Ghosts: Act Three Summary & Analysis

Aside from the fact that Engstrand has already revealed himself to be a conniving and manipulative man, audience members should be suspicious of him in this scene because of his claim that Manders threw a candle into a pile of wood shavings. This, the audience might remember, is exactly what Engstrand himself did the previous day, when he accidentally started a small fire in the orphanage. Consequently, it’s reasonable to assume that Engstrand is the one who started this fire as well. Now, though, he uses his powers of manipulation to pin the act on Manders. 

Again, Engstrand puts his manipulative skills to use. As he tries to frame Pastor Manders for the fire, it becomes all the more obvious that he was the one responsible for the disaster. Nevertheless, Manders fails to recognize this, most likely because he takes things at face value, always judging people by how they present themselves. Consequently, he can’t see that Manders is actually a devious and immoral man.

During this exchange, it becomes undeniably clear that Engstrand is not only tricking Pastor Manders into thinking that he was the one to start the fire, but also that Engstrand most likely manufactured this situation so that he could secure funding for his hotel. Indeed, it’s quite possible that Engstrand purposefully set the orphanage on fire in order to put Pastor Manders in a difficult position, one that he can now leverage to get his way.

It’s quite apt that Engstrand’s brothel-inspired hotel will bear the legacy of Captain Alving. After all, Captain Alving was a sexually promiscuous man who managed to maintain a good reputation in the eyes of people like Pastor Manders. Similarly, Engstrand’s hotel will be an immoral and promiscuous place even though Pastor Manders will almost certainly continue to think of it as a morally upstanding and respectable institution.

It's worth keeping in mind that Oswald still doesn’t know about his father’s wicked ways. This is why he is upset that the orphanage burned down, complaining that there will never be anything to memorialize his father. Ironically, his very own sickness is a tribute of sorts to Captain Alving, since Oswald wouldn’t be sick if it weren’t for his father. Unaware of this, though, he continues to believe that his syphilitic condition is the result of his own behavior.

Finally, Mrs. Alving tells Oswald the truth about his father. In doing so, she partially blames herself for failing to make Captain Alving happy, an outlook that is no doubt informed by the patriarchal ideas about a wife’s duty that people like Pastor Manders have spread throughout society. At the same time, though, she subverts this sexist expectation by saying that such outdated and restrictive customs are the exact reason she was unable to bring happiness into her home. In turn, she suggests that society’s obsession with duty is part of what’s responsible for Captain Alving’s downfall.

For seemingly her entire life, Regine has been biding her time in the Alving household and waiting to benefit from her proximity to the family. At the beginning of the play, this meant denying Engstrand’s offer for her to work in his hotel, since she thought that such a position would be beneath her. Now that she sees that she won’t find any kind of upward mobility by remaining with the Alvings, though, she decides to go to the Captain Alving Home. That she’s able to make this decision so quickly indicates that she never actually had feelings for Oswald. Instead, she simply wanted to benefit from her relationship with him. And though she deserves to be upset, her immediate decision to chase other opportunities signals that she—like Engstrand—is interested first and foremost in gaining wealth and moving up through the ranks of society.

Although Mrs. Alving is eager to abandon the various rules and beliefs that have kept her from leading a happy life, she sometimes can’t help but perpetuate such ideas. In this moment, she voices a version of Pastor Manders’s notion that children owe something to their parents, though she quickly realizes that this isn’t really the case once Oswald takes issue with the claim.

At this point, Ibsen reveals that Oswald is in the late stages of syphilis, meaning that he could lose control of his body and mind at seemingly any moment. It’s worth noting that Oswald refers to the disease as something that he has inherited, finally understanding that his illness has nothing to do with the way he lived his life. At the same time, it’s worth noting an alternative reading of the play—because syphilis cannot be inherited from a father, it’s possible to argue that Oswald’s “inheritance” is more figurative than literal. Because it’s clear that he has taken after his father insofar as he likes to drink and has a strong sexual appetite, it’s plausible that he actually has led the same kind of sexually promiscuous life as Captain Alving, contracting syphilis through sexual activity instead of genetically. Either way, Oswald has inherited something from his father, either literally receiving Captain Alving’s disease or simply taking after his reckless ways.

When Oswald asks his mother to euthanize him if he becomes catatonic, Ibsen invites audience members to consider what, exactly, people owe to their loved ones. Throughout the play, Ibsen has explored the various ways in which Mrs. Alving feels indebted to her family members, ultimately suggesting that the sacrifices she made for Captain Alving weren’t worth the cost of her personal happiness. Now, though, Mrs. Alving faces an even harder decision, since she cares so deeply about Oswald. Although she would seemingly do anything for him, she doesn’t want to kill him, since this would mean plunging herself into endless misery.

Mrs. Alving agrees to kill Oswald, but she tries to convince herself that this won’t be necessary. This, it seems, is a feeble compromise she makes with herself, as she tries to keep Oswald happy by promising to do what he wants while simultaneously putting herself at ease. In this moment, then, she tries to negotiate the disconnect between what she wants and what her son wants.

That Oswald asks his mother to “give [him] the sun” suggests that he sees death as a release from his dreary life. He has mentioned at various moments throughout the play how he longs to see the sun when he comes home, claiming that he can’t paint when it’s so grey and dismal outside. When he finally catches a glimpse of the sun, he conflates it with the morphine, asking his mother to give it to him so that he can slip into a happier existence. This, however, puts her in an impossible position because she wants to make him happy but doesn’t want to kill her own son. After all, this would mean once more sacrificing her own happiness in life, as she’s done so many times before. As she stands in front of him, she is completely unable to decide what to do—an indication that Oswald’s request is simply too great a burden for her to bear.