Jorgen Lovborg is a neurotic playwright who, although he began writing at age fourteen, saw his first play produced at age sixty-one. His depiction of women is supposedly influenced by his own heartbreaking relationships with the opposite sex. The character based on his wife of eight years depicts a woman who is both abusive and emasculating. The theatrical proxy of Lovborg's mother meanwhile, Mrs. Sanstad, is cold and manipulative. If the parallels are true, this makes Loveborg analogous to Dorf and Henrick, the male characters in his play who are abused by the female characters.