[[quoteright:348:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Henrik_Ibsen_7953.jpg]]

A famous Norwegian playwright, and celebrated as a national symbol by Norwegians. Many of Ibsen's plays were critiques of the morality of his time, residing very far to the cynical end of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism and often having NoEnding in a traditional storytelling sense. A noteworthy example is ''Theatre/ADollsHouse'', about a housewife and mother of three who has been taking deceptive means to support her family by herself. Her husband never suspects, but [[ManicPixieDreamGirl treats her as a child in a big toy house]] (hence ''A Doll's House''). The play as Ibsen wrote it ended with Nora flat-out leaving her husband after he reveals how he thinks of her: the last sound of the play is described as "the most famous door slam in the history of theater." However, for his German audience, Ibsen was pressured into writing a new ending, where the now self-assured and defiant Nora slips back into her meek role as a housewife when she is reminded of her children. Both endings are usually included in translations of the script, albeit with the German ending in significantly smaller letters.

Ibsen had a notable rivalry with Swedish playwright August Strindberg, who often accused Ibsen of stealing his ideas (claiming that Ibsen's ''Theatre/HeddaGabler'', for example, was a ripoff of his own ''Miss Julie''). Ibsen, delighted by the notion of having an archenemy, hung a huge portrait of a glowering Strindberg over his desk, and said that it helped him concentrate.

!! Notable works:
* ''Theatre/{{Brand}}'' (1866)
** Ibsen´s commercial and critical breakthrough. It affected him to the point that he changed his appearance, his handwriting and his beard...
* ''Theatre/PeerGynt'' (1867)
** Notable in that the theme music was composed by Edvard Grieg, including [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRpzxKsSEZg "In the Hall of the Mountain King"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUKRBeG-sGQ "Morgenstimmung"]].
* ''Emperor and Galilean'' (1873)
** Considered to be Ibsen's magnum opus. Even so, it's ''criminally'' under-appreciated, even considering the whole {{Hitler}} thing.
* ''Theatre/ADollsHouse'' (1879)
** Featuring such tropes as the ManicPixieDreamGirl taken to its logical conclusion, and TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed (in this case, syphilis).
* ''Ghosts'' (1881)
** Features the same [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed disease]] as ''A Doll's House'', and a very dark take on IncestIsRelative.
** Plus a famous NoEnding. The curtain drops while Mrs. Alving [[spoiler:is trying to decide whether or not to euthanize her now-comatose son.]] When asked by his English translator what he thought happens after that, he replied, [[ShrugofGod "I wouldn't dream of answering such an important question. What do you think?"]]
** After some critics reviled ''A Doll's House'', Ibsen wrote ''Ghosts'' partly [[TakeThat to show what can happen to a woman who stays with a deadbeat husband]]. Contemporary critical reception for ''Ghosts'' was far worse than for ''A Doll's House''.
** Includes a very cryptic JigsawPuzzlePlot.
* ''Theatre/AnEnemyOfThePeople'' (1882)
** TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Inverted. Almost everywhere, and ''especially'' here, Ibsen's theme is The Complainer is Always Right.
* ''Theatre/TheWildDuck'' (1884)
* ''Theatre/HeddaGabler'' (1890)
** Featuring another TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed (in this case, pregnancy), and one [[spoiler: DrivenToSuicide]].
* ''The Master Builder'' (1892)
** Heavily autobiographical or at least self-assessing play. This is both the last of his "realistic" plays and the first of his "symbolist" ones. Featuring an AntiHero, FemmeFatale, a bit of TheRashomon, and loads of FreudWasRight. Unsurprisingly, Freud himself quite liked this play.
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