Trace how hypocrisy and moral degradation become the nemesis in the downfall of the Alving family in the drama Ghosts by Ibsen.

The central theme lying at the heart of the narrative of Ghosts is the long-term effects of keeping secrets and concealing truths. The epicenter of this theme is Mrs. Alving’s lifelong attempt to construct a myth about the true nature of her husband, the Captain, through a tapestry of lies and deception. Those lies in the name of keeping the real truth a secret eventually perpetuate themselves to the point that they are passed like a virus to the next generation, linking symbolically with the syphilitic strain that has the same degenerative effect. And, to a lesser extent, the Pastor's extreme hypocrisy dooms both the person he professes to care about—Mrs. Alving—and eventually himself, for as he endeavors to save his reputation, he ends up supporting a devilish trickster and a brothel.