Ibsen's Symbolism 7 



" melancholy and pathological." But fortunately the analysis of 

 a man who has not lived up to the best that is in him is not melan- 

 choly and not even pathological. 



In 1882 Ibsen wrote to Bjornson : 



" So to conduct one's life as to realize one's self — this seems to 

 me the highest attainment possible to a human being. It is the 

 task of one and all of us, but most of us bungle it." Ten years 

 later he wrote The Master Builder which is dominated by this 

 thought. All of his subsequent plays are clearly based upon this 

 idea, but in When We Dead Awaken he centers his attention once 

 more upon this theme. He therefore called his last play the dra- 

 matic epilogue. 



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