Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen
Portrait by Eilif Peterssen, 1895
Born	Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828-03-20)20 March 1828 Skien, Telemark, Norway
Died	23 May 1906(1906-05-23) (aged 78) Kristiania, Norway (modern Oslo)
Occupation	Writer, theatre director
Genres	Drama
Literary movement	Naturalism, realism
Notable works	Brand (1865) Peer Gynt (1867) A Doll's House (1879) Ghosts (1881) An Enemy of the People (1882) The Wild Duck (1884) Rosmersholm (1886) Hedda Gabler (1890)
Spouse	Suzannah Thoresen (m. 1858)
Children	Sigurd Ibsen
Relatives	Knud Ibsen (father) Marichen Altenburg (mother)
Signature

Henrik Johan Ibsen (/ˈɪbsən/;^[1] Norwegian: [ˈhɛ̀nrɪk ˈɪ̀psn̩]; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama."^[2] He pioneered theatrical realism, but also wrote lyrical epic works. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, and When We Dead Awaken. Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare,^[3][4] and A Doll's House was the world's most performed play in 2006.^[5]

Ibsen was born into the merchant elite of the port town of Skien, and had strong family ties to the families who had held power and wealth in Telemark since the mid-1500s.^[6] Both his parents belonged socially or biologically to the Paus family of Rising and Altenburggården—the extended family of the siblings Ole Paus and Hedevig Paus—and Ibsen described his own background as patrician.^[6] Ibsen established himself as a theater director in Norway during the 1850s and gained international recognition as a playwright with the plays Brand and Peer Gynt in the 1860s. From 1864, he lived for 27 years in Italy and Germany, primarily in Rome, Dresden, and Munich, making only brief visits to Norway, before moving to Christiania in 1891. Most of Ibsen's plays are set in Norway, often in bourgeois environments and places reminiscent of Skien, and he frequently drew inspiration from family members. Ibsen's early poetic and cinematic play Peer Gynt has strong surreal elements.^[7] After Peer Gynt Ibsen abandoned verse and wrote in realistic prose. Several of his later dramas were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theatre was expected to model strict morals of family life and propriety. Ibsen's later work examined the realities that lay behind the façades, revealing much that was disquieting to a number of his contemporaries. He had a critical eye and conducted a free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. In many critics' estimates The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm are "vying with each other as rivals for the top place among Ibsen's works";^[8] Ibsen himself regarded Emperor and Galilean as his masterpiece.^[9]

Ibsen is considered one of the most important playwrights in the history of world literature,^[10] and is widely regarded as the foremost playwright of the nineteenth century.^[10][11] Sigmund Freud considered him on par with Shakespeare and Sophocles,^[12] while George Bernard Shaw argued that Ibsen had surpassed Shakespeare as the world's pre-eminent dramatist.^[13] Ibsen influenced other playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and James Joyce. Considered a profound poetic dramatist, he is widely regarded as the most important playwright since Shakespeare.^[14][15] Ibsen is commonly described as the most famous Norwegian internationally.^[16] Ibsen wrote his plays in Dano-Norwegian,^[a] and they were published by the Danish publisher Gyldendal. He was the father of Prime Minister Sigurd Ibsen and a relative of the singer Ole Paus.

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