If two people in the room next to you start shouting at night or are watching television with the volume loud enough to hear or are violent then it’s OK to knock on the door and say something.
So if two people are making loud sex noises in the room next door why isn’t it OK to knock on the door?
Is it because knocking on the door of two people making sex noises makes the knocker appear angry because he/she isn’t making sex noises? And why then is it not OK for he/she to make loud sex noises alone? Why is that dirty and two people making violent sex noises not dirty or rude or childish? We can all make sex noises.
I’ve finished Peer Gynt (which sounds like a sex noise) by Henrik Ibsen and am currently digesting it. Here are some of my thoughts. Writing my thoughts here after reading a book helps me digest the book better. Like herbal tea.
THOUGHTS ON PEER GYNT…
Peer Gynt’s father Jon was a rich man who liked to drink. He had parties and smashed plates without worrying.
Jon Gynt has run away before the book begins. We never meet him.
Drink is present in the book and makes bad things happen.
Ase (pronounced Awse) is Peer’s mum and she loves, and gets angry with, her son. She has had to work hard since her husband left. She seems strong and sad.
Ase dies in bed with Peer by her side as they pretend they are in a horsedrawn sleigh riding over the ice, like they did when Peer was young.
Peer has problems because of his father.
Peer is an interesting character. He tells lots of stories.
Peer becomes a legend by the end of the story when he returns to Norway.
Peer Gynt is very selfish.
Peer Gynt loves women and women end up loving Peer Gynt.
Peer Gynt ruins a marriage.
Peer Gynt runs away from Norway when his mum dies.
Peer Gynt loves a girl called Solveig.
Solveig is the daughter of settlers. They are a simple family. Solveig is afraid to do anything because of what her father might say.
Peer Gynt travels to Morocco and America but we don’t see him in America. He meets mad men in the Sahara who are intellectuals who are mad who are intellectuals. Peer has loses everything and is fooled into being captured because of his pride. He believes he is an Emperor.
Peer Gynt trades in slaves, and idols that he sells to China.
Peer Gynt has a boat that is stolen by greedy men who set sail to Greece to make money and sink and die. Peer Gynt sees them drown and thinks he has been saved. He feels invincible.
Peer Gynt is very rich.
Peer Gynt is poor to begin with. His clothes are tatters. Peer Gynt becomes very poor. Peer Gynt is an outsider. Peer Gynt is angry when he is young. He fights.
Peer Gynt takes an oath to be a troll.
Peer Gynt has sex with a troll and the troll bears his child.
Peer Gynt is foolish.
Peer Gynt is resilient. He is intelligent enough to travel round the world and return to Norway.
Peer Gynt meets the Devil a lot. The Devil is always bothering Peer, questioning him.
Peer Gynt meets the Boyg. The Boyg is a voice in the dark that tells Peer to walk about the mountain path. Peer Gynt is not able to walk straight to where he wants to go. The Boyg is like a conscience.
Peer is struggling to be himSelf.
Peer is running away and finding his place at the same time.
I think I am doing this too.
Peer Gynt returns to Norway where he finds the village characters old or dead. Ingrid, whose wedding he ruined, is dead. She married the blacksmith who Peer fought with at the beginning. Ingrid was supposed to marry Mad Moen.
Solveig, the woman Peer Gynt loved, has been at home waiting for him to return. For nearly 60 years. She is now blind. She still loves Peer.
Peer Gynt didn’t know he was loved.
Peer Gynt is going to be melted into a button by the Devil. Peer Gynt wants to go to hell and speak with the Devil. Peer Gynt doesn’t want to go to heaven. Heaven is boring. To be melted into a button brings indifference. Peer doesn’t want to be melted and forgotten along with other Dick and Harrys.
Peer Gynt wants to be remembered.
As the son of Jon Gynt, Peer Gynt believes he is a great man.
Peer Gynt has never been himSelf so he will be melted into a button.
At the beginning of the story there is a boy in the forest who chops off his finger to avoid serving the King in a war. Peer Gynt is amazed and in awe of this. Peer Gynt couldn’t do this.
Peer Gynt is a pretender.
We are all pretenders.
Peer Gynt went exploring while the people in his village stayed and got old and blind.
Solveig waited in the house for 60 years for Peer Gynt to return.
The boy with the finger cut off grew up and had children and kept his hand in his pocket when he went to church and was ostracized from the community for chopping off his finger and not serving his country.
Speaking at the funeral, the Priest says the man was true to himself throughout his life and that is to be admired. The children of the man grew up and were rich and left their father and never returned and never spoke to him again. The man kept working the farm and was continuously plagued by floods and hurricanes. He seemed to accept this was OK. The Priest admires acceptance.
Peer Gynt wasn’t himSelf because he left Norway.
Peer Gynt had the most interesting life of all the characters.
Peer Gynt had no friends and no place.
Peer Gynt was very selfish.
I have never read Henrik Ibsen’s work before. I don’t think this is his best but it’s interesting. I like the way it is unresolved. I like the conflicting messages.
There is an obvious message – Be content with what you have.
But Peer Gynt has an interesting life and when he returns he has become a legend.
The people who remain in the village are all waiting for something.
Peer Gynt is alwasy searching for something.
We are all always searching for something.
Peer Gynt tells many stories but they are true. Others don’t believe him because they haven’t experienced anything similar themselves.
Peer Gynt wants to try everything and decide what he likes best.
The more he experiences, the harder it is for Peer Gynt to know himSelf.
The story suggests Peer Gynt should have stayed at home with Solveig. I think Peer Gynt would have got bored staying at home with Solveig.
Peer Gynt is a book about ethics and morals and culture and realities.
I understand how Peer Gynt feels.
I don’t think Ibsen wrote the story he wanted to. The ideas seem too big for the book. The book doesn’t control the ideas. I think Ibsen likes it this way too.
I am a little confused by Peer Gynt and I like that.
People should do what they think they should do. This has consequences. Peer Gynt ruins marriages and makes Solveig grow old and go blind. Noone tells Solveig to wait for Peer Gynt. Life is difficult and ultimately sad and meaningless. I think this is important in the book.
There is no Self.
There are many Selves.
Peer Gynt’s father drinks and wastes money. Peer Gynt drinks and wastes money.
Solveig’s family are poor and simple. She waits for Peer Gynt until she is old and blind.
The blacksmith is aggressive and drunk. He is still drinking at the end when he buries his wife Ingrid.
Mad Moen is the bridegroom to Ingrid when she leaves him for Peer Gynt. By the end the blacksmith is burying his wife Ingrid. Mad Moen has no wife.
All these characters end up similar to how they started. No progress. I believe this is philosophical. The boy who cut off his finger gets a long elegy delivered by the Priest who says, …on his land, ‘there he was great because he was himself’.
Peer Gynt runs away from his problems. This causes him more problems and loneliness.
I think Peer Gynt is right to explore.
At the end we don’t know if Peer Gynt will be spared the Devil.
Peer Gynt is a troll. Peer Gynt is unhappy being a troll and wants more. This means he is not himSelf and will be melted into a button.
Peer Gynt: I’m tired of running… one loses one’s way
Button Moulderer: Yes – and where does it lead to, after all?
Peer Gynt is due to die at the end as Solveig hugs him. Peer Gynt doesn’t die at the end but the Button Moulderer is waiting for him at the next crossroads. Perhaps in the end Solveig has helped Peer Gynt be himSelf.
The story says Peer Gynt wastes his life – he doesn’t act, he doesn’t sing – the songs come back to poison him, he has many doubts, he doesn’t cry. When he had a true love he let the troll woman’s threats scare him away from his life with Solveig.
There are no easy choices and always regrets. But these only come when looking back.
Writing this has helped me to understand Peer Gynt better and I will write like this when I have read other books.
