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Ibsen, Henrik 1828-1906
Norwegian dramatist generally regarded as the founder of modern prose drama

Ibsen was born in Skien, the son of a wealthy merchant who went bankrupt in 1836. He took his first job as a chemist's assistant in Grimstad (1844-50), with the intention of studying medicine, and during this time he wrote his first play, Catilina (1850, Eng trans Catiline), which was rejected by the Christiania Theatre. He worked briefly on a student journal in Christiania (Oslo), then was given a post as stage director and resident playwright at Ole Bull's Theatre, Bergen (1851), for which he wrote five conventional romantic dramas.

In 1857 he was appointed director of the Norwegian Theatre in Christiania, having just begun work on what would be his first play of significance, Kongsemnerne (1863, Eng trans The Pretenders), based on a historical Norwegian theme, in the manner of Schiller. In 1862 he wrote Kjaerlighedens Komedie (Eng trans Love's Comedy), on a satirical theme of marriage as a millstone to idealism. The theatre went bankrupt the following year and, disillusioned with his homeland, Ibsen went into voluntary exile for 27 years, to Rome, Dresden and Munich (1864-91), where he wrote the bulk of his dramas.

He published the dramatic poem Brand in 1866, which gave him his first major success, as well as the award of a government pension. The existentialist Peer Gynt (also in rhyming couplets) followed in 1867, and a third historical drama, Kejser og Galilaer (Eng trans Emperor and Galilean), in 1873.

He then produced his realistic plays, concerned with social and political issues, which revolutionized European drama and on which his towering reputation rests: Samfundets střtter (1877, Eng trans Pillars of Society); Et dukkehjem (1879, Eng trans A Doll's House); Gengangere (1881, Eng trans Ghosts); En folkefiende (1882, Eng trans An Enemy of the People); Vildanden (1884, Eng trans The Wild Duck), Rosmersholm (1886), Fruen fra havet (1888, Eng trans The Lady from the Sea) and Hedda Gabler (1890). These plays caused a major stir among critics and audiences: Ibsen refused to provide 'happy endings' (for example, Nora Helmer slams the door on her marriage and family at the end of A Doll's House) and was often controversial in his subject matter (eg his study of venereal, moral and societal disease in Ghosts).

He returned to Norway in 1891, where he wrote his last plays. These are characterized by a strong emphasis on symbolism and the unconscious, as in Bygmester Solness (1892, Eng trans The Master Builder), Lille Eyolf (1894, Eng trans Little Eyolf), John Gabriel Borkman (1896) and Naar vi dřde vaagner (1899, Eng trans When We Dead Awaken). In 1900 he suffered a stroke which ended his literary career.

Bibliography: G B Bryan An Ibsen Companion (1984); H Koht, Life of Ibsen (1971); M Meyer, Ibsen (3 vols, 1967-71).


'I almost think we're all of us Ghosts, Pastor Manders. It's not only what we have invited from our father and mother that "walks" in us. It's all sorts of dead ideas, and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we can't get rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper, I seem to see Ghosts gliding between the lines. There must be Ghosts all the country over, as thick as the sand of the sea. And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.' Mrs Alving in Ghosts, Act 2.