A ‘nødvendighetens skinn’?: The Conclusion of Ibsen’s Lille Eyolf and its Meaning

Abstract

This article examines the contentious conclusion to Ibsen's late drama, Lille Eyolf (Little Eyolf) in terms of Ibsen's deep mistrust of humanist and idealist ethics. In the wake of their son's death and their shared guilt, the hero and heroine abruptly but bleakly commit themselves to a life of philanthropic altruism: a project that we cannot regard without scepticism. But when humanist idealism has consumed every other more crutch in modern people like the Allmers, where else can they — or indeed we — turn?