Henrik Ibsen :: essays research papers

&9Henrik Ibsen was born in the Stockman Building in Skien, Norway. He spent part of his childhood on Venst&oslashp Farm after his father went bankrupt. In 1843, he was apprenticed to a apothecary in Grimstad. That was when he began writing satire and elegant poetrys in the style of the time. He wrote his first play in 1849, a five-act tragedy in verse, Catiline, which was make in 1850 under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. The Warriors Barrow was written and performed in 1850, as the first of Ibsens plays to reach the stage. However, it was non published until much later. Ibsen lived in Christiania (now Oslo) from 1850 to 1851 to manage his upper secondary education. From 1851 to 1857, Ibsen was playwright in residence and director of the theatre in Bergen. &9While there, he wrote St. Johns shadow (written in 1852), Lady Inger of Osteraad (written in 1854, published in 1857), The Feast at Solhaug (written in 1855, published in 1856), and Olaf Liljekrans (written in 1856 ). All these plays were inspired by kinsperson songs, folklore or history, all of which are leitmotifs that run through Ibsens works. Ibsen became creative director of The Norwegian Theater in Christiania in 1858. The next year, he wrote the historical play The Vikings at Helgeland. The Pretenders was written in 1863. Beside Bjornstjerne Bjornsons Sigurd Slembe, The Pretenders is considered the main work of historical fiction produced during this era. Henrik Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen (1836-1914) in 1858. Soon after, he wrote the poem "On the Heights"(1859) and the play Loves Comedy (1863). The years in Christiania were difficult for Ibsen. He was given a means of grapple when a group of his friends, headed by Bjornstjerne Bjornson, collected enoughmoney for him to move to Italy in 1864. Shortly after moving, Ibsen began a major drama about Julian, but he did not complete the work until 1873, when it was published as Emperor and Galilean. The Epic Brand, a major epic- lyric poem, led to the lyric drama Brand (1866), Ibsens first solid success as a writer. His next major work followed close on the heels of this success when he penned Peer Gynt in 1867. &9Ibsen locomote to Dresden in 1868, then to Munich in 1875. In 1869, he wrote the comedy The League of Youth. The realistic style used to stage the drama Pillars of Society (1877) focused on various problems of the day.