Ibsen wrote

in 1892. It thus belongs to the latter part of his dramatic career when he had moved away from the social realism of plays such as

or

towards a more overtly symbolist form of drama in which social issues are displaced by themes of a philosophical or existential nature. The play is generally seen as strongly autobiographical. After Ibsen's death, letters were published which he had exchanged in 1889 and 1890 with a young Austrian girl, Emilie Bardach.They indicated that there had been some kind of relationship between Ibsen, then aged 61, and Emilie, aged eighteen, during the summer of 1889 in Gossensass in the Austrian Tyrol. They corresponded for a time before Ibsen told her to stop writing to him. It seems clear that this experience…

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Citation: Newton, Ken. "Bygmester Solness". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6193, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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