His father was a successful merchant, until bankruptcy left the family poor and rejected from society
Ibsen worked as a pharmacist’s assistant for a while, but hated it; he failed an entrance examination to a university, and decided to earn his living as a writer
Drama became one of Ibsen’s interests after he managed a theater, even though the theater itself went bankrupt and closed
Ibsen’s plays were often misunderstood and panned by critics, because they were unlike any other drama that had been seen before
Ibsen used drama to comment on problems that society tended to ignore, and so people were angered and offended by his play’s subjects
A Doll's House
Ibsen’s most famous play, A Doll’s House, centers around a woman named Nora and her husband, Torvald Helmer
Nora undergoes an extreme transformation in the play; she starts out as a picture-perfect nineteenth century wife, supportive of her husband and selfless for her family
At the end of the play, Nora does something that was unacceptable for women of Ibsen’s time
Nora is a revolutionary character because she is a woman who realizes that she wants more for herself than the life of a housewife; she wants to be respected for who she is, and wants to be treated as an equal to her husband
Realistic drama with social commentary wasn’t done before Ibsen’s plays; he was the first playwright to be acknowledged as progressive and realistic
