playwright: Hendrik Ibsen
Nov. 8th, 2013 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rimbaud 
“To live is to war with trolls.”
― 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 especially renowned for depicting female characters—such as Nora of A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler herself—who rebel against the limited roles prescribed for them. Even though Ibsen’s plays were scandalous in their own time, Ibsen’s sense of social engagement, his fascination with symbolism, and his attention to psychological detail inspired many of the most influential writers of the 20th century.
The story of his life -- his birth March 20, 1828, in the little Norwegian village of Skien, the change in family circumstances from prosperity to poverty when the boy was eight years old, his studious and non-athletic boyhood, his apprenticeship to an apothecary in Grimstad, and his early attempts at dramatic composition -- all these items are well known. His spare hours were spent in preparation for entrance to Christiania University, where, at about the age of twenty, he formed a friendship with Björnson. About 1851 the violinist Ole Bull gave Ibsen the position of "theater poet" at the newly built National Theater in Bergen -- a post which he held for six years. In 1857 he became director of the Norwegian Theater in Christiania; and in 1862, with Love's Comedy, became known in his own country as a playwright of promise.
Seven years later, discouraged with the reception given to his work and out of sympathy with the social and intellectual ideals of his country, he left Norway, not to return for a period of nearly thirty years. He established himself first at Rome, later in Munich. Late in life he returned to Christiania, where he died May 23, 1906
taken from:
http://www.theatredatabase.com/19th_century/henrik_ibsen_001.html [Hendrik Ibsen]
http://www.glogster.com/m00naa/henrik-ibsen/g-6mfd57p5n6b25262s9sela0 [image credit]
