Introduction & Overview of Brand by Henrik Ibsen

Brand Introduction

Henrik Ibsen's religious drama, Brand, caused a huge stir when it was first published in Scandinavia in 1866. Although it was well received in Denmark, it was highly debated in Norway, Ibsen's pious homeland. Ibsen wrote the play while on a self-imposed exile in Italy, which began in 1864. Although the play's sources of inspiration have been interpreted in many different ways, it is likely that the work—like Ibsen's exile—was a statement on Norway's failure to join with its Danish neighbors in preventing Germany from taking two of Denmark's duchies in 1864. The play was the first commercial and critical success of Ibsen's and paved the way for his future successes, starting with Peer Gynt, which he published a year after Brand. Both plays are verse dramas—plays written in the style of a poem—a more literary but less common type of modern drama.

Brand was a cathartic writing experience...
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