People say that it is impossible to get around fate, everyone will experience what is destined for him. The main thing is not to betray yourself, to believe in love. Such themes were addressed by the famous Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen in Per Gynt. It was created in the years of the junction of the realistic with the romantic. The author was afraid that the poem "Peer Gynt" would not be understood outside of Norway, as it is very saturated with the inherent features and characteristics of this country. But the work gained worldwide fame, it was translated into many European languages. Later, composer Edward Grieg wrote great music, which made the work even more popular. Ibsenov’s drama has been filmed several times already, many directors performed her on stage.
A bit about the author
The popularity of the plays of the famous Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in European countries has grown relatively recently. If we talk about the masters of modern literature, then his name can be put next to such talents as Zola and Tolstoy. Ibsen’s worldwide fame is associated with the ideas he preaches in his works. His work is an achievement of realistic Western European drama, which had a huge impact on world art.
Ibsen made the viewer to be his co-author and think along with the heroes. The writer considered the most important thing in dramas to be the presence of an author’s idea. He portrayed people in clashes, everyday conflicts, leaving the ending to the reader’s fantasies. Most often, the playwright portrayed representatives of wealthy Norwegian families for whom financial problems were important. Moreover, each of its plot is considered from the point of view of humanity, so that readers can discuss.
The main characters of Ibsen are people who understand their duty, analysts who choose their own type of behavior, seek truth by any means. Thanks to this, Henryk Ibsen became a symbol of realistic art. His work is aimed at updating and inner freedom of man. His earlier plays were “Struggle for the Throne,” “Comedy of Love,” and “Warriors in Hengeland.” Readers fell in love with his poem "On the Heights", the play "Brand". Actual topics of reality were touched upon by the author in the plays "Ghosts", "Woman from the Sea", "Wild Duck", "Doll House" and others. The last, very tragic and piercing work of Ibsen, was the play "When We Are Dead Awakened." The playwright’s worldview was significantly affected by the psychological trauma that he suffered in childhood. After the ruin of his prosperous father, he had to go to the most social lower classes and earn a living for a piece of bread.
The story of the play "Peer Gynt"
Being already famous and receiving a scholarship, Henrik Ibsen moved with his family to Italy. There, he worked hard for two years to create two masterpieces - the plays Brand and Peer Gynt. Many theater experts consider these plays in a complex, because they have similar ideas - self-determination and the formation of a person’s personality.
For a whole year (1867), the playwright worked on the play. He wrote to his friends that he wanted to release it by Christmas. The name of the poem "Peer Gynt" is identical to the name of the protagonist of the work. Ibsen took a lot of useful material for the play, studying Asbjerson's work. From his tales, the writer borrowed the name Per Gynt.
Creating his hero, the playwright decided to turn to Norwegian folklore. Along with folk art, topical problems with a distinct social sound sounded. The writer tried to show satirical sketches of that society, to depict the reactionary circles of Norway. Many readers were able to see cartoons on statesmen in the heroes of the poem.
Initially, the play consisted of five acts and was not divided into paintings. The action was transferred from one place to another. The premiere of the play on stage, already with Grieg's music written for it, took place in 1876. There were 36 performances in the first season.
The main characters of the poem
The poem of Henryk Ibsen is replete with a variety of all kinds of heroes. Here are the main and secondary characters of Peer Gynt:
- widowed peasant Oze (mother of Pera);
- Per Gynt - the main character;
- blacksmith Aslak;
- the elder of the wedding feast, his guests and musicians;
- family of immigrants;
- migrants' daughters - Helga and Solveig (the second is Pera's lover);
- the lord at the farm - Hagstad;
- his daughter Ingrid;
- Cowgirls
- Dovrsky sage;
- major and minor trolls, their children;
- Witches
- a pack of gnomes, goblin, kobold;
- ugly creature (supposedly the son of Pera);
- cries of birds;
- Travel Society
- thief;
- daughter of the Bedouin leader Anitra;
- groups of dancers, slaves, Arabs;
- the head of the madhouse in Cairo;
- Minister Hussein;
- patients and caretakers of the insane asylum, etc.
Summary of Peer Gynt
Wherever the action of the drama happens! First, it is the Norwegian mountains, then the cave of the Dovr old man. After that, the main character falls into Egyptian sands. His next place of residence is a lunatic asylum. In the end, he falls into a shipwreck and gets out of the raging sea.
Summary of Pera Gynt introduces us to the Norwegian village. The main character Per is a guy from this settlement. His father, Yogan Gynt, was once a respected man, but later drank heavily and lost all his fortune. Peru really wants to return everything that his dad squandered. A young man tends to fantasize, show off, imagine himself a brave hero.
Mother Pera Oze loves her son very much and is worried that he is too popular with girls. She offers the young man to marry the daughter of the farmer Ingrid. But he falls in love with the daughter of a peasant sectarian - Solveig. The wedding still took place, but Per soon abandoned Ingrid, as he was fascinated by the unusual Solveig. The young man had to hide.
Further, the plot of "Peer Gynt" is transferred to the forest. On the hero’s path there is a Woman in the Green Cloak, whose father was the King of Dovr. Peru wanted to marry her and become a prince. Dovrsky old man poses an impossible condition for a young man - to become a troll. The inhabitants of the forest beat the guy, but Ozé and Solveig, who loves him immensely, come to the rescue.
It would seem that everything is going to happiness, but suddenly the daughter of the Dovrsky old man brings Peru a little freak and says that this is his son, who is ready to kill his father with an ax. She demands that Pera leave Solveig. He rushes into the race. Before leaving, he manages to visit his sick mother.
So 50 years have passed. Per Gynt became a successful man and arms dealer. One day he falls into the company of monkeys, to which he was also able to adapt. Further, fate brings him to the Sahara desert, he meets with the Arabs.
After that, the readers of the summary of “Peer Gynt” transfer to Egypt, where the hero imagines himself a historian and archaeologist. Being completely gray-haired, he decides to return to his native places. After many ups and downs at the threshold, the aged Solveig joyfully meets him. All these years it helped her to wait for her beloved by what she saw in herself. This is the summary of "Peer Gynt" - a play where the hero is a dreamer, a person incapable of action, not finding his place in life.
The main problems and themes of the play
Many literary scholars believe that in the image of Peer Gynt, the author showed a typical hero of the XIX century. Per is an irresponsible opportunist, an unreliable person. The main problem can be called the impersonality of Ibsen's contemporaries, which was inherent in bourgeois society. Many young people of that time did not have a special strong-willed core. Ibsen very clearly raises the problem of the gray existence of the middle peasants. Per grew up on the tales of his mother, and therefore became such an odious figure. Dreams and reality mixed in his mind. The theme of "Peer Gynt" is relevant to this day.
The meaning of the image of Peer Gunt
The main character of the poem of the famous playwright is the personification of the Norwegian folk ideology. It was already mentioned above that he had a historical prototype. Ibsen enveloped him with legends and fiction, gave the features of a typical representative of his country contemporary to him. At first, Per acts as a brave and charming hero who has no purpose, like many other Scandinavian characters. The young man doesn’t care where to go, he easily goes along an unknown path. His main fear is to be able to come back in difficult cases. Per does not choose his environment - he communicates with trolls, slave traders, monkeys ... The main thing is that everything is reversible.
The all-conquering power of love
Per Gynt did not fulfill his human destiny: he buried his talent as a poet, even he cannot really sin. His creation was an ugly freak troll. The hero sees how much Solveig loves him, he is tormented by torment of conscience. What did Gunt want to achieve? He so wanted to merge creativity and life together ... Solveig had been waiting for her beloved all her life. At the end of the poem, the hero avoids punishment for his dissolute life, because his main creation was love.
Stage plays
Every year in the summer in Norway (Vinstra) there is a festival dedicated to the poem. This is simply an incredible open-air action that accurately conveys the flavor and mystery of the legends of the Norwegian people.
In 1993, Russian artist Antonina Kuznetsova performed with the solo performance "Per Gunt". In 2011, Anton Shagin played a major role in the play "Per Gunt", directed by Mark Zakharov. In Russia, performances of the same name were staged in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk.
Music to the motives of the poem
The famous composer Edward Grieg, a contemporary of Ibsen, wrote excellent music for the play "Peer Gynt". Already in the XX century, the composer Werner Egk released the opera of the same name. In 1986, a ballet of three acts was staged with the epilogue of Alfred Schnittke.
Screen adaptation of a poem
Since 1915, the work of Ibsen was filmed 12 times. This was done in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, France, Hungary, and Norway. In 2006, director Uwe Janson released the latest version of the film "Peer Gynt".
The value of the work in world culture
Only love makes a person whole and gives meaning to his life - this Ibsen's idea has firmly passed into world culture. In the Norwegian city of Oslo, the sculpture park of Pera Gynt was created. The famous artist N. Roerich made beautiful scenery for the staging of the play at the Moscow Art Theater. Astronomers in honor of one of the heroines of the poem called the asteroid Aas. The image of Peer Gynt in world culture is as eternal as the images of Don Quixote, Faust, Prince Myshkin, Odyssey ... He captivates many creative people, thanks to which Ibsen gained world fame.