Henrik Ibsen is commonly referred to as the father of realism in the theater due to his expert use of social and political changes in Europe to fuel the intricate plots of his theatrical works. It challenged the melodramas that came before it and took the romantics out of their exotic haunts with swashbuckling heroes to a place where women could be equal and human nature played out in three acts through conversation. Ibsen depicted ordinary lives in everyday settings using ordinary speech instead of verse trying to offer the illusion of reality. Dramatically influenced by the rapidly changing world, his works empowered the working class and especially women. People were moving to urban areas due to the advent of the industrial age, Darwin had published his "The Origin of Species", Freud was psychoanalyzing, and science was seen as a cure for all modern human problems . In the second half of the 19th century, realism was introduced as an experiment with the hope of making theater a useful tool for society. Romanticism was rejected and pragmatism took its place. Ibsen's comedy, "...