Ghosts · Character

Regina Engstrand

The Alvings' sharp-tongued maid, raised almost as a daughter of the house, who has no intention of being dragged back down to where she came from.

supporting

Also known as Regina, Miss Engstrand, Regina Pied de mouton

First appearance: dramatis personae

As a supporting figure in Ghosts, Regina Engstrand is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

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Regina keeps the household running and keeps her supposed father Engstrand at arm's length with equal efficiency, her French phrases and tossed head marking the distance she has put between herself and his world. She is ambitious, unsentimental, and quietly aware that her position in this house rests on something nobody has told her. Her refusal to be claimed — by Engstrand, by anyone — gives her a restless energy that pushes against the play's gathering revelations.

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See Regina Engstrand in dramatis personae

Character Web

6 connections

A slice of how Regina Engstrand sits in the book — open the reader for the full interactive map.

Relationship types

Family
Professional
Romantic

Character groups

Alving family secrets
Protagonist
Peripheral Characters

+1 more in the full Character Web

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Breaking point

This scene is the dramatic climax because it reveals the full, catastrophic culmination of the Alving family’s…

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Relationships

Mrs. Alving
family · ambivalent
Pastor Manders
professional · ambivalent
Oswald Alving
romantic · ambivalent
Jacob Engstrand
family · negative
Captain Alving
family · negative
Johanna
family · negative

Mrs. Alving
Mrs. Alving is Regina's biological mother, but she keeps this secret and treats her as a servant to protect her son Oswald from the truth.
Pastor Manders
Pastor Manders acts as a moral overseer and would-be employer to Regina, attempting to place her in a respectable household.
Oswald Alving
Oswald is romantically drawn to Regina, unaware she is his half-sister, and his advances are met with her ambition to escape her station.
Jacob Engstrand
Jacob Engstrand is Regina's legal father, but he exploits her as a means to get money from Mrs. Alving and later tries to drag her into his disreputable schemes.
Captain Alving
Captain Alving was Regina's biological father, having fathered her with the maid Johanna while married to Mrs. Alving.
Johanna
Johanna is Regina's biological mother, but she was forced to give her up and marry Jacob Engstrand to cover up the affair with Captain Alving.

Relationship notes

How these ties play out is in the reading companion — open the free preview.

See Regina Engstrand in dramatis personae