‘Turning men into beasts!’

Abstract

In this survey of imagery and more or less hidden references in the text, we have come up with a very high frequency of animal motifs. They are not in every instance connected with the main character. A couple of them concern his mother, and the awkward and unfortunate bridegroom at Hæggstad is characterised by his father in the unfriendly terms of animal metaphor. In addition it can be noted that four of the minor characters have names which carry animal associations: Peer’s German friend, Herr von Eberkopf (Eber = wild boar), and three of the warders at the Cairo asylum, Mickel (= Reynard), Schafmann (= sheep man) and Fuchs (= fox).