I

Ibsen was born into the family of a rich

merchant in the southern Norwegian town

of Skien in 1828. He spent his early child-

hood in large houses filled with the sound of

laughter and entertainment. By 1833, how-

ever, his father’s business empire had col-

lapsed, and the family was obliged to move

out of town and eke out a miserable existence

in an isolated country property. The years of

bitterness and recrimination that followed left

an indelible scar on Ibsen’s consciousness.

Repeatedly in his mature work, he returned

to the formative experiences of these years,

tracing out the politics of family life within

the context of an aggressively competitive

capitalist world.