Rosmersholm Questions
After reading Rosmersholm, I thought I had a pretty good idea of everything that had happened. However, after our class discussion, I had numerous unanswerable questions: When Rebecca states that she may have caught a glimpse of white horses, is she talking about actual horses or ghosts? Also, is Beata really haunting them, and is she responsible for their suicides at the end of the play? In addition, how much influence did Rebecca truly have over Beata's suicide? Why is the letter never shown? Why does Rosmer never go on the bridge after his wife's death-- until his own suicide? Ultimately, the questions are endless because there is little factual evidence in the play. Even if the play was meant to be mysterious and thought-provoking, I find it incredibly annoying that I was left with such uncertainty. Is there a way to really know what happened? Did Ibsen ever hint at the truth of the situation? Did I miss something?
posted by PamelaSieja @ 5:47 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Haha. I really like your assessment of the play because I share it. The play seems to center on the motif of ambiguity. There is never any tangible evidence of the goings on of Rosmerholm, only subjective discourse. The letter is a perfect example, here Ibsen presents what could the thread that unravels, yet we never have any sort of concrete idea what’s actually written there. I think this is the sort of play that we would enjoy far more if we were far more advanced in our understanding of theatre. Maybe.
I think that the beauty of this play is how Ibsen leaves it up to the viewer to formulate his or her own interpretation of the ambiguous things, like the letter, and also to give directors the space to produce a play in which they could add their own personal interpretations. To me this aspect of the play reminds me of looking at a piece of art with no title and how we are left to draw our own conclusions and meanings from it. Maybe he left his plays ambiguous to challenge the nature of playwrights and us as an audience.
I completely agree with you about “thinking” you knew what was going on. The class discussion brought many different things to mind that I hadn’t noticed while I was reading. In response to your questions, I think that Rebecca played THE one and only role in causing Beata’s suicide. She made Beate believe that she was pregnant and Rosmer didn’t want a wife that couldn’t have a child. Unknown questions aside, did you think that the performance was pretty good? Would you have changed anything?
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