SOURCE: Farrell, James. “Exiles and Ibsen.” In James Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism, edited by Seon Givens, pp. 95–131. New York: The Vanguard Press, Inc., 1948.

In the following excerpt, Farrell discusses how Joyce was influenced by Ibsen in writing Exiles.

It is commonly known that James Joyce, in his youth, was influenced by Ibsen's plays. Formally, this influence is most clearly revealed in Joyce's play Exiles; in fact, Exiles has often been criticized as being too imitative of Ibsen. However, the influence Ibsen exerted on Joyce was more than merely formal or technical, for Joyce's attitude toward Ibsen was very complex: it was profound, and it involved Joyce's entire nature.

Joyce discovered Ibsen and admired him with deep sincerity. He even learned Norwegian in order to read Ibsen in the original. And, according to Joyce's friend Frank Budgen, Ibsen was one of the very few writers whose works Joyce...