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36
IBSEN
elect. He saw that the universe was some-
thing very different from what it was generally
to be : he saw the futility of popular
supposed
morals and popular metaphysics ; but he
neither swallowed the conventions nor threw
up his hands in despair, declaring the whole
thing to be an idiotic farce. He knew that
truth and goodness had nothing to do with law
but he never doubted that there
and custom ;
were such things ;
and he went beneath the
surface to find them. It was Ibsen's revelation
of a new world, in which moral values were real
and convincing, that thrilled the nineteenth
century, and thrills us yet. Can any one read
sedately that scene in Ghosts in which Mrs.
Alving shows with bewildering simplicity that,
however respectable the Pastor's morality
may be, it is pure wickedness ?
PASTOR MANDERS. You call it " cowardice " to do
that a son
your plain duty ? Have you forgotten
ought to love and honour his father and mother ?
MRS. ALVING. Do not let us talk in such general
terms. Let us ask : Ought Oswald to love and honour
Chamberlain ? Alving
MANDERS. Is there no voice in your mother's heart
that forbids you to destroy your son's ideals ?
MRS. ALVING. But what about the truth ?
MANDERS. But what about the ideals ?
MRS. ALVING. Oh ideals, ideals ! If only I were
not such a coward !