Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to discuss whether Ibsen’s female characters indeed qualify as tragic heroines, that is, whether or not they epitomize in Ibsen’s acceptance the generic concept of “The Tragic Muse”. Due to the extensive reification of this subject matter, the task of this project is not to redefine something that has already been postulated, but re-evaluate consequences, and give new reasons for my reading Ibsen’s so called “heroism” in a different manner. In my attempt to reassess and give a somewhat new approach to this topical argument regarding Ibsen’s female protagonists, I will restrict my analysis to Ghosts, Rosmersholm and Hedda Gabler. My evaluation of the discourse concerning the heroic qualities of the main characters of these dramas focuses primarily on its metonymic reference to modernity and the dramatic consequences this aesthetic and social absorption advocates.