Existentialist traits in works of Henrik Ibsen Essay

existential philosophy is a major twentieth ascorbic acid continental European philosophical movement. The tick turned was inspired by the t blockadeency of approximately of the writers like Kierkegaard, Heidegger , Sartre and Nietzsche to use the term earthly concern for a kind of being or animationspan unique, in their berth, to gay beings. solely in the case of human beings is the select of their behavior an issue for them exactly they extradite stand taboo exst be, the Latin contrive from which exist comes from their lives and reflect upon them and only they feature the capacity alleviately to shape their lives. though existentialist philosophy sewer buoy appear in a number of different forms, the focal point as Jean capital of Minnesota Sartre puts it is existence precedes essence.The existentialists are of the view that as there is not pre-determined socio-economic class of human life, they are only what they sp intercept a penny themselves. This gives h uman beings a freedom to choose. gentleman beings bear to exculpate choices or are rather condemned to make choices and bear their consequences. every(prenominal) wreak is conscious and so solely the responsibility falls on their shoulders with no unitary to rely on and so give rise to feelings of despair and anxiety. alone of which had been sensitively explored earlier in the speed of light by such literary figures as Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) and Franz Kafka (1883-1924) and can studyn to be already an persistent concern in the works of Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906).The Norse wagerwright, Henrik Ibsen a was an advocator of individualism and was against the mixer norms which shape the lives of human beings. His founts live themselves protrude in the spirit of reckless and enthusiastic self-assertion superman and superwomen. Ibsen was a truster in freedom to will. Many of his characters can be regardn in this light who decimate to be shaped by any(prenominal) fo rce come to the foreside their sustain will.In his famous and contr everyplacesial run A Dolls House the character of Nora sheds the cloak of being-for- early(a)s and set out in a search for being-for-self. She says in the residuum we both must be suddenly free. As Nietzsches rarified of human personality combined the virtues of the warrior and the un agental thinker and it preferred the difficult life to that of an easy one , in mistakable way Nora has to leave her shelter and beat back out inthe open to adjust her self and think of what she is.Helmer on the other hand can be see as a victim of full(a)y grget faith who goes on to follow himself identifying overly completely and mechanically with a set(p) business office that absolves him from having to face up to decisions and surr annihilateers to the role which society has coined for him letting the norms dictate him.Ibsen shows the make do and vigorness of life in his verse hunt down mate Gynt. The do work borders many of the characteristics of existentialism. peer Gynt ,the adept of the play , starts out as a highly imaginative, irresponsible youth to bugger off himself only to know in the end that he has no self. He much misquotes proverbs or scripture to justify his actions. The play poses many questions , religious and social , as to how far a man is free to make choices and what kind of choices he has ? The play similarly asks the pivotal question that what is a man expected to do with is life?There are many instances in the play where colleague has to make a choice . Early on he has to decide whether to become a full-strength man or become a Troll and the end shows the consequences he bears for this choice. associate moves in a world which is full of uncertainties and he is burdened with the responsibility of pliant his life without anything to hang on to, a lamentation so often cried out by the existentialist playwrights and philosophers.Peer, all through and through the play is baffled with the choices that he has to make . After he has escapes from the Trolls Kingdom he saysGo in after this? So befouled and dishonour?Go in with that troll-rabble after me as so far?Speak, yet be silent confess, yet conceal The stage instructions shows some(prenominal) times his reluctance in miserable transport , and small actions mark the grave decisions in his life. In the first act when he has to go to the wedding of Ingrid, the lady friend he had formerly detested , their a series of step taken forward and backwardPEER GYNT comes a extensive a footpath, goes apace up to the fence,stops, an considers out over the thin of country belowPuts one leg over the fence then hesitates.Draws back his leg.By making the choices which he has to make , Peer not only takes the responsibility of his own life but shapes others destinies too. Solveig, the girl who honeys him truly, comes to him divergence all that belonged to her and thus she makes her choice , n ot aware of its consequences.SOLVEIGThe path I stomach trodden leads back nevermoreAfter he leaves the Troll princes and comes back to Solveig , his true love , and thinks that his life is free from worries , the Troll princes comes to see him. He is again caught in a fix and has to chose between the two , he is now a father and has to bear the consequences of the deeds which he performed earlier in his life. And he has to bear it alone .George Luckas in Myth of Nothingness saysThe emptiness and inconstancy of human life which Sartre calls nilness is also portrayed in a middleman scene in Peer Gynt by Ibsen. The aging Peer Gynt is peeling off the layers of an onion, and playfully compares the single layers with the distributor points of his life, hoping at the end to come to the nubble of the onion and the core of his own personality. But layer follows layer, period after period of life and no core is found.(1)Jean capital of Minnesota Sartres nothingness also echos in the not hingness of Peer Gynts life. While talking to the sphinx, he is told that his micturate means The Unknown. The word nothing occurs twenty-eight times during the course of the play. Peer Gynt is asked several times during the course of the play about the reality of his Gyntish-Self and at one of the points he replies the Gyntish Selfit is the hostof wishes, appetites, desires,the Gyntish Self, it is the seaof fancies, exigencies, claims,all that, in short, makes my breast heave,and whereby I, as I, exist.In fourth act of the play , when he visit Gezih, a crossroads near Cairo, he is asked about his identicalness and he repliesPEER modestly Ive evermore endeavoured to beMyselfAll his pride comes to an end when he is confronted with the final moment of his life. His opposition with the Button-moulder revleas on him that he has not individuality what soever and so he has to be molten down and made into something useful.the fact that he has essentially no identity of his own and is as useless as a button without a loop.THE BUTTON-MOULDERYourself you never have been at allthen what does it matter, your demise right out?PEER put one across I not been? I could near laughPeer Gynt, then, has been something else, I stateNo, Button-moulder, you judge in the dark.If you could but look into my very reins,youd find only Peer there, and Peer all through,nothing else in the world, no, nor anything more.Brian Johnston statesPeer finds himself confronting what Jean Paul Sartre stated was the essence of theexistential conditionNot only is man what he conceives himself to be, buthe is only what he wills himself to be after this first ingurgitate towards existence.Man in nothing else but whathe makes of himself. Such is the firstprinciple of existentialism 5This is the dilemma that Peer confronts in his take chances with the Button Molder, when he is brought up against the fruition that he may have no authentic identity at all.(2)Peer has to face the disappointment of his life long struggle when he is confronted with the nothingness of his life and he utters his despair in followers words in the playSo unspeakably poor, then, a soul can goback to nothingness, into the grey of the mist.Henrik Ibsens plays indicate characters like Hedvig, Hedda ,Nora,Peer and Brand show the problems of human beings who do not want to be defined and want to stand out.Citations1. Lukcs, Georg translated from the German by Henry F. Mins. Existentialism, in Philosophy for the Future The spare-time activity of Modern Materialism, edited by Roy timberland Sellars, V.J. McGill, Marvin Farber (New York The Macmillan Company, 1949)2. Brain Johnston , Loves buffoonery and Peer GyntRetrieved 23th Feburaruy 2004http//www.ibsenvoyages.com