A Doll's House: one of the most performed plays, written by the gentleman in the photograph below. UNESCO in 2001 inscribed Henrik Ibsen's autographed manuscript of A Doll's House on the Memory of the World Register, in recognition of its historical value.
The Playwright
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| Playwright Henrik Ibsen, later years, PD |
I = Ibsen, Henrik, Author
Theme = Authors, AtoZ
Henrik Johan Ibsen, March 20, 1828 - May 23, 1906, was a major Norwegian playwright, theatre director and poet of the 19th century. His works are the most frequently performed in the world, after Shakespeare. By the early 20th century, A Doll's House became the world's most performed play.
Published in 1879, A Doll's House is a scathing criticism of the marital roles accepted by men and women in Ibsen's society at that time. Ghosts followed in 1881, another scathing commentary on the morality of society, in which a widow reveals to her pastor the evils of her marriage which she had hidden for its duration.
In another of his works, An Enemy, the antagonist is the entire community. One of the important messages of the play is that the individual, who stands alone, is more often 'right' than the mass of people. Contemporary society's belief was that the community is a noble institution that could be trusted. Ibsen challenged this belief. He thought both the conservatives and the liberals of his time were self-serving.
Most of Ibsen's plays are set in Norway, and are reminiscent of the port town of Skien, where he grew up. However, Ibsen lived in Italy and Germany for 27 years, during his most productive writing time. His dramas continued to influence contemporary culture with film productions of A Doll's House (featuring actress Jane Fonda) and A Master Builder (with Wallace Shawn).
Ibsen was born into a merchant family with connections to the leading mercantile families of the town and based many of his characterizations on these people. He was also the father of Prime Minister Sigurd Ibsen. A Doll's House was a three-act play in prose which premiered on December 21, 1879 at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark. The storyline was based on a real-life couple that Ibsen knew.
A Doll's House is significant for its critical attitude toward 19th century marriage norms. It aroused great controversy at the time due to the ending. Nora, the protagonist leaves her husband and children so she can 'discover' herself. The play was inspired by the Ibsen's belief that a woman didn't have the freedom to be herself in an exclusive male society.
Later in his life, Ibsen said he didn't consciously work for the women's rights movement, as he wrote A Doll's House without the conscious idea of making propaganda. His objective was 'the description of humanity', as he saw it.
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| Norwegian Author Henrik Ibsen, c.1870 - PD |
Ibsen influenced playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, James Joyce, Eugene O'Neill and Miroslav Krleza. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902, 1903 and 1904.
On May 23, 1906, Ibsen died at home in Oslo. He had suffered a series of strokes in March 1900. The day prior, his nurse had assured a visitor that he was a little better. Ibsen then spluttered his last words "On the contrary" and died the following day in the afternoon.
NOTE: The only play of Ibsen's I've seen was A Doll's House at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. It was a great production.
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Have you ever heard of Ibsen? Do you know about the play, A Doll's House? Did you know his drama works have been the most performed after Shakespeare's works?
Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond. Thanks for dropping by!
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A to Z Challenge - 2016
It's April again and time for the 2016 Blogging from A to Z challenge This is my 4th year participating in the challenge! (Previous A to Z posts at the top of my blog page tabs are: Art A-Z, French Faves, Paris, Etc.
Thanks to originator Lee (Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out), and the co-hosts and co-host teams who make the challenge run smoothly. See the list of participants, and other important information at the A to Z Blog site. The basic idea is to blog every day in April except Sundays (26 days). On April 1st, you begin with the letter A, April 2 is the letter B, and so on. Posts can be random or use a theme.
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| Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge |
A to Z Blog Listhttp://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-z-challenge-sign-up-list-2016.html
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References:
Wiki on Henrik Ibsen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen
Wiki on A Doll's House
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Doll%27s_House
Image of elder Ibsen:
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.
Image of Ibsen in middle years:
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.
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