Henrik Ibsen Trivia

1. The opening of Act 2, and the second suite by Grieg is titled "The Abduction/Ingrid's Lament." Who, according to Ibsen's play, has abducted Ingrid?

From Quiz Peer Gynt - between Grieg and Ibsen

Answer: Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt's character is immediately put to work. In Act 1 the character was exposed as somewhat a dreamer, who was always at his tall tales. Ingrid was the bride-to-be at a wedding in Hegstad, but, having second thoughts, she'd locked herself away. Gynt was persuaded to talk her out, and then accused of running off with her.

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: She needed the money to save her husband's life

Nora borrowed the money to save her husband Torvald's life. In order to save his life, they needed to travel to Italy for a year.

From Quiz Peer Gynt - between Grieg and Ibsen

Answer: A three-headed troll

After learning that these three girls had lost their lovers, each to his various distractions, Gynt gladly rises to play his part as a three-headed troll who could handle the girls.

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Krogstad

Nils Krogstad was a morally-tainted man who had a bad reputation due to forging a signature earlier in his life and not being punished for it.

From Quiz Hedda Gabler

Answer: Father

General Gabler was not only a military man, but also an aristocrat. Tesman's Aunt Juliana remembers Hedda as a girl, proudly riding behind her father down the street, and is immensely proud that her nephew has succeeded in winning such a girl. Although Hedda's legal surname is Tesman, Ibsen used her maiden name as the title of the play. He explained the title of the play thus: "My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than her husband's wife."

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Macaroons

Torvald forbids Nora from eating macaroons because they will "ruin her teeth." However, Nora eats them anyway and lies to Torvald when asked if she has eaten any.

From Quiz Hedda Gabler

Answer: Autumn

The stage directions for Act I state that trees covered with autumn foliage can be seen through a glass door at the back of the stage. Later in the act, Hedda comments ruefully on the yellowing leaves outside, whereupon Tesman notes that it is already September. Hedda's wistful comments regarding the change of season and the approaching end of the year reflect her restlessness over the dead-end that her life seems to have reached in her marriage to the pedestrian academic Tesman.

From Quiz Peer Gynt - between Grieg and Ibsen

Answer: "Myself" ("Mig selv")

The answer here is a telling one. The theme of the remainder of the play is how any one character can be no more than himself. The Mountain King had said: "Among you humans you have a saying - man, be thyself..." And later when Peer meets an old German in Egypt, he states that the Boyg, too, is, "himself."

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Nils and Christine

It is revealed during the play that Nils and Christine had a relationship long before the events in the play took place. After meeting again, they rekindle their relationship together.

From Quiz Peer Gynt - between Grieg and Ibsen

Answer: Death & Död & Doed

The number is heard twice in the play, once as the overture to the third act, and once as the accompanying music to the scene, behind the curtain.

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Dr. Rank

Dr. Rank is a very close friend of both Nora and Torvald.

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Norway

The setting of the play is 1870s Norway.

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Rank

Dr. Rank suffers from an illness passed to him from his father, who indulged in a very sinful lifestyle.

From Quiz Hedda Gabler

Answer: She fires a pistol at him.

Judge Brack had called upon the Tesmans the previous day, and at the beginning of the play, George mentions that he had secured very favorable terms for the purchase of their home. Brack's relationship with Hedda is an interesting one; they both belonged to the same circle of friends, and clearly enjoy each other's conversation. At the same time, Brack seems intent upon dominating Hedda and she is just as intent upon not being dominated. The love/hate aspect of their relationship is illustrated by the bizarre manner in which Hedda greets Brack when he arrives: she aims and fires one of her father's pistols in his general direction. Although Brack is a bit alarmed by this, he is clearly not unused to this quirk of Hedda's, and upon examining the pistol, mentions that he is very familiar with it. Brack seems to have been an admirer of Hedda's, whose feelings for her were stronger than she was able to reciprocate. Unable to win her affections, Brack sets about to possess her by manipulation, which seems to have been his motive in securing the villa for her and George.

From Quiz Peer Gynt - between Grieg and Ibsen

Answer: Grieg set the song for voice and piano, and it became one of the best known among his art songs

It is set as a lullaby. In the play Solveig is singing to Peer Gynt out in the distance: "Winter may pass by... summer may come and the year could end... you will come back to me... that much I know..." It works well as a lullaby (certainly in Norwegian).

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Bank manager

At the beginning of the play, it is revealed that Torvald was recently promoted to manager of the bank.

From Quiz Peer Gynt - between Grieg and Ibsen

Answer: A lullaby

It is telling that the first line in the play is given to the title character's mother, the last to his lover. Solveig sings to Peer of motherly love, reminding him: "I will sing you to sleep, and I will wake you." Peer Gynt's final moments are heartwrenching when placed in the proper context onstage, and the harmonies and orchestration are underplayed to give the scene a hushed and haunted atmosphere. While Ibsen's play might have its flaws, Grieg's music was very well written. I would recommend seeing the play only in Norwegian with Grieg's music in the background. I hope you enjoyed the quiz.

From Quiz A Doll's House

Answer: Nora leaves Torvald

Nora eventually realizes that Torvald is not the man she thought he was, and she leaves him in order to better understand herself.

From Quiz Hedda Gabler

Answer: She was afraid of scandal.

Hedda's genuine dread of the slightest hint of scandal is one of her chief characteristics, and stands in sharp contrast to her wild nature and thirst for adventure. She has no fear of firearms; in fact playing with her father's pistols is her chief form of entertaining, much to Tesman's dismay. We may assume that the strictness of her upbringing has inverted her personality, driving her to manipulate others into doing what she herself dares not do. As we will see, her feelings for Lovborg will not prevent her from undermining his self-control and plotting his self-destruction.

From Quiz Hedda Gabler

Answer: That Thea had been terrified of losing him to another woman.

Knowing that Lovborg, with Mrs. Elvsted's support, has renounced his former vices, including alcohol, Hedda shrewdly (and ruthlessly) sets about to undermine his self-control and Thea's influence. She first points out to him that his refusal to touch alcohol has aroused the contempt of Judge Brack. When this fails to work, she tries another track: seeing the unblinking trust that Lovborg has in Thea- a trust which he assumes she shares- she reminds Thea of their visit that morning, during which Thea had expressed her fear that the mysterious woman from Lovborg's past would come between them. Hurt and angered at this revelation of Thea's distrust, Lovborg seizes a glass of punch and, after a toast to Thea's health, empties it. As Thea despairingly reproaches Hedda, Lovborg takes a second glass and downs it as well. He is about to refill it, but Hedda stops him; she has succeeded in shaking his self-control, as well as his trust in Thea. Although he subsequently apologizes to Thea and seems to have regained control of himself, he has taken his first step on the path to self-destruction.

From Quiz Hedda Gabler

Answer: She refuses to look upon sickness and death.

Poor Aunt Rina had apparently been an invalid for as long as anyone could remember. In Act I, when Aunt Juliana presents Tesman with his embroidered baby shoes, Tesman recalls fondly that Aunt Rina had embroidered them for him, despite the fact that she had been bedridden even then. Hedda resolutely refuses to accompany Tesman to his aunt's deathbed; she states that she will not look upon sickness and death, and that she loathes all sorts of ugliness. This statement helps to explain her subsequent state of despair in Act. IV when she hears from Judge Brack the sordid and loathsome details of Lovborg's death.

From Quiz Hedda Gabler

Answer: That she did it for his sake.

Hedda knows that Tesman will want to inform Lovborg that the manuscript is in his possession. To explain its absence she shrewdly admits to him that she had burned it, but that she did so for his own sake (the script specifies that she says this "Suppressing an almost imperceptible smile"). She tells him that she could not bear the thought of anyone putting him in the shade. This convinces Tesman that Hedda truly loves him, and the effect of this conviction on his typically staid, plodding demeanor provides a moment of high comedy before the tragic and shocking denouement of the play. Tesman is further overjoyed when Hedda hints that she is pregnant (something she had intimated to Aunt Juliana at the beginning of the act). Whether or not this is actually true is the source of some dispute; in the beginning of the play, Tesman calls attention several times (and much to Hedda's annoyance) that she has "filled out". This may intimate that she is with child, or merely that she has put on some weight (out of boredom?); in either case, Hedda is clearly uncomfortable with the suggestion.

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