Facts about Henrik Ibsen

1. 07

   Peer Gynt, Ibsen's 1867 verse drama spanning five acts across multiple continents and decades, required elaborate staging with fantastical scenes including a troll kingdom and an insane asylum.

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2. 06

   Ibsen's 1892 play The Master Builder featured a protagonist obsessed with building impossibly tall structures, reflecting the playwright's own psychological preoccupations during his declining health.

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3. 05

   At age 72, Ibsen suffered a stroke in 1891 that left him partially paralyzed and unable to write for the final six years of his life.

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4. 04

   The 1882 play Ghosts became so controversial that theaters across Scandinavia banned it for depicting syphilis and challenging Victorian moral conventions.

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5. 03

   During his 28 years of self-imposed exile from Norway starting in 1864, Ibsen lived in Italy and Germany while writing his most celebrated plays including Ghosts and An Enemy of the People.

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6. 02

   Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House shocked audiences across Europe by ending with the female protagonist Nora slamming the door and abandoning her husband and children.

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7. 01

   In 1828, Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway, a small timber town that shaped his early understanding of social class and human conflict.

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