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The Dramatist Henrik Ibsen - a Survey
Helge Bugge Eriksen
Henrik Ibsen (20 March 1828 - 23 May 1906) is
Norway's and Scandinavia's most famous author
in the world literature. He gained fame and was
celebrated in many countries already at the time
when he was stillwriting his plays. And now, more
than one hundred years later people still read and
stage his plays all over the world. Over and over
again Ibsen poses his fundamental question:
'What does it really mean to be yourself?'
People who try to fulfillthemselves and develop
their true potential often face a lot of obstacles;
society and other external circumstances, fatal
choices made or unmade, the inner conflict
between the need for self-realization and the c
onception of responsibility for otherpeople. In
Ibsen's dramas past and present are interwoven
in a way that the audience was quite unfamiliar with
at that time. And he manages to create a masterly
unity of psychology, speech and stage-setting.
Course of Life
Skien (1828-1843) During the first seven years of his life Henrik's family belonged to the social elite
of Skien. But after his father went into bankruptcy in 1835 they had to move to their countryhouse,
Venstøp.
Grimstad (1844-1850) Ibsen was an apothecary's apprentice and started his literary activity.
Kristiania (1850-1851) (Oslo) Ibsen graduated, met Bjørnson and got into contact with Marcus
Thrane's worker's movement.
Bergen (1851-1857) He was engaged as theatre director and to assist as dramatic author at Ole Bull's
newly established Norwegian Theatre. He met Suzannah Thoresen who was to become his wife.
Kristiania (1857-1864) He was the theatre manager at Christiania norske Theater. He had a hard time
being in money difficulty and suffering from a lack of confidence in himself as an artist. His son Sigurd
was born in 1859.
Abroad (1864-1891) For 27 years Ibsen lived in Rome, Dresden and Munich and spent the summers in
Tuscany, Southern Italy and the German Alps. He visited Norway the summers of 1874 and 1885. From
1866 he was granted an annual pension for authors.
Kristiania (1891-1906) Ibsen lived in Arbiensgate from 1895 and got his first stroke in 1900.
Literary Works
His works appeared at two-year intervals during the second part of the 19th century from the
publication of Catiline in April 1850 to the 'Awakening of the Dead' on 19 December 1899.
His works can be organized in three groups:
I 1850-1857: Six major initial plays mainly inspired by the national romantic spiritof the period:
Catiline (1850), St. John's Night (1852), Lady Inger at Østeråt (1855), The Feast at Solhaug (1856),
Olaf Liljekrans (1857), The Vikings at Helgeland (1857)
II 1862-1873: Six modern works written partly in verse and partly in prose:
Love's comedy (1862, in verse), The Pretenders (1863, in prose), Brand (1866, in verse), Peer Gynt
(1867, in verse), The League of Youth (1869, in prose), Emperor and Galilean (1873, in prose).
Poems, his only collection of poems was published in 1871.
III 1877-1899: Twelve contemporary dramas in prose:
The Pillars of Society (1877), A Doll House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882)
marked by thedebates of social problems typical of the realistic period, The Wild Duck (1884),
Rosmersholm (1886), The Lady from the Sea (1888), Hedda Gabler (1890) deal with psychological
subjects in thematic symbols. The Masterbuilder (1892), Little Eyolf (1894), John Gabriel Borkmann
(1896), When We Dead Awaken (1899) all to a certain degree deal with the artist's relationship to his
own work of art. Had writing been an escape from life itself?
Cand. philol. Helge Bugge Eriksen, Skien
Translated into English by Cand. mag. Astri Bjørnå, Skien
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