In "When We Wake the Dead," the playwright seeks to unravel a discourse that probes into his own activity: that of the creator. The question of the true value of Art - its power to make human life more bearable - gnaws at the soul of the elderly Ibsen.

“Listen... how I placed myself within the complex. In front of a source... sits a man filled with guilt who has not yet emerged fully from the earth... He dips and dips his hands into the running water - to purify them - hunched over and tormented by the thought that he will never, ever succeed... He will eternally burn in his hell.”