Ibsen is still the most formidable of obstinate individualists.
Absolute self-reliance is the note he constantly strikes. He is
obsessed by the psychology of moral problems; but for him there are no
universal ethical laws--"the golden rule is that there is no golden
rule"--thus while in the Pillars of Society he advocates candid
confession and honest revelation of the truth of things; in the "Wild
Duck" he attacks the pig-headed meddler, who comes "dunning us with
claims of the Ideal." Ultimately, though absorbed in "matters of
conscience," it is as an artist rather than as a philosopher that he
visualizes the world.