Editing Henrik Ibsen (section)

== Personal life ==
=== Ancestry ===
[[File:Ibsen monogram.svg|thumb|[[Monogram]] of Henrik Ibsen]]

Ibsen's ancestry has been a much studied subject, due to both his perceived foreignness<ref name=Bergwitz>Johan Kielland Bergwitz, ''Henrik Ibsen i sin avstamning: norsk eller fremmed?'', [[Gyldendal Norsk Forlag]], 1916</ref> and the influence of his biography and family on his plays. Ibsen often made references to his family in his plays, sometimes by name, or by modelling characters after them.

The oldest documented member of the [[Ibsen family]] was ship's captain Rasmus Ibsen (1632–1703) from [[Stege, Denmark]]. His son, ship's captain Peder Ibsen, became a [[Citizen|burgher]] of [[Bergen]] in Norway in 1726.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snl.no/Ibsen/norsk_slekt_som_stammer_fra_skipper_Rasmus_Ibsen|title=Ibsen – norsk slekt|author=Terje Bratberg|work=Store norske leksikon|date=15 November 2018}}</ref> Henrik Ibsen had Danish, German, Norwegian, and some distant Scottish ancestry. Most of his ancestors belonged to the merchant class of original Danish and German extraction, and many of his ancestors were ship's captains.

Ibsen's biographer [[Henrik Jæger]] famously wrote in 1888 that Ibsen did not have a drop of Norwegian blood in his veins, stating that "the ancestral Ibsen was a Dane". This, however, is not completely accurate; notably through his grandmother Hedevig Paus, Ibsen was descended from the [[Paus family]], often considered one of the oldest families in Norway. Ibsen's ancestors had mostly lived in Norway for several generations, even though many had foreign ancestry.<ref>[[Henrik Jæger|Henrik Jaeger]], ''Henrik Ibsen. A Critical Biography'', Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1891</ref><ref>Bergwitz, Joh. K, ''Henrik Ibsen i sin avstamning. Norsk eller fremmed?'', Nordisk forlag, Gyldendalske boghandel, Christiania and Copenhagen, 1916</ref>

The name Ibsen is originally a [[patronymic]], meaning "son of Ib" (Ib is a Danish variant of [[Jacob (name)|Jacob]]). The patronymic became "frozen", i.e. it became a permanent [[family name]], in the 17th century. The phenomenon of patronymics becoming frozen started in the 17th century in bourgeois families in Denmark, and the practice was only widely adopted in Norway from around 1900.

=== Descendants ===
From his marriage with [[Suzannah Ibsen|Suzannah Thoresen]], Ibsen had one son, lawyer, government minister, and Norwegian Prime Minister [[Sigurd Ibsen]]. Sigurd Ibsen married Bergljot Bjørnson, the daughter of [[Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson]]. Their son was [[Tancred Ibsen]], who became a film director and was married to [[Lillebil Ibsen]]; their only child was diplomat [[Tancred Ibsen, Jr.]] His male line together with the male-descended lines of the wider Ibsen family he belonged to will end with the deaths of Tancred Jr.'s two daughters. Sigurd Ibsen's daughter, [[Irene Ibsen Bille|Irene Ibsen]], married Josias Bille, a member of the Danish ancient noble Bille family; their son was Danish actor [[Joen Bille]]. Ibsen had an illegitimate child early in his life, not entitled to the family name or inheritance. This line ended with his biological grandchildren.<ref>{{Cite web |last=ROTTEM |first=ØYSTEIN |date=2002-04-08 |title=Nytt lys over Ibsen |url=https://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/nytt-lys-over-ibsen/65799583 |access-date=2023-12-28 |website=dagbladet.no |language=no}}</ref>

=== Political views ===
In a letter to George Brandes shortly before the [[Paris Commune]], Ibsen expressed [[Anarchism|anarchist]] views that Brandes later positively related to the Paris Commune. Ibsen wrote that the [[State (polity)|state]] "is the curse of the individual.… The state must be abolished."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Brandes |first=Georg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=InJLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA430 |title=Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century: Literary Portraits |date=1886 |publisher=T, Y, Crowell & Company |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldman |first=Emma |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZEiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT7 |title=The Social Significance of the Modern Drama |date=2020-09-28 |publisher=Library of Alexandria |isbn=978-1-4655-9740-3 |language=en}}</ref> Brandes related that Ibsen "presented to me as political ideals, conditions and ideas whose nature did not seem to me quite clear, but which were unquestionably akin to those that were proclaimed precisely one month later, in an extremely distorted form, by the Parisian commune."<ref name=":0" /> And in another letter shortly before the Commune came to an end, Ibsen expressed a disappointment with the Commune, insofar as it did not go far enough in its anarchism in its rejection of the state and private property. Ibsen wrote, "Is it not impudent of the commune in Paris to go and destroy my admirable state theory, or rather no state theory? The idea is now ruined for a long time to come, and I cannot even set it forth in verse with any propriety." However, Ibsen nevertheless expressed an optimism, asserting that his "no state theory" bears "within itself a healthy core" and that some day "it will be practised without any caricature."<ref name=":0" />