Ibsen, HENRIK, poet and the creator of a new type of drama, was born at Skien in south Norway, 20th March 1828. In 1842 he was apprenticed to a chemist at Grimstad. But he aimed higher: he studied, and wrote poetry and a drama, Catilina. This, published in 1850, was a failure. In the same year he became a student at Christiania University, but soon grew tired of academic study. After nearly two years of journalistic work he was appointed director of Ole Bull's theatre at Bergen. For it he wrote five romantic dramas, but only two—Lady Inger at Ostråt and The Banquet at Solhaug—have been published. In 1857 he undertook similar duties for the National Theatre in Christiania. His next dramas were The Warriors in Helgeland (1858), The Rival Kings (1864), and Love's Comedy (1862). The first two admirably reproduce the style and spirit of the old sagas, and placed Ibsen in the first rank of Scandinavian dramatists. The last is a precursor of his satirical social dramas; it set all the Philistine world of Norway against him. Then in 1862 the National Theatre became bankrupt; and, moreover, Ibsen was bitterly disappointed when Norway held aloof from the Danes in their struggle against the German powers. So, thoroughly disgusted with his countrymen and his country, he said good-bye to Norway in 1864 and lived chiefly in Rome, Dresden, and Munich till 1892, when he returned to Christiania. The Norwegian parliament granted him—reluctantly—a pension in 1866. In that and the following year appeared the lyric dramas Brand and Peer Gynt, in many respects the finest things he has done; the poetic workmanship is of a very high order. Brand is an incarnation of the absolute sense of duty, but his ideal striving and self-sacrifice end in disaster because he is ignorant of the proper function of love. Peer Gynt is the complete mirror of actual man; in his case selfishness and romantic fancy are the rocks upon which ideal striving comes to nought. By intention peculiarly representative of Norwegian character, both dramas have also a universal validity. In 1873 Ibsen published the double drama Emperor and Galilean (Julian and Christ; Eng. trans. 1876), in which he foretells the 'third kingdom' that is to transcend both classic and Christian culture. But already in 1869 he had finished The Young Men's League, another of the satirical social dramas which have made his name famous. This has been followed by Pillars of Society (1877), A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882), The Wild Duck (1884), Rosmersholm (1886), The Lady from the Sea (1888), The Master Builder (1892), &c. The Digte (2d ed. 1875) are lyrics and epics.
These plays aroused a storm of controversy in England in 1889, as they had done shortly before in Germany and in the Scandinavian countries. Ibsen is a passionate advocate of individual liberty. He maintains that man's first and chiefest duty is to be wholly man, consistent with himself in all things. An idealist of the highest type in the beliefs he entertains as to the future possibilities of mankind, he is a sceptic in his estimation of existing men, and especially of existing institutions, social and political. His mission, like Socrates' of old, is to awaken men to a real comprehension of themselves. Thus he is an uncompromising moral reformer. He is inspired by a stern Semitic earnestness, and drives right through all obstacles to get grasp of truth unmistakable. The interest and method of his plays are almost exclusively psychological. He makes the consequential development of character the supreme law of dramatic evolution. His plays represent the conclusion from the psychological premises of some problem in character or social circumstance. Each play begins where an ordinary play would be just on the point of ending; the situation is completely formed before the curtain rises. By his analytic method Ibsen is enabled to paint richly-detailed pictures of inner soul-life without resorting to long monologues or explanatory speeches. His language is concise and vigorous, and full of vivid realism. He gets some of his effects by the use of incisive sarcasm and tragic irony and fearless outspoken realism. His characters are real persons: each in thought, language, and behaviour presents a consistent individuality throughout. There is at times too much mysticism and symbolism, and a tendency to exaggerate contradictions of character and overburden the action with motives.
Henrik Ibsen (1898), in commemoration of his 70th birthday, is a collection of opinions, criticisms, and of reminiscences by Scandinavian authors, edited by Gerhard Gran. See biographies by Vasenius (Swedish, 1883), Passarge (German, 1883), Jæger (Norwegian, 1888; Eng. trans. 1894), and in G. Brandes' works (Danish, 1883). In English, Mr Gosse's articles (in Fortnightly, 1889, &c.); Wicksteed's Four Lectures on Ibsen (1892); G. Bernard Shaw, The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1893); H. H. Boyesen, A Commentary on the Works of Ibsen (1894); and Archer's translation of the prose works (1890). Brand has been translated both in prose and verse.