Abstract
The topic of my thesis is the ambiguity of the endings of Vildanden, Rosmersholm and Hedda Gabler. This stemmed from my initial research question; how many suicides are there actually in Ibsen s plays? Ibsen has a reputation for writing a high proportion of suicides, and my thesis seeks to test the validity of such claims. Previous scholarship has acknowledged and detailed the ambiguity in these plays but not with regard to the suicides that provide their dramatic conclusions. The general consensus is that Hedvig, Rosmer, Rebekka and Hedda all unequivocally commit suicide. In my thesis I provide some background on historical attitudes to, and understandings of suicide. I also explore the difficulty Ibsen faced in reconciling his personal beliefs with the expectations of his audience, before presenting close readings of the three plays, whereby I compare earlier draft versions with the finished plays, to show how Ibsen s compositional process included a conscious effort to cast doubt over the endings. In an interdisciplinary fashion, I make use of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and specifically the term entropy as a metaphor for this process. I address the possible reasons for such an undertaking and explore the effects and rewards the plays offer as a result of it. My investigations led me to the conclusion that, due to Ibsen's intentional effort to make the endings ambiguous, far from being a prolific writer of suicides, there is in fact only one play that includes an unequivocal suicide.