# Regina Engstrand — Ghosts character guide

> Regina Engstrand in Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen.

**Role:** supporting

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

**First appearance:** 0001-dramatis-personae

## Snapshot

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.

## Who they are

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.

## Relationships

### [Mrs. Alving](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters/mrs_alving)

_family_

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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters/pastor_manders)

_professional_

Pastor Manders acts as a moral overseer and would-be employer to Regina, attempting to place her in a respectable household.

### [Oswald Alving](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters/oswald_alving)

_romantic_

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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters/jacob_engstrand)

_family_

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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters/captain_alving)

_family_

Captain Alving was Regina's biological father, having fathered her with the maid Johanna while married to Mrs. Alving.

### [Johanna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters/johanna)

_family_

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.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters/regina_engstrand
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/ghosts_se/characters