# data[].attributes.headline
Common features / contrast with The Red and The Black

# data[].attributes.subject
Common features / contrast with The Red and The Black

# data[].attributes.body
The quest for grandeur and power

Selfish romantic antiheroes with a certain charm that attracts women

Discovering other types of societies than the one they were born in

Different messages and lessons to be remembered

Find out more in my enriched essay "Peer Gynt : a Norwegian Julien Sorel ?"

# data[].attributes.headline
Take a quiz to find out how well you know the book !

# data[].attributes.subject
Take a quiz to find out how well you know the book !

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Take our free Peer Gynt quiz below, with 25 multiple choice questions that help you test your knowledge. Determine which chapters, themes and styles you already know and what you need to study for your upcoming essay, midterm, or final exam. Take the free quiz now!
Directions: Click on the correct answer.
Questions 1-5 of 25:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Take our free Peer Gynt quiz below, with 25 multiple choice questions that help you test your knowledge. Determine which chapters, themes and styles you already know and what you need to study for your upcoming essay, midterm, or final exam. Take the free quiz now! Directions: Click on the correct answer.

# data[].attributes.headline
What are the main themes and lessons that should be remembered from this book ? 

# data[].attributes.subject
What are the main themes and lessons that should be remembered from this book ? 

# data[].attributes.body
Peer represents moral hypocrites of his time and exploits others. He follows a selfish philosophy to satiate shallow superficial needs : acquiring power and wealth.

The important message there is to be oneself and to slay oneself : the spiritual purpose of life is to slay oneself, to slay the ego.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why is Peer Gynt considered to be a classic of literature ?

# data[].attributes.subject
Why is Peer Gynt considered to be a classic of literature ?

# data[].attributes.body
Peer Gynt is considered to be a classic thanks to its lyrical beauty.

It deals with the search for self, which is a humankind dilemma. Therefore, as it talks about universal and eternal dilemmas, it affects a lot of people, giving it its status of "classic".

# data[].attributes.headline
Peer is the one nineteenth-century literary character who has the largeness of the grandest characters of Renaissance imaginings. Dickens, Tolstoy, Stendhal, Hugo, even Balzac have no single figure quite so exuberant, outrageous, vitalistic as Peer Gynt.

# data[].attributes.subject
Peer is the one nineteenth-century literary character who has the largeness of the grandest characters of Renaissance imaginings. Dickens, Tolstoy, Stendhal, Hugo, even Balzac have no single figure quite so exuberant, outrageous, vitalistic as Peer Gynt.

# data[].attributes.body
- Harold Bloom

# data[].attributes.headline
The simplest conclusion one may draw from Peer Gynt, is expressed in the eloquent prose of the author: “If you lie; are you real?”

# data[].attributes.subject
The simplest conclusion one may draw from Peer Gynt, is expressed in the eloquent prose of the author: “If you lie; are you real?”

# data[].attributes.body
- Klaus van den Berg

# data[].attributes.body
Peer among the trolls

# data[].attributes.body
Finally, on his way home as an old man, he is shipwrecked. Among those on board, he meets the Strange Passenger, who wants to make use of Peer's corpse to find out where dreams have their origin.

Back home in Norway, Peer Gynt attends a peasant funeral and an auction, where he offers for sale everything from his earlier life. Peer stumbles along and is confronted with all that he did not do, his unsung songs, his unmade works, his unwept tears, and his questions that were never asked.

Peer escapes and is confronted with the Button-molder, who maintains that Peer's soul must be melted down with other faulty goods unless he can explain when and where in life he has been "himself". Peer protests. He has been only that, and nothing else. Then he meets the troll king, who states that Peer has been a troll, not a man, most of his life.

Peer despairs in the end, understanding that his life is forfeit; he is nothing. But at the same moment, Solveig starts to sing—the cabin Peer built is close at hand, but he dares not enter. The Bøyg in Peer tells him "go around". The Button-molder shows up and demands a list of sins, but Peer has none to give, unless Solveig can vouch for him. Then Peer breaks through to Solveig, asking her to forgive his sins. But she answers: "You have not sinned at all, my dearest boy."

# data[].attributes.body
Peer is away for many years, taking part in various occupations and playing various roles including that of a businessman engaged in enterprises on the coast of Morocco. Here, he explains his view of life, and we learn that he is a businessman taking part in unethical transactions, including sending heathen images to China and trading slaves.

His companions rob him, after he decides to support the Turks in suppressing a Greek revolt, and leave him alone on the shore.

Then he decides to become a historian and travels to Egypt. As he addresses the Sphinx, believing it to be the Bøyg, he encounters the keeper of the local madhouse, himself insane, who regards Peer as the bringer of supreme wisdom. Peer comes to the madhouse and understands that all of the patients live in their own worlds, being themselves to such a degree that no one cares for anyone else. In his youth, Peer had dreamt of becoming an emperor. In this place, he is finally hailed as one—the emperor of the "self".

# data[].attributes.body
As an outlaw, Peer struggles to build his own cottage in the hills. Solveig turns up and insists on living with him. She has made her choice, she says, and there will be no return for her. Peer is delighted and welcomes her, but as she enters the cabin, an elderly-appearing woman in green garments appears with a limping boy at her side.

This is the green-clad woman from the mountain hall, and her half-human brat is the child begotten by Peer from his mind during his stay there. She has cursed Peer by forcing him to remember her and all his previous sins, when facing Solveig. Peer hears a ghostly voice saying, "Go roundabout, Peer", and decides to leave. He tells Solveig he has something heavy to fetch. He returns in time for his mother's death, and then sets off overseas.

# data[].attributes.body
Peer is banished for kidnapping Ingrid. As he wanders the mountains, his mother, Åse, and Solveig's father search for him. Peer meets three amorous dairymaids who are waiting to be courted by trolls. He becomes highly intoxicated with them and spends the next day alone suffering from a hangover. He runs head-first into a rock and swoons, and the rest of the second act probably takes place in Peer's dreams.

He comes across a woman clad in green, who claims to be the daughter of the troll mountain king. Together they ride into the mountain hall, and the troll king gives Peer the opportunity to become a troll if Peer would marry his daughter. Peer agrees to a number of conditions, but declines in the end. He is then confronted with the fact that the green-clad woman is with child.

He then meets one of the most interesting characters, the Bøyg — a creature who has no real description. Asked the question "Who are you?" The Bøyg answers, "Myself".

Upon awaking, Peer is confronted by Helga, Solveig's sister, who gives him food and regards from her sister. Peer gives the girl a silver button for Solveig to keep and asks that she not forget him.

# data[].attributes.headline
ACT I: THE BUCKRIDE AND INGRID'S WEDDING

# data[].attributes.subject
ACT I: THE BUCKRIDE AND INGRID'S WEDDING

# data[].attributes.body
Peer gives an account of a reindeer hunt that went awry. His mother scorns him for his vivid imagination, and taunts him because he spoiled his chances with Ingrid, the daughter of the richest farmer. Peer leaves for Ingrid's wedding, scheduled for the following day, because he may still get a chance with the bride. His mother follows quickly to stop him from shaming himself completely.

At the wedding, the other guests taunt and laugh at Peer, especially the local blacksmith, Aslak, who holds a grudge after an earlier brawl. In the same wedding, Peer meets a family of Haugean newcomers from another valley. He instantly notices the elder daughter, Solveig, and asks her to dance. She refuses because her father would disapprove, and because Peer's reputation has preceded him. She leaves, and Peer starts drinking. When he hears the bride has locked herself in, he seizes the opportunity, runs away with her, and spends the night with her in the mountains.

# data[].attributes.headline
“Troll, be thyself - and thyself alone!” 

# data[].attributes.subject
“Troll, be thyself - and thyself alone!” 

# data[].attributes.body
- Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Marita Solberg  Solveig's song  Edvard Grieg  Peer Gynt

# data[].attributes.headline
What were the main sources of inspiration of Ibsen to write Peer Gynt ? 

# data[].attributes.subject
What were the main sources of inspiration of Ibsen to write Peer Gynt ? 

# data[].attributes.body
Ibsen applied for a grant to collect myths and fairy-tales in 1862, and luckily the government gave it to him. He wanted to travel to the western coast of Norway, where he believed there would be many unknown folktales.

On his way to the western coast, Ibsen travelled through the Gudbrandsdalen valley and over the Sognefjell mountains. He walked through the region where the stories about the local legend Per Gynt originate, and he might have been told these folk tales on this part of the journey.

# data[].attributes.body
It is a five-act play social satire, created to criticize the Norwegian romantic nationalist movement of the time. The play was written in verse and was not originally intended for a stage performance.

# data[].attributes.body
Ibsen asked his friend Edvard Grieg to set the play to music in 1874.

# data[].attributes.body
Some decors designed for Peer Gynt's representations

# data[].attributes.headline
“To think it, wish it, even want it —but do it! No, that I cannot understand.”

# data[].attributes.subject
“To think it, wish it, even want it —but do it! No, that I cannot understand.”

# data[].attributes.body
- Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt

# data[].attributes.headline
“To live is to war with trolls in heart and woul. To write is to sit in judgement on oneself.”

# data[].attributes.subject
“To live is to war with trolls in heart and woul. To write is to sit in judgement on oneself.”

# data[].attributes.body
- Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt

# data[].attributes.body
Henrik Ibsen was a major Norwegian playwright of the late 19th century who introduced to the European stage realistic contemporary plays that set out to expose social evils. He wrote plays about ordinary people, but from them he elicited insights of devastating directness, great subtlety, and occasional flashes of rare beauty. A Doll's House and Peer Gynt are his two most famous works.

# data[].attributes.body
To play while giving a glimpse at the padlet !

# data[].attributes.body
Peer Gynt : is an imaginative, lazy, self-indulgent young man who tries to find ways to gratify himself and avoid commitment. He's an opportunist who dreams of grandeur and power, and has a certain amount of charm
Åse : is Peer's mother and is frustrated by her son's laziness. Her death has a huge impact on Peer.

Solveig : is a lovely pure young girl who falls in love with Peer. When he finally returns to her, her love is maternal and forgiving.