Gunnar Heiberg

• Born: November 18, 1857
• Birthplace: Christiania (now Oslo), Norway
• Died: February 22, 1929
• Place of death: Oslo, Norway

Other Literary Forms

Gunnar Heiberg combined a career as a journalist and theater critic with the writing of plays, for which he is best known. Many of his newspaper essays on political and cultural matters have enduring value.

Achievements

Gunnar Heiberg is the chief Norwegian dramatist after Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) and before Helge Krog (1889-1962). Although his œuvre, which spans the period from 1884 to 1913, earned for him the reputation as Norway’s leading young playwright at the time, only three of his plays have survived the intervening years. The author’s first drama, the satiric social comedy Tante Ulrikke, continues to delight modern audiences. In this work, Heiberg champions the ideals of social justice, the emancipation of women, and youthful radicalism as opposed to the narrow, Philistine concerns of the older generation. The drama’s striking main character is modeled on Heiberg’s aunt, the Norwegian suffragist Aasta Hansteen (1824-1908), who also inspired Lona Hessel in Henrik Ibsen’s Samfundets støtter (pr., pb. 1877; The Pillars of Society, 1880). Both Hansteen’s life and Heiberg’s play remain an inspiration to progressive Norwegians.

Two other Heiberg plays that are still read and sometimes performed are the lyrical dramas The Balcony and The Tragedy of Love. Their timeless theme of erotic love continues to elicit interest. However, modern audiences find their highly stylized and rhetorical dialogue dated, and the primarily aesthetic concerns of their author seem foreign to readers and spectators who have been reared in the predominantly ethical and socially committed Scandinavian literary traditions.

Biography

Gunnar Edvard Rode Heiberg was born in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1857 into a family that belonged to the upper bourgeoisie, inasmuch as his father was a high government official. The boy followed the common path of young men of his class and prepared for his matriculation certificate, which he obtained in 1874. A student of law, he also developed literary interests and published his first works in 1878. These works, two long poems, attempt to rewrite the story of the Fall of Man in such a manner that Lucifer and Cain appear as the real heroes and to establish a rational basis for a view of life that could replace Christianity, which Heiberg, like his radical contemporaries, regarded as outdated.

Shortly after the publication of his poems, Heiberg left Norway and went to Rome, ostensibly for the purpose of studying art history. He hoped, however, that some distance from home would permit him to collect his thoughts and write a play. This proved not to be the case, and after his return to Christiania, he worked for some time as a journalist and theater critic for the daily newspaper Dagbladet. He continued to work on his ideas for a drama, however, and finished the manuscript of his first play, Tante Ulrikke, in 1883. It was published the following year, but its radical content made it unacceptable to Norway’s main stage, the Christiania Theater.

Tante Ulrikke was, however, accepted by the National Stage of Bergen, Norway, but before it was produced, Heiberg withdrew it after his appointment as director of that theater. He undoubtedly felt a need to distance himself from this period of his authorship so that he could explore other artistic possibilities. After leaving his directorship in 1889, the actualization of these possibilities began to take place.

The greatest force to be reckoned with in Norwegian public debate at the time was the poet, dramatist, and novelist Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who had established himself as a champion of truth and virtue, particularly with regard to sexual matters. Heiberg, who felt some affinity with Bjørnson’s critics, a group of young artists and intellectuals referred to as the Bohemians, published a play, Kong Midas, which was a direct attack on Bjørnson’s conservative concept of truth and which many believed to be an attack on Bjørnson himself. The Christiania Theater refused to take the play, but it was performed by one of the popular stages in town, accompanied by much tumult.

Heiberg’s real coming-of-age as a dramatist can be dated to 1894, when he published his most original play, The Balcony. His earlier dramas had been dependent on the realistic and naturalistic drama of the Scandinavian countries, especially with regard to form. The Balcony, on the other hand, is a stylized Symbolist portrayal of erotic love as a natural force. Continued in The Tragedy of Love, the discussion of the individual, not social, aspects of erotic love constitutes Heiberg’s most original contribution to Norwegian literature.

Most of Heiberg’s remaining life was spent in Christiania. Married to the actress Didi Tollefsen in 1885, he was divorced in 1896. Heiberg died in 1929.

Analysis

Gunnar Heiberg was, above all, a dramatist of passion. In his first play, he passionately spoke in favor of the rights of oppressed workers and women. Later, he advocated the rights of passion itself. Although the public at large regards Tante Ulrikke as Heiberg’s most important work, literary historians generally view The Balcony and The Tragedy of Love as his most significant contributions to Norwegian drama.

Norwegian literature in the 1870’s and 1880’s focused its attention on those aspects of society that needed reform. Both the novel and the drama had pointed to abuses of power, social hypocrisy, and the situation of women as issues that urgently needed to be addressed. The chief dogma of the literary theory of the day was, indeed, that the primary purpose of literature should be to subject social problems to debate. Heiberg’s Tante Ulrikke fits this tradition well.

Tante Ulrikke

The title character of Tante Ulrikke is an older, unmarried woman whose brother-in-law, Professor Blom, is next in line to be named to the king’s cabinet. Ulrikke’s behavior is a threat to his future appointment, however, for she is a radical and feminist with Socialist sympathies. The conflict in the play is between her and Blom and his conservative friends, and a point of crisis is reached when Ulrikke declares that she will attend a Socialist meeting at which she intends to speak to the crowd about social and political issues. Blom and his friends consider having her declared insane, but this design is frustrated when Helene, Blom’s daughter and Ulrikke’s niece, states that she will accompany her aunt to the meeting. At the meeting, some students who have been sent there by one of Blom’s friends subject Ulrikke to so much scorn and derision that Helene feels driven to defend her publicly. This is such a scandal that Helene has to leave the home of her parents to protect her father’s political future.

Of particular interest is the dramatist’s portrayal of the character Ulrikke. Lacking physical beauty, Ulrikke, by her own admission, fell in love with the great ideas of her time because no young man showed an interest in her. The drama vividly shows the price she has had to pay for her radicalism. She is ridiculed both publicly and privately and even has to carry a whip to defend herself when she walks the streets of Christiania. At the end of the play, when Helene sides with her and wants to live with her, Ulrikke attempts to dissuade her niece from following the path that she herself has chosen. Heiberg shows that Ulrikke has paid such a high price for her political involvement that she cannot bear the thought that her niece, whom she loves dearly, should have to endure the same kind of suffering.

The Balcony

Although Tante Ulrikke belongs squarely to the realistic and naturalistic traditions in Norwegian drama, The Balcony takes place in no identifiable social or geographical reality. The characters are stylized, lack individual history, and can scarcely be said to have much individuality at all. The play is in three acts. As the action begins, it is sunrise, and the drama’s only female character, Julie, and her lover, Abel, are standing inside an open door to a balcony. They find it difficult to part even though they know that Julie’s husband, Ressmann, an older man, is about to come home from work. When Ressmann does arrive, Abel first hides and then comes forth, stating that he has heard that Ressmann’s house is for sale and that he might have an interest in buying it. While Ressmann is showing Abel the various rooms, he steps out on the balcony and jumps up and down to demonstrate that it is structurally sound, despite the fact that it has a visible crack. Ressmann’s jumping causes the balcony to collapse, and he is killed. At the end of act 1, Julie and Abel are kneeling together, thanking God that they may now remain with each other. Heiberg shows that the power of love is such that a pair of lovers will go to any length to satisfy their desire for each other. Eros is an uncivilized and untamable force.

The second act takes place years later. Julie has not changed, but Abel has grown to the point that he has interests other than his love for Julie. He has gradually come to regard love as a dangerous force precisely because it does not allow itself to be civilized and because his devotion to love hinders his growth as an individual. When Abel explains his new perception of love to Julie, she voices no opposition to him. It is clear, however, that she does not share his understanding, and soon Abel is replaced by a man named Antonio, who relates to her in much the same way that Abel once did. He wins Julie because he is insistent and will allow absolutely nothing to stand in his way.

In the beginning of act 3, Abel, who has been away giving a lecture, surprises Julie with Antonio. It is night, and they are unaware of his presence. Abel has a pistol, which he contemplates using on Antonio. As it turns out, Abel proves too civilized to use the gun, but had he used it, it not only would have indicated that he was still in the grip of primitive eros but also would have brought Julie back to him. In the end, he leaves Julie with Antonio.

The Balcony expresses Heiberg’s ambivalent attitude toward love. On one hand, the play is a celebration of the idea of physical love as an all-consuming force. On the other hand, Heiberg does not allow Abel to make the choice that would have brought Julie back to him. The demands of civilization must also be met, and human beings are forever torn between natural demands and those of culture.

The Tragedy of Love

Heiberg continued his discussion of the power of eros in The Tragedy of Love. The conflict in this drama takes place within a traditional marriage, which made it necessary to give the play a more realistic form than that of The Balcony. Erling Druse, the male protagonist, is a forester by profession, and he loves his work as well as his wife, Karen. She, on the other hand, is completely swallowed up by her love for him and cannot think of anything but him.

The play has four acts. Having met earlier, Erling and Karen have agreed to have no contact with each other for a year, at the end of which time they are to meet at a mountain cabin to discuss the state of their feelings for each other. In act 1, which takes place in the cabin a year later, Erling wins Karen by refusing to accept her claim that she really does not love him. Erling’s persistence awakens Karen’s love, and by the beginning of act 2, they have married and are in the middle of their honeymoon in the German Alps. It is time for Erling to return to Norway to look after his life’s work, but Karen wishes to go on to Paris. As Erling is unwilling to consent to this, she risks her life to save a child, stating that Erling’s love is no longer sufficiently strong to make her feel fully alive; only the sensation of danger is able to fill this need in her.

The third act takes place two years later. Erling is happy with his peaceful existence, two very important aspects of which are his work as a forester and the home that Karen provides for him. She, on the other hand, has grown gradually more dissatisfied; she is jealous of Erling’s work and unhappy about the fact that his love is not as ardent as it once was. Act 3 is taken up by a long conversation about love, which husband and wife have on the eve of one of Erling’s trips to the forest. Karen tries to make Erling understand how she feels, but in his complacent everyday happiness, he is unable to see her point. Toward the end of the act, Karen tries to keep him from leaving for the forest, thinking that her ability to change his decision will evidence his love for her. She sends him conflicting messages, however, and the emotionally uncomplicated Erling leaves on his journey, thinking that he has actually catered to her will.

At the end of act 3, Karen receives a visit from the poet Hadeln, who has appeared on two other occasions earlier in the play. Hadeln is an embodiment of Karen’s concept of the ideal man. She tells him about her frustration in her marriage and, in fact, invites Hadeln to seduce her. Hadeln, although in love with Karen, will not accept her invitation out of his respect for Erling and because of his regard for Karen’s true happiness, which he sees in her marriage to Erling. In act 4, when Erling returns, the frustrated and even desperate Karen makes him think that she has actually made love to Hadeln, despite the latter’s denial. While Hadeln is trying to explain Karen’s desperate situation to Erling, Karen takes her own life.

Heiberg’s main message is that two people are never really in love with each other at the same time and that genuine love leads to death. Karen’s concept of love, which in many respects is close to Heiberg’s own, is such that it can never lead to happiness. It does, however, make for interesting drama, and Heiberg will undoubtedly retain his reputation as one of Norway’s foremost dramatists of passion.

Bibliography

Longum, Leif. “In the Shadow of Ibsen: His Influence on Norwegian Drama and on Literary Attitudes.” In Norway: Review of National Literatures, edited by Sverre Lyngstad. New York: Council on National Literature and Griffon House Publishers, 1983. Henrik Ibsen’s influence on writers such as Heiberg is examined in this essay.

Naess, Harald S., ed. A History of Norwegian Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. A general history of the development of literature in Norway, including drama.