Rosmersholm

Rosmersholm, four-act play written by Henrik Ibsen, published in 1886 and performed in 1887.

The play’s plot revolves around ex-parson Johannes Rosmer, a representative of high ethical standards, and his housekeeper, the adventuress Rebecca West. Both are haunted by the spirit of Rosmer’s late wife, who committed suicide under the subtle influence, the reader learns, of Rebecca West and because of her husband’s high-minded indifference to sex. At issue for the future is a choice between bold, unrestricted freedom and the ancient, conservative traditions of Rosmer’s house. Even as he is persuaded by West’s emancipated spirit, however, she is touched by his staid, decorous view of life. Each is contaminated by the other, and, for differing but complementary reasons, they tempt one another toward the fatal millpond in which the wife drowned herself. The play ends with a double suicide.

It is from this play that novelist Rebecca West (Cicily Fairfield) chose her pseudonym.