Strindberg, Ghost Sonata


Isle of the Dead
A. Böcklin, Isle of the Dead (Toteninsel), 3rd version, 1883, Kunstmuseum Basel (?)

Do Now: Who are you? Explain the secrets and data that one would need to write an obituary on your character.

The Student, Arkenholz

Old Man, Jacob Hummel, a Company Director

The Milk Maid, a Vision

The Dead Man, a Consul

The Dark Lady, the daughter of the Dead man and the Caretaker’s Wife

The Colonel

The Mummy, the Colonel’s Wife

The Young Lady, his daughter, but actually the Old Man’s Daughter

Johansson, Hummel’s servant

Bengtsson, the Colonel’s manservant

The Fiancée, Hummel’s former fiancée. A white-haired old lady

The Cook


Meanwhile, I will play Beehthoven's Piano Sonata that Strindberg is inspired by L. v. Beethoven,  No. 17 (Op. 31, n. 2) (Robinson 308).

Sonata: n.   A composition for one or more solo instruments, one of which is usually a keyboard instrument, usually consisting of three or four independent movements varying in key, mood, and tempo. From The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Fourth Ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)

Another musical reference is Wagner's Valkyrie, which the Student sees with the Colonel and his/Hummel's daughter. In the Valkyrie, Siegmund visits an unfamiliar house and meets his lover (and sister!), Sieglinde (Act I); dies in battle (II); and crosses over to Valhalla, where heroes spend the afterlife (Act III). 

However, the significance of the Valkyrie is probably that it represents the mythical paradise that the Student expects to find in the Colonel's house, but doesn't (see p. 285: "Where are faith and honor?").


W. C. Nielsen, "Strindberg, Ghost Sonata." <http://chss.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/strind_gsonata.html>
March 2008.