Henrik Ibsen

When We Dead Awaken Henrik Ibsen

Ibsen's last play and his most confessional work, it is an examination of the problem that had obsessed him throughout his career: the struggle between art and life. Arnold Rubek, a famous sculptor, is vacationing at a mountain resort. There he meets Irene von Satow, a former model of his, whose love he had rejected years ago because of his plan to consecrate his life to his art."When We Dead Awaken" was Henrik Ibsen's final drama. It is the story of a married couple, Arnold and Maia Rubek who while traveling find themselves romantically drawn to others, in the case of Maia it is Ulfheim, a brutal hunter, who is the object of her desire, for Arnold it is Irene, a beautiful woman from his past. In these desires the two find themselves questioning the choices that they have made in life and whether or not they have ever really lived at all. One of Ibsen's most despairing plays; in its tragic conclusion it is as if Ibsen is asking if the fulfillment of life's desires is ever really achievable.