52.
Lady from the sea (Ibsen): *
Ellida Wangel, the "lady from the sea", is the play's protagonist & one of Ibsen's most complex creations. She loves her husband but can't shake off the memories of another man to whom she promised herself. She challenges the contention that most people live happy, productive lives. She yearns for a broader horizon, an experience that is both liberating & dangerously self-destructive. She knows that she is ill, and eventually it is her own husband who discovers that the only medicine that can cure her: a release from her duties and the gift of absolute freedom.
53.
physiognomic: *
The principal promoter of modern physiognomy was the Swiss pastor Lavater (1741–1801) who was briefly a friend of Goethe. His essays on physiognomy (1772) gained great popularity. They were confirmed by earlier observers notably te English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) & the Italian Giambattista Della Porta (1535–1615). Browne in his Religio Medici (1643) discusses the possibility of the discernment of inner qualities from the outer appearance of the face. Lavater’s theories received mixed reactions from scientists, with some accepting some criticizing. His harshest critic was scientist Lichtenberg, who said pathognomy, discovering the character by observing the behaviour, was more effective.