A review by kingofspain93
Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen

3.5

When you forced me under the yoke of what you called duty and obligation; when you lauded as right and proper what my whole soul rebelled against as something loathsome. It was then that I began to look into the seams of your doctrines. I wanted only to pick at a single knot; but when I had got that undone, the whole thing ravelled out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn.

In america alone there are ~380,000 religious congregations and 7 out of 10 people identify with some form of organized religion, so a natural byproduct of reading a still-relevant condemnation of the church written 100+ years ago is for me to feel fucking exhausted. Still, having never read Ibsen before his reputation as a feminist playwright holds up under scrutiny. I like especially that even progressive men are still shown as sexists who hold women emotionally captive for the purpose of their own apotheosis. Shout out to Regina, escaping. Bonus points for the attempt to de-moralize STDs and for a very pragmatic approach to brother-sister incest.