About the work
Henrik Ibsen conceived Rosmersholm in the winter of 1884/85 and completed the manuscript on 27 September 1886; the play was published by Gyldendal in Copenhagen and Christiania on 23 November 1886, in an edition of 8,000 copies. The world premiere took place on 17 January 1887 at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen, directed by Gunnar Heiberg with Didi and Nicolai Halvorsen in the leading roles.
Plot
Former clergyman Johannes Rosmer has fallen increasingly under the influence of the freethinking Rebekka West since his wife Beate drowned herself in the millrace. When it emerges that Rebekka helped bring about Beate’s suicide through calculated hints, Rosmer is plunged into a deep crisis of conscience. In the end Rebekka refuses his proposal of marriage, and the two drown themselves together at the same spot where Beate died.
Cultural significance
Critics and audiences responded coolly at first, and the play was not reprinted until Ibsen’s collected edition of 1898–1900. It later became a much-cited reference point for psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud drew on the figure of Rebekka West to describe a neurotic character type shaped by unconscious guilt.