A Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) was born in Norway on March 20. The son of a once-wealthy merchant whose fortunes collapsed, young Henrik learned early that respectability was often just a costume, a theme he would later unravel with surgical precision. At twenty-one, he moved to Oslo (then called Christiania) with dreams of becoming an artist, only to be drawn into the world of theater. His early plays struggled to gain recognition, and after years of trying to make a name for himself, he left Norway for Italy and Germany. Distance gave him clarity, and it was abroad that he forged his legend, peeling away the polite veneers of bourgeois society in works like Brand (1866), Peer Gynt (1867), and—most famously—A Doll's House (1879), where Nora Helmer's final, door-slamming exit sent shockwaves through the world. Ibsen returned to Norway in his later years, a reluctant national hero, celebrated but still unyielding. His later works—darker, more psychological, and just as uncompromising—cemented his place as the father of modern drama. Even after his death, his characters remained as relevant as ever, their struggles echoing in theaters, classrooms, and conversations across the world. A playwright of masks and mirrors, Ibsen held up a glass to society—and, more uncomfortably, to the audience itself.