author - "Henrik Ibsen"
ts maywell rank as Ibsen's greatest work. It was the play which firstgave the full measure of his technical and spiritual originalityand daring. It has done far more than any other of his plays to"move boundary-posts." It has advanced the frontiers of dramaticart and implanted new ideals, both technical and intellectual, inthe minds of a whole generation of playwrights. It ranks withHernani and _La Dame aux Camélias_ among the epoch-making playsof the nineteenth century, while in point of essential originalityit towers above them. We cannot, I think, get nearer to the truththan Georg Brandes did in the above-quoted phrase from his firstnotice of the play, describing it as not, perhaps, the poet'sgreatest work, but certainly his noblest deed. In another essay,Brandes has pointed to it, with equal justice, as marking Ibsen'sfinal breach with his early-one might almost say his hereditaryromanticism. He here becomes, at last, "the most modern of themoderns." "This, I am convinced," s
his new book to a man like Tesman, whom he despises. But though Tesman is a ninny, he is, as Hedda says, a "specialist"--he is a competent, plodding student of his subject. Lovborg may quite naturally wish to see how his new method, or his excursion into a new field, strikes the average scholar of the Tesman type. He is, in fact, "trying it on the dog"--neither an unreasonable nor an unusual proceeding. There is, no doubt, a certain improbability in the way in which Lovborg is represented as carrying his manuscript around, and especially in Mrs. Elvsted's production of his rough draft from her pocket; but these are mechanical trifles, on which only a niggling criticism would dream of laying stress.
Of all Ibsen's works, Hedda Gabler is the most detached, the most objective--a character-study pure and simple. It is impossible--or so it seems to me--to extract any sort of general idea from it. One cannot even call it a satire, unless one is prepared to apply that term to the record of a "case" i
have known sinceour marriage.
Mrs. Linde. I know how fond you were of him. And then you wentoff to Italy?
Nora. Yes; you see we had money then, and the doctors insisted onour going, so we started a month later.
Mrs. Linde. And your husband came back quite well?
Nora. As sound as a bell!
Mrs. Linde. But--the doctor?
Nora. What doctor?
Mrs. Linde. I thought your maid said the gentleman who arrivedhere just as I did, was the doctor?
Nora. Yes, that was Doctor Rank, but he doesn't come hereprofessionally. He is our greatest friend, and comes in at leastonce everyday. No, Torvald has not had an hour's illness sincethen, and our children are strong and healthy and so am I. (Jumpsup and claps her hands.) Christine! Christine! it's good to bealive and happy!--But how horrid of me; I am talking of nothingbut my own affairs. (Sits on a stool near her, and rests her armson her knees.) You mustn't be angry with me. Tell me, is itreally true that you did not love your husband? Why did
The following year, Ibsen had a fateful encounter with violinist and theater manager Ole Bull. Bull liked Ibsen and offered him a job as a writer and manager for the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen. The position proved to be an intense tutorial in all things theatrical and even included traveling abroad to learn more about his craft. In 1857, Ibsen returned to Christiania to run another theater there. This proved to be a frustrating venture for him, with others claiming that he mismanaged the theater and calling for his ouster. Despite his difficulties, Ibsen found time to write Love's Comedy, a satirical look at marriage, in 1862.
ts maywell rank as Ibsen's greatest work. It was the play which firstgave the full measure of his technical and spiritual originalityand daring. It has done far more than any other of his plays to"move boundary-posts." It has advanced the frontiers of dramaticart and implanted new ideals, both technical and intellectual, inthe minds of a whole generation of playwrights. It ranks withHernani and _La Dame aux Camélias_ among the epoch-making playsof the nineteenth century, while in point of essential originalityit towers above them. We cannot, I think, get nearer to the truththan Georg Brandes did in the above-quoted phrase from his firstnotice of the play, describing it as not, perhaps, the poet'sgreatest work, but certainly his noblest deed. In another essay,Brandes has pointed to it, with equal justice, as marking Ibsen'sfinal breach with his early-one might almost say his hereditaryromanticism. He here becomes, at last, "the most modern of themoderns." "This, I am convinced," s
his new book to a man like Tesman, whom he despises. But though Tesman is a ninny, he is, as Hedda says, a "specialist"--he is a competent, plodding student of his subject. Lovborg may quite naturally wish to see how his new method, or his excursion into a new field, strikes the average scholar of the Tesman type. He is, in fact, "trying it on the dog"--neither an unreasonable nor an unusual proceeding. There is, no doubt, a certain improbability in the way in which Lovborg is represented as carrying his manuscript around, and especially in Mrs. Elvsted's production of his rough draft from her pocket; but these are mechanical trifles, on which only a niggling criticism would dream of laying stress.
Of all Ibsen's works, Hedda Gabler is the most detached, the most objective--a character-study pure and simple. It is impossible--or so it seems to me--to extract any sort of general idea from it. One cannot even call it a satire, unless one is prepared to apply that term to the record of a "case" i
have known sinceour marriage.
Mrs. Linde. I know how fond you were of him. And then you wentoff to Italy?
Nora. Yes; you see we had money then, and the doctors insisted onour going, so we started a month later.
Mrs. Linde. And your husband came back quite well?
Nora. As sound as a bell!
Mrs. Linde. But--the doctor?
Nora. What doctor?
Mrs. Linde. I thought your maid said the gentleman who arrivedhere just as I did, was the doctor?
Nora. Yes, that was Doctor Rank, but he doesn't come hereprofessionally. He is our greatest friend, and comes in at leastonce everyday. No, Torvald has not had an hour's illness sincethen, and our children are strong and healthy and so am I. (Jumpsup and claps her hands.) Christine! Christine! it's good to bealive and happy!--But how horrid of me; I am talking of nothingbut my own affairs. (Sits on a stool near her, and rests her armson her knees.) You mustn't be angry with me. Tell me, is itreally true that you did not love your husband? Why did
The following year, Ibsen had a fateful encounter with violinist and theater manager Ole Bull. Bull liked Ibsen and offered him a job as a writer and manager for the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen. The position proved to be an intense tutorial in all things theatrical and even included traveling abroad to learn more about his craft. In 1857, Ibsen returned to Christiania to run another theater there. This proved to be a frustrating venture for him, with others claiming that he mismanaged the theater and calling for his ouster. Despite his difficulties, Ibsen found time to write Love's Comedy, a satirical look at marriage, in 1862.