Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1904-01-19
To the Editor;

AZ NUF lSulNuis
Ibsen's story, Ghosts" as played last
night, has occasioned me more thought
than any other play have witnessed
for years, and venture to make known
some of my reflections thereon, But
l should say, In the first place, that
am not dramatic critic, having never
written on nor studied the subject In
view OF this self-confessed ignorance,
J suppose | may write the more freely,
knowing that my opinion Will thereby
be precuded In advance from appear
ing authoritative among those who IKE
myself, are uniformed on these mat
ters, and yet that like landsmans
opinion OF ship, II may contain ele-
ments OF truth for those who are
skilled or initiated In the art OF dra-
matte criticism. To begin, then,
Ghosts" is q perfect drama from the
standpoint Of life and logic. 1t is the
creation of an artist and logician' Given
the promises, the opening facts upon
which the story Is founded, and the
events set forth naturally follow as
a matter Of course. The authors logic
in this respect IL stern, unilinching,
pitiless; and II Is a master-hand that
IN this tragedy tears or the
mask OF unrealIty mot TO say
hypocrisy from the conventional
morality OF our custom.fettered age.
The story might have been termed
Failures" There are but five charac-
ters In this play, there Is much 10
learn from and little 10 admire about
any OF them, and there are five COM
plete stories, or illustrations OF hve
distinct and perfectly drawn types OF
human character. There are no gaudy
stage effects, no carpenter work, no
electric or scenic devices, nor any
other OF the clumsy or tawdry "trip
perry that amuses the children and the
weak-minded. Mrs Alving, good
girl Is married of by her parents to
Wild but wealthy youth. The inevitable
result follows, she fees from his roof
within q year and seeks shelter with
Pastor Manders. her first and only
love. But the pastor, poor fool, wrong
~ Interpreting the Scripture, Whom
God hath Joined. let no man put
assunder," persuades her TO return 10
her wifely duties, and leads her back
Ia become first the slave and finally the
guardian OF the debauchee 10 whom,
man and not God, has Joined her. Pas
tor Manders, untrue TO his own In
stIncts and loyal only 10 his conven-
tional ideals, did not have the sense to
discern nor the manliness TO accept II
he had known II, that two souls united
In love more truly represent Gods
work than two bodies y0ked together
In the bonds OF unholy marriage. SO
the pastor becomes the most conspicu-
Gus failure--a self-righteous, correct,
conventional coward, whose well-meant
and pous efforts to do good regularly
miscarry. The next great failure Is
Mrs Alving herself, for her life Is
blasted by the part society has COM
PEELED her to play In hiding from the
world and from her own son, the de-
prayity OF the man whose name she
bears. Regina. the lllgltimate daugh-
ter OF the dissolute captain brought
up nominally as a servant but really
as daughter IN Mrs. AlvIng's
home. fails finally, because she
Is a perfect type of the
commonplace, and cannot rise TO the
level that Is finally presented to her.
oswald, Mrs, Alving's son, fails by 60
ing mad from Inherited weakness de-
rived from his dlssolute enfeebled faith
or Engstrand, the drunken carpenter,
comes nearer to success than any OF the
others, for he Is good at heart and
knows something Of actual life.
This remarkable production chal-
lenges the foundations Of our belief In
traditional rghtness Of life and sends
everyone to re-eSamine the very basis
Of society. Go to thy BOSOM; knock
there; and ask thy heart what II doth
know Is the demand that IL written,
In convincing letters, throughout the
whole piece The greatest lesson is un.
doubtedly that OF heredlty, which
touches the deepest biological problems
OF today In such n way az to convert
more people TO temperate living, to the |
truth Of our Word OF WISDOM" IL you
prefer the phrase, than all the efforts of |
the best preachers, - man usually ar.
CUES that he VIII drink or smoke and |
take he consequences; II Is no one
else's business. lbsen shows that this |
plea Is false, and cpwardly; false be. |
cause the man who drinks does not take |
the consequences; his children suffer |
from his sins through lnherltIng mental |
weakness and a tendency 10 insanity: |
cowardly because he drinks TO drown |
care that Is to forget duty, TO stlne |
the voice OF conscience; and he smokes
10 deaden the warnings OF his own
nerves that he Is overworked or the |
cravings OF his own appetite for nutrl- |
ment Another lesson scarcely less
obvious. Is the practical Illustration OF |
the divine precept, Judge not that ye |
be not judged Nothing could appear
more Justifiable on the surface. Judged |
by our conventional rules of conduct |
than Pastor Mander's arraignment OF |
Mrs, Alying, first for the desertIon OF |
her husband and secondly for her |
avoidance OF the duties of motherhood |
IN sending her only son abroad for his |
education. Yet the pastors Judgment |
was travesty on Justice, as was also |
his judgment Of every other character
In the play Yet he IL the type OF man. |
who, IN the orthodox ideals Of current |
Christianityis the pattern Of righteous. |
ness. lbsen shows the truth that such |
a man is the pattern OF non.entlty, and |
while people may commonly believe /,
that the sermons Of the stralghtlaced.
sef-rtghteous conventional preacher
are a stimulus TO good living and a
powerful antidote 10 vicious tendencies
among the people, Ibsen revals the sim
pie fact that among the yiyaclous and
precocIous class, nj least. such a
preacher has no more influence than the
moons phases have,
Thon the lesson Of that dotine moth