HEREDITY This is a favorite theme of Ibsen’s. His next play, Ghosts, deals with a fatal illness that is inherited by a son because of his father’s sexual activities. Throughout this play, heredity will be credited for passing on physical traits or problems (like brown hair or Dr. Rank’s disease) from parent to child. Heredity will also be blamed for passing along moral traits like Krogstad’s dishonesty and Nora’s mismanagement of money. But Ibsen wants you to wonder how much of moral character results from heredity and how much results from environment. Is character determined by genes or by what you’re taught? What are the consequences if character is something you’re born with? How is the situation different if it’s something you learn? Be on the lookout for how each character views heredity