Haunted by Absence - The Failures of Personal, Spiritual and Divine Paternity in Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts

The paper explores the multifaceted absence of fatherhood in Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, offering insight into its personal, social and divine dimensions. Through an interdisciplinary theoretical framework incorporating psychoanalysis (Freud, Jung, Greenson, Modell), sociology (Coltrane), philosophy (Nietzsche, Kierkegaard), and archetypal psychology, the paper underscores the impact of absence on the characters’ emotional, moral and social realities. The first section explores personal fatherhood and the vacant roles of the patriarchs in the lives of the characters. It discusses failures of traditional family structures to provide guidance and protection, emphasizing the consequences of parental vacuity on identity formation and psychological development. The second section focuses on the concept of symbolic fatherhood and the development of father substitutes. It argues that religious institutions, represented by Pastor Manders, fail to embody the parental archetype. The third section examines divine fatherhood, the sense of divine orphanhood and abandonment in the play, caused by the lack of divine justice within it. The paper provides a reading of the play and reflects on the interconnectedness of the threefold fatherhood and emotional and existential crises depicted in the play.