"Per Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen: a brief summary. "Per Gynt": characters, plot, theme

People say that it is impossible to bypass fate, everyone will experience what is meant for him. The main thing is not to betray yourself, to believe in love. This theme was addressed by the famous Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen in the work "Per Gynt". It was created in the years of realistic and romantic. The author was afraid that the poem "Per Gynt" would not be understood outside of Norway, since it is very full of features and features peculiar to this country. But the work gained worldwide fame, it was translated into many European languages. Later, composer Edward Grieg wrote great music, which gave the product even greater popularity. Ibsen's drama was screened several times already, many directors performed its productions on stage.

A little about the author

The popularity of plays by the famous Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in European countries has grown relatively recently. If we talk about the masters of modern literature, his name can be placed next to such talents as Zola and Tolstoy. Ibsen's world fame is connected with the ideas he preached in his works. His work is the achievement of realistic Western European drama, which has had a huge impact on the world art.

The spectator Ibsen forced to be his co-author and to think along with the characters. The writer considered the most important in dramas the presence of the author's idea. He portrayed people in clashes, everyday conflicts, leaving the final for the reader's fantasies. Most often, the playwright portrayed representatives of wealthy Norwegian families, for whom money problems were important. In this case, each of his plot is viewed from the point of view of humanity, so that readers can discuss.

Ibsen's main characters are people who understand their duty, analysts who choose their own type of behavior, strive for truth in any way. Thanks to this Henrik Ibsen became a symbol of realistic art. His work is aimed at the renewal and internal freedom of man. His earlier plays were "The Struggle for the Throne," "The Comedy of Love," and "Warriors in Hengeland." The readers of his poem "On the heights", the play "Brand" fell in love with readers. Actual themes of reality were touched upon by the author in plays "Ghosts", "Woman from the Sea", "Wild Duck", "Doll House", etc. The last, very tragic and piercing work of Ibsen was the play "When We, the Dead, Wake Up". The worldview of the playwright was significantly influenced by the psychological trauma he had suffered as a child. After the ruin of a well-to-do father, he had to go to the most social lower classes and earn a living on a piece of bread.

The history of the creation of the play "Per Gynt"

Being already famous and receiving a scholarship, Henrik Ibsen moves with his family to Italy. There he spent two years working diligently to create two masterpieces - the plays Brand and Per Gynt. Many theater experts consider these plays in a complex, because they have similar ideas - self-determination and the formation of a person's personality.

For a whole year (1867), the playwright worked on the play. To his friends he wrote that he dreams of releasing it for Christmas. The name of the poem "Per Gynt" is identical to the name of the protagonist of the work. A lot of useful material for the play Ibsen took, studying the work of Asbjerson. From his fairy tales, the writer borrowed the name of Per Gynt.

Creating his hero, the playwright decided to turn to Norwegian folklore. Along with folk art, topical problems with a distinct social sound sounded. The writer tried to show satirical sketches of that society, to represent the reactionary circles of Norway. Many readers could see caricature characters in the characters of the poem.

Initially, the play consisted of five acts and was not divided into pictures. The action was transferred from one place to another. The premiere of the play on stage, already written with her music by Grieg, took place in 1876. In the first season there were 36 performances.

The main characters of the poem

Poem Henrik Ibsen is full of variety of all kinds of heroes. Here are the main and secondary characters of "Per Gynt":

• The widowed peasant Oze (mother of Pera);
• Per Gynt - the main character;
• Blacksmith Aslak;
• The elder of the wedding feast, his guests and musicians;
• Family of immigrants;
• Daughters of immigrants - Helga and Solveig (the second is Per's lover);
• The lord in the hamlet is Hagstad;
• His daughter Ingrid;
• Shepherdesses;
• The Dovre sage;
• Main and minor trolls, their children;
• Witches;
• A pack of gnomes, geese, kobolds;
• An ugly creature (supposedly the son of Père);
• Cries of birds;
• Society of travelers;
• Thief;
• The daughter of the Bedouin leader Anitra;
• Groups of dancers, slaves, Arabs;
• The head of a madhouse in Cairo;
• Minister Hussein;
• Patients and caretakers of a madhouse, etc.

Summary of "Per Gynt"

Where the drama does not work! First it's the Norwegian mountains, then the cave of the Dovre old man. After that, the main character falls into the Egyptian sands. The next place of his stay is a madhouse. In the end, he falls into a shipwreck and is selected from the raging sea.

A brief summary of "Per Gynt" introduces us to the Norwegian village. The protagonist of Per - the guy from this settlement. His father, Yogan Gynt, was once a respected man, but later drank himself and lost all his fortune. Peru really wants to return everything that his father squandered. The young man is prone to fantasize, boast, imagine himself a brave hero.

Mother Pera Oz very much loves her son and worries that he is too popular with girls. She offers the young man to take as his wife the daughter of the Ingrid farmer. But he falls in love with the daughter of a sectarian peasant - Solveig. The wedding did take place, but Per soon abandoned Ingrid, as fascinated by the unusual Solveig. The boy had to hide.

Then the plot of "Per Gynt" is transferred to the forest. On the way of the hero there is a Woman in the Green Cloak, whose father was Dovrsky King. Peru wanted to marry her and become a prince. The old man of Dov tries to impose an impossible condition for a young man - to become a troll. The inhabitants of the forest beat the guy, but Oze and Solveig come to the rescue, who loves him immensely.

It would seem that everything goes to happiness, but suddenly the daughter of the Dovre old man brings Peru a little monster and says that this is his son, who is ready to kill his father with an ax. She demands that you leave Sol in Solveig. He rushes to the run. Before leaving, he manages to visit his sick mother.

So 50 years passed. Per Gynt became a successful man and a gun dealer. Once he gets to a company of monkeys, to which he also was able to adapt. Then fate leads him to the Sahara desert, he meets with the Arabs.

After this readers, a brief summary of "Per Gynt" is transferred to Egypt, where the hero imagines himself a historian and archaeologist. Being completely gray, he decides to return to his native place. After many vicissitudes at the threshold, he is joyfully greeted by the aged Solveig. It helped all these years to wait for her beloved that she saw him in himself. This is the summary of "Per Gynt" - a play where the hero is a visionary, a person who is not capable of acting, who does not find his place in life.

The main problems and themes of the play

Many literary critics believe that in the image of Per Gynt the author showed a typical hero of the XIX century. Per - an irresponsible opportunist, an unreliable person. The main problem is the illiteracy of Ibsen's contemporaries, which was inherent in bourgeois society. Many young people of that time did not have a special volitional rod. Ibsen very vividly raises the problem of the gray existence of the middle peasants. Per grew up on mother's fairy tales, that's why he became such an odious figure. Dreams and reality mingled in his mind. The theme of "Pera Gynt" is relevant to this day.

The meaning of Per Gynt's image

The main character of the poem of the famous playwright is the personification of the Norwegian people's ideology. It was mentioned above that it had a historical prototype. Ibsen enveloped him with legends and fiction, gave the features of his typical representative of his country. At first, Per appears as a brave and charming hero who has no purpose, like many other Scandinavian characters. The young man does not care where to go, he easily walks along an unknown path. His main fear is to be able to return in difficult cases. Per does not choose his surroundings - he communicates with trolls, slavers, monkeys ... The main thing is that everything is reversible.

The all-conquering power of love

Per Gynt did not fulfill his human destiny: he buried his talent as a poet, even he can not really sin. His creation was an ugly ugly troll. The hero sees how much Solveig loves him, torments his conscience. What did Gunt want? He so wanted to merge creativity and life ... Solveig waited his entire life for his beloved. At the end of the poem, the hero avoids punishment for his dissolute life, because his main creation was love.

Placement of the play on stage

Every year in the summer in Norway (Vinstra) there is a festival dedicated to the poem. It's just an incredible action under the open sky, which accurately conveys the color and mystery of the legends of the Norwegian people.

In 1993, Russian artist Antonina Kuznetsova performed with a solo performance "Per Gynt". In 2011, Anton Shagin played a major role in the play "Per Gynt", directed by Mark Zakharov. In Russia, performances with the same name were still staged in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

Music to the motifs of the poem

The famous composer Edward Grieg, a contemporary of Ibsen, wrote wonderful music for the play "Per Gynt". Already in the XX century, composer Werner Egk released the opera of the same name. In 1986, Ballet was staged from three acts with the epilogue of Alfred Schnittke.

The screen version of the poem

Beginning in 1915, Ibsen's work was filmed 12 times. It was done in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, France, Hungary, Norway. In 2006, director Uwe Janson released the latest version of the movie "Per Gynt".

Importance of the work in world culture

Only love makes a person whole and gives meaning to his life - this Ibsen idea has firmly passed into the world culture. In the Norwegian city of Oslo a sculpture park was created by Per Gynt. The famous artist N. Roerich made beautiful scenery for the production of the play at the Moscow Art Theater. Astronomers in honor of one of the heroines of the poem called the asteroid Aas. The image of Per Gynt in the world culture is as eternal as the images of Don Quixote, Faust, Prince Myshkin, Odysseus ... He carries away many creative people, thanks to which Ibsen gained world fame.