Henrik Ibsen Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline Writers Henrik Ibsen Biography Henrik Ibsen was a famous Norwegian playwright and poet who wrote many famous plays. Read more about âthe father of modern theaterâ in the following article. Quick Facts Playwright, Theatre Director, and Poet. Nationality Hedvig,Christian Cornelius Paus(half-brother), Christopher Blom Paus (half-brother), Henrik Johan Paus (half-brother) Spouse/Partner: Suzannah Thoresen Image Credit A famous Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet, Henrik Ibsen is often considered as âthe fatherâ of modern theater and one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. Ibsen is often ranked as one of the greatest playwrights in the European literature, also perhaps the greatest playwright since Shakespeare. When European theatres were expected to show strict mores of family life and propriety, his plays were considered scandalous as they revealed the reality that was hidden behind many facades.

At the young age, Ibsen was greatly influenced by the famous Norwegian poet and playwright, Henrik Wergeland and other Norwegian folk tales particularly collected by Peter Christen AsbjÃ¸rnsen and Jorgen Moe. His important works include, Brand (1865), Peer Gynt (1867), Emperor and Galilean (1873), A Doll's House(1879), Ghosts(1881), An Enemy of the People (1882),The Wild Duck (1884), Hedda Gabler (1890) and The Master Builder (1892). Henrik Ibsen Childhood & Early Life Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828 in Skien, Norway. His parents were Knud Ibsen and Marichen Altenburg. Ibsen was a descendant of some of the oldest and most distinguished families of Norway. Shortly after his birth, the financial condition of his family dwindled down. His father went in the state of depression whereas his mother took solace in spirituality. Ibsen was fifteen when he was forced to leave the school.

He moved to the small town of Grimstad, took an apprentice job at a pharmacist and began writing plays. When he was 18, a liaison with a servant produced him an illegitimate child. Ibsen had to pay for the child’s upbringing till the boy grew into his teens, although Ibsen never saw him. In 1850, Ibsen went to Christiania (now Oslo) intending to matriculate at the university. But his earlier attempts of entering the university were failed as he couldn’t clear the entrance exams. As a result, he dropped the idea of matriculation at the university and committed himself to writing. The same year, he published his first play, the tragedy Catiline under the pseudonym “Brynjolf Bjarme”. His first staged play was “The Burial Mound” (1850) which didn’t receive much attention. Despite of numerous unsuccessful plays, Ibsen remained determined to be a playwright. When Ibsen was young, Norwegian author Henrik Wergeland was the most acclaimed, and widely read Norwegian poet and playwright.

Wergeland, along with other Norwegian folk tales, particularly collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, inspired Ibsen to write more plays. Career and Writings For the next several years, Ibsen worked at Det norske Theater (Bergen), where he was involved in the production of more than 145 plays as a writer, director, and producer. No individual plays came from him during this period. His failures to achieve success gave him immense experience at the Norwegian Theater, which proved to be very helpful for him in the future. In 1858, he returned to Christiania and became the creative director of the Christiania Theatre. On 18th June 1858, he married Suzannah Thoresen. The couple had a son, Sigurd born on December 23, 1859. They had to face poor financial circumstances, which made Ibsen disillusioned with his life in Norway. He left Christiania in 1864 and went to Sorrento in Italy. His play, “Brand” (1865) brought Ibsen critical acclaim, along with considerable amount of financial success.

The success of Brand was followed by another successful play, “Peer Gynt” (1867). The famous Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg composed incidental music and songs based on this play. The success of these plays brought confidence in him and encouraged him to introduce more of his ideas and beliefs into the drama. The next phase of Ibsen’s life is considered as his Golden Age, as he reached the height of power and influence and became the centre of dramatic controversy across Europe. In 1868, he moved from Italy to Dresden, Germany and spent the next few years in writing his most important work, “Emperor and Galilean” which was published in 1873. This play was based on the life and times of the Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate. In 1875, Ibsen moved to Munich and published his next play, “A Doll's House” in 1879. It was followed by another play, “Ghosts” in 1881. The next year in 1882, he came with another controversial play, “An Enemy of the People”. His early plays were controversial to a small scale of individual households.

But in “An Enemy of the People”, the antagonist was the whole community. His next play, “The Wild Duck” (1884) is often considered as his finest work and also the most complex of his works. In the later years of his literary career, his dramas turned more introspective, less denouncing of society's moral values. In later plays like “Hedda Gabler” (1890) and “The Master Builder” (1892), Ibsen explored the psychological conflicts that transcended a simple rejection of current conventions. Many readers, who consider anti-Victorian didacticism as dated, simplistic or banal, will find these plays more interesting for their hard-edged, objective consideration of interpersonal confrontation. “Hedda Gabler” is the most performed play of Ibsen. The title role of the play is still one of the most challenging and rewarding role for an actress. His plays, “Hedda Gabler” and “A Doll's House” were based on female protagonists whose almost demonic energy proves both attractive and destructive for people around them. Ibsen changed the rules of drama with his elements of realism, which was later adopted by Chekhov and others.

His forward, challenging and direct approach to issues made the plays an art rather than mere entertainment. Ibsen returned to Norway in 1891, which had changed considerably then. He did play a prominent role in the changes that had happened across society. Personal Life Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen on June 18, 1858. They had a son, Sigurd born on 23 December 1859. Death Ibsen suffered a series of strokes in March 1990. He died on 23rd May, 1906 in his home at Arbins gade 1 in Christiania (now Oslo). He was buried in Vår Frelsers gravlund ("The Graveyard of Our Savior") in central Oslo. HENRIK IBSEN TIMELINE Was born in Skien, Norway. 1843: He was forced to leave the school, moved to Grimstad. 1850: Went to Christiania (now Oslo) intending to matriculate at the university, published his first play, the tragedy Catiline and staged his first play, The Burial Mound.

1858: Returned to Christiania and became the creative director of the Christiania Theatre, married Suzannah Thoresen. 1859: His son, Sigurd was born. 1864: Left Christiania and went to Sorrento in Italy. 1865: His first commercial successful play “Brand” was published. 1867: His successful play Peer Gynt was published. 1868: He moved from Italy to Dresden, Germany. 1873: His most important work, “Emperor and Galilean” was published. 1875: Playwright Henrik Ibsen - Author of 'A Doll's House' By Wade Bradford An Overview of Henrik Ibsen: Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen (1828 – 1906) created twenty-six plays and a volume of poetry. He is noted for his nationalistic spirit and for exploring Europe’s social problems during the 1800s. Critics both past and present have praised his realistic approach to drama and his well-developed characters. He is best known for creating strong female characters in dramas such as A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler .

Ibsen's Birth and Childhood: Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20th, 1828 in Skein, Norway. His wealthy father, Knud Ibsen, owned several shops including a grocery store. However, after a series of poor financial decisions, the family was severely in debt by the time Henrik was seven. The family was forced to move to a small farm house, and then shared a residence in the crowded home of a family friend. To make matters worse, Knud’s wife grew distant and dissatisfied with the marriage. It is therefore no coincidence that the themes of debt, marriage, society, and independence play a prominent role in many of Henrik's plays. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance Creative Perseverance: In 1853, a small Norwegian theater gave a hopeful young playwright (and part-time pharmacy assistant) a wonderful opportunity. The Bergen Theatre produced St. John’s Night, Henrik Ibsen’s first publicly performed play. It was a whimsical combination of Scandinavian folk tales filled with trolls and fairy creatures. It was also a miserable disappointment that closed after only one performance. Yet, Ibsen never let failure deter him.

Despite all of his obstacles in his personal and literary life, he rose to become one of the greatest dramatists of the 19th century. Early Career: In 1850, Ibsen failed his entrance exam, dashing hopes of becoming a doctor. His friends admired his sense of humor and encouraged him to pursue writing as a career. That same year his first play, Catiline, was rejected by editors, but a generous friend printed a few hundred copies. Only 40 were sold; the rest of the copies were used as gift wrapping. Still, he earned the respect of the Bergen Theatre, the company that produced his first works. Audiences rejected his first three plays, but in 1856 he finally found success with his lyrical saga, The Feast of Solhaug. Decorated Playwright: Prompted by his first success, Ibsen wrote constantly. Many of his earlier plays dealt with a pride for his homeland, and a desire to maintain Norway’s virtues. Some failed both critically and financially; others succeeded remarkably. His artistic endeavors generated several government grants, allowing him enough funds to raise a family and travel abroad.

In 1869, the King of Norway and Sweden knighted Ibsen. From then on, Ibsen’s career soared, and his plays became even more serious. Eventually, his writing shifted from poetic folktales to realistic examinations of controversial social issues. Ibsen’s Social Commentary: In 1877, his play, Pillars of Society, extolled the virtues of freedom and truth. Next, his 1879 classic A Doll’s House questioned the suppressed role of women in society. Thirteen years later, feminist issues were again explored in another hard-hitting drama, Hedda Gabler. Toward the end of his life, his later plays, The Master Builder (1892) and When We Dead Awaken (1899), became more self-reflective. Ibsen began contemplating what it meant to dedicate one's life to art.

What Writer’s Have Said About Henrik Ibsen: “All of Ibsen is visionary drama… His mastery of inwardness is second only to Shakespeare’s.” -- Harold Bloom “Had the gospel of Ibsen been understood and heeded, these fifteen millions might have been alive now.” -- George Bernard Shaw (Discussing the loss of life during World War I) “His characters may hate one another or be happy together, but they will generate nobility or charm.” -- E. M. Forster Henrik Ibsen’s Death: From 1900 to 1903 Ibsen suffered several strokes that left him unable to write creatively or speak clearly. Although his final years were quiet and bedridden, the playwright was not lonely. In 1906 his family and friends were at his bedside when he died in his sleep. He was seventy-eight years old. His last written words were, “Thanks.” Quotes from Henrik Ibsen’s Plays: “The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That’s one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population—the intelligent ones or the fools?

I think we can agree it’s the fools.” -- from Enemy of the People “Our home has been nothing but a play-room. I’ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papa’s doll-child. And the children have been my dolls in their turn.” -- from A Doll’s House “The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom—these are the pillars of society.” -- from Pillars of Society Henrik Ibsen Henrik Ibsen Location of death: Christiania, Norway Cause of death: Stroke Nationality: Norway Executive summary: Peer Gynt Norwegian dramatic and lyric poet, eldest son of Knud Henriksen Ibsen, a merchant, and of his wife Marichen Cornelia Altenburg, was born at Skien on the 20th of March 1828. For five generations the family had consisted on the father's side of a blending of the Danish, German and Scottish races, with no intermixture of pure Norwegian. In 1836 Knud Ibsen became insolvent, and the family withdrew, in great poverty, to a cottage in the outskirts of the town.

After brief schooling at Skien, Ibsen was, towards the close of 1843, apprenticed to an apothecary in Grimstad; here he remained through seven dreary years of drudgery, which set their mark upon his spirit. In 1847, in his nineteenth year, he began to write poetry. He made a gloomy and almost sinister impression upon persons who met him at this time, and one of his associates of those days has recorded that Ibsen "walked about Grimstad like a mystery sealed with seven seals." He had continued, by assiduous reading, his self-education, and in 1850 he contrived to come up as a student to Christiania. In the same year he published his first work, the blank verse tragedy of Catilina, under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. A second drama, The Viking's Barrow, was acted (but not printed) a few months later; Ibsen was at this time entirely under the influence of the Danish poet Oehlenschl�ger.

During the next year or two he made a very precarious livelihood in Christiania as a journalist, but in November 1851 he had the good fortune to be appointed stage-poet at the little theater of Bergen, with a small but regular salary. He was practically manager at this house, and he also received a travelling stipend. In 1852, therefore, he went for five months to study the stage, to Copenhagen and to Dresden. Among many dramatic experiments which Ibsen made in Bergen, the most considerable and most satisfactory is the saga/drama of Mistress Inger at �straat, which was produced in 1855; and printed at Christiania in 1857; here are already perceptible some qualities of his mature character. Much less significant, although at the time more successful, is The Feast at Solhaug, a tragedy produced in Bergen in 1856; here for a moment Ibsen abandoned his own nascent manner for an imitation of the popular romantic dramatist of Denmark, Henrik Hertz. It is noticeable that Ibsen, by far the most original of modern writers for the stage, was remarkably slow in discovering the true bent of his genius.

His next dramatic work was the romantic tragedy of Olaf Liljekrans, performed in 1857, but unprinted until 1898. This was the last play Ibsen wrote in Bergen. In the summer of the former year his five years' appointment came to an end, and he returned to Christiania. Almost immediately he began the composition of a work which showed an extraordinary advance on all that he had written before, the beautiful saga/drama of The Warriors in Helgeland, in which he threw off completely the influence of the Danish romantic tragedians, and took his material directly from the ancient Icelandic sources. This play marks an epoch in the development of Norwegian literature. It was received by the managers, both in Christiania and Copenhagen, with contemptuous disapproval, and in the autumn of 1857 Ibsen could not contrive to produce it even at the new theater of which he was now the manager. The Warriors was printed at Christiania in 1858, but was not acted anywhere until 1861. During these years Ibsen suffered many reverses and humiliations, but he persisted in his own line in art.

Some of his finest short poems, among others the admirable seafaring romance, Terje Vigen, belong to the year 1860. The annoyances which Ibsen suffered, and the retrograde and ignorant conditions which he felt around him in Norway, developed the ironic qualities in his genius, and he became an acid satirist. The brilliant rhymed drama, Love's Comedy, a masterpiece of lyric wit and incisive vivacity, was published in 1862. This was a protest against the conventionality which deadens the beauty of all the formal relations between men and women, and against the pettiness, the publicity, and the prosiness of betrothed and married life among the middle classes in Norway; it showed how society murders the poetry of love. For some time past Ibsen had been meditating another saga/drama in prose, and in 1864 this appeared, Kongsemnerne (The Pretenders). These works, however, now so universally admired, contained an element of strangeness which was not welcome when they were new. Ibsen's position in Christiania grew more and more disagreeable, and he had positive misfortunes which added to his embarrassment.

In 1862 his theater became bankrupt, and he was glad to accept the poorly paid post of "aesthetic adviser" at the other house. An attempt to obtain a poet's pension (digtergage) was unsuccessful; the Storthing, which had just voted one to Bj�rnson, refused to do the same for Ibsen. His cup was full of disillusion and bitterness, and in April 1864 he started, by Berlin and Trieste, ultimately to settle in Rome. His anger and scorn gave point to the satirical arrows which he shot back to his thankless fatherland from Italy in the splendid poem of Brand, published in Copenhagen in 1866, a fierce attack on the Laodicean state of religious and moral sentiment in the Norway of that day; the central figure, the stern priest Brand, who attempts to live like Christ and is snubbed and hounded away by his latitudinarian companions, is one of the finest conceptions of a modern poet.

Ibsen had scarcely closed Brand before he started a third lyrico-dramatic satire, Peer Gynt (1867), which remains, in a technical sense, the most highly finished of all his metrical works. In Brand the hero had denounced certain weaknesses which Ibsen saw in the Norwegian character, but these and other faults are personified in the hero of Peer Gynt; or rather, in this figure the poet pictured, in a type, the Norwegian nation in all the egotism, vacillation, and lukewarmness which he believed to be characteristic of it. Ibsen, however, acted better than he preached, and he soon forgot his abstraction in the portrait of Peer Gynt as a human individual. In this magnificent work modern Norwegian literature first rises to a level with the finest European poetry of the century. In 1869 Ibsen wrote the earliest of his prose dramas, the political comedy, The Young Men's League, in which for the first time he exercised his extraordinary gift for perfectly natural and yet pregnant dialogue.

Ibsen was in Egypt, in October 1869, when his comedy was put on the stage in Christiania, amid violent expressions of hostility; on hearing the news, he wrote his brilliant little poem of defiance, called At Port Sa�d. By this time, however, he had become a successful author; Brand sold well, and has continued to be the most popular of Ibsen's writings. In 1866, moreover, the Storthing had been persuaded to vote him a "poet's pension", and there was now an end of Ibsen's long struggle with poverty. In 1868 he left Rome, and settled in Dresden until 1874, when he returned to Norway. But after a short visit he went back to Germany, and lived first at Dresden. afterwards at Munich, and did not finally settle in Christiania until 1891. His shorter lyrical poems were collected in 1871, and in that year his name and certain of his writings were for the first time mentioned to the English public.

At this time he was revising his old works, which were out of print, and which he would not resign again to the reading world until he had subjected them to what in some instances (for example, Mistress Inger at �straat) amounted to practical recomposition. In 1873 he published a double drama, each part of which was of unusual bulk, the whole forming the tragedy of Emperor and Galilean; this, Ibsen's latest historical play, has for subject the unsuccessful struggle of Julian the Apostate to hold the world against the rising tide of Christianity. The work is of an experimental kind, and takes its place between the early poetry and the later prose of the author. Compared with the series of plays which Ibsen had already inaugurated with The Young Men's League, Emperor and Galilean preserves a color of idealism and even of mysticism which was for many years to be absent from Ibsen's writings, but to reappear in his old age with The Master-builder.

There is some foundation for the charge that Ibsen has made his romantic Greek emperor needlessly squalid, and that he has robbed him, at last, too roughly of all that made him a sympathetic exponent of Hellenism. Ibsen was now greatly occupied by the political spectacle of Germany at war first in Denmark, then in France, and he believed that all things were conspiring to start a new epoch of individualism. He was therefore deeply disgusted by the Paris Commune, and disappointed by the conservative reaction which succeeded it. This disillusion in political matters had a very direct influence upon Ibsen's literary work. It persuaded him that nothing could be expected in the way of reform from democracies, from large blind masses of men moved capriciously in any direction, but that the sole hope for the future must lie in the study of personality, in the development of individual character. He set himself to diagnose the conditions of society, which he had convinced himself lay sick unto death. Hitherto Ibsen had usually employed rhymed verse for his dramatic compositions, or, in the case of his saga/plays, a studied and artificial prose.

Now, in spite of the surprising achievements of his poetry, he determined to abandon versification, and to write only in the language of everyday conversation. In the first drama of this his new period, The Pillars of Society (1877), he dealt with the problem of hypocrisy in a small commercial center of industry, and he drew in the Bernick family a marvellous picture of social egotism in a prosperous seaport town. There was a certain similarity between this piece and A Doll's House (1879), although the latter was much the more successful in awakening curiosity. Indeed, no production of Ibsen's has been so widely discussed as this, which is nevertheless not the most coherently conceived of his plays. Here also, social hypocrisy, was the object of the playwright's satire, but this time mainly in relation to marriage. In A Doll's House Ibsen first developed his views with regard to the individualism of woman. In his previous writings he had depicted woman as a devoted and willing sacrifice to man; here he begins to explain that she has no less a duty to herself, and must keep alive her own conception of honor and of responsibility.

The conclusion of A Doll's House was violently and continuously discussed through the length and breadth of Europe, and to the situation of Nora Helmer is probably due more than to anything else the long tradition that Ibsen is "immoral." He braved convention still more audaciously in Ghosts (1881), perhaps the most powerful of the series of plays in which Ibsen diagnoses the diseases of modern society. It was received in Norway with a tumult of ill-will, and the author was attacked no less venomously than he had been twenty years before. Ibsen was astonished and indignant at the reception given to Ghosts, and at the insolent indifference of the majority to all ideas of social reform. He wrote, more as a pamphlet than as a play, what is yet one of the most effective of his comedies, An Enemy of the People (1882). Dr. Stockmann, the hero of that piece, discovers that the drainage system of the bathing-station on which the little town depends is faulty, and the water impure and dangerous.

He supposes that the corporation will be grateful to have these deficiencies pointed out; on the contrary, they hound him out of their midst as an "enemy of the people." In this play occurs Ibsen's famous and typical saying, "a minority may be right -- a majority is always wrong." This polemical comedy seemed at first to be somewhat weakened by the personal indignation which runs through it, but it has held the stage. Ibsen's next drama, The Wild Duck (1884), was written in singular contrast with the zest and fire which had inspired An Enemy of the People. Here he is squalid and pessimistic to a degree elsewhere unparalleled in his writings; it is not quite certain that he is not here guilty of a touch of parody of himself. The main figure of the play is an unhealthy, unlucky enthusiast, who goes about making hopeless mischief by exposing weak places in the sordid subterfuges of others. This drama contains a figure, Hjalmar Ekdal, who claims the bad pre-eminence of being the meanest scoundrel in all drama.

The Wild Duck is the darkest, the least relieved, of Ibsen's studies of social life, and his object in composing it is not obvious. With Rosmersholm (1886) he rose to the height of his genius again; this is a mournful, but neither a pessimistic nor a cynical play. The fates which hang around the contrasted lives of Rosmer and Rebecca, the weak-willed scrupulous man and the strong-willed unshrinking woman, the old culture and the new, the sickly conscience and the robust one, create a splendid dramatic antithesis. Ibsen then began to compose a series of dramas, of a more and more symbolical and poetic character; the earliest of these was the mystical The Lady from the Sea (1888). At Christmas 1890 he brought out Hedda Gabler; two years later The Master-builder (Bygmester Solnaes), in which many critics see the highest attainment of his genius; at the close of 1894 Little Eyolf; in 1896 John Gabriel Borkman; and in 1900 When We Dead Awaken.

On the occasion of his seventieth birthday (1898) Ibsen was the recipient of the highest honors from his own country and of congratulations and gifts from all parts of the world. A colossal bronze statue of him was erected outside the new National Theatre, Christiania, in September 1899. In 1901 his health began to decline, and he was ordered by the physician to abandon every species of mental effort. The evil advanced, and he became unconscious of the passage of events. After lingering in this sad condition he died, without suffering, on the 23rd of May 1906, and was accorded a public funeral, with the highest national honors. No recent writer belonging to the smaller countries of Europe has had so widely spread a fame as that of Ibsen, and although the value of his dramatic work is still contested, it has received the compliment of vivacious discussion in every part of the world. There would, perhaps, have been less violence in this discussion if it had been perceived that the author does not pose as a moral teacher, but as an imaginative investigator.

He often and with much heat insisted that he was not called upon as a poet to suggest a remedy for the diseases of society, but to diagnose them. In this he was diametrically opposed to Tolstoy , who admitted that he wrote his books for the healing of the nations. If the subjects which Ibsen treats, or some of them, are open to controversy, we are at least on firm ground in doing homage to the splendor of his art as a playwright. He reintroduced into modern dramatic literature something of the velocity and inevitability of Greek tragic intrigue. It is very rarely that any technical fault can be found with the architecture of his plots, and his dialogue is the most lifelike that the modern stage had seen up to that time. His long apprenticeship to the theater was of immense service to him in this respect. In every country, though least perhaps in England, the influence of Ibsen has been marked in the theatrical productions of the younger school. Even in England, on the rare occasions when his dramas are acted, they awaken great interest among intelligent playgoers.

Father: Knud Henriksen Ibsen Mistress: Else Sophie Jensdatter (servant, one child in 1846) Wife: Suzannah Thoresen (m. 19-Jun-1858, one son) Son: Sigurd Ibsen (b. 23-Dec-1859) Henrik Ibsen - Bio, Facts, Family | Famous Birthdays Henrik Ibsen Born in Skien, Norway#3 About Norwegian playwright and director who wrote Hedda Gabler, Peer Gynt, and A Doll's House. He is often called the father of realism. Before Fame He came from a family with a Danish shipping background, and he went to work as a merchant. Henrik Ibsen - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss. Henrik Ibsen Biography of Henrik Ibsen Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Norwegian dramatist wrote the contemporary drama A Doll's House (1879); "Our home has been nothing but a play-room. Iï¿½ve been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Papaï¿½s doll-child.

And the children have been my dolls in their turn. I liked it when you came and played with me, just as they liked it when I came and played with them. Thatï¿½s what our marriage has been, Torvald."--Nora Helmer, act 3 Internationally acclaimed during his lifetime and one hundred years after his death, Ibsen remains amongst the most popular studied and produced playwrights ever. Some say second only to Shakespeare. Edvard Munch, famous Norwegian painter, is said to have been inspired by his works. Originally written in Norwegian, translators have devoted themselves to the often difficult task of capturing the nuance and subtleties of his themes. Henrik Johan Ibsen was born 20 March 1828 in the house then-called `Stockmannsgï¿½rden' in the port town of Skien, Norway, the son of Marichen and Knud Ibsen, a merchant. The bustling port town, his father's merchant company and decline in fortunes would profoundly affect Ibsen's life and work. While apprenticing with a chemist Ibsen found his true calling, penning Catiline (1850), a tragedy in verse.

He then attended Christiania (now Oslo) University where he edited the student paper. By his early twenties however he was completely immersed in the writing and direction of a number of successful dramatic productions throughout Norway. While living in Germany, in 1858 Ibsen married Suzannah Thoreson with whom he would have a son. Among his many works produced during this time were The Pretenders (1863); Love's Comedy (1863); Brand (1866); Peer Gynt (1867); Emperor and Galilean (1873); Pillars of Society (1877), "The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedomï¿½these are the pillars of society."; Ghosts (1881); and An Enemy of the People (1882). Hedda Gabler (1890) was published in Munich, Germany; "In your power, all the same. Subject to your will and your demands. No longer free! No! Thatï¿½s a thought Iï¿½ll never endure! Never."--Hedda Gabler, act 4.

As in A Doll's House the theme of suicide again recurs in Hedda Gabler. It has been said that Ibsen himself suffered from depression and at times contemplated suicide. Societal breakdown, stereotypes, class struggle and issues of morality dominate his characters. His later works of deep psychological questioning include The Wild Duck (1884); Rosmersholm (1886); The Lady from the Sea (1888); The Master Builder (1892); Little Eyolf (1894); John Gabriel Borkman (1896) and When We Dead Awaken (1899). Ibsen also wrote poetry, his first edition of Poems published in 1871, and he created a large amount of artwork over his lifetime in the form of watercolours, oils, cartoons, and sketches. Although he travelled extensively and worked on stage productions in a number of other countries including Italy and Germany, Ibsen returned to Oslo to spend his final years. Plagued by ill health including paralysing strokes that caused him to be bedridden, he died peacefully on 23 May 1906.

He lies buried in the Cemetery of Our Saviour, Vï¿½r Frelsers Gravlund, in Oslo, Norway. Many obituaries were published about him including a glowing tribute by Georg Brandes, Danish critic and scholar. Biography written by C.D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved. The above biography is copyrighted. Do not republish it without permission. Forum Discussions on Henrik Ibsen Recent Forum Posts on Henrik Ibsen What are the best translations of ibsen's plays?... Posted By gustave dore in Ibsen, Henrik || 0 Replies The tragic fall of Solness in ''The Master Builder?'' I would have trouble coming up with a reading that viewed the fall of Solness as a 'happy' one (perhaps reminiscent of the Fortunate Fall...). His fall, literal and figurative, doesn't strike me as being a happy one. But is it a tragic fall? In any event, what courage by Ibsen to portray the dramatic (and perhaps tragic) fall of Solness by means of a physical fall, meaning how on earth is he going to do a satisfactory job on this?

(An aside: I don't know Norwegian and I don't know if the 'fall' in any Norwegian expression for 'dramatic fall' is the same 'fall' used for a physical fall.) Is it really being linear-minded and literal-minded just to think that the physical fall of Solness stands... Posted By KHaight in Ibsen, Henrik || 1 Reply As a self confessed comedy buff any plays of Henrik that will make me laugh or considered comedic?... Posted By Theunderground in Ibsen, Henrik || 5 Replies Play on Ibsens Life Hi all, Just wondered if there is a play that exists based on Henrik Ibsen's life? If so, can someone point me in the right direction of it please? Looking for different plays to put on with my theatre company Crimson Horse :) :thumbs_up... Posted By sassysash in Ibsen, Henrik || 0 Replies Emperor and Galilean - Countercurrents Ibsen spent eight years writing the double play he regarded as his seminal work, Emperor and Galilean (1873), dramatizing the last decade of the erudite Julian, nephew of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great.

In 361 AD, the 30-year-old pristine Julian succeeds the murderous Constantius II as Roman emperor. Emperor Julian, labelled the Apostate, dies three years later in a Persia from a spear wound. Shocking is the transition of Julian from lone man of integrity - in a Christian empire crippled by mediocrity and corruption - to deified tyrant. But more shocking is the transition of Christi... Posted By Gladys in Ibsen, Henrik || 0 Replies Ibsen on stage and film Having seen a few of Ibsen plays on film, I have been disappointed by what has been cut for the performance. Removing a dozen or more lines from Ibsen seems to alter the meaning of the whole. Am I alone in this?... Posted By Gladys in Ibsen, Henrik || 0 Replies Kierkegaard's Christian ï¿½ through the eyes of Ibsen Has anyone read Henrik Ibsenï¿½s play ï¿½Brandï¿½, written as an epic poem with a radical and compelling Christian theology?

The young (Lutheran?) priest Brand and his wife Agnes are outrageous and heroic in their ï¿½naught or allï¿½ struggle of the will, towards death. It is my surmise that through Brand and Agnes, Ibsen portrays the 'true Christian' of great Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard - an unordained priest who died a decade before the publication of ï¿½Brandï¿½. Disclaiming knowledge of Kierkegaard, Ibsen once said he 'had read very little and understood even less'. ï¿½Brandï¿½ combines two Biblical ideas: And he [God... Posted By Gladys in Ibsen, Henrik || 1 Reply After reading most of the later plays, the stream of consciousness that is Peer Gynt is a shock to the system. And the play seems so long. Should I attempt 'Brand'?... Posted By Gladys in Ibsen, Henrik || 1 Reply Is anyone else enchanted by massive interlinking, combined with the unexpected, in Ibsen plays? I find myself beginning to understand each play weeks after reading it. So much, in so few words....

Posted By Gladys in Ibsen, Henrik || 0 Replies Alone in the attic, Hedvig finally shoots 'the wild duck', rescued from the sexual adventures of Werle, her father. Therefore, Hjalmar repents of rejecting Hedvig, in a glorious vindication of idealistic Gregers, Hedvig's half-brother. Is there more?... Posted By Gladys in Ibsen, Henrik || 2 Replies Assignment on the Wild Duck Hello all, I'm currently in my last year of IB higher level english and I have been set a task to write a creative piece about some aspect of The Wild Duck. After reading over the play a couple times, I have decided on what I believe could be a potentially strong piece of work. I decided to write a reflection from the point of the doctor Relling (Gregers opposite half) about the sudden death of Hedvig. As the criteria for the assignment requires, I intend to write from Relling's point of view, in his voice and personality, and focus on the themes of the play and their meaning (such as lies, truths, blindness, etc.) by reflecting on how Hedvig happened to kill herself under Relling'...

Posted By MightyMouse in Ibsen, Henrik || 0 Replies A former drama professor told me that Ibsen wrote a play which dealt with infant injury and its psychological aftermath. I was wondering if anyone might know which play this is? Thank you.... Posted By Jozanny in Ibsen, Henrik || 1 Reply HENRIK IBSEN - 1828-1906 HENRIK IBSEN - 1828-1906 Norwegian playwright, considered the "Father of Realism." As director of two different theatres (one in Bergen, one in Christiana [Oslo]), Ibsen learned the craft of playwriting by directing over 100 plays and then beginning to write his own plays. His early plays were written in verse and deal with the history/mythology of Norway. In his middle period, he wrote realistic plays based on the Well-Made Play formula. The Well-Made Play (WMP) is a play with a strictly defined format, or formula. There is careful exposition and a structuring of events that lead to an inevitable conclusion. Even though the conclusion is inevitable, there is much suspense getting to it.

The WMP is essentially a conflict between good and evil, with the good forces winning out in the end by a surprising twist (but logical) twist in the plot. Ibsen reshapes the WMP's focus on events into a focus on social problems. In the case of A Doll House, the focus is on the lack of options for women in society. Really, one could say it is a study of the lack of options for all people in society. Ibsen refined the WMP format and made it more realistic--for example, discarding asides and soliloquies, motivating all exposition, attributing character behavior to environment and heredity. Internal psychological motivation is emphasized, and his plays are essentially problem plays, with the problems being a social issue. Ibsen�s second play (of the middle period) A Doll House (1879) angered people, but his next play, Ghosts (1882) outraged audiences. Some of the contemporary reviews said of Ghosts: "This disgusting representation. . . . An open drain; a loathsome sore unbandaged; a dirty act done publicly. . . . Absolutely loathsome and fetid. . . .

Crapulous stuff," [London Daily Telegraph on the 1891 London premiere of Ghosts]. This is a play without a single obscenity, sexual innuendo, or act of violence. What Ghosts does is realistically explore marriage in the Victorian age. Ghosts was actually written in response to the criticism of Nora in The Doll House for leaving her children/marriage. In Ghosts, Ibsen showed what happened to a woman who didn't leave. In so doing, he once again threw a spotlight on the hypocrisy that was taken for granted at that time and the limited options available to women. "Because of their harsh subject matter, their commitment to rigorous investigation, and their unsentimental. . .analysis, Ibsen's realistic plays shocked and dazzled all of Europe during the 1890s. . . ." [Theatre R. Cohen--212-213]. Further, Ibsen led the way for other realistic playwrights. His plays set off a controversy that spread throughout the world, sweeping the realistic movement along with it. Ibsen and his plays changed the way that theatre was written and performed forever. Notes on A Doll House The title is not the possessive.

By changing it to the above, Torvald is included. Ibsen's play is not just about Nora, it is about Torvald also. Ibsen is saying as the play opens, at least, both Nora and Torvald are posing as the couple on top of the wedding cake. In other words, they are each playing their idea of being married, rather than dealing with the realities. What is ironic is that while Nora perceives herself as a doll because first her father and then her husband has had control of her, Torvald is also a doll in that he is manipulated as a puppet would be by public perception--afraid of what his co-workers would think of his friendship of Krogstad. When the play opens, we see Nora alone in the house. As the play ends, Torvald is left alone. As Christine and Krogstad find happiness together as a couple, Nora and Torvald's marriage is breaking apart. There are many parallels in this play. But the crux of the play is Nora's and Torvald's relationship.

At the play's end, Nora has gone from being a child or plaything through the painful process of becoming a human being whereas Torvald is more pathetic because he has had his life shattered and he has no inkling as to why. Henrik Ibsen Biography | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays | GradeSaver Ibsen, Henrik Biography of Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen, born in 1828 in Skien, Norway, was the eldest of five children after the early death of his older brother. His father, Knud Ibsen, one in a long line of sea captains, had been born in Skien in 1797 and had married Marichen Cornelia Martie Altenburg, the daughter of a German merchant, in 1825. Though Ibsen later reported that Skien was a pleasant place to grow up, his childhood was not particularly happy. He was described as an unsociable child. His sense of isolation increased at the age of sixteen when his father's business had to be sold to meet the demands of his creditors. On top of this, a rumor began circulating that Henrik was the illegitimate son of another man.

Although the rumor was never proven to be true, it manifested itself in the theme of illegitimate offspring that runs throughout Ibsen's later works. After Knud's business was repossessed, all that remained of the family's former estate was a dilapidated farmhouse on the outskirts of Skein. It was there that Ibsen began to attend the small, middle-class school where he cultivated a talent for painting, if nothing else. He was also taught German and Latin as well as drawing. In 1843, at the age of fifteen, Ibsen was confirmed and taken from the school. Though he had declared his interest in becoming a painter, Ibsen was apprenticed to an apothecary shortly before his sixteenth birthday. Leaving his family, Ibsen traveled to Grimstad, a small, isolated town, to begin his apprenticeship. He maintained a strong desire to gain admission to the university to study medicine. Meanwhile, he fathered an illegitimate son with the maid of the apothecary. Despite his unhappy lot, Ibsen began to write in earnest in Grimstad. Inspired by the European revolutions of 1848, Ibsen wrote satire and elegant poetry.

At the age of twenty-one, Ibsen left Grimstad for the capital. While in Christiania (now Oslo), Ibsen passed his exams but opted not to pursue his education, instead turning to playwriting and journalism. In Christiania he penned his first play, Catiline (1849), written in blank verse about the failure of Catiline’s conspiracy against ancient Rome in the time of Cicero. It sold only 45 copies and was rejected by every theater to which Ibsen submitted it for performance. Ibsen also spent time analyzing and criticizing modern Norwegian literature. Still poor, Ibsen gladly accepted a contract to write for and help manage the newly constituted National Theater in Bergen in 1851. Beginning his work untrained and largely uneducated, Ibsen soon learned much from his time at the theater, producing such works as St. John's Night (1852). The majority of his writings from this period were based on folksongs, folklore, and history. In 1858, Ibsen moved back to Christiania to become the creative director of the city's Norwegian Theater.

That same year, Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen, with whom he fathered a child named Sigurd Ibsen. Though his plays suggest otherwise, Ibsen revered the state of marriage, believing that it was possible for two people to travel through life as perfect, happy equals. During this period, Ibsen also developed a daily routine from which he would not deviate until his first stroke in 1901: he would rise, consume a small breakfast, take a long walk, write for five hours, eat dinner, and finish the night with entertainment or early retirement to bed. Despite this routine, Ibsen found his life difficult, though he did pen several plays, including Love's Comedy (1862), a close relation of A Doll's House (1879) in its distinction between love and marriage. Luckily, in 1864, his friends generously offered him money that they had collected, allowing him to move to Italy. He felt like an exile. He would spend the next twenty-seven years living in Italy and Germany.

During this time abroad, he authored a number of successful works, including Brand (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867), both (significantly) written to be read rather than to be performed. Ibsen moved to Dresden in 1868 and then to Munich in 1875. In Munich in 1879, Ibsen wrote his groundbreaking play, A Doll's House. He pursued his interest in realistic drama for the next decade, earning international acclaim; many of his works were published in translation and performed throughout Europe. Ibsen eventually turned to a new style of writing, abandoning his interest in realism for a series of so-called symbolic dramas. He completed his last work, Hedda Gabler , abroad in 1890. After being away from Norway for twenty-seven years, Ibsen and Suzannah returned in 1891. Shortly afterwards, he finished writing The Master Builder (1892), after which he took a short break. In late 1893, seemingly in need of moist air to help cure her recurring gout, Suzannah left for southern Italy.

While his wife was away, Ibsen found a companion in a young female pianist, Hildur Andersen, with whom he spent a great deal of time. He continued to correspond with her even after Suzannah's return. Ibsen's relationship with Andersen was characteristic of his larger interest in the younger generation; he was famous for seeking out their ideas and encouraging their writing. Ibsen's later plays tended to meet with controversy on the occasions of their first performances: Hedda Gabler was reviled by critics of the published script and of the first production in 1890. It is at about this time that Ibsen's work, partly as a consequence of George Bernard Shaw's lecture The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1890), became extremely popular in England. After suffering a series of strokes, Ibsen died in 1906 at the age of seventy-eight. He was unable to write for the last five years of his life, following a stroke which also left him unable to walk. Reportedly his last words , after his nurse suggested he was doing better, were, “To the contrary!” Study Guides on Works by Henrik Ibsen

Question: What is the nationality of playwright Henrik Ibsen?
Answer: Norwegian