IBSEN OUTLINE/ script for movie:) EARLY LIFE: born, grew up, his parents-- how did they influence him education?? When did he start writing

Transcription

1 IBSEN OUTLINE/ script for movie:) EARLY LIFE: born, grew up, his parents-- how did they influence him education?? When did he start writing Life facts: where he lived for the majority of his life, when, who was he married to? Any children? Beliefs:?? What are his thoughts on social issues? Laura Kieler tie into his beliefs Works: what has he done in his life besides a doll s house? When did he do them? Give a brief summary of them Successes: awards? Recognition? Later life: when did he die? How? Any famous quotes about Ibsen we could close with? Facts we have (please put the url so we can do a works cited later that includes pics:))

2 Audrey: EARLY LIFE Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828, in Skien, Norway He grew up in the small Norwegian coastal town of Skien as the oldest of five children born to Knud and Marichen Ibsen. His father was a successful merchant and his mother painted, played the piano and loved to go to the theater. Image from The family was thrown into poverty when Ibsen was 8 because of problems with his father's business. They then moved to a rundown Ibsen quit school to begin to work Ibsen became an apprentice for an apothecary While he was an apprentice he fathered a child named Hans Jacob with his apothecary s maid servant Ibsen spent time there curating his artistic and creative side Ibsen worked there for six years, using his limited free time to write poetry and paint. Ibsen: Norwegian Dramatist and Poet At the age of 15 Ibsen worked as an apprentice for an apothecary and studied at night to get into university During this time he wrote the play Catalina (1850) Hailie: Other works In total wrote 26 dramatic works and published one collection of poetry His first play was Catiline in 1849/1850 More successful plays were Brand (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867) Peer Gynt Lazy farmer who lives in poverty with his mom He crashes a wedding and steals the bride (he was suppose to marry) Falls in love with a fellow wedding attendee

3 Leaves her to go on travels Edvard Grieg wrote an orchestral suite to peer Gynt Death and Later Life Died on may 23rd 1906 after suffering from a series of strokes in Oslo Norway Unable to write for the last 5 years for his life Not fully present for last years of his life His last words were to the contrary! his nurse supposedly said he was getting better to which he replied Was considered a literary hero at the time of his death The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral Entailed an all expenses paid funeral Nobility and members of Norwegian government typically would attend these services While Ibsen is dead his work lives on and influences society today

4 Oslo 1900s (Christiania) ttracts-international-attention Norwegian State Funeral Julia: df -last-ibsen-play.html Catiline (1850) Began to establish his themes of rebellious heroes and destructive women His first work, based off of Latin texts he was studying for university exams The Burial Mound (1850) St John s Eve (1852) Lady Inger of Oestraat (1854) The Feast at Solhaug (1855) Olaf Lijekrans (1856)

5 The Vikings at Helgeland (1857) Love s Comedy (1862) A satire on romantic illusions Unpopular Expressed his anti-idealism The Pretenders (1862) What makes a man a man, a king, or a playwright? Brand (1866) play of morality that became extremely popular in Norway All or nothing mentality and issues with it Peer Gynt (1867) presented antithetical view of human nature Kesjer og Galilaleer or Emperor and Galilean (1873) about a roman emperor De Unges Forbud --The League of Youth (1869) modern satire Pillars of Society (1877) Truth and freedom are the real pillars of society A Doll s House (1879) Ghosts (1881) showed the consequences of covering up ugly truths Theme: congenital venereal disease (lol syphilis) and the undermining of idealism through ingrained moral contamination Through Ghosts, Ibsen shows that the adherence to constraining social norms does not ensure our salvation or happiness but can, in fact, inflict even greater harm (direct quote) Wrote about the consequences of choosing to stay in an unhappy marriage in response to people reacting badly to the ending of A Doll s House An Enemy of the People (1882) A truth-teller standing alone against a selfish, uneducated majority Written in anger as a response to criticism of his work, Ghosts The main character represents Ibsen and the play was well-received by critics The Wild Duck (1884) Destructive truth teller who points out errors in a happy family s background and basically destroys them Rosmersholm (1886) About the weight of the past

6 Two main characters lead each other to their destruction and then take justice on themselves and commit suicide The Lady from the Sea (1888) Hedda Gabler (1890) Features a demonically idealistic and totally destructive female The Master Builder (1892) The play juxtaposes the artist s needs with those of society and examines the limits of artistic creativity. Little Eyolf (1894) John Gabriel Borkman (1896) When We Dead Awaken (1899) The last play written by Ibsen There is a wife confined in an unhappy marriage who refuses to accept it Main Two characters a sculptor and his original inspiration go into the cold mountains searching for renewed life in symbolic death. The wife embraces life on earth with a hunter fellow A lot of these works appear to be about the destruction of families and/or relationships and the effects of staying in a destructive situation. Anna: Ibsen was not fond of school so at the age of 23 he became the director and playwright to a new theatre at Bergen where he would write a play every year Due to other styles of drama from the influence of other countries, Ibsen was asked to write a national drama Moved to the Norwegian Theatre from where he received stagehand wisdom from directing Married Suzannah Thoresen in 1858 His plays were wildly unpopular and he continually struggled to write a play that was considered a national drama The theatre went bankrupt so he threw caution to the wind Ibsen started to write what pleased him and moved to Italy in 1864 Lived abroad for 27 years

7 regard for a public he thought were petty and illiberal Dolls House recap: Audiences were shocked there was no happy ending Many were outraged because they couldn t understand the idea of a mother leaving her children when it was her duty in life to be a homemaker Ibsen actually was forced to write a second/alternate ending that included a happy ending though he was furious and asked those to use it with great discretion and only when necessary. Ibsen responded to critics by writing a play where a woman stayed, as society would have believed she should have, but suffered immensely from it, this is known as Ghosts Ibsen wanted to focus more on finding one s self as opposed to a cheesy ending Analytic exposition Laura Kieler, inspiration for character Nora Norwegian novelist Her marriage was the basis for Nora and Torvald s marriage play based off of good family friend who experienced the same as Nora in Dolls House Ibsen gained reputation of Bad Old Man because each of Ibsen s plays were filled with more inventive and radical ideals/ideas than the previous All his plays were connected in some way with a common thread After Rosmersholm, his playwright career took a turn More self-analytic and symbolic mode of writing Ibsen moved back to Norway and suffered from a stroke in 1900, thus became a bedridden invalid Died in Kristiania in 1906 Great disturber Wanted to focus on commonplace people and situations that were lined with insightful and meaningful social issues he thought were important to highlight

8 SCRIPT: Henrik ibsen was born on march 20th of 1828 in a quaint town called Skien Norway to his loving parents Knud and marchen Ibsen. Ibsen was the eldest child of 5. His father worked as a merchant along a seaside in norway where he traded goods. Unfortunately, his business in trade collapsed resulting in his family moving to a rundown farm. While at the farm, Ibsen quit school at the age of 15. He then became an apprentice to an apothecary where he sired an illegitimate child with the maidservant of the apothecary. During his apprenticeship, he developed his passion for writing poetry and dramatic literature. He wrote his first ever play known as Cataline, inspired by his favorite playwright, Shakespeare. By writing Cataline, Ibsen discovered his calling in life: writing plays. This passion led to becoming the director and playwright at a new theatre located in Bergen, Norway, where he developed his skills in the dramatic arts. His work in drama guided him to work at the Norwegian Theatre in Christiana, Norway. While working at the theatre, he met Suzannah Thoresen and in 1858 they were married. They had one child together who later became a popular political essayist. During his career at the Norwegian Theatre he wrote and directed several plays, but these plays were severely unpopular. The society at the time, by popular opinion, were eager for a national drama. His failure to produce this style of dramatic work led to a stagnant career at the theatre. This was a turning point for Ibsen. The theatre became bankrupt, but Ibsen did not see this as a obstacle, he saw it as an opportunity. He used this opportunity to travel abroad in mainly Italy, a country that aligned with his beliefs. You could say he did a little soul searching. While in Italy, he wrote the majority of his well-known works, including a Doll s House. (insert julia s part)

9 As many of Ibsen s audiences were upset with the conclusion of Ghosts, the reaction was similar to the outlandish themes of A Doll s House. A Doll s House was displeasing to many people at the time due to the unconventional plot that other plays at the time did not have. With no happy ending in A Doll s House, Ibsen wanted to focus more on finding meaning in being true to one s self. Though critics, along with the majority of the public, were actually very upset with the conclusion of A Doll s House, and Ibsen was actually forced to write an alternate ending to remedy the outrage. He used analytic exposition as a form of writing that can be described as using text as an extensive method to convey a problem for particular theme or idea. For Ibsen, these problems were social issues that he felt society, at the time, should have acknowledged. He conveyed his message through the opinions or point of views from his characters Nora and Torvald. The marriage of Nora and Torvald was actually inspired by one of Ibsen s good family friends, Laura Kieler. Laura was a Norwegian novelist whose own marriage experiences inspired the characters Nora and Torvald in the play. To go more in depth about Ibsen, his playwriting career earned him the title of Bad Old Man. He wrote of radial ideas in his plays, each play filled with more absurd ideals than the last. Many also referred to him as the great disturber. For instance, when society was angry at him for writing a Doll s House, his response was to write the play Ghosts. Ibsen wanted to bring to light social ideas that much of society ignored. At the Norwegian Theatre, his failure to produce a national drama was because of his conviction to write about themes or ideals that mattered the most to him. This led to world renowned work, including A Doll s House. Conclusion: While Ibsen is dead, his work lived on because he focused on commonplace people and situations that were lined with insightful and meaningful social issues he thought were important to highlight. Discussion question

10 Ibsen s work was criticized very harshly, do you think that without his audiences severe reaction, he would have continued to write plays with underlying social issues? Or gone with the mainstream plays at the time?