Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1867, and first performed in Oslo (then called Christiania) on 24 February 1876, with incidental music by the composer Edvard Grieg. Peer Gynt was written in Rome, on Ischia and in Sorrento. Peer Gynt came out on November 14th 1867 in Copenhagen. The first edition comprised 1 250 copies. It was followed by a re-print of 2 000 copies after 14 days. The large sales were mostly due to the success of Ibsen's previous play, Brand. Unlike Ibsen's well-known later plays, Peer Gynt is written in verse. This is because it was originally intended to be a written drama, not for stage performance. It is also unlike the later plays in that it is a fantasy rather than a realistic tragedy.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peer Gynt can be considered as a bittersweet play about an anti-hero. Peer Gynt is the son of the once highly regarded Jon Gynt. He had become a drunkard and lost all his money. This left Peer and his mother ?se to live in poverty. Peer wants to restore the honour and wealth his father had wrecked. But he gets lost in day-dreams and wandering around doing mostly nothing. He is involved in a fight and is outlaned. He then flees from the parish. During his flight he meets three amorous dairy-maids, the woman clad in green, the daughter of the Dovre mountain king, whom he wants to marry, and B?ygen.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Solveig, whom Peer met at a wedding, and fell in love with, comes to his cabin in the forest to live with him, but he leaves her and goes on with his travels. He is away for many years, takes part in various occupations and plays various roles including that of a businessman engaged in enterprises on the coast of Morocco. He wanders through the desert, passes the Memnon and the Sphinx. He also becomes a Bedouin chief and a prophet. He tries to seduce Anitra, daughter of a Bedouin, and ends up as a guest in the madhouse in Cairo. There he is hailed as an emperor. Finally, on his way home as an old man, he is shipwrecked. Among those on board he has met the Strange Passenger, considered by scholars to be the ghost of Lord Byron. This strange passenger wants to make use of Peer's corpse to find out where dreams have their seat.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back home in the parish, he attends a peasant funeral and an auction where he offers for sale everything from his earlier life. Peer meets the Button-moulder, who maintains that Peer's soul must be melted down with other faulty goods unless he can explain when and where in life he has been "himself", and a character named the Lean one, who believes he cannot be accounted a real sinner who can be sent to hell.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peer, in great despair, reaches Solveig. She had been waiting for him in the cabin ever since he left. She tells him that he has always been himself in her belief, hope and love.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Play: A play is a common form of literature, usually consisting chiefly of dialog between characters, and usually intended for performance rather than reading. However, many scholars study plays in this more academic manner, particularly classical plays such as those of Shakespeare (rare authors, notably ...

Norwegian: When used as an adjective, Norwegian refers to anything that originates from Norway. It may refer to more than one article:...

Henrik Ibsen: Henrik Johan Ibsen (March 20, 1828–May 23, 1906) was an extremely influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the rise of the modern realistic drama. It is said that Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare....

Peer Gynt related Images and Photos (experimental)

Peer Gynt

Five Baby Barn Swallows Peer out from Their Nest

Good of Cresta Run Bobsled Run Coasting around Sunny Bend as People Peer from Above the Track