Translation of medicine and art article published in The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association: Vesterhus P. Why do Ibsen’s children die? Tidsskr Nor Legeforen 2008; 128: 2851–4 PERSPEKTIV OG DEBATT Perspektiv og debatt Medicine and art Medicine and art Why do Ibsen’s children die? In this article I wish to present Ibsen’s dren at home, drowns. «Black hunger lives Abstract dead children with emphasis on the course in his house» according to the captain. On of events and causes of death. I have exam- the overturned boat, the cook pleads for The death of children is a strikingly ined three long dramatic poems and his col- his life. «Å snille-spar! Husk på de små jeg frequent topic in Henrik Ibsen’s dra- lection of dramas from the so-called 100- hjemme har!» (Please spear me! Remember mas, and could be a key to his writing. year-edition which was published in the the young ones I have at home!). Peer is In this article I briefly discuss works period 1928–57. Some children are unborn unyielding, and we suspect that the cook’s where children die and analyse medical and some are older. The death of children children meet the same fate as Terje’s histories and possible causes. figuratively, where the writer uses meta- daughter. The cases vary considerably from a phors, has also been included. medical point of view. Some children The 1880s The dead children There has been a lively debate about simply die of starvation in his earlier The 1850s whether Osvald in Gengangere – Ghosts works. In our time we tend to forget the The first work about dead children, is Hær- (1881), was born with syphilis. It is high rate of childhood mortality in this mændene på Helgeland – The Vikings at believed that Ibsen set the scene for this country in the mid 1800s. Helgeland (1858). Ørnulf from the fjords (7, 8). The boy grows up, and crumbles at In Ibsen’s contemporary dramas the has seven sons who are all killed at the the age of approximately 27, as a handi- cause of death is often complex. Des- same time during a family feud. A 4-year- capped person. pite the fact that he uses symbols, old boy, Egil, should also have died, but just The 14-year-old Hedvig in Vildanden – there are medical elements which are managed to escape. This is one of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck (1884), also has a hereditary theoretically probable. He rarely makes earlier works, in which he is inspired by the disease, but meets a violent death. I believe blood dripping sagas. obvious mistakes about medical issues. she hears Hjalmar’s words to Gregers down below: «Hvis jeg så spurte hende: Hedvig, er A common feature in these tragic child The 1860s du villig til å gi’ slip på livet for meg?» (So if destinies is that the writer shows us In three works from the 1860s the topic I asked her: Hedvig are you willing to give inadequate or poor parents. reappears: Terje Vigen (1866), Brand up this life for my sake?). A shot is heard. (1866) and Peer Gynt (1867). Ellida’s and Dr. Wangel’s child in Fruen Terje rows to Denmark in an open boat to fra havet – The Lady from the Sea (1888), purchase wheat; he is taken prisoner and dies mysteriously at around 6 months of Per Vesterhus sent to «Prisonen». When he returns home, age. The stranger, a sailor, is the child’s [email protected] Barnesenteret his daughter and wife are both dead, buried spiritual father. Ellida has promised to be Sørlandet sykehus Kristiansand and forgotten. Time passes. After a horren- faithful to him. Later, she marries Wangel 4604 Kristiansand dous storm a helpless yacht is driven and becomes pregnant. During the preg- ashore. The pilot Terje can now take nancy she has a serious nervous breakdown revenge. He is, however, unable to be insen- and becomes fearful of her past. There is considerable disease and death in sitive towards the mother’s pleading cry for the works of Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), her child. The comparison between Terje’s The 1890s affecting children and adults alike. Even dead daughter and the woman’s daughter The childhood home of Aline Solness in when adults are the main characters, chil- who is alive, is the poem’s nerve. When the Bygmester Solness – The Master Builder dren and adolescents play important parts. lord wishes to express his gratitude, Terje (1892), – burns down. The Master Builder The most famous children who die, are gently touches the child and answers. «Nej, starts his successful business in the burnt Hedvig in Vildanden – The Wild Duck den som frælste, da værst det kneb, det var out ruins. His conscience tells him that his (1884) and Eyolf in Lille Eyolf – Little nok den lille der!» (No, the one who res- career is based on an accident that he Eyolf (1894). Literary people like to refer to cued you when things were at their worst, this as «Kindermord». This is a notion was indeed this little one here). which is repeated in the research of Ibsen in In Brand’s coastal town, there is also star- several languages, expressing the fact that vation. Brand meets a woman who despera- Main message children die, more or less, as a direct result tely pleads him to help her dying husband. ■ Henrik Ibsen was to a large extent of the parents being inadequate (1–6). He has killed one of their three children preoccupied with the theme An obvious answer to why the writer lets out of darkest desperation before the child of childrens’ death the children die could be that he makes use starves to death. Then he turns the weapon on ■ Ibsen uses medical aspects more of it as a dramatic effect. It is more difficult himself. Brand crosses the fjord during a vio- or less successfully, but is rarely wrong to understand why he never stops (2, 5). lent storm, and because of the way he goes in a direct sense One explanation could be that experiences about his ministry deed he wins Agnes. Later ■ An important message is the signifi- in his childhood and adolescence were of he loses both her and their son Alf. cance of security and love during great significance. Another element is that In Peer Gynt child death is not the main childhood and adolescence his writing reflects the high rate of child theme. However, during the shipwreck, the mortality in Norway in the mid 1800s. ship’s cook, who has a whole tribe of chil- Tidsskr Nor Legeforen nr. 1, 2009; 129: 1 Translation of medicine and art article published in The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association: VesterhusPERSPEKTIV P. Why do Ibsen’ OGs children DEBATT die? Tidsskr Medicine Nor Legeforen and 2008; art 128: 2851–4 wanted to happen. He loses his twin sons. children, literally or as a metaphor. In the diagnoses the problem. The incompetent However, Ibsen does not let them perish in extensive span of Ibsen’s works, this has been parents are usually the result of a difficult the fire. The children and Aline are carried an interesting subject (1–3). As late as in childhood themselves (13). out. Aline loses her nine beautiful dolls. 1994, it was established that «child abuse is She becomes ill with «feber som gikk over an almost obsessive theme in Ibsen» (9). Not Hunger and disease i mælken» (fever which spread to her milk). even Charles Dickens (1812–70), who wrote The death of children in Ibsen’s dramatic She insists on breast-feeding her twins, but a great deal about children, was so monoma- poems appears to be realistic. Child mor- they die of «poisoning». niac on this subject. Variations of the theme tality early in the 1800s was so extreme that Nine-year-old Eyolf on crutches in Lille where the victims do not necessarily die as nearly a third of all the children born in one Eyolf – Little Eyolf (1884), walks into the young children, are found in most of Ibsen’s year died before the age of 14. Data from the sea and drowns. As an infant he fell from writing. Greek tragedies, victim motifs in the south of Norway during Terje Vigen’s time the changing table and became permanently Bible, mindsets of the times and first and show this (14). We have great difficulty gra- handicapped. foremost his own life experiences have been sping this fact today. People were, however, discussed as contributing factors. much more accustomed to death and they «Kindermord» of unborn children A striking number of children in Ibsen’s expected that a new child would come. The and as metaphors works are illegitimate or a result of a love- birth rate was considerably higher. The cause In the four works Keiser og galilæer – less relationship between parents. In of death was often a result of poor general The Emperor and the Galilean (1873), modern literature it has become almost too health and living conditions complicated by Rosmersholm (1886), Hedda Gabler (1890) trite to point at the writer’s own background common infections such as measles, scarlet and Når vi døde vågner – When We Dead as an adolescent with an illegitimate child fever and whooping cough (14). 100 years Wake (1899), Ibsen occasionally uses in Grimstad (10, 11). No one can believe, came to pass before adequate nourishment, metaphors. Hedda’s suicide has several however, that this has not indeed had an improved hygiene, vaccinations, chemo- tragic consequences.