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Henrik Ibsen: Comprehensive Research and Study Guide

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This is part of a large series of short books by Professor Bloom on dramatists, novelists, poets, and short story writers. This volume contains an introduction by Bloom, a biography of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, a listing of Ibsen's plays, and books about him. The bulk of the volume focuses on four of his famous plays, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, When We Dead Awaken, and Peer Gynt. The discussions about the plays include an extensive summary of the play, a description of the plays' principle characters, and between five and eight critical analyses by experts on the plays. These quotes are usually one or two pages long.

The analyses by the experts usually differ from each other resulting in the reader obtaining a multi-dimensional insight of thought-provoking ideas, ideas that conjure up our own thoughts about the plays. For example, Arthur Miller focuses on Ibsen's portrayal of the evolutionary aspects of life; George Bernard Shaw on Ibsen challenging the misguided ill-conceived "ideals" of his age; Janet Garton on the impact upon Ibsen of the Norwegian tales entitled Trolls, inner shadow figures that combine a playful nature with a demonic urge to destroy; Helge Rnning about Ibsen and European politics, including his anger against the Norwegians that prompted him to leave his birthplace for Italy, and yet he wrote about his country; Michael Meyer on the influences of hypnotism on his plays and how his own ideas about himself affected the characters that he portrayed; and Vigis Ystad about the psychology of these characters and how they interacted with one another.