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Birth date
Hendrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828 in a Skien, a small lumbering town of southern Norway. -
Family Life
Ibsen was born into a affluent merchant family in the prosperous port town of Skien in Bratsberg, he was son of merchant Knud Plesner Ibsen and Marichen Cornelia Martine Altenburg, as he was a member of the Ibsen–Altenburg–Paus extended family, which consisted of siblings Ole and Hedevig Paus. Ibsen stated that he was closely related with “just about all the patrician families who then dominated the place and its surroundings” -
Fathers Financial Ruins
At the age of seven Ibsens father's fortunes took a turn for the worst his fathers risky speculations brought about his financial ruin causing the family to have to sell most of the property that his wife had brought into the marriage and move his family to the only place they still owned. This caused for Ibsens father to turn to alcoholism, this also causing him to visited “his bitterness and resentment on his wife and children.” -
what influenced Ibsen's plays
Ibsen's father’s financial ruin would have a strong influence on his work later on. The characters in his plays often mirror his parents, and his themes often deal with issues of financial difficulty as well as moral conflicts stemming from dark secrets hidden from society. Ibsen would both model and name characters in his plays after his own family. -
Ibsen left home
As soon as he could Ibsen left his home at the age of 15, He moved to the small town of Grimstad to become an apprentice pharmacist and studied nights for admission to the university. And during this period he used and time he had off to write a play's. -
School life
Ibsen’s schooling probably suffered since the Ibsen's couldn't afford the schools attended by the children of the town’s successful families, and his formal schooling ended altogether shortly after his fifteenth birthday in 1843 when, having no other recourse, he had to go to work to support himself -
Secret son
In 1846, when Ibsen was 18, Else Jensdatter (was a House servant) produced an illegitimate child with ibsen, who was named Jacob Henrikson. Ibsen payed for the boy until he turned 14. During this time ibsen never saw or wanted to interact with his son. Some few decades after though, "legends" has it that his son had visited him in Oslo (then Christiania). Ibsen went to Christiania intending to matriculate at the university, He soon rejected the idea, preferring to commit himself to writing. -
First play
His first play, the tragedy Catiline (1850), was published under ”Brynjolf Bjarme”, when he was only 20, but it was not performed. -
Ibsen moves
Ibsen moved to Christiania to studied for his entrance examinations there, and settled into the student quarter though not into classes. -
Ibsens theater job
At the age of only 23 he got himself a job at Det Norske Theater, where he was involved in the production of more than 145 plays as a writer, director, and producer. (During this period, Ibsen published five new plays.) -
Ibsens marriage
Ibsen was married to Suzannah Ibsen on June 18, 1885. She later gave birth to their "only child" named Sigurd Ibsen on December 23, 1859 -
Theaters bankruptcy
The theatre in Christiania was bankrupt, and Ibsen’s career as a stage writer had come to an end. Since the theater would restrict and tell Ibsen what type of plays to write he found this to be a relief; Without regard for a public he thought petty and illiberal, without care for traditions, he could now write for himself. -
Ibsen moves once again
once the theater had shut down Ibsen decided to go abroad and applied for a small state grant (which he was awarded part of it) and he left Norway for Italy. For the next 27 years he lived abroad, mainly in Rome, Dresden, and Munich, returning to Norway only for short visits -
Ibsens plays
Ibsen had went to publish Hard on the heels of Brand in 1866 then came Peer Gynt in 1867, another drama in rhymed couplets presenting an utterly antithetical view of human nature. With success in these plays, Ibsen became more confident and began to introduce more and more of his own beliefs and judgments into the drama, exploring what he termed the “drama of ideas” ( Ibsen won his battle with the world and he decided to pause his work and figure out his future.) -
Doll house controversy
Audiences were scandalized at Ibsen’s refusal in A Doll’s House to scrape together a “happy ending” But that was not Ibsen’s way; his play was about knowing oneself and being true to that self. -
Controversial play's
Although most of Ibsen's plays created controversy within the community, As he continued to released more and more controversial plays he also gained more of a following of people who agreed with him though his audiences were small in size they all took his plays very seriously. Some of these played consisted of "An enemy of the people", "Ghosts", and "The Wild Duck" just to name a few. -
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Later plays
Ibsen’s playwriting career by no means ended with Rosmersholm, but he turned toward a more introspective drama that had much less to do with society’s moral values. Among these plays are Hedda Gabler (1890) and The Master Builder (1892) Ibsen explored more psychological conflicts in these plays. -
Stroke
After his return to Norway, Ibsen continued to write plays until a stroke in 1900 and another a year later reduced him to a bedridden invalid. -
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Ibsen's influence on Drama in theater
Ibsen had completely rewritten the rules of drama with a realism which was to be adopted by Chekhov and others and which we see in the theater to this day. From Ibsen forward, challenging assumptions and directly speaking about issues has been considered one of the factors that makes a play art rather than entertainment.( was know as the "father of realism") -
Death
Ibsen died in his home at Arbins gade 1 in kristiania which is now known as Oslo after a series of strokes -
Memorial
On the 100th anniversary of Ibsen’s death in 2006 was commemorated with an “Ibsen year” in Norway and other countries. The homebuilding company Selvaag also opened Peer Gynt Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway, in Henrik Ibsen’s honour, making it possible to follow the dramatic play Peer Gynt scene by scene. -