The Pillars of Society

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The Pillars of Society
The cover of the first edition of Pillars of Society by Henrik Ibsen
Written by	Henrik Ibsen
Characters	Karsten Bernick Mrs. Bernick Olaf Martha Bernick Johan Tønnesen Lona Hessel Hilmar Tønnesen Dina Dorf
Date premiered	14 November 1877 (1877-11-14)
Place premiered	Odense Teater in Copenhagen, Denmark
Original language	Norwegian, Danish
Genre	Naturalistic / realistic problem play
Setting	The home of the Bernick family in one of the smaller coast towns in Norway.

The Pillars of Society (or "Pillars of the Community"; original Norwegian title: Samfundets støtter) is an 1877 play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.

Ibsen had great trouble with the writing of this play. The ending is the most criticized feature, since Bernick is clearly guilty of attempted murder but gets off unscathed, but successfully illustrates that the rich and powerful are often selfish and corrupt.^[1]

Ibsen first planned a contemporary drama at the end of 1869 but did not begin writing until October 1875 (in Munich), completing it in the summer of 1877. It was first published on 11 October of that year in Copenhagen, with the first stagings following on 14 November at the Odense Teater and on 18 November at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. The first performance in Norway was at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen on 30 November. By this date, the play had been translated into German, in which it was immediately well received.^[2] In December 1880 in London it became the first of any of Ibsen's plays to be performed in English (under the title Quicksands).^[3]