The Meaning of Vermoulu in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts

Abstract

In 1881, Henrik Ibsen's play Ghosts shocked the theatrical world by bringing to center stage the taboo topic of venereal disease. A major character in the drama, Oswald Alving, age 26, suffers from neurosyphilis. Oswald's headaches and neck stiffness (“like a tight iron band squeezing me from my neck up” 1 Ibsen H The Complete Major Prose Plays. Plume, New York, NY1978: 249-251 Google Scholar ) indicate chronic meningitis. His difficulty concentrating (“I couldn't focus any of my thoughts” 1 Ibsen H The Complete Major Prose Plays. Plume, New York, NY1978: 249-251 Google Scholar ) and inability to work suggest the meningoencephalitis of general paresis. And, in the play's tragic climax, Oswald suffers a devastating, catastrophic neurologic deterioration on stage with altered mental status and an unresponsiveness that leaves him permanently an invalid (“Oswald appears to crumple inwardly in the chair; all his muscles loosen; the expression leaves his face; and his eyes stare blankly” 1 Ibsen H The Complete Major Prose Plays. Plume, New York, NY1978: 249-251 Google Scholar ). This sudden collapse could have been caused by a cerebrovascular accident from meningovascular syphilis.