ABSTRACT
The chapter commits to a reading of Rosmersholm focusing on the concept of overcultivation. Overcultivation carries connotations of having lived for too long and having lost the capacity for renewal. References to the fall of the Roman Empire undergird the chapter’s analysis of Rosmersholm as an allegory of the decline of a patrician order. The chapter posits that Rebekka has sealed her own fate by aligning herself with Rosmer and that she embodies an ideal of female self-sacrifice in her devotion to undeserving men. This analysis of Rebekka differs from earlier scholarship by emphasizing her dependence on others and her lack of willpower. The chapter argues that Rosmer desires Rebekka’s death due to a demonic lust for domination that is inflamed by the arrival of the degenerate Brendel. Brendel represents a tendency toward squandering one’s gifts that mirrors the emptiness of Rosmer’s idealism. Rosmer is revealed to be a demonic figure who manipulates Rebekka into choosing death in an ultimate act of wastefulness. The chapter argues that the dual suicide represents a step in a process of regeneration whereby the more viable bourgeoisie of Kroll and Mortensgård come to replace Rosmer’s patrician order.
