Reviews for Ibsen: Four Major Plays, Volume I

The average rating for Ibsen: Four Major Plays, Volume I based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-27 00:00:00 Homer Alexander Social status, deep secrets and what people think about themselves and others are at the heart of these four celebrated plays. Ibsen, as well as any writer, peels away the layers of personas people choose to create about them to reveal the essence of motives and the eternal truths that mold us. Although these plays are set in nineteenth century Norwegian society, their subjects and themes are at home today. Rather than describe the plays in this volume, I'd rather sum them up with a quote taken from each: A Doll House: "But there's no one who gives up honor for love." The Wild Duck: "There are people in this world who plunge to the bottom when they've hardly been winged, and they never come up again." Hedda Gabler: "People don't do such things!" The Master Builder: "What if he slipped and fell'he, the master builder himself!"

Review # 2 was written on 2018-11-22 00:00:00 Kim Witmer Hedda Gabler is a story about an unhappy woman, much like A Doll's House, but with an ending like The Wild Duck. That may be why it was in this collection, seeing as how it goes so well with those two. Master Builder is a story of pain. It was rather like a train wreak waiting to happen, you see it coming and yet can do nothing to stop it.