Henrik Ibsen is one of the most influential playwrights of the modern era. James Joyce said of him "It may be questioned whether any man has held so firm an empire over the thinking world in modern times." He is justly called the father of modern drama. He was undoubtedly a major influence on his own and subsequent ages, especially in the sphere of dramatic Realism. His work has been divided into three rather arbitrary "periods":

Ibsen was born in the small farming community of Skien on the coast of Norway. His father owned a seemingly prosperous lumber business, but like Shakespeare's father, Ibsen's father suffered a crushing reversal of fortune. At the age of seven, young Henrik went with his family from a life of prominence and luxury to an isolated farm where the boy was obliged to entertain himself, reading voraciously, drawing and painting pictures, and staging puppet shows. When he turned fifteen, he was forced to apprentice himself to an apothecary in another tiny coastal town, Grimstad. Keeping to himself, the adolescent Henrik studied contemporary poetry and theology on his own and began writing poetry. He even published a few pieces. He also studied Latin on his own so he could prepare himself for entrance into a university where he could study medicine. His studies of Cicero led him to a fascination with the character of Cataline who would become the subject of his first historical play. At the age of eighteen, he fathered an illegitimate son with Elsie Jensdatter, one of his employer's servants. Ten years older than Henrik, Elsie had a story similar to Henrik's: a good family fallen on hard times. While marriage was never considered, Henrik contributed to the boy's support for the next fourteen years.

After six grueling years in Grimstad, Ibsen took his savings and set out for the Norse capital of Christiania (modern Oslo) where he enrolled in a so-called "student factory" to prepare for his entrance exams. It was here that he met Björnstjerne Björnson. Meantime, he submitted his verse plays Cataline and The Warrior's Barrow to the Christiania theater. Failing two subjects--Mathematics and Greek--Ibsen was denied entrance to a university. Cataline was rejected by the theater; The Warrior's Barrow was accepted and produced but received only three performances. Still, the plays were held in such regard that he was named "theater poet"--what we now call "playwright-in-residence"--and stage manager of the newly formed Bergen Theatre. After six years, he was named artistic director of the Norwegian Theatre in Christiania. This theatre was Norwegian in name only, for the actors were Danish and tastes ran to French farce and Scribean melodrama, a frustrating circumstance for the autodidact with a reforming zeal. Ibsen married the vivacious Susannah Thoresen in 1858, and a son, Sigurd, was born a year later. The couple took his education very seriously, so in 1864, they left Norway for Rome and what would become a twenty-seven year odyssey during which his greatest work was written.