexpected reprieve.
Structurally, the play can be divided more into three than five. The first three acts are adventures in Peer’s youth where he meets Solveig and culminating in his mother’s death; the two together seem to drive him to flee the country. The fourth act is a sample of Peer’s adventures overseas while the fifth act is his return home in old age and his attempt to run from fate (O Sinner Man, where you going to run to?)
The episodes in the first phase all follow on one after the other, but there are jumps in time thereafter, which seems slightly incongruous. I can see this play working better in three acts; condensing the first three and possibly expanding the last two.
In the end this is very much a moral tale but the moral is to be yourself, whatever your lot. Peer’s various adventures are driven by his desires but also by his willingness to mould himself to the situation. When mistaken for a prophet he becomes a prophet; when asked to be a troll he’s fine with that until he learns it’s forever and he can’t roam. Being trapped, or rather accepting his situation and living it, is something Peer is unwilling to do. He loves Solveig in a fashion but the permanency drives him away – especially without his mother to hold him in place.
The fantastic nature of the adventures and Peer’s willingness to accept them all without surprise drive the action on in an entertaining fashion. His justifications and swift about-faces also keep the tone light, with the lot of Solveig and Aase’s death the only real points of drama.
The fifth act has a more didactic feel to it than the first four as Peer’s life draws to an end and he must finally face up to who he is – which is no-one as he has never been himself. There’s a lot of moralising which slows it down somewhat, but the final few scenes with the Button moulder flow quite quickly and echo Everyman.
In all it’s a light entertainment that pushes a message too hard at the end when it might be better left to example. The structure could be greatly condensed to strengthen it and make the jump in time between Act 3 and Act 4 less jarring. I suppose interval would be had in between but the story should allow for no interval.
What’s noteworthy in light of my ideas of narration are Peer’s speeches between his adventures. These are again quite fantastical but he drives the creation of a whole world through his imagination. He becomes an emperor in his own mind or an historian who is again an emperor but through manipulation of history; trees take on different aspects, he becomes an onion he is peeling. The speeches are illustrative and symbolic and tell us as much of the real story and nature of the play as the scenes themselves.
Described as a play in five acts, Peer Gynt is very much an episodic narrative with the ongoing fantastic encounters of our ‘hero’ heading inexorably to the final conclusion where, Faust-like he gets an unexpected reprieve.
Structurally, the play can be divided more into three than five. The first three acts are adventures in Peer’s youth where he meets Solveig and culminating in his mother’s death; the two together seem to drive him to flee the country. The fourth act is a sample of Peer’s adventures overseas while the fifth act is his return home in old age and his attempt to run from fate (O Sinner Man, where you going to run to?)
The episodes in the first phase all follow on one after the other, but there are jumps in time thereafter, which seems slightly incongruous. I can see this play working better in three acts; condensing the first three and possibly expanding the last two.
In the end this is very much a moral tale but the moral is to be yourself, whatever your lot. Peer’s various adventures are driven by his desires but also by his willingness to mould himself to the situation. When mistaken for a prophet he becomes a prophet; when asked to be a troll he’s fine with that until he learns it’s forever and he can’t roam. Being trapped, or rather accepting his situation and living it, is something Peer is unwilling to do. He loves Solveig in a fashion but the permanency drives him away – especially without his mother to hold him in place.
The fantastic nature of the adventures and Peer’s willingness to accept them all without surprise drive the action on in an entertaining fashion. His justifications and swift about-faces also keep the tone light, with the lot of Solveig and Aase’s death the only real points of drama.
The fifth act has a more didactic feel to it than the first four as Peer’s life draws to an end and he must finally face up to who he is – which is no-one as he has never been himself. There’s a lot of moralising which slows it down somewhat, but the final few scenes with the Button moulder flow quite quickly and echo Everyman.
In all it’s a light entertainment that pushes a message too hard at the end when it might be better left to example. The structure could be greatly condensed to strengthen it and make the jump in time between Act 3 and Act 4 less jarring. I suppose interval would be had in between but the story should allow for no interval.
What’s noteworthy in light of my ideas of narration are Peer’s speeches between his adventures. These are again quite fantastical but he drives the creation of a whole world through his imagination. He becomes an emperor in his own mind or an historian who is again an emperor but through manipulation of history; trees take on different aspects, he becomes an onion he is peeling. The speeches are illustrative and symbolic and tell us as much of the real story and nature of the play as the scenes themselves.
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