History Theatre / PeerGynt

* AnAesop: The realization dawning on Peer when meeting the Button Moulder, sent by {{God}}. The moral of the play is also uttered by him: To be thyself is to give thyself up, or to go with the meaning of the master on your brow.

* BadassNormal: A young boy Peer sees in act three, is dead by the fifth. A priest relates his life in a long eulogy, telling the story of the man, who cut off his index finger to avoid being proscribed to the army, then living his life on a secluded mountain farm, working his ass off to get his sons to school, and seeing them off as unthankful adults in America. As the priest puts it, "he strove and fell in the farmer`s bitter struggle". Peer relates to this man, although it is lampshaded that he lived a more meaningful life than the title character.

* TheDevilIsALoser: Lampshaded by Peer Gynt in a tale he tells of how the Devil tried his luck as a street artist in SanFrancisco, and later on when the two actually meet. Peer manages to trick the Devil when he realizes the Devil is after his soul - and sends him on a wild goose chase to SouthAfrica (Actually PlayedForLaughs).

** And then, of course, he meets the button moulder in the fifth act, whose sole task is to mould squandered souls, telling him straight in his face that he was meant to be a "shining button on the waistcoat of the world, but you fell off, so no you are about to go in the junkbox, to go into recycling..." The RuleOfSymbolism comes along with anvils at this point.

** And then, of course, he meets the button moulder in the fifth act, whose sole task is to mould squandered souls, telling him straight in his face that he was meant to be a "shining button on the waistcoat of the world, but you fell off, so no you are about to go in the junkbox, to go into recycling..." WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic

* 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]].

* MindScrew: The Boyg does this on Peer. So does the button moulder in the fifth act.

* 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 sphinx is "himself". And that leads Peer Gynt straight to the asylum.

* CatchPhrase: "Avoid it, said the Boyg". "Be ''utterly'' thyself".
* ChekhovsGun: The Silver Button, handed over to Solveig´s sister in the second act, is often seen as a foreshadowing of the button moulder in the fifth. Being a symbol of Peer´s soul, {{it makes sense in context}}.
* OhCrap: Several times during the play, often resulting in a {{face heel turn}}, only to make things even harder for Peer in the end. The final Oh Crap moment turns into a {{My God what have I done}} moment when he finally realizes that he is destined for total nothingness.
* {{Prospector}}: During the 1849 California Gold Rush. He tells stories of that later on.
* GreyAndGreyMorality: as defined by Peer himself, to get away from any responsibility at all. Naturally, his final moment of realization occurs in a dense fog (grey, by all standards). The morality of Solveig is more common black and white.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: With the "foreign passenger" musing that "one does not die in the middle of the fifth act", in the second scene of the same act.
* TakeThat: The play was a symbolical kick to the Norwegian and Swedish denial of fact at the Battle of Dybbøl in 1864, when Denmark had to fight UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}} all on their own and lost. Ibsen could not forgive the lack of principle he meant to see in his countrymen, and wrote a play containing a main character lacking almost every principle in the world. And ironically, it became Norway´s national play. The Norwegian elite who in time embraced the play, seems to have been {{Dramatically missing the point}}. And somewhere, Ibsen is laughing his heart out...
** Also when the Mountain king states that the half troll Peer begat with his daughter actually thrived and "has splendid children all over the country", implied to have taken over the newspapers.
* GenreDeconstruction: The fairy tale on several accounts. Also {{romanticism}} according to some scholars. Taken to the extreme, the play is a deconstruction of the Norwegian national myth. The play becoming a national myth in it´s own right, is a ''heavy'' historical irony on Ibsen´s behalf. Whether the play actually deconstructs romanticism is up to debate, as the structure of the play relies heavily on romantic troping. The "deconstructor" of the plot is Peer himself, as Solveig, invoking the Power Blonde, is there to save him. All the romantic tropes are in fact played straight with Solveig.
* ShoutOut:
** To {{Faust}}. Solveig is the Margrethe equivalent of the play.
** Also prominently to the fairy tales of Creator/AsbjornsenAndMoe.
** Ibsen also nods to other Norwegian authors, as contemporary poet Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote of a [[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold golden haired girl]] in a largely successful story five years prior to the play. Like Solveig, this girl at first sight wore a hymn book, held "her mother's skirt", and had a similar name.
** Creator/HenrikWergeland used "the cabin in the woods" trope even before that, in an 1845 play called ''The Cabin in the Mountains''. The play in question also had [[IWillWaitForyou a young girl waiting]].
* SmiteMeOhMightySmiter: Peer at the end of the fourth act. He loses it after the second suicide, and calls out for mercy or whatever, but has lost the name of God in the process, calling him "ruler of all fools".
* SomewhereAnOrnithologistIsCrying: Peer claims to have encountered ''seagulls'' at 1500 meters above sea level in the mountains of Vågå. But then again, he was telling his mother a tall tale.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The historical Peer lived and died in the area of Gudbrandsdalen in Norway, was known for his abilities as a reindeer hunter, for his tall tales, and for several encounters with trolls. The boyg and the three dairy maids are all extracted from the works of Creator/AsbjornsenAndMoe.
* AnAesop: The realization dawning on Peer when meeting the Button Moulder, sent by {{God}}. The moral of the play is also uttered by him: To be thyself is to give thyself up, or to go with the meaning of the master on your brow.
* DeusExMachina: The button moulder. His task is to reshape squandered souls, and seemingly to give Peer a second chance, when Peer stalls him several times only to meet him at anothee cross-roads. The trope can be read as somewhat averted, as Peer has to find his salvation himself.
* TheFairFolk: Played straight with the greenclad Hulder, who abducts him into the mountain.
* OurTrollsAreDifferent.: Coupled with the fair folk trope, as the inside of the mountain is populated with secondary world beings of every order possible: Witches, goblins, trolls - They are all there. The main type of beings, including the king himself, is trolls, of course, and the main slogan is appointed to them: "Troll, be utterly thyself", as opposed to "Man, be thyself". Can be considered a combination of tropes, as the troll king is the father of the Hulder (not defined as such, only as "the greenclad woman", but her traits are likewise).
* TheEveryman: Peer himself.
* HearingVoices: In the second act, when the Boyg calls on "birds" or whatever, to consume him. And later in the fifth act, alone in the wilderness, a number of voices call to him to remind him on all the tasks and works he didn`t do, the songs he never sung, and the tears he never shed. In the end, his mother calls to him, complaining that his way of "comforting" her on her deathbed in fact [[NiceJobBreakingItHero led her straight to hell]].
* MentalWorld: Most of the fifth act can be seen as this, as Peer's inner turmoil tends to mirror the landscape he walks through, often a barren wasteland of sorts, until he hears the song of Solveig and gets a sense of direction.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: many times until the very end.
* HeelFaceTurn: the very end, when he finally faces Solveig for redemption.
* LoserProtagonist: Peer himself through the play.
* NapoleonicWars: The historical background, set in the early nineteenth century, as the beginning of the play. Later events shout out to the Greek rebellion (1825) and the {{San Francisco Gold Rush}} in 1848. Peer returns several years after this, sometime before 1865.
* TheAtoner: Solveig, interceding on Peer's behalf.
* KarmaHoudini: To some extent. The picture of Peer imprinted in the mind of Solveig reflects his "true" meaning, and may just be enough to save him from total oblivion.
* SavedByTheBell: Literally inside the mountain, as {{the Fair Folk}} can't endure the sound of churchbells. And Peer in the end, though it is the singing of hymns that does the trick.
* AmbiguousEnding: "We meet at the last cross-roads, Peer, and then we'll see - I say no more..."

* EldritchLocation: Peer has been in the great hall of the Mountain king. The trolls leave in a hurry when church bells signal that his mother is out looking for him. The cave seemingly collapses, and the next thing he knows, he is in a place that is seemingly nowhere, fighting [[EldritchAbomination something that is beyond his comprehension]].

* EternalLove in the form of Solveig, who unselfishly gave her life away to Peer, and waited for him for years, even if he himself did not exactly realize it, or even deserved it.

* WhoAreYou: The arc question of the play. Peer asks this to the Boyg, and gets only the answer "Myself". He asks this three times. Later on, he asks the same question to the Sphinx, believing him to be the Boyg in disguise. In the end, he starts to ask himself the same question, not having a straight answer anymore.
* EldritchAbomination: The Boyg. A Being, neither living nor dead, [[YouCanNotGraspTheTrueForm no exact shape]], slimy, foggy...

* TheDevilIsALoser: Lampshaded by Peer Gynt in a tale he tells of how the Devil tried his luck as a street artist in SanFrancisco, and later on when the two actually meet. Peer manages to trick the Devil when he realizes the Devil is after his soul - and sends him on a wild goose chase to SouthAfrica.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Mads Moen, the bridegroom of Ingrid, who actually wished to marry Peer. Peer is quick to make a cuckold of him, ''on his wedding day''!

* ButNowIMustGo: Peer in the third act, running the hell away from everything that binds him. He leaves Solveig at the doorstep, telling her to wait, and argues that he has a heavy burden to shoulder, and must carry it alone. It takes the rest of his life to return to her. Solveig used the same phrsing when leaving her own family behind to live with Peer.

* CueTheSun:Played straight all the way, according to the RuleOfSymbolism. Peer faces the Sphinx at daybreak (cue the "morning mood" theme). And the final scene of the play is set at daybreak. And Solveig, with her MeaningfulName - referring to the sun (Sol = Sun).

* CreepyChild: The brat Peer begat with the hulder has grown abnormally fast, and the first thing he says, is "I shall chop you with my axe".

* DubNameChange: The Mountain King. Originally his name ''Dovregubben'' translates as "that old guy from Dovre'', underlining that he is a ''generic'' troll in charge of that particular mountain (Dovre, that is). Norwegian folklore has generic trolls of that order for almost every mountain available (Gaustatoppen, Norefjell, even Ekeberg in Oslo...).