The Meaning of Vermoulu in Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts

In 1881, Henrik Ibsen's play, Ghosts, shocked the theatrical world by bringing to center stage the taboo topic of venereal disease. A major character in the drama, Oswald Alving, age 26, suffers from neurosyphilis. Oswald's headaches and neck stiffness ( “like a tight iron band squeezing me from my neck up”) 1 indicate chronic meningitis. His difficulty concentrating (“I couldn't focus any of my thoughts”) 1 and inability to work suggests the meninoencephalitis of general paresis. And in the play's tragic climax, Oswald suffers a devastating , catastrophic neurologic deterioration on stage with altered mental status and unresponsiveness that leaves him permanently an invalid (“Oswald appears to crumple inwardly in the chair; all his muscles loosen; the expression leaves his face; and his eyes stare blankly”) 1.
Source: The American Journal of Medicine - Category: General Medicine Authors: Source Type: research