Brand (play)
Encyclopedia
Brand is a play
by the Norwegian
playwright
Henrik Ibsen
. It is a verse tragedy
, written in 1865 and first performed in Stockholm
on 24 March 1867. Brand was an intellectual
play that provoked much original thought.
Brand is a priest who wants to take consequence of his choices, and is therefore deeply bound to doing the "right thing". He believes primarily in the will of man, and lives by the device "all or nothing". To make compromises is therefore difficult, or by his moral standards questionable at best. His picture of God is clearly derived from the Old Testament
. His beliefs render him lonely in the end, as people around him, when put to the test, as a rule can not or will not follow his example. Brand is arguably a young idealist with a main purpose: to save the world, or at least Man's soul. His visions are great, but his judgement of others may seem harsh and unfair.
. Brand taunts Einar for portraying God as an old man, who "sees through his fingers", and wants to envision God as a young, heroic saviour. He means that people have become too sloppy about their sins and shortcomings, because of the dogma
that Christ
, through his sacrifice, cleansed humanity once and for all.
In the end, Brand vows to take a fight, mainly in his own soul, with those three "minds" he just met: The lazy mind (the farmer), the wild mind (Gerd), and the easy-goer (Einar). He ponders Man's purpose, and the difference between what is, and what should be. Here, we find the famous sentence: What you are, be fully, not in parts and pieces.
, telling of her husband who needs absolution, because he, in dire need, killed one of his children rather than seeing him starve. Then he harmed himself. Nobody dares to venture the high sea, but Brand goes in a boat and, to his surprise, Agnes follows him. Together, they sail across, and the man gets his absolution. Brand muses over the remaining children, and what this experience might do to them, when a couple of farmers show up and demand that he stay with them as their priest. Brand is reluctant to do this, but they use his own words against him, and he gives in.
Agnes, sitting on the beach, looks into herself, and tells of an "inner world being born", in one of Ibsen's best known soliloquies. She renounces her former fiancée Einar and goes with Brand. In the end of the second act, we meet Brand's mother, and learn that he grew up under the glacier, in a dreary place with no sun. His mother robbed his father while he was on his deathbed, and as a consequence, Brand does not want her money, but she urges him to take it.
On the question of his son's health, the doctor points out that it is right to be "humane", whereas Brand answers: "Was God humane towards his son?" He states that by modern standards, the sacrifice of Christ would have boiled down to a "diplomatic heavenly charter", and no more. He clearly means there's a difference between being a "human", and being a "humanist". In the end he almost gives in, but the farmers come to him and plead with him to stay. Then Gerd shows up, and states that evil forces will prevail if he leaves. The final straw is when she points out that the son is his "false god". Then he gives in and stays, knowing this will take his son's life. It is clear, however, that he wants Agnes to choose for him, and she answers: "Go the road your God appointed for you".
The local mayor is mostly opposing him, but tells him that he has rising support in the parish and of his plans for a jail/labor facility. He also tells him how his mother was forced to break bonds with her true love, and married an old miser instead. The boy then became father of Gerd, while Brand is the result of the other, clearly loveless affair. During the act, a beggar-woman arrives, demanding clothes for her freezing child (it's Christmas Eve). Brand then puts Agnes to the test, and gradually, all her dead child's clothes are given to the beggar-woman. As a result of this, Agnes renounces her life, and exclaims "I'm free". Brand accepts with effort, and Agnes dies.
Brand understands that his new and bigger church is too small, and rebels against the authorities, the local dean and the mayor. The provost
talks about getting people to heaven "by the parish", and denounces individual thinking. The provost's speech should be examined in detail, also because he has a vision of the masses "marching with equal steps" towards salvation, and stressing that egality matters more to the church than freedom. This speech has been interpreted as holding a fascist undertone. In fact, the provost mentions that the ideal of a religious leader is "a corporal
" that shall hold the masses in line. Rendered in Norwegian, the word "fører-ideal" is used in this passus (rhyming on corporal), something that to Norwegian (and German) ears easily could be interpreted as a foreshadowing of Hitler (fører = führer). Brand's answers to this are mostly sarcastic. The provost ends his speech mentioning the "erasing of God in the soul of man", something he seems to approve. Brand, of course, wants the opposite: individual freedom and a clear picture of God in man's soul.
Einar returns as a gloomy missionary
soon after the provost's friendly speech. He has worked out a view of life that makes Brand shiver. Whereas Brand mourns the loss of his wife, Einar in the end thinks her death was righteous, because he regards her as a female seducer. Upon learning this, Brand shoves him off.
In the end, Brand protests the heavy plight lain upon him by his elders, and throws the key to the church into the river and makes for the mountain with the entire parish following him. He holds a great speech, and urges the people to "lift their faith", to make their Christianity
surge through their entire existence, and in a way make a "Church without limits", that is meant to embrace all sides of life. In the end, he states that they all shall be priests in the task of relieving all people in the country from mental thralldom. To this, the local clergy protest, because they no longer have any sway over their flock. He is greatly loved and respected by the commoners, but the test is in the end too hard. They are lured down again by the mayor, who fakes news of great economical opportunity (a great amount of fish in the sea). The same people who followed him, then chase him with stones in their hands.
Brand is then left alone, struggling with doubt, remorse, and temptation, "the spirit of compromise". He does not yield to it, even when the spirit claims to be Agnes, something Brand doubts. The spirit says that the fall of man
forever closed the gates to Paradise
, but Brand states that the road of longing
is still open. Then the spirit flees and says: "Die! The world does not need you!". Brand meets Gerd again, who thinks she sees the saviour in him, and Brand denies this, of course. At the very end of the play, Gerd takes him to the glacier, her personal church, and Brand recoils when understanding where he is, the "Ice-cathedral". He breaks down in tears. Gerd, being a hunter from the start of the play, fires a shot at the hawk, and lets loose a great avalanche, which in the end buries the entire valley.
In his dying words at the end of the play, Brand screams out to God, asking, "Does not salvation consider the will of man?" The final words are from an unknown voice: "He is the god of love." What this line means has been debated. One interpretation is that Brand left love out of his account (a popular statement). Another might be that, being the god of love, God does not forget Brand after all.
. A crucial point is the discussion about the absence of love
, and the sacrifice of Christ
. As a consequence, the imitation of Christ
can be regarded as a theme of the play (cf. Thomas à Kempis
). A key to this interpretation is found in the name of Agnes, clearly derived from Agnus Dei, the lamb of God
or the sacrificial lamb. One should be aware that Brand never asks anyone to sacrifice themselves for his cause. He rather warns them off, if they wish to pledge themselves to him - as is the case of Agnes. But when she chooses, Brand reminds her of the moral consequence of that choice - it is final, and there is no turning back. Agnes chooses anyway, both the sweet and the bitter.
One can also see a discussion in the play about what the Christian message really means, and what God's purpose with man really is. At one point Brand says: The goal is to become blackboards for God to write upon. A reminiscence of this is found in Peer Gynt: I was a paper, and was never written upon. The topics of the two plays are clearly related.
The play was Ibsen's breakthrough as playwright and author. Ibsen was himself fond of the character, and claimed that Brand was "himself in his best moments".
`s vision in his great poem Man. His rebellion against the clergy, whom he feels are leading people astray rather than in the right direction, is also foreshadowed by Wergeland. He states here that "the spirit of compromise", a mentality he struggles to get free from all the way, is none other than Satan
. When he is tempted later, we should be aware of this.
From the beginning, Brand wishes to make man whole, because he is aware that there has been a split, a sundering somewhere in the past, and he wishes to fight a fragmented view of man and God
. This fragmentation makes man weak, he states, and an easy prey to temptation
- a result of the fall of man
. The definition of wholeness as a greater good and fragmentarism as a bad thing, is a philosophical statement, originally derived from Plato
and Pythagoras
. The sentence about a Christianity that embraces all sides of life, resembles the view of the Danish priest Grundtvig
.
Throughout the play, we see that Brand looks for the right way to solve this problem, and makes new discoveries as he moves forward. One can also interpret the entire play as a tale of a developing soul, struggling with his connection to God. In this view, the collapse at the very end is a collapse of Brand's conflicting self, and the disaster opens a closed road for him. Thus, the final words of Gerd makes sense, as she finally manages to shoot the great hawk, with the words: "Salvation comes". This interpretation makes Gerd a restless voice in Brand's soul.
The play can also be seen as a discussion of romanticism and reality, in a quite disillusional way. Ibsen at this stage leaves romanticism well behind, and moves on to greater realism.
Some also consider Brand's character to have been based on the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard
(Ibsen introduced his works to Scandinavia). Kierkegaard gave an essential place in his philosophy to the opposition between faith and reason, the importance of making decisive choices and suffering in the name of God, and whose life ended during an official attack he led against the church of his country (which he thought perverted the original Christian message, making it an empty religion).
Otto Weininger
saw the play as expressing a deep understanding of Kantian ethics:-
and the acknowledgement of a fragmented soul.
Problems in interpretation of the character arise even more when considering: what kind of people today are willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause? Before getting into that discussion, one has to consider what the cause of Brand really is. The answer to that question can only come through thorough examination of Ibsen's text.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
. It is a verse tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
, written in 1865 and first performed in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
on 24 March 1867. Brand was an intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
play that provoked much original thought.
Brand is a priest who wants to take consequence of his choices, and is therefore deeply bound to doing the "right thing". He believes primarily in the will of man, and lives by the device "all or nothing". To make compromises is therefore difficult, or by his moral standards questionable at best. His picture of God is clearly derived from the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
. His beliefs render him lonely in the end, as people around him, when put to the test, as a rule can not or will not follow his example. Brand is arguably a young idealist with a main purpose: to save the world, or at least Man's soul. His visions are great, but his judgement of others may seem harsh and unfair.
First act
At the beginning of the play, we find Brand in the mountains, and confronting three different kinds of people: a farmer, who doesn't dare to brave an unsure glacier on behalf of his dying daughter, the crazy beggar-girl Gerd, who claims to know a bigger church in the hills, and hunts for a great hawk, and finally, Einar, a young painter with an easy-going attitude, and his fiancée, Agnes. Einar and Brand were in school together, and their conversation ends in a long discussion about the envisioning of GodGod
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. Brand taunts Einar for portraying God as an old man, who "sees through his fingers", and wants to envision God as a young, heroic saviour. He means that people have become too sloppy about their sins and shortcomings, because of the dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
that Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, through his sacrifice, cleansed humanity once and for all.
In the end, Brand vows to take a fight, mainly in his own soul, with those three "minds" he just met: The lazy mind (the farmer), the wild mind (Gerd), and the easy-goer (Einar). He ponders Man's purpose, and the difference between what is, and what should be. Here, we find the famous sentence: What you are, be fully, not in parts and pieces.
Second act
Brand enters the valley in which he was born, and finds great famine and need. The local mayor distributes bread for the hungry in strict rations, and Brand questions the need for it. Meanwhile, a mother comes from the other side of the fjordFjord
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...
, telling of her husband who needs absolution, because he, in dire need, killed one of his children rather than seeing him starve. Then he harmed himself. Nobody dares to venture the high sea, but Brand goes in a boat and, to his surprise, Agnes follows him. Together, they sail across, and the man gets his absolution. Brand muses over the remaining children, and what this experience might do to them, when a couple of farmers show up and demand that he stay with them as their priest. Brand is reluctant to do this, but they use his own words against him, and he gives in.
Agnes, sitting on the beach, looks into herself, and tells of an "inner world being born", in one of Ibsen's best known soliloquies. She renounces her former fiancée Einar and goes with Brand. In the end of the second act, we meet Brand's mother, and learn that he grew up under the glacier, in a dreary place with no sun. His mother robbed his father while he was on his deathbed, and as a consequence, Brand does not want her money, but she urges him to take it.
Third act
Some years later, Brand and Agnes live together with their son, Ulf, who is grievously ill because of the climate. The local doctor urges him to leave for the sake of his son, and he hesitates. Meanwhile, his mother is dying, and Brand impresses on her that she will not get her priest unless she gives all her money to charity. She refuses to do so, and so Brand refuses to go to her.On the question of his son's health, the doctor points out that it is right to be "humane", whereas Brand answers: "Was God humane towards his son?" He states that by modern standards, the sacrifice of Christ would have boiled down to a "diplomatic heavenly charter", and no more. He clearly means there's a difference between being a "human", and being a "humanist". In the end he almost gives in, but the farmers come to him and plead with him to stay. Then Gerd shows up, and states that evil forces will prevail if he leaves. The final straw is when she points out that the son is his "false god". Then he gives in and stays, knowing this will take his son's life. It is clear, however, that he wants Agnes to choose for him, and she answers: "Go the road your God appointed for you".
Fourth act
After the death of his son, Brand schemes to build a bigger church in the parish. The old one is too small to cope with his visions. He has hardened somewhat, and refuses to mourn. Agnes comforts herself with the clothes of her dead child.The local mayor is mostly opposing him, but tells him that he has rising support in the parish and of his plans for a jail/labor facility. He also tells him how his mother was forced to break bonds with her true love, and married an old miser instead. The boy then became father of Gerd, while Brand is the result of the other, clearly loveless affair. During the act, a beggar-woman arrives, demanding clothes for her freezing child (it's Christmas Eve). Brand then puts Agnes to the test, and gradually, all her dead child's clothes are given to the beggar-woman. As a result of this, Agnes renounces her life, and exclaims "I'm free". Brand accepts with effort, and Agnes dies.
Fifth act
Brand gets his new church built (in the 1860s, many old Norwegian churches were replaced by newer and bigger ones).Brand understands that his new and bigger church is too small, and rebels against the authorities, the local dean and the mayor. The provost
Provost (religion)
A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.-Historical Development:The word praepositus was originally applied to any ecclesiastical ruler or dignitary...
talks about getting people to heaven "by the parish", and denounces individual thinking. The provost's speech should be examined in detail, also because he has a vision of the masses "marching with equal steps" towards salvation, and stressing that egality matters more to the church than freedom. This speech has been interpreted as holding a fascist undertone. In fact, the provost mentions that the ideal of a religious leader is "a corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
" that shall hold the masses in line. Rendered in Norwegian, the word "fører-ideal" is used in this passus (rhyming on corporal), something that to Norwegian (and German) ears easily could be interpreted as a foreshadowing of Hitler (fører = führer). Brand's answers to this are mostly sarcastic. The provost ends his speech mentioning the "erasing of God in the soul of man", something he seems to approve. Brand, of course, wants the opposite: individual freedom and a clear picture of God in man's soul.
Einar returns as a gloomy missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
soon after the provost's friendly speech. He has worked out a view of life that makes Brand shiver. Whereas Brand mourns the loss of his wife, Einar in the end thinks her death was righteous, because he regards her as a female seducer. Upon learning this, Brand shoves him off.
In the end, Brand protests the heavy plight lain upon him by his elders, and throws the key to the church into the river and makes for the mountain with the entire parish following him. He holds a great speech, and urges the people to "lift their faith", to make their Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
surge through their entire existence, and in a way make a "Church without limits", that is meant to embrace all sides of life. In the end, he states that they all shall be priests in the task of relieving all people in the country from mental thralldom. To this, the local clergy protest, because they no longer have any sway over their flock. He is greatly loved and respected by the commoners, but the test is in the end too hard. They are lured down again by the mayor, who fakes news of great economical opportunity (a great amount of fish in the sea). The same people who followed him, then chase him with stones in their hands.
Brand is then left alone, struggling with doubt, remorse, and temptation, "the spirit of compromise". He does not yield to it, even when the spirit claims to be Agnes, something Brand doubts. The spirit says that the fall of man
The Fall of Man
In Christian doctrine, the Fall of Man, or simply the Fall, refers to the transition of the first humans from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience to God. In Genesis chapter 2, Adam and Eve live at first with God in a paradise, but the serpent tempts them into...
forever closed the gates to Paradise
Paradise
Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
, but Brand states that the road of longing
Longing
Longing may refer to:*"Longing", an emotion characterized by a strong feeling of desire.*Longing , an unreleased 1974 album by singer Dusty Springfield*"Longing" , a song by Japanese metal band X Japan...
is still open. Then the spirit flees and says: "Die! The world does not need you!". Brand meets Gerd again, who thinks she sees the saviour in him, and Brand denies this, of course. At the very end of the play, Gerd takes him to the glacier, her personal church, and Brand recoils when understanding where he is, the "Ice-cathedral". He breaks down in tears. Gerd, being a hunter from the start of the play, fires a shot at the hawk, and lets loose a great avalanche, which in the end buries the entire valley.
In his dying words at the end of the play, Brand screams out to God, asking, "Does not salvation consider the will of man?" The final words are from an unknown voice: "He is the god of love." What this line means has been debated. One interpretation is that Brand left love out of his account (a popular statement). Another might be that, being the god of love, God does not forget Brand after all.
Topics
The play debates freedom of will and the consequential choice. The problem is further debated in Peer GyntPeer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
. A crucial point is the discussion about the absence of love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
, and the sacrifice of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
. As a consequence, the imitation of Christ
Imitation of Christ (book)
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis is a Christian devotional book. It was first composed in Latin ca.1418-1427. It is a handbook for spiritual life arising from the Devotio Moderna movement, where Kempis was a member...
can be regarded as a theme of the play (cf. Thomas à Kempis
Thomas à Kempis
Thomas à Kempis was a late Medieval Catholic monk and the probable author of The Imitation of Christ, which is one of the best known Christian books on devotion. His name means, "Thomas of Kempen", his home town and in German he is known as Thomas von Kempen...
). A key to this interpretation is found in the name of Agnes, clearly derived from Agnus Dei, the lamb of God
Lamb of God
The title Lamb of God appears in the Gospel of John, with the exclamation of John the Baptist: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" in John 1:29 when he sees Jesus....
or the sacrificial lamb. One should be aware that Brand never asks anyone to sacrifice themselves for his cause. He rather warns them off, if they wish to pledge themselves to him - as is the case of Agnes. But when she chooses, Brand reminds her of the moral consequence of that choice - it is final, and there is no turning back. Agnes chooses anyway, both the sweet and the bitter.
One can also see a discussion in the play about what the Christian message really means, and what God's purpose with man really is. At one point Brand says: The goal is to become blackboards for God to write upon. A reminiscence of this is found in Peer Gynt: I was a paper, and was never written upon. The topics of the two plays are clearly related.
The play was Ibsen's breakthrough as playwright and author. Ibsen was himself fond of the character, and claimed that Brand was "himself in his best moments".
Brand's vision
Brand's vision is arguably a romantic one, and his address in the fifth act resembles in a way Henrik WergelandHenrik Wergeland
Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist...
`s vision in his great poem Man. His rebellion against the clergy, whom he feels are leading people astray rather than in the right direction, is also foreshadowed by Wergeland. He states here that "the spirit of compromise", a mentality he struggles to get free from all the way, is none other than Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
. When he is tempted later, we should be aware of this.
From the beginning, Brand wishes to make man whole, because he is aware that there has been a split, a sundering somewhere in the past, and he wishes to fight a fragmented view of man and God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. This fragmentation makes man weak, he states, and an easy prey to temptation
Temptation
A temptation is an act that looks appealing to an individual. It is usually used to describe acts with negative connotations and as such, tends to lead a person to regret such actions, for various reasons: legal, social, psychological , health, economic, etc...
- a result of the fall of man
The Fall of Man
In Christian doctrine, the Fall of Man, or simply the Fall, refers to the transition of the first humans from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience to God. In Genesis chapter 2, Adam and Eve live at first with God in a paradise, but the serpent tempts them into...
. The definition of wholeness as a greater good and fragmentarism as a bad thing, is a philosophical statement, originally derived from Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Pythagoras
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
. The sentence about a Christianity that embraces all sides of life, resembles the view of the Danish priest Grundtvig
Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig
Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig , most often referred to as simply N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher, and politician. He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in...
.
Throughout the play, we see that Brand looks for the right way to solve this problem, and makes new discoveries as he moves forward. One can also interpret the entire play as a tale of a developing soul, struggling with his connection to God. In this view, the collapse at the very end is a collapse of Brand's conflicting self, and the disaster opens a closed road for him. Thus, the final words of Gerd makes sense, as she finally manages to shoot the great hawk, with the words: "Salvation comes". This interpretation makes Gerd a restless voice in Brand's soul.
The play can also be seen as a discussion of romanticism and reality, in a quite disillusional way. Ibsen at this stage leaves romanticism well behind, and moves on to greater realism.
Some also consider Brand's character to have been based on the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish Christian philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was a critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel...
(Ibsen introduced his works to Scandinavia). Kierkegaard gave an essential place in his philosophy to the opposition between faith and reason, the importance of making decisive choices and suffering in the name of God, and whose life ended during an official attack he led against the church of his country (which he thought perverted the original Christian message, making it an empty religion).
Otto Weininger
Otto Weininger
Otto Weininger was an Austrian philosopher. In 1903, he published the book Geschlecht und Charakter , which gained popularity after his suicide at the age of 23...
saw the play as expressing a deep understanding of Kantian ethics:-
Problems in modern interpretation
In recent years, the character of Brand has been fairly misunderstood, and he is often regarded as an unsympathetic, fundamentalistic and conservative man. In many ways, his view of life is rather too radical for his peers, who fail to understand him. While Ibsen states an open ending, as he does in most cases, modern instructors often condemn Brand where Ibsen does not. The attitude of Brand is regarded as dangerous and unfitting, apt to give readers or viewers bad conscience. The Norwegian judgement of Brand and Peer Gynt often goes in favour of Peer, and disregards Brand. One could interpret this change in judgement of the character as a consequence of postmodernismPostmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
and the acknowledgement of a fragmented soul.
Problems in interpretation of the character arise even more when considering: what kind of people today are willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause? Before getting into that discussion, one has to consider what the cause of Brand really is. The answer to that question can only come through thorough examination of Ibsen's text.
External links
- Brand, freely available at Project RunebergProject RunebergProject Runeberg is an initiative patterned after Project Gutenberg that publishes freely available electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries...
- Brand, free PDF ebook with hyperlinked word list (Norwegian text).