| This man demonstrated a drama could be its own master without performers; this man rendered a drama into a work that probed into social issues psychology and human nature; this man extricated theaters from the notion of mere arenas for entertainment; this man endowed dramas with the meaning of modernity. This man is the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Johan Ibsen entitled "The Father of Modern Drama" who died on May 23 1906. We picked 15 Ibsen's dramas which describe the middle class in modern society (and also establish his position in modern drama) coupled with one passage and one collection that represents the symbolism or echoes the classic scene of each drama to commemorate him in front of the computer on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. | | Love's Comedy（1862） "[L]et your wings decide how far they'll fly no matter if they break or they sustain you." (John Northam 982-3) | | | | Brand（1866） | "Dreamer thine is not His spirit
Nought to Him thy gifts are worth;
Heaven thou never shalt inherit
Earth-born creature live for earth!"
(C. H. Herford p.261) | | | | | The League of Youth（1869） "The Present is ours but we also belongs to the Present. Our right is our duty. Elbow-room for all with ability—for all who have the will and the strength." (Peter Watts) | | | | Pillars of Society（1877） "The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom those are the pillars of society." (Rolf Fjelde p.118) | | | | A Doll House（1879） "And you've always been so kind to me. But our home's been nothing but a playpen. I've been you doll-wife here just as at home I was Papa's doll-child." (Rolf Fjelde p.191) | | | | The Ghosts（1881） "I go around here struggling with ghosts inside me and outside both." (Rolf Fjelde p.239) | | | | An Enemy of the People（1882） "The majority has the might—unhappily—but it lacks the right." (Rolf Fjelde p.356) | | | | The Wild Duck（1884） "Life would be good in spite of all if we only could have some peace from these damned shysters who come badgering us poor people with their 'summons to the ideal.' " (Rolf Fjelde p.490) | | | | Rosmershelm（1886） "Your past is dead. . . .It has no hold on you anymore. No connection with you. You're a different person now." (Rolf Fjelde p.576) | | | | The Lady from the Sea（1888） "(the unknown) Neither attracts nor terrifies. I could have faced it. . . if I'd wanted to. But because I could choose to so I could reject it." (Brian Johnston p.72) |  |  | | Hedda Gabler（1890） "For once in my life I want to have power over a human being." (Rolf Fjelde p.745) | | | | The Master Builder（1892） "The one thing human beings can be happy in— that's what I'm building now (i.e. castles in the air)." (Rolf Fjelde p.855) | | | | Little Eyolf（1894） "I'll go down to the shore and bring all those poor neglected boys up here to the house. . . . I want to make them mine. . .as if they were my won." (Brian Johnston p.124) | | | | John Gabriel Borkman（1896） "I'm young! I want to live my own life for once! To live my life!" (Brian Johnston p.173) | | | | When We Dead Awaken（1899） "Here I've a tiny little casket with a secret lock. . . .
But when she departed from me without a trace
the lock of the casket snapped shut." (Brian Johnston p.215) | | | English translation cited from: -
Fjelde Rolf tr. Ibsen The Complete Major Prose Plays. New York: Penguin 1978. -
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Johnston Brian tr. Ibsen Volume Ⅲ: Four Plays. New York: Smith and Kraus 1998. -
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Watts Peter tr. Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House The League of Youth The Lady from the Sea. Harmondsworth: Penguin 1965. | 
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