As a child, Henrik Ibsen was lonely and quiet. His father had gone bankrupt and the family's reputation was low. As soon as he was old enough he left the family and moved to Grimstad. But the social conditions did not get any better; Ibsen felt friendless and little regarded.
The situation did not become any easier when he had a child with a 10 year older servant girl. He worked at a pharmacy for several years while he was studying for high school degree, the plan was to become a doctor in medicine.
22 years old he made his debut as a writer with the play "Catiline". Some of the structures of this first piece are then recognized in most of Ibsen's later plays: the relationship between a man and two women, "Wife" and "the other" or vice versa: a woman's relationship with "Husband" and " the other". A child is often present - alive or dead.
Ibsen worked as a writer for the Norwegian Theater in Bergen and as artistic director at the Norwegian Christiania Theater. In 1864 he started what would become a 27 year long residence abroad.
Many of his most famous pieces were written outside Norway. With his work "Brand" and " Peer Gynt," Ibsen became the most famous and most controversial poet in Scandinavia. The middle classdramas "Society" and "A Doll's House" made him famous throughout the world.
No Nordic author has ever managed to occupy his contemporary time in the same way, or affected intellectual life of the world to the same extent. His work has been translated into countless languages and is still performed on stages around the world.
He married Susannah Ibsen.
The hammer on the grave monument is a symbol taken from the poem "The miner”:
Hammerblow by hammerblow.
Till the last day of life
Heavy hammer burst as bidden
To the heart-nook of the hidden