While the vivacious Maja flirts with the landlord Ulvheim, her husband, the sculptor Rubek, encounters his former model, Irene.
Munch claimed that his painting "Sphinx. Woman in Three Stages" (1893) had inspired Ibsen to the female characters in this play. Allegedly, Ibsen showed interest in the painting when Munch guided him around his exhibition at Blomqvist in Kristiania in 1895. The characters in the painting are easy to identify with the female characters of the play. Irene, pure and idealistic, reflects the innocent virgin in Munch's work. The spirited Maja is the nude character, filled with desire. The strict Deaconess, disconnected from "life", represents Munch's resigned woman, dressed in black.

Munch used his painting of the actress Ingse Vibe as a model for Maja - her position by the fence, her facial expression with the roguish smile, even her clothes are the same. Incidentally, Ingse Vibe played the part of Anitra in Peer Gynt, at Nationaltheatret in Kristiania in 1909.