modern drama.
In 1858, while in Bergen, Ibsen married Susannah Thoresen. Hardly a
subservient wife, she helped manage his career, run his house, and
screen his guests. All through his life, however, Ibsen continued to
have flirtations with pretty young women (including Laura Kieler,
who was the model for Nora, and Emilie Bardach, who may have had
some of Hedda Gabler's traits).
Ibsen left Bergen to become the artistic director of the Norwegian
theater in Oslo. The hardship of these next few years took their
toll. The theater went bankrupt in 1862, and Ibsen, destitute,
reportedly became involved with moneylenders, who may have provided
the model for Krogstad in A Doll's House. Despairing, Ibsen turned
to drink, and, like Eilert Lovborg in Hedda Gabler, he almost lost
his genius to alcohol. Finally, in April 1864, he left Norway with
Susannah and their son Sigurd. Over the next twenty-seven years they
lived in Rome, Dresden, and Munich.
Curiously, the first play that Ibsen wrote after leaving Norway
became his first Norwegian hit. And it was this play, Brand (1865),
that finally persuaded the Norwegian government to grant Ibsen a
yearly salary to support his writing.
Success changed Ibsen's life. He no longer had to scrape for money,
He was ready for his new role. He altered his wardrobe, his
appearance, and even his handwriting. He consciously made himself
over into the man he always thought he could be--successful, honored,
sought-after.
Even though Ibsen had left Norway, he retained strong ties to the
country and all but one of his plays are set there. He kept up with
literary events and trends in Scandinavia. One of these events
prepared him for another major change in his thinking.
In 1872 the Danish critic Georg Brandes attacked Scandinavian
writers for dealing only with the past. It was time to start
discussing modern problems, he said. Ibsen listened and agreed. The
time was ripe for a change in world drama. In France, Alexandre
Dumas, fils [the son], was dramatizing social ills in plays like La
Dame aux Camelias (Camille); in Russia, Anton Chekhov was mourning
the death of the aristocracy, and Count Leo Tolstoy was glorifying
the peasants.
Even though the popular revolutions had been defeated, social change
was in the air. An educated middle class was flexing its muscles.
Women were beginning to question the submissive behavior they had
been taught. They were now allowed to move in educated circles
although seldom permitted anything beyond a rudimentary education.
Often little more than decorative servants, women could not vote and
