Spectres of duty : silence in Ibsen's Ghosts

The article considers Ibsen's Ghosts through the figure of duty. The two main characters embody different notions of duty. Pastor Manders's position is a religious one and Mrs Alving's a political one, but neither can stand on its own. They both infringe upon, and contaminate, each other. This process of self-contamination, which silence sets in motion, leads to an alternative understanding of duty as well as of the political.