Carl Alving

Carl Alving is a character in Henrik Ibsen's play Ghosts (original Norwegian title: Gengangere). He is the deceased husband of Helene Alving and the father of Oswald Alving.

In the play, Captain Alving is portrayed posthumously as a respected figure in the community, a generous benefactor, and a loving husband and father. However, through the revelations made by Helene Alving and Pastor Manders, the audience discovers that this public image was a carefully constructed facade. The real Carl Alving was a philanderer, a drunkard, and generally a dissolute and irresponsible man who made Helene's life miserable.

Helene Alving maintains the idealized image of her husband for years, partly to protect her son, Oswald, and partly out of a sense of duty and social expectation. She even uses his fortune to build an orphanage in his name, a gesture that becomes tragically ironic as the play unfolds.

The play explores themes of societal hypocrisy, the burden of secrets, and the destructive power of repressed truths. Carl Alving, though dead, remains a central figure in the drama, as the consequences of his actions continue to haunt the living and shape the characters' destinies. He serves as a symbol of the decaying moral values and societal expectations that Ibsen critiques in Ghosts. His legacy is one of disease, deception, and ultimately, the tragic undoing of his family.