John Gabriel Borkman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Gabriel Borkman is the penultimate composition of the great Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, written in 1896. The play is based on an incident that Ibsen recorded from an earlier period in his life, the attempted suicide of an army officer who had been accused of embezzlement. The Borkman family fortunes have been brought low by the imprisonment of John Gabriel who used his position as a bank manager to illegally speculate with his investors' money. The action of the play takes place years after Borkman's release when Borkman, Mrs. Borkman, and her sister Ella Rentheim battle over the future of young Erhart Borkman. Though John Gabriel Borkman continues the line of naturalism and social commentary that marks Ibsen's fruitful middle period, the final act suggests a new phase for the playwright, a phase brought to fruition in his final more symbolic work When We Dead Awaken.

[edit] Characters

John Gabriel Borkman
Mrs. Gunhild Borkman
Erhart Borkman, their son
Ella Rentheim, Mrs. Borkman's twin sister
Mrs. Fanny Wilton
Vilhelm Foldal
Frida Foldal, his daughter
Malene, housekeeper

[edit] External Links

John Gabriel Borkman, available at Project Gutenberg.
John Gabriel Borkman, available at Project Gutenberg. (Esperanto)

Henrik Ibsen

Works: (1850) Catiline (Catilina) | (1850) The Burial Mound (Kjæmpehøjen) | (1852) St. John's Eve (Sancthansnatten) | (1854) Lady Inger of Oestraat (Fru Inger til Østeraad) | (1855) The Feast at Solhaug (Gildet paa Solhoug) | (1856) Olaf Liljekrans (Olaf Liljekrans) | (1857) The Vikings at Helgeland (Hærmændene paa Helgeland) | (1862) Love's Comedy (Kjærlighedens Komedie) | (1863) The Pretenders (Kongs-Emnerne) | (1865) Brand (Brand) | (1867) Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt) | (1869) The League of Youth (De unges Forbund) | (1873) Emperor and Galilean (Kejser og Galilæer) | (1877) Pillars of Society (Samfundets støtter) | (1879) A Doll's House (Et dukkehjem) | (1881) Ghosts (Gengangere) | (1882) An Enemy of the People (En Folkefiende) | (1884) The Wild Duck (Vildanden) | (1886) Rosmersholm (Rosmersholm) | (1888) The Lady from the Sea (Fruen fra havet) | (1890) Hedda Gabler (Hedda Gabler) | (1892) The Master Builder (Bygmester Solness) | (1894) Little Eyolf (Lille Eyolf) | (1896) John Gabriel Borkman (John Gabriel Borkman) | (1899) When We Dead Awaken (Når vi døde vågner)