length: 1301 words 3.7 double spaced pages rating: red free henrik ibsen henrik ibsen was born at skien in norway on march 20, 1828. After they went bankrupt, his family moved to a small farm north of the town where they lived in poverty. The blend of an overbearing husband and a submissive wife made appearances in his plays brand, a doll's house, and ghosts. The bitter character of hjalmar ekdal in the wild duck was based on ibsen's father. He had wanted to become a doctor, but game up on the idea after he failed greek and math on his! university entrance exams.

It is similar to ibsen's other play catiline because it showed his impatience with traditional attitudes and values. In both plays he showed sympathy for historical characters who were famous for being rebellious. Ibsen became the stage manager and playwright of the national stage in bergen in 1851.

In 1857, he moved to christiania oslo , where he became director of the norwegian theatre. In 1858, ibsen married suzannah thoresen, with whom he had one child, sigurd ibsen. This was a marriage that was often as misunderstood as the marriages of ibsen's dramas. At the age of thirty, ibsen saw his first performances of shakespeare in copenhagen and dresden. Shakespeare's work convinced ibsen that serious drama must strive toward a psychological truth and form its basis on the characters and conflicts of mankind.

After the norwegian theatre went bankrupt in 1862, ibsen was depressed and broke. Ibsen became bitterly disappointed with current political events, especially norway's failure to help the danes in their war against prussia. He was supported by a pension from the norwegian state and income from his books.

In his speech to christiania students in 1874, ibsen said, all i have written, i have mentally lived through. Partly i have written on that which only by glimpses, and at my best moments, i have felt stirring vividly within me as something great and beautiful. But i have also written on the opposite, on that which to introspective contemplation appears as the dregs and sediments of one's own nature. Yes, gentlemen, nobody can poetically present that to which he has not to a certain degree and at least at times the model within himself. In 1877, ibsen entered his second period of writing with his play pillars of society. Ibsen wrote a series of plays dealing with social problems, such as a doll's house and ghosts.

He also wrote a series of plays dealing with psychological problems, such as the lady from the seas and hedda gabler. He wrote eight plays during of this period and both originated and perfected the problem play. The term problem play refers specifically to the type of drama which ibsen wrote beginning with pillars of society in 1877.