Henrik Ibsen’s Plays and His Significance As A Dramatist

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periods. The first was the phase of the poetic dramas that dealt primarily with historical themes, folklore, and romantic pageantry. These included plays such as Love's Comedy, Brand and Peer Gynt. In fact, Love's Comedy is more than just a poetic drama: it is a satire that holds up a mirror to Ibsen's contemporaries and strikes at the heart of hypocrisy of the times. Not surprisingly, the play managed to stir a storm of indignation among people who saw their own unflattering selves in Ibsen's mirror and did not like what they saw. Brand, published in 1866, is considered to be Ibsen's first major work which dramatizes the tragedy of an idealist and his blind devotion to a false sense of duty. Peer Gynt is another poetic drama in verse that appeared in the following year and related, in allegorical terms, the adventures of an egocentric but imaginative opportunist.
Ibsen's second dramatic phase is that of the realistic social plays for which he is best known. In these plays, ...

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