History Theatre / PeerGynt

* WalkingTheEarth: Peer does it for most of his life, coming home, still walking in tighter and tighter circles until he eventually hits home - to Solveig.

* OutOfCharacterMoment: The end of the fourth act. At this point, we have met a middle aged Peer who has been bluffing on self confidence all the way, who always seems to be on top of things, and never seems to mess up, even when he actually does. In the madhouse, he is shocked out of his wits, has a visual breakdown, and starts to present himself as a more sincere, and rather helpless person. He even speaks of Solveig with reverence: "In the possesion of one woman, I was a book laid with silver. [[ProfoundFool It is the same typo to be wise and mad]]." Sadly, it doesn`t last that long.

* RejectionAffection: Peer finds Solveig to really be something when she actually rejects him. He seems to have quite a backstory with the girls, but Solveig just calmly rejects him at their first meeting. And this leads him to think she is more than he bargained for. Lampshaded when he chases Ingrid, by comparing her to Solveig: "Can you deny my requests?" When Ingrid tells him "no", he flatly leaves her.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay / {{Mummy}}: The second of the three loonies Peer encounters in the Cairo Asylum carries a mummy
his back. He is called a "Fellah", that would be a carrier. And he claims he carries "king Apis" with him. Peer suggests the fellah should hang himself to be like his king, and the fellah does. This suicide begins Peer`s {{heel realization}}.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay / {{Mummy}}: The second of the three loonies Peer encounters in the Cairo Asylum carries a mummy on his back. He is called a "Fellah", that would be a carrier. And he claims he carries "king Apis" with him. Peer suggests the fellah should hang himself to be like his king, and the fellah does. This suicide begins Peer`s {{heel realization}}.
* DelusionsOfGrandeur: Peer from the literal start. He dreams of getting the best of all around him, becoming a king, or an emperor. The delusion backfires splendidly when he eventually gets his coronation [[NapoleonDelusion in a madhouse]].

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Mads Moen, the bridegroom of Ingrid, who actually wished to marry Peer. Peer is quick to make a cuckold of him.

* BecomingTheMask: Peer has actually piled up so many masks over one another over the years that he hardly can find himself under them anymore. Lampshaded in the famous "onion scene", where he actually tries to pile them off, one by one, only to find nothing beneath them.

* RiddleOfTheSphinx: Peer reaches Cairo early in the morning, and hears the song from the statue of Memnon. Then he approaches the Sphinx, and asks himself the importamt question: "Who are you?" When the keeper of the asylum approaches, he claims to have solved the riddle: The sfinx is "himself". And that leads Peer Gynt straight to the asylum.

* RiddleOfTheSfinx: Peer reaches Cairo early in the morning, and hears the song from the statue of Memnon. Then he approaches the Sfinx, and asks himself the importamt question: "Who are you?" When the keeper of the asylum approaches, he claims to have solved the riddle: The sfinx is "himself". And that leads Peer Gynt straight to the asylum.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The second of the three loonies Peer encounters in the Cairo Asylum carries a mummy on his back. He is called a "Fellah", that would be a carrier. And he claims he carries "king Apis" with him. Peer suggests the fellah should hang himself to be like his king, and the fellah does. This suicide begins Peer`s {{heel realization}}.

* HunterTrapper: After his career as a {{gold digger}}, Peer apparently went north to Hudson Bay to hunt and trade furs. * IAmTheNoun: Hussein, an inmate of the Cairo Asylum, presents himself like this: "I am a pen". Peer follows suit by calling himself an "adorned imperial parchment". Hussein really thinks he is a pen, to be used by the assigned Emperor present (Peer himself), and wants the others to sharpen him (like a goose feather pen). In that process, he slits his throat and dies, uttering his last words:

* HunterTrapper: After his career as a {{gold digger}}, Peer apparently went north to Hudson Bay to hunt and trade furs.

* NorwegianLanguageStruggle: Ibsen couldn`t resist it. He had to put in a big {{shout out}} to this. When Peer is in the Cairo madhouse, he encounters a being who claims to fight for the Malabar orangutans and their right to make their own noises after four hundred years of portuguese suppression. Really? Another {{take that}} from Ibsen. The man is a parody of a known language struggler at the time.

* TheScrooge: Peer returns home with clear shades of this trope. His ship goes down with all hands, however, and he comes to shore ribbed of all his property. But at the start of the fifth act, he is miserly enough, not giving away a penny to anyone who seems happier than he (that is everybody else).
** One could consider {{Scrooge McDuck}} as portrayed by {{Don Rosa}} an expy of Peer Gynt to a certain point, [[TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck always taking another route instead of going straight home to face his sisters and ask for forgiveness]].

* FaceHeelTurn: Several. Every time Peer is confronted with his past, he usually runs away from it, setting off a new "identity" of some sort. His past comes back to bite him really hard in the end.
* GoldDigger: Literally, in {{San Francisco}} during the 1849 gold rush. He comments on it in the fifth act.

** One could consider Scrooge McDuck as portrayed by {{Don Rosa}} an expy of Peer Gynt to a certain point, [[TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck always taking another route instead of going straight home to face his sisters and ask for forgiveness]].