Henrik Ibsen was born to Knud Ibsen and Marichen
Altenburg, a relatively well-to-do merchant family, in the
small port town of Skien, Norway.
He was a descendant of some of the oldest and most
distinguished families of Norway, including the Paus family.
Shortly after his birth his family's fortunes became very bad.
2. • Henrik Ibsen was born to Knud Ibsen and
Marichen
• Altenburg, a relatively well-to-do merchant
family, in the
• small port town of Skien, Norway.
• He was a descendant of some of the oldest
and most
• distinguished families of Norway, including
the Paus family.
• Shortly after his birth his family's fortunes
became very bad.
3. • His mother turned to religion for solace and
his father began to suffer from
severe depression.
• The characters in his plays often mirror his
parents, and his
• themes often deal with financial difficulty
and moral conflicts arising from dark
secrets hidden from society
4. • At fifteen, Ibsen left home. He moved to the small town
of
• Grimstad to become a pharmacist and began writing
plays.
• In 1846, an affair with a servant produced an illegitimate
child whom he later rejected.
• He never met his illegitimate son, who ended
• up as a poor blacksmith.
• Ibsen went to Christiania (later renamed Oslo)
• to study at the university.
• He soon rejected the idea (he did not pass all
• his entrance exams), preferring to commit
• himself to writing.
5. • Ibsen returned to Christiania in 1858 to become the
creative
• director of Christiania's National Theater.
• They lived in very poor financial circumstances
and Ibsen
• became very disenchanted with life in Norway.
• In 1864, they went to Sorrento in Italy in self-
imposed exile.
• Ibsen died in Oslo on May 23, 1906 after a series
of strokes
6. Notable work
• A Doll's house
• Ghost
• An Enemy of the people
• The wild Duck
• The lady from the see
• Hedda Gabler
• The master builder
7. Common theme of his literary
work
• Fundamental values
• Human rights
• Truth and reality of the society
• Alcoholism
• Women
• Financial problems
• Repression of women
• Power of press
8. Realistic techniques
• The work of Ibsen's are the true manifestation
of his saying.
• He developed realistic techniques that change
the entire course of western drama.
• He moved away from romantic style and brought
the problems and ideas of the day onto the stage
of his time
• Known as a father of realistic theater
9. • Turned eye towards societal issues that marked
the waning year of the Victorian era
• Directly, speaking about issues, has been
considered one of factor that make play art
rather than entertainment
• Prose is the language of reason
• Poetry is the language of passion
10. Wrote for middle
class/progressive writer
• Ibsen wrote for and about the middle class ans
suburb and small town
• He focused on characters and psychological
conflict rather than dramatic situation
• Ibsen's anarchistic individualism made deep
impression on the youngest generation outside
Norway, where he was considered as a
progressive writer
11. • Ibsen's plays renders life both
objectively and faithfully
concentrating on fairly ordinary
people who face problems that can
only be resolved in a manner that is
true to life.
12. Standard of morality
• Ibsen largely founded the modern stage by
introducing a critical eye and free inquiry into
the conditions of life and issues of morality
• The principle of Ibsen's teaching was that
honesty in facing facts is the first requisite of
decent life
• To recognized these facts is not pessimism, it is
the moral obligations laid upon intelligent
people
13. • Face the problems, however, requires courage,
honesty, and faith in the ultimate Worth of
human soul's
• In ghost's he shows man as a prisoner of false
morality of society
• He wants to release man form these prisons
• He is a social reformer
14. A modern playwright
• Classical drama was largely concerned with
exceptional people with heroes making, super
human struggle
• Modern drama deals with common man,
highlighting the problems of everyday life
• Classical heroes fought against the destiny
• Modern heroes fought against the ordinary
suffering of everyday life
15. • Classical heroes fought for elevation and honour
• Modern heroes fought for adjustment
• Classical heroes were Princes general or great
leader of the people
• Modern heroes belongs to lower middle class
• Widely acknowledged as a father of modern
drama
16. A study of human relations and
conflicts
• Ibsen enduring greatness as a dramatist is due not to
his technical innovations but to the depth and
subtlety of understanding human character specially
feminine character which is rare of human relation
• He embodied
• Social relation
• Ordinary problems
• Females repression
17. A great psychologist
• Example of the people of pursue their own goals,
involuntarily trampling on live of these are all drawn
from the playwright's last decades of writing
• Ibsen's psychological analysis, he reveals the
negative forces in the minds of these people
• Human thoughts
• Feelings
• Emotions