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Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828–1906) was a major Norwegian playwright of realistic drama.
He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of modernism in the theatre. Alongside Knut Hamsun, Ibsen is held to be the greatest of Norwegian authors, celebrated as a national symbol by Norwegians, and one of the most important playwrights of all time.
His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe and any challenge to them was considered immoral and outrageous.

Roughly speaking, until the modern age there were only three truly major periods of dramatic art in some 24 centuries of Western theatre:
- the fifth-century B.C. Athenian,
- the Elizabethan, and
- the 17th century French.
- Ours is the forth great period. It began during the last quarter of the 19th century and has not ended. And it began with Ibsen as the pioneer and reformer of dramatic art. After preliminary efforts chiefly in France, the modern drama took shape as a critical and analytical instrument of realism in Scandinavia, largely in the hands of Henric Ibsen. He opened the period of great experiment in the drama and became the central figure of the period.

Examining Ibsen’s role in development of drama it is necessary to take into consideration the situation of the theatre in the period when Ibsen began to write. There were some main trends of drama
- Romantic plays (represented by Friedrich Schiller, Hugo)- due to decline of idealistic philosophy, emerging of naturalist philosophy and new word view it could not any more to satisfy the requests of new time
- Bourgeois drama (Lessing)- aimed to satisfy the low mediocre tastes and common morality of increasing middle-class
- Well-made plays (Eugene Scribe, the master of French farce – theatrical effects, intrigues, Drama, in fact, had been...