This paper traces the evolution of the philosophical theme of freedom from Henrik Ibsen's model of social liberation to Jon Fosse's conception of freedom as an existential void. While Ibsen's A Doll's House culminates in Nora Helmer's iconic departure—a definitive act of emancipation from patriarchal and bourgeois institutions—it deliberately leaves a narrative and philosophical void concerning the experience of freedom itself. Jon Fosse, hailed as the "new Ibsen", directly occupies this void with his play Freedom. His work shifts the terrain of freedom from Ibsen's social stage to an existential landscape, staging a confrontation with the anxiety, loneliness, and "inner void" that absolute liberty can unveil. This analysis argues that where Ibsen's drama empowers the individual to break free from society, Fosse's questions whether the self can endure the burden of being free. Ultimately, the two playwrights together reframe freedom not as a state to be possessed, but as a perpetual and often tragic process of striving—a defining paradox of the modern condition.
Wang Wei (Wed,) studied this question.