Reviews for Ibsen, Volume II: Four Plays

The average rating for Ibsen, Volume II: Four Plays based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-21 00:00:00 Daniel De Wachter An Enemy of the People is a timeless masterpiece, despite its setting of time and place. A doctor in a small Norwegian village who works at a spa that largely supports the town's thriving summer tourism industry find out the it is infested with bacteria. The opposition of his brother, the mayor, together with shifting allegiances creates a personal, ethical and moral crisis. The malleability of public opinion to support expedient opportunism seems oddly contemporary. Ghosts was a good story about how life's decisions have never-ending ramifications. "But I almost believe we are ghosts, all of us, Pastor. It's not only what we inherit from our fathers and mothers that keeps on returning in us. It's all kinds of old dead doctrines and opinions and beliefs, that sort of thing. They aren't alive in us; but they hang on all the same, and we can't get rid of them." I found The Lady of the Sea and John Gabriel Borkman to be both tedious and annoying in plot and pace.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-05 00:00:00 Melissa Kit So of this group of 4 Ibsen plays, Enemy of the People and Lady From the Sea, I really enjoyed and would actually give a ranking of 5 stars, but I didn't LOVE all 4 plays so I dropped the rating by 1. This doesn't by any means, mean I disliked Ghost or John Gabriel Borkman, for me, they just didn't resonate quit as much. Enemy of the People, I found to be very profound and current for today's society. If you only read 1 play from this collection this would be my choice. It is individual vs. many, right vs. wrong, acceptance vs. ostracism.