History YMMV / PeerGynt

%%* TearJerker: Act III, Scene IV. The death scene of Peer's mother.

* TearJerker: Act III, Scene IV. The death scene of Peer's mother.
* WeirdAlEffect: The story Peer tells his mother at the start of the play. He claimed he rode a reindeer buck over a mountain pass, and the buck jumped with him into a nearby lake. His mother is quite savvy on the fact that the story has happened to someone else, because she heard it when she was young. Quite true - it stems from the tales of Creator/AsbjornsenAndMoe. The WeirdAlEffect comes in when the public opinion today associates Peer Gynt with this reindeer trip, not Gudbrand Glesne who was said to ''actually'' have done it. He is even mentioned in-play.
** In the middle of Oslo, you will find a bridge with four statues of fairy tale figures. One of them is Peer Gynt riding the reindeer. The statue is an example of this trope.

* TeasingCreator: The "unknown passenger". Oh boy. Peer believes himself to be the only passenger on the ship that carries him home at the beginning of the fifth act. Then, a MysteriousWaif pops up from nowhere, and ''everybody else'' is ignorant of him. The passenger states that he is interested in Peer's body, is rejected on this and quietly leaves. When he shows up again, Peer is hanging on for dear life on a turned life boat. He once again brings up the topic of Peer's body, and from here on, [[MindScrew the dialogue gets positively weird]]. To this day, scholars have been totally in disarray about who or what this "passenger" is, or what he really means. Knowing Ibsen, he could have pulled TheWalrusWasPaul on us - but he never actually stated it.

** Edvard Grieg was was asked to write this music by Ibsen himself, but during production, Grieg stated that he found it difficult to make the right kind of music to the play, and ended up writing music that suited him more than Ibsen. Thus, Grieg´s music stood firmly on its own feet, and took on a life of its own. Later, another composer, Harald Sæverud, raised the stakes by making new music for the play, and managed to do some of the things Ibsen had asked for, which Grieg had discarded. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXClT0Zzce0 His version of the troll sequence goes like this]].

* FollowTheLeader: ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' has Bastian, the titular character. He expies Peer Gynt on several occasions: Bastian is known for his tall tales, is called a liar, and has, like Peer, a gift of fantasy. When slipping away to Fantasia, he piles up several wishes to hide his true self, gradually losing it, and is at the end of the story, about to lose himself completely, ending up in a city of madmen. Oh, and before ''that'', he was about to proclaim himself emperor. Like in the Cairo madhouse, the people of the city of madmen see nothing but themselves. At the end, with his memory of his human life totally gone, Atreju intervenes on behalf of him, doing the part of Solveig (replacing love with ThePowerOfFriendship), giving Bastian the insight he needs to return home.
** Another similarity is the focus on a simple phrase that can be interpreted in multiple ways: "Be yourself" and "Do what you wish" for Peer Gynt and ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' respectively.

* FridgeLogic: Peer Gynt left the wedding in the first act, taking the Ingrid the bride with him. This made him an {{outlaw}}, because Ingrid`s father had him sentenced. One of the reasons he left, was because Solveig was reluctant to dance with him, and she is therefore partly to blame for his actions - up to and including his entire life, dealing with slaves and so on. Her choice of life, waiting for him to return in the cabin he built, is actually an acknowledgement of this fact - and she atones prominently an entire life for denying a guy ''one single dance''.
** The other part of the blame lies on society: Solveig was reluctant to dance with him when she learned his name. Obviously, she had heard rumors of him already. Peer Gynt was thoroughly slandered before he met her, and thus, SocietyIsToBlame as well. That doesn`t make Peer Gynt less of an irresponsible jerkass, though.

* TeasingCreator: The "unknown passenger". Oh boy. Peer believes himself to be the only passenger on the ship that carries him home at the beginning of the fifth act. Then, a MysteriousWaif pops up from nowhere, and ''everybody else'' is ignorant of him. The passenger states that he is interested in Peer`s body, is rejected on this and quietly leaves. When he shows up again, Peer is hanging on for dear life on a turned life boat. He once again brings up the topic of Peer`s body, and from here on, [[MindScrew the dialogue gets positively weird]]. To this day, scholars have been totally in disarray about who or what this "passenger" is, or what he really means. Knowing Ibsen, he could have pulled TheWalrusWasPaul on us - but he never actually stated it.

* MarySue: Solveig could easily be played like this. She is apparently flawless, and she is the one to beat the bad guy in the end - even putting ''God'' to shame. A character of that format might come out as two-dimension, if acted poorly.
** PuritySue: Yep, there she is. Criticism aside - ''It works splendidly'' in context. Thus, Solveig ends up as a brilliant NarmCharm.

* AdaptationDisplacement: The "In the Hall of the Mountain King" music by Grieg has become a well-known StandardSnippet, and is much more popular and well-known than the play it was written for.

** Another similarity is the focus on a simple phrase that can be interpreted in multiple ways: "Be yourself" and "Do what you want" for Peer Gynt and ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' respectively.

* MarySue: Solveig verges on MarySueClassic throughout the play. Of course, she is a victim of {{memetic mutation}} as well, as the character stood out originally as good, but the megatons of memes coming along with movies and live action TV have all but ruined the interpretation, and made it hard to actually believe in her.

* MarySue: Solveig verges on MarySueClassic throughout the play. Of course, she is a victim of {{memetic mutation}} as well, as the character stood out originally as good, but the megatons of memes coming along with movies and live action TV have all but ruined the interpretation, and made it hard to actually believe in her.

** The other part of the blame lies on society: Solveig was reluctant to dance with him when she learned his name. Obviously, she had heard rumors of him already. Peer Gynt was thoroughly slandered before he met her, and thus, SocietyIsToBlame as well. That doesn`t make Peer Gynt less of an irresponsible jerkass, though.