Epilogue to Ibsen’s «Ghosts» by James Joyce. Short summary

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The protagonist is Captain Alving, on whose behalf the story is told. He is the creator of parodies of Ibsen’s earlier dramatic techniques (e.g., The Terrible Hint).

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The protagonist of the work is Captain Alving, on whose behalf the narrative is conducted. The latter is a comic parody of the dramaturgical devices that Ibsen liked to use in his time (The Terrible Hint, for example, as well as The Spreading Sin). During the development of the storyline, it becomes known that the aforementioned creator has 2 children — a healthy illegitimate girl Regina, as well as a boy Oswald, who suffers from manifestations of a congenital disease.

Alving, obsessed with finding out the truth, tries on the role of Hamlet. He recalls that there was once a romantic relationship formed between his wife and the priest Manders. The protagonist begins to suspect that Oswald is not his child. The man believes that the boy’s real father is the pastor.

Alving cynically claims that the sins he has had provided the material for a masterpiece whose value cannot be determined.