The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 11 (of 11)

In Short

This volume gathers three of Henrik Ibsen's final plays: Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman, and When We Dead Awaken. Across these late dramas, ruined marriages, broken family bonds, and frozen ambitions unravel in the wake of sudden tragedy or long-buried guilt. Husbands, wives, and former lovers confront the bitter truths of their past choices, realizing too late that they have sacrificed genuine emotional life for grand ideals, power, or artistic glory. Ibsen’s enduring mastery lies in his relentless psychological precision, stripping away domestic illusions to reveal the harrowing cost of selfish devotion.

The Story

The volume opens with Little Eyolf, where the fragile peace of Alfred and Rita Allmers is shattered when their disabled son, Eyolf, is drawn away by the mysterious Rat-Wife and drowns in the fjord. As the boy lies at the bottom of the water with great, open eyes, the grieving parents turn on each other in bitter recrimination. Rita admits her fierce jealousy of the child’s claim on Alfred's affections, while Alfred grapples with his emotional detachment and his incestuous undertones regarding his half-sister, Asta. With Eyolf gone, Asta chooses to depart with the engineer Borgheim, forcing Alfred and Rita to face their empty home and rebuild their life through quiet, humble service to local needy children.

In John Gabriel Borkman, a disgraced former bank manager hides in his upstairs room, pacing like a caged animal five years after serving time for financial ruin. Downstairs, his estranged wife, Gunhild, harbors fierce resentment, placing all her hopes on their son, Erhart, to restore the family name. The arrival of Gunhild's terminally ill twin sister, Ella Rentheim—whom Borkman once abandoned to secure his financial rise—sparks a battle for Erhart's allegiance. Borkman defends his grand vision of exploiting the earth's resources for the common good, but Ella confronts him with his true crime: murdering the love-life within her soul. Erhart rejects both his mother’s suffocating expectations and his aunt’s dying pleas, choosing instead to flee to warmer climes with the seductive Mrs. Wilton. Devastated and resolute, Borkman wanders out into a freezing winter night accompanied by Ella, dying on the snow-covered mountain as the two sisters join hands over his body.

Finally, When We Dead Awaken follows the aging sculptor Professor Arnold Rubek, who returns to a Norwegian coastal resort with his younger, dissatisfied wife, Maia. Rubek feels his artistic inspiration has dried up, leaving him churning out commercial portrait-busts with hidden animal faces. His world shifts when he meets Irene, the enigmatic, ghost-like woman who once served as his pure model for his masterwork, "The Resurrection Day." Irene accuses Rubek of exploiting her soul for his art and discarding her humanity, rendering her metaphorically dead. Meanwhile, Maia escapes into the wild mountains with the rugged bear-hunter Ulfheim. Rubek and Irene attempt to reclaim their lost youth and passion by climbing toward the high mountain peaks, only to be swept away and buried by a sudden, roaring avalanche while Maia sings of her freedom below.

How It Unfolds

A strange visitor arrives The eerie Rat-Wife visits the Allmers household with her small dog in a bag, offering to lure away unwanted creatures. Young Eyolf follows her to the pier, falls into the water, and drowns in the deep undertow.

Accusations in the wake of tragedy Alfred and Rita confront the devastating reality of their son's death, exposing their marital friction and mutual resentment. Rita confesses she wished Eyolf would not stand between them, prompting Alfred to accuse her of harboring evil desires.

A sister’s surprise visit Ella Rentheim arrives unannounced at the Borkman estate after years of silence to see her twin, Gunhild. Ella reveals she is dying and demands that her nephew Erhart live with her and carry her name.

Confronting the fallen financier Ella goes upstairs to confront John Gabriel Borkman in his self-imposed isolation. She accuses him of committing an unpardonable sin by bartering away their love for financial power, while he defends his grand industrial dreams.

The youth choose freedom Erhart Borkman rejects both his mother's heavy ambitions and his aunt's desperate affection, choosing to run away with Mrs. Wilton. Meanwhile, Borkman walks out into the blinding snowstorm and perishes from a heart of ice.

Reencounter at the spa Professor Arnold Rubek meets his former muse, Irene, at a seaside resort, where she accuses him of killing her soul when he treated her merely as a model for his masterpiece.

Ascent into the storm Rubek and Irene leave their pasts behind to seek a mystical reunion at the Peak of Promise. As an avalanche sweeps them away to their deaths, Maia's song of liberty echoes from the valley below.

The People

• Alfred Allmers: A scholar who abandons his book on human responsibility after his son's death. He struggles with emotional self-absorption and an unhealthy attachment to his half-sister.
• Rita Allmers: Alfred’s wealthy, passionate wife. She demands her husband’s undivided affection and feels intense jealousy toward her own child, eventually seeking redemption in charitable work.
• John Gabriel Borkman: A disgraced bank director who served prison time for embezzlement. He remains convinced of his own grand mission to master the earth's resources and refuses to admit guilt.
• Ella Rentheim: Gunhild's terminally ill twin sister. She raised Erhart as a child and confronts Borkman for trading away their mutual love in exchange for political and financial advancement.
• Gunhild Borkman: Borkman’s cold, bitter wife. She lives in isolation, despising her ruined husband and fixating on her son Erhart as the sole vessel to restore the family honor.
• Professor Arnold Rubek: An acclaimed, elderly sculptor who has lost his artistic vision. He realizes too late that sacrificing human warmth for aesthetic fame left his life empty.
• Irene von Satow: Rubek’s former muse and model. Wandering like a living corpse, she holds Rubek accountable for destroying her capacity to love when he abandoned her after completing his statue.
• Maia Rubek: Rubek's vibrant, frustrated young wife. Bored by her husband's brooding melancholy, she eagerly flees with a coarse hunter to pursue physical freedom in the mountains.

In Its Own Voice

"Then stood the champagne, but you tasted it not."

Rita mockingly reminds Alfred of how he rejected her romantic advances on the evening he returned home, absorbed entirely in his solemn thoughts rather than her love.

"The great, unpardonable sin is to murder the love-life in a human soul."

Ella Rentheim confronts Borkman in his gallery, defining his ultimate betrayal not as financial ruin, but as the deliberate destruction of their mutual emotional life for ambition.

"I am free! I am free! I am free! No more life in the prison for me!"

Maia sings this triumphant refrain from the lower slopes of the mountain as she abandons her lifeless marriage, oblivious to the avalanche burying Rubek and Irene above.

What It's Really About

These plays probe the catastrophic price of choosing abstractions—whether financial power, intellectual perfection, or aesthetic glory—over genuine human love. Ibsen presents characters who entomb themselves alive within their own pride, resentment, or obsessive ambitions. The underlying drama asks whether spiritual resurrection is possible once a person has murdered the emotional life in themselves or others. Through symbolic landscapes of cold fjords, dark galleries, and frozen glaciers, the text argues that living without warmth is a form of death. Liberation comes only through radical self-honesty, though often too late to save the characters from physical destruction.

Why Read It Today

This collection appeals to readers drawn to intense psychological drama, haunting symbolism, and razor-sharp dialogue. Reading these final works offers a rare glimpse into a master playwright stripping away theatrical conventions to examine core human vulnerabilities. The experience is intimate and melancholic, characterized by an icy clarity that lingers long after the final lines.

The primary difficulty for modern readers lies in the unsparing, somber tone and the relentless focus on tragic self-deception. The characters are rarely likable; their severe choices and heavy, elevated discourse reflect 19th-century theatrical stylization and philosophical gravity. Yet what stays with you is Ibsen's uncompromising honesty regarding domestic isolation and spiritual regret. The haunting image of two twin sisters holding hands over a frozen corpse, or a mother haunted by the open eyes of her drowned child, provides an unforgettable indictment of lives lived without warmth. Anyone interested in modern drama, dark character studies, or the human cost of artistic obsession will find this volume deeply rewarding.