# Ghosts: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> Henrik Ibsen, translated by William Archer. 5 speaking roles, 17,715 words, about 127 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/ghosts
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Mrs. Alving** has the most to say in Ghosts: about 701 lines and 5,194 words, 29.3% of the play. Ghosts follows a widow whose efforts to honor her late husband’s memory bring buried family secrets to the surface. With only five speaking roles, it is a dense chamber play. Mrs. Alving and Manders share the lead almost exactly, each with about 29% of the words, and Oswald has about a fifth.

- Speaking roles: 5
- Scenes: 3
- Words: 17,715
- Speech time: 127 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mrs. Alving | 701 | 5,194 | 29.3% | 37.1 | 3 |
| Manders | 656 | 5,193 | 29.3% | 37.1 | 3 |
| Oswald | 468 | 3,635 | 20.5% | 26.0 | 3 |
| Engstrand | 288 | 2,414 | 13.6% | 17.2 | 3 |
| Regina | 192 | 1,279 | 7.2% | 9.1 | 3 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: Act 1 = Act 1; Act 2 = Act 2; Act 3 = Act 3.

- **Mrs. Alving**: Act 1 (2,032), Act 2 (1,896), Act 3 (1,266)
- **Manders**: Act 1 (3,222), Act 2 (1,565), Act 3 (406)
- **Oswald**: Act 1 (668), Act 2 (1,821), Act 3 (1,146)
- **Engstrand**: Act 1 (966), Act 2 (1,056), Act 3 (392)
- **Regina**: Act 1 (842), Act 2 (78), Act 3 (359)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mrs. Alving: “I had to bear it for my little boy’s sake. But when the last insult was added; when my own servant-maid—; then I swore to myself: This shall come to an end! And so I took the reins into my own hand—the whole control—over him and everything else. For now I had a weapon against him, you see; he dared not oppose me. It was then I sent Oswald away from home. He was nearly seven years old, and was beginning to observe and ask questions, as children do. That I could not bear. It seemed to me the child must be poisoned by merely breathing the air of this polluted home. That was why I sent him away. And now you can see, too, why he was never allowed to set foot inside his home so long as his father lived. No one knows what that cost me.” | Act 1 | 151 | 16 |
| Manders: “I was but a poor instrument in a Higher Hand. And what a blessing has it not proved to you, all the days of your life, that I induced you to resume the yoke of duty and obedience! Did not everything happen as I foretold? Did not Alving turn his back on his errors, as a man should? Did he not live with you from that time, lovingly and blamelessly, all his days? Did he not become a benefactor to the whole district? And did he not help you to rise to his own level, so that you, little by little, became his assistant in all his undertakings? And a capital assistant, too—oh, I know, Mrs. Alving, that praise is due to you.—But now I come to the next great error in your life.” | Act 1 | 136 | 14 |
| Engstrand: “All the same, I bear myself witness as I’ve brought up the child, and lived kindly with poor Johanna, and ruled over my own house, as the Scripture has it. But it couldn’t never enter my head to go to your Reverence and puff myself up and boast because even the likes of me had done some good in the world. No, sir; when anything of that sort happens to Jacob Engstrand, he holds his tongue about it. It don’t happen so terrible often, I daresay. And when I do come to see your Reverence, I find a mortal deal that’s wicked and weak to talk about. For I said it before, and I says it again—a man’s conscience isn’t always as clean as it might be.” | Act 2 | 128 | 13 |
| Mrs. Alving: “Ghosts! When I heard Regina and Oswald in there, it was as though ghosts rose up before me. But I almost think we are all of us ghosts, Pastor Manders. It is not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that “walks” in us. It is all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we cannot shake them off. Whenever I take up a newspaper, I seem to see ghosts gliding between the lines. There must be ghosts all the country over, as thick as the sands of the sea. And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.” | Act 2 | 123 | 13 |
| Engstrand: “But there must be a petticoat in the house; that’s as clear as daylight. For I want to have it a bit lively like in the evenings, with singing and dancing, and so on. You must remember they’re weary wanderers on the ocean of life. Now don’t be a fool and stand in your own light, Regina. What’s to become of you out here? Your mistress has given you a lot of learning; but what good is that to you? You’re to look after the children at the new Orphanage, I hear. Is that the sort of thing for you, eh? Are you so dead set on wearing your life out for a pack of dirty brats?” | Act 1 | 117 | 12 |
| Manders: “All—and in perfect order. I can tell you it was hard work to get them in time. I had to put on strong pressure. The authorities are almost morbidly scrupulous when there is any decisive step to be taken. But here they are at last. See! here is the formal deed of gift of the parcel of ground known as Solvik in the Manor of Rosenvold, with all the newly constructed buildings, schoolrooms, master’s house, and chapel. And here is the legal fiat for the endowment and for the Bylaws of the Institution. Will you look at them? “Bylaws for the Children’s Home to be known as ‘Captain Alving’s Foundation.’ ”” | Act 1 | 111 | 12 |
| Mrs. Alving: “I could never have borne it if I had not had my work. For I may truly say that I have worked! All the additions to the estate—all the improvements—all the laboursaving appliances, that Alving was so much praised for having introduced—do you suppose he had energy for anything of the sort?—he, who lay all day on the sofa, reading an old Court Guide! No; but I may tell you this too: when he had his better intervals, it was I who urged him on; it was I who had to drag the whole load when he relapsed into his evil ways, or sank into querulous wretchedness.” | Act 1 | 111 | 12 |
| Mrs. Alving: “That has been my ceaseless struggle, day after day. After Oswald’s birth, I thought Alving seemed to be a little better. But it did not last long. And then I had to struggle twice as hard, fighting as though for life or death, so that nobody should know what sort of man my child’s father was. And you know what power Alving had of winning people’s hearts. Nobody seemed able to believe anything but good of him. He was one of those people whose life does not bite upon their reputation. But at last, Mr. Manders—for you must know the whole story—the most repulsive thing of all happened.” | Act 1 | 110 | 11 |
| Engstrand: “When Johanna had got into trouble through that Englishman—or it might have been an American or a Russian, as they call them—well, you see, she came down into the town. Poor thing, she’d sent me about my business once or twice before: for she couldn’t bear the sight of anything as wasn’t handsome; and I’d got this damaged leg of mine. Your Reverence recollects how I ventured up into a dancing saloon, where seafaring men was carrying on with drink and devilry, as the saying goes. And then, when I was for giving them a bit of an admonition to lead a new life—” | Act 2 | 106 | 11 |
| Manders: “I know very well what rumours there were about him; and I am the last to approve the life he led in his young days, if report did not wrong him. But a wife is not appointed to be her husband’s judge. It was your duty to bear with humility the cross which a Higher Power had, in its wisdom, laid upon you. But instead of that you rebelliously throw away the cross, desert the backslider whom you should have supported, go and risk your good name and reputation, and—nearly succeed in ruining other people’s reputation into the bargain.” | Act 1 | 100 | 10 |

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in Ghosts?

Mrs. Alving, with about 701 lines and 5,194 words, 29.3% of everything spoken in the play. Manders is next, with about 656 lines (29.3%).

### How long is Ghosts?

The full text has 17,715 spoken words, about 127 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in Ghosts?

5 named roles speak in this edition, across 3 scenes. 0 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/henrik-ibsen/ghosts/william-archer) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).