It's always been an ugly impulse; see Ibsen's Enemy of the People for starters.
(Please note that this Master Builder is not known to be related to the Ibsen play by the same name).
But young Ibsen was not a favorite even with the girls, whom he alarmed and disconcerted.
The most severe critic of Ibsen and his art was Ibsen himself.
Ibsen is never happier, and never is his scalpel more skilful, than when he is laying bare the hollowness of shams like these.
For instance, my father, do you think he could read Ibsen or any of the others?
Given the character and the situation, what Ibsen asks at the moment of crisis is: What would this man be most likely to say?
That was what the man in Ibsen said, when he had lost his wits.
Ibsen is in favor of the mariage de convenance, which suppresses, without favor, the absurdity of love-matches.
Poets, no; but in Ibsen there is always some likeness of the sick scorpion in the glass.
