About the work
Love's Comedy (Norwegian original title: Kjærlighedens Komedie) is a three-act verse play by Henrik Ibsen set in contemporary Christiania (Oslo). Ibsen wrote it in 1862, and it was published at the end of that year as a New Year supplement to the magazine Illustreret Nyhedsblad. It did not reach the stage until eleven years later, premiering on 24 November 1873 at the Christiania Theatre.
Plot
Students Falk, an aspiring poet, and Lind, a would-be missionary, spend the summer at the country house of the widow Mrs Halm, courting her daughters Svanhild and Anna. While Lind becomes engaged to Anna and abandons his missionary plans for a comfortable domestic life, Falk mocks marriage as the grave of love and declares his feelings to Svanhild. The wealthy merchant Guldstad points out to both that even their passion would fade into routine; recognising the truth in this, Svanhild marries Guldstad instead, choosing to keep her ideal of love intact, while Falk departs alone.
Cultural significance
On publication the play caused a public scandal over its attack on bourgeois marriage and convention and was condemned as immoral, delaying its premiere until 1873. Scholars regard Love's Comedy as a turning point in Ibsen's work toward the realistic social dramas that later brought him international fame.