Seaside
Norwegian mountain resort. The final two acts of the play are set on a mountain. There Rubek is reminded that he promised both his wife and Irene that he would take them “up a high mountain” and show them “all the glory of the world.” On the mountain, Rubek realizes that this is the symbolic journey the artist makes, but he finds he is unable to share this glory with either of them; his commitment is to his art, not to relationships with others. Maia leaves with Ulfheim to descend to the valley, suggesting that she is abandoning art for a life of pleasure. Irene stays with Rubek, and their death in an avalanche is less a catastrophe than an acknowledgment that the artist, as artist, cannot survive outside his art.