Ibsen, Henrik

Ibsen, Henrik (1828–1906),
Norwegian playwright and poet. Ibsen, familiar with Shakespeare from his professional career as a dramaturg, later, for his ‘problem’ plays of contemporary life, sought to reject the artificial devices of blank verse, soliloquy, mistaken identity, overheard conversations, intercepted letters. But the structure of Ghosts (1881), with its dead father, powerful mother, and sensitive son, bears many resemblances to Hamlet; and some of the symbolism of his last play When We Dead Awaken (1899) seems to echo Shakespearian ‘romance’.

Tom Matheson