Henrik Ibsen

Facts about Pillars of Society

Creative process

Like Ibsen`s previous play, Emperor and Galilean, Pillars of Society also underwent a long creative process. In a letter dated December 14th 1869 Ibsen reveals to Frederik Hegel that he is planning a “new, serious, contemporary drama in three acts”. The first notes stem from 1870, but five years passed before Ibsen worked on these sketches again. During this period he was busy with, among other things, four publications: Poems (1871), Emperor and Galilean (1873), and new editions of Lady Inger of Østråt (1874) and Catiline (1875).

It was not until October 1875 that Ibsen started work on the play. The family had then moved from Dresden to Munich. In November the first act was finished in a fair copy, but had to be re-worked several times. For the next eighteen months the play was constantly being re-worked.

In a letter to Frederik Hegel dated June 24th 1877 Ibsen was finally able to announce that the play was finished and that he was making a fair copy. The final manuscript was then sent to Hegel in five parts between July 29th and August 20th.

First edition

Pillars of Society was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) on October 11th 1877 in Copenhagen. The first edition comprised as many as 6 000 copies and was sold out in the course of seven weeks. A re-print of 4 000 copies was issued on November 30th.

The majority of the press reviews were favourable, but curiously enough, several of the Christiania papers, including Morgenbladet and Dagbladet, refrained from reviewing the book.

It was with this play that Ibsen really made his mark in Germany, and even before the end of November 1877 the German translation was available.

Reviews (not translated):

• Nordahl Rolfsen, Bergensposten, October 24th, 26th, 28th and November 4th 1877
• Arne Garborg, Fedraheimen, October 27th and November 3rd 1877 [read the review]
• Bergens Tidende, October 27 and November 3rd 1877 [read the review]
• Ditmar Meidell, Aftenbladet, November 3rd 1877 [read the review]
• Kristian Elster, Dagsposten, November 13th 1877 [read the review]
• Fædrelandet, November 19th 1877
• Erik Bøgh

First performance

Pillars of Society was staged for the very first time at the Odense Teater by August Rasmussen`s theatre company on November 14th 1877. Ibsen had long since been performed outside Norway, but this was in fact the first world première to take place on a stage outside Norway. The production was well received both by the public and in the press.

Only four days later Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen had its first staging of this play. Emil Poulsen played the part of Consul Bernick. This production was also well received (see the review below).

The first performance in Norway was at Den nationale Scene in Bergen on November 30th 1877. Ibsen deliberately refrained from handing the play over to Christiania Theater in protest at the theatre`s dismissal of Ludvig Josephson. Ibsen had no regard for his successor, Johan Vibe. In a letter to Hegel dated August 23rd 1877 Ibsen writes:
“I do not intend to hand in my play to Christiania Theater at present. The new director is a completely incompetent man, and as soon as the play is on sale I shall announce in a Norwegian paper that I shall break off all connection with this theatre as long as this man is director.” [see the letter in the original handwriting]

On December 13th 1877 the play had its first performance in Sweden at Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern in Stockholm.

Pillars of Society was Ibsen`s greatest theatrical success so far, above all at German theatres. According to Michael Meyer the play is said to have been staged at no fewer than 27 theatres in Germany and Austria by the end of 1878!

Review of the staging at Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen (not translated):

• C. Thrane, Illustreret Tidende, November 25th 1877 [read the review]

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Characters and summary of plot - The Lady from the Sea

Characters in The Lady from the Sea

Dr. Wangel, a country doctor
Mrs. Ellida Wangel, his second wife
Bolette and Hilde, his daughters of his first marriage
Arnholm, a schoolmaster
Lyngstrand
Ballested
A stranger
Young people from the town
Tourists
Summer visitors

Source: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume VII, Oxford University Press 1966

Summary

Doctor Wangel is a doctor in a small town on the west coast of Norway. He has two daughters by his first marriage, Bolette and Hilde. After the death of his first wife, he married Ellida, who is much younger than he is. She is the daughter of a lighthouse-keeper, and has grown up where the fjord meets the open sea. Ellida and Wangel had a son who died as a baby. This put an end to their marital relations, and Doctor Wangel fears for his wife’s mental health. He has written to Bolette’s former tutor, Arnholm, and invited him to come and visit them, in the hope that this will be beneficial to Ellida. But Arnholm misunderstands, thinking Bolette is waiting for him, and proposes to her. Reluctantly, Bolette agrees to marry her former teacher, seeing it as her only possibility of getting out into the world.

Ten years earlier Ellida had been engaged to a seaman. After murdering a captain he had to escape, but asked her to wait for him to come back and fetch her. She tried in vain to break the engagement. This stranger has great, compelling power over her, and when he returns after all these years to take her away with him, Dr. Wangel realizes that he must give Ellida the freedom to choose between staying with him or going away with the stranger. She chooses to stay with her husband, and the play ends with the stranger leaving, while Ellida and Dr. Wangel take up their life together again.

Source: Merete Morken Andersen, Ibsenhåndboken, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995

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Facts about The Lady from the Sea

Creative process

The Lady from the Sea was written in Munich in 1888. The earliest extant draft is dated June 5th 1888, but as usual Ibsen had been thinking about the subject for some time. A number of elements derive from his stay in Molde in the summer of 1885. It is assumed that Ibsen not only used Molde as his model for the little “town by a fjord in the northern part of Norway” where the action takes place; he was also said to have heard two legends there that made an impression on him, and which he used in the play. One of them told of a Norwegian of Finnish stock whose magically compelling eyes lured a parson`s wife away from her husband and home. The other one told of a seaman who had been away from home so long that he was thought to be dead, until he suddenly appeared and found his wife married to another man.

In 1886 Ibsen had written Rosmersholm. In the summer following its publication he was in North Jutland in Denmark, where he spent six weeks from mid-July until the end of August 1887 in Sæby on the east coast of the peninsula. It was there he collected material and found inspiration for The Lady from the Sea and - not least - enjoyed being near the open sea.

The sea was intended to be the central motif of the play right from the start. In his first notes for the play, dated June 5th 1888, Ibsen writes:

The lure of the sea. Longing for the sea. People`s affinity to the sea. Tied to the sea. Dependent on the sea. Compulsion to return to it. A species of fish forming a prototype in the development of species. Are there still rudiments of this in the human mind? In the mind of some individuals?
The images of the turmoil of life in the sea and of «what is eternally lost».
The sea has power over moods, has its own willpower. The sea can hypnotize. Nature can in general. The great secret is the dependency of the human will on «what is without willpower».
She has come from the sea, where her father`s parsonage lay. Grew up out there - by the free, open sea. Became secretly betrothed to the irresponsible young mate - an expelled sea-cadet - , who spent the winter ashore in an outlying harbour on account of a shipwreck. Had to break off the relationship in accordance with her father`s wishes.
[see the notes in the original handwriting]

The first fully worked-out version is entitled “The Mermaid”, and is dated as follows:

Ibsen then made a number of changes, deletions and additions. Dates in the manuscript of the first draft show that the second act was completed in a new version on August 18th. Two days later he began the third act, and on August 31st he began the fourth act. We do not know exactly when the new draft was finished and work on the fair copy started, but this was sent to Jacob Hegel from Munich on September 25th 1888.

First edition

The Lady from the Sea came out on November 28 th 1888 at Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) in Copenhagen and Christiania in an edition of 10 000 copies. On December 27th 1887 Ibsen`s friend and publisher for 22 years, Frederik Hegel, had died. His son Jacob Hegel was ready to take over, and thus was the publisher of The Lady from the Sea.

The book had a mixed reception. In general the reviewers were more positive than in the case of the previous play, Rosmersholm, most of all, probably, because of the play`s optimistic ending. But the only reviewers who were wholly enthusiastic were Edvard Brandes in Politiken and J. A. Runstrøm in the Swedish Ny Illustrerad Tidning.

Reviews (not translated):

• Irgens Hansen, Dagbladet, November 30th 1888 [read the review]
• Bredo Morgenstierne, Aftenposten, December 5th 1888 [read the review]
• Alfred Sinding-Larsen, Morgenbladet, December 5th, 8th, 11th and 12th 1888 [read the review]
• Carl David af Wirsén, Vårt Land, December 11th 1888 [read the review]
• J. A. Runström, Ny Illustrerad Tidning, December 15th 1888 [read the review]
• Edvard Brandes, Politiken
• Kristofer Randers, Ny Svensk Tidsskrift, 1889, s. 550f.
• P. A. Rosenberg, Literatur og Kritik, København 1888, s. 444 - 450
• Clemens Petersen, Nordisk Folkeblad (Chicago newspaper)
• Knut Hamsun, Samtiden, 1890 (s.

First performance

The Lady from the Sea was first staged on February 12th 1889 in two places: at Hoftheater in Weimar and at Christiania Theater.
The latter production was directed by Bjørn Bjørnson, and the parts of Dr. Wangel and Ellida were played by Sigvard and Laura Gundersen.
According to a congratulatory telegram to Ibsen this production was received with “very great acclamation”, and it had 26 performances in less than two years.

The play was then produced at Det Kongelige (Royal) Teater in Copenhagen (first night February 17th), the Finnish theatre in Helsingfors (February 22nd) and Kungliga (Royal) Dramatiska Teatern in Stockholm (first night in March).

Reviews of the production at Christiania Theater (not translated):

• J. Vibe, Aftenposten, February 13th 1889 [read the review]
• Verdens Gang, February 13th 1889 [read the review]
• Alfred Sinding-Larsen, Morgenbladet, February 13th and 15th 1889 [read the review]
• Lars Holst, Dagbladet, February 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th 1889  [read the review]

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Characters and summary of plot - Ghosts

Characters in Ghosts

Mrs. Helene Alving, widow of Captain (and Chamberlain) Alving
Oswald Alving, her son, an artist
Pastor Manders
Jacob Engstrand, a carpenter
Regine Engstrand, in service with Mrs. Alving

Source: The Oxford Ibsen, Volume V, Oxford University Press 1961

Summary of plot

Mrs. Helene Alving is the widow of Captain Alving, late Court Chamberlain, of Rosenvold – a man of high esteem in the community. The marriage was an unhappy one for Mrs. Alving, but she did everything in her power to conceal the fact that her husband was an alcoholic who lived a depraved life at the manor. Alving had a daughter, Regine, by a servant at the house, and a son, Osvald, by his wife. Regine is now Mrs. Alving’s servant, while Osvald was sent abroad as a child to protect him from his home surroundings. Regine thinks she is the daughter of Engstrand, a carpenter who is now finishing work on a children’s home to be opened the next day in memory of Captain Alving. After this Engstrand wants to take Regine to the neighbouring town to help him start a public house for sailors. Regine and Mrs. Alving are both opposed to this. Regine imagines being able to go to Paris with Osvald, a painter who has come home from Paris in order to be present at the opening of the children’s home.

Manders, a clergyman in charge of the financing of the home, has also come for the opening. When young, Mrs. Alving was in love with Manders and wanted to leave her husband for him, but Manders rejected her and sent her home.

The night before the ceremony the home in memory of Captain Alving burns down. Manders has insisted that the home should not be insured, and now he is afraid for his reputation as a clergyman and financial manager. He comes to a secret agreement with Engstrand, by which the latter takes the blame for the fire and in return funds for running the home are to be invested in Engstrand’s projected “sailors’ home” in the town.

Osvald tells his mother that he is suffering from syphilis, which he thinks he has contracted as a result of his bohemian life in Paris. He is afraid of becoming a helpless invalid, and hopes that Regine will be willing to help him to take an over-dose of morphine in the last stage of his illness. But when Regine realizes that he is ill, and in fact is her step-brother, she leaves Rosenlund to make her own way in the town. Mrs. Alving tells Osvald of his father’s true nature, and that he has inherited the disease from his father. It is now up to her to decide whether she is willing to help her son by giving him the over-dose of morphine. The play ends as the sun rises and Osvald has succumbed to the last stage of his illness.

Source: Merete Morken Andersen, Ibsenhåndboken, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995

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Facts about Ghosts

Creative process

A number of scattered notes on Ibsen`s work on Ghosts have been preserved. These are undated, but probably date from the winter and spring of 1881. Ibsen was living in Rome when the first connected draft of the play was started at the beginning of June 1881. On June 18th he wrote to his Danish publisher Frederik Hegel:

One of the first days of this month I started to get down to the subject of a play that has occupied my thoughts for a long time, and now forced itself upon me to such an extent that I could no longer leave it alone. I hope to be able to send you the manuscript by the middle of October. I will let you know the title later; all I can do today is to call it «a family drama in three acts».
[see the letter in the original handwriting]

The first draft has not been preserved, but was finished on September 23rd according to a letter Ibsen sent to Hegel at the end of September. Ibsen was in Sorrento at this point. Two days later he began the fair copy. This is extant, and as can be seen from the manuscript [see the manuscript in the original handwriting] it contains so many corrections that Ibsen very likely wrote a second fair copy. The first one, begun on September 25th 1881, is dated as follows:

The fair copy of the first act was sent to Hegel on October 16th. The second act and the first page of the third act were posted on November 4th, while the last act must have been posted a week or two later.

On November 23rd Ibsen, suspecting what was to come, wrote to Hegel: “It is reasonable to suppose that «Ghosts» will cause alarm in some circles; but so it must be. If it did not do so, it would not have been necessary to write it.” [see the letter in the original handwriting]
 

First edition

Ghosts was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag in Copenhagen on December 13th 1881 in an edition of 10 000 copies.
The book caused such a storm of horror and anger as Ibsen had never experienced before. There were loud cries of nihilism, an attack on the values of the church, a defence of free love, a violation of such taboos as incest and syphilis.

The outcry affected sales of the book and large quantities of unsold copies were returned to the publisher. The owners of bookshops were ashamed to have the book on their shelves, and it was not until 1894 that a fresh edition was needed.

Reviews and contributions in the debate on the book (not translated):

• Arne Garborg, Dagbladet, December 14th 1881 [read the review] 
• Aftenposten, December 14th 1881 [read the review] and December 17th 1881 [read the review]
• Morgenbladet, December 15th and 18th 1881 
• Dagbladet, December 22nd and 28th 1881 and January 10th 1882 (contributions in the debate from Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Chr. Johnsen among others) [read the articles]
• Oplandenes Avis, December 21st 1881
• Georg Brandes, Morgenbladet, December 28th 1881 [read the review] 
• Peter Hansen, Illustreret Tidende, January 8th 1882 [read the review]
• Otto Borchsenius, Ude og Hjemme, 5:223 (1881/82) [read the review]
• P. O. Schjøtt, Nyt tidsskrift, 1882 [read the review]
• C. D. Wirsén, Posttidningen 
• Gustaf Ljunggren, Nordisk Tidskrift, 1882 [read the review]
• Marcellus (V. A. Bergstrand)

First performance

Ghosts was sent to a number of theatres in Scandinavia, but they all turned down the play, including Det Kongelige (Royal) Teater in Copenhagen, Nye Teatern and Dramaten in Stockholm, and Christiania Theater.

Thus the very first performance of Ghosts took place at the Aurora Turner Hall in Chicago on May 20th 1882, and this was the first time Ibsen had been performed on American soil. The play was done in Norwegian for an audience of Scandinavian immigrants. Mrs. Alving was played by the Danish actress Helga von Bluhme, and the other parts by Danish and Norwegian amateurs.

The first European production of the play was in Hälsingborg on August 22nd 1883, by the Swedish August Lindberg`s theatre company. Lindberg directed and also played the part of Osvald himself. After the first night in Hälsingborg the production was shown in Copenhagen, Stockholm and - for the first time on Norwegian soil - at Møllergadens Theater in Christiania on October 17th 1883. The production received very good reviews and was performed no fewer than 75 times during the autumn of 1883.

Reviews of Lindberg`s production (not translated):

• C. E. Jensen, Social-demokraten, August 24th 1883
• Edvard Brandes, Ude og Hjemme, September 2nd 1883 [read the review]
• Illustreret tidende, September 2nd 1883

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The Final Years of Ibsen´s Life and his Death

When Ibsen died Wednesday, 23 May 1906 he had been sick for many years. The newspapers had for years had their obituaries prepared and as such many of them were already able to print an obituary in their evening edition (Ibsen died at 2:30 PM) on the same day of his death. Up until the turn of the century, his life had been characterised by predominantly good health. Just before his 72nd birthday in March 1900, however, the first manifestations of deteriorating health made themselves known, first in the form of the flu, which was then followed by a stroke when a clot developed in one of the arteries on the right side of his brain. In a letter to August Larsen dated 30 April Ibsen writes: “Since around the middle of March I have been out of sorts (although not bedridden) and my doctor has forbidden any activity with pen and ink.”

Ibsen spent the summer months of 1900 at the Hjertnes main farm in Sandefjord. His doctor, Dr. Sontum, held the position of manager at the nearby Sandefjord Spa and provided him with medical treatment. In the course of this stay Ibsen developed erysipelas in his feet, which led to his being bedridden for three weeks. In the course of the autumn his health improved somewhat. He returned to Kristiania in September. But he then suffered another stroke in the spring of 1901. His right arm and leg and the right side of his face were paralysed and his speech became slurred. Suzannah began carrying out his correspondence, both in the way of business and private letters, in that he was no longer able to write.

In that Dr. Sontum was in Sandefjord (he died, moreover, in 1902) Associate Professor dr. med. Peter Frederik Holst assumed responsibility for looking after Ibsen, but only for a transition period. Ibsen and his family understood that he now was in need of permanent and regular medical attention, a personal physician, a service that Holst was not in a position to provide. Dr. Edvard Bull was chosen, who since 1889 had had a connection with Christiania Theatre and subsequently with the National Theatre as permanent company physician. From 24 May 1903 up to the time of Ibsen´s death exactly three years later, Edvard Bull visited Ibsen more than one thousand times. After Ibsen´s death, Bull wrote his memoirs of Ibsen and the final years of his life. (Read his memoirs here.)

Before Edvard Bull paid his first visit, Ibsen suffered his third stroke. Bull writes:

In March 1903 he suffered his third stroke and when I visited him for the first time on 24 May, he was to be sure on his feet and could walk a little bit with the help of a cane but there were clear remnants of semi-paralysis on his right side and he had as well as difficulties speaking; he struggled to find the words, sometimes used the wrong words; his memory and intelligence were diminished and his mood extremely irritable. He was suspicious and vehement in relation to his surroundings, hot-tempered, and apparently had hallucinations, believed that he was being persecuted.

Besides Edvard Bull and the family (Suzannah, Sigurd and Bergliot), masseuse and companion Arnt Dehli, the barber Carl A. Larsen and the nurse Anna Holthe were the most important persons in Ibsen´s life. When he had recovered a bit from the stroke in March 1903, Ibsen resumed the daily drives with horse and wagon accompanied by Dehli. The two also went for walks in the secluded Dronningparken. When this park one day was suddenly closed to the public, King Oscar II personally ensured that Ibsen received his own private key to the park so he could come and go there as he wished.

Ibsen tried now to learn to write with his left hand. 14 February 1904 he wrote a thank-you note to Edvard Bull, which he sent enclosed in a package containing his collected works in a deluxe edition as a gift. The words “Takk. H. I.” (”Thank you, H.I.”) can be read there, inscribed in his shaky hand. This was the last he wrote by his own hand in his life. (See facsimile of the thank-you note.) 18 March 1904 he agreed to be interviewed for the last time, by the Norwegian national newspaper Verdens Gang (the interview is rendered in the 100-year edition of Ibsen´s collected works, vol. XVI, p. 227). 23 November 1904 he suffered what Edvard Bull characterised as “an extremely serious attack of heart failure”.

When I arrived shortly thereafter, he sat crumpled in his chair, unconscious, pale, cold, without a pulse. With the help of the nurse I carried him in to his bed; I believed I was holding a corpse in my arms, but after he had lain prone for a moment, he began to come around and with the help of resuscitative measures he quickly improved. He had no idea himself of what had happened and did not reflect further upon it. After two days he was up again as usual but from this moment on one could detect deterioration.

8 July 1905, a pushy American journalist with a huge camera took what would be the final photographs of Ibsen alive (see below). He had then ceased going out. Also his wandering about in the apartment was increasingly diminished. Throughout the course of the spring of 1906 he grew more and more lethargic. From 16 May 1906 he was too weak to be lifted out of bed. He was from that day on bedridden, for the most part dozing.
At dinnertime 22 May he opened his eyes one final time. He squeezed Edvard Bull´s hand, which the latter had extended and said, “Thank God”. The absolute final words from Ibsen´s mouth, according to Edvard Bull were spoken accordingly: His closest family stood gathered by the window with the nurse and were speaking about Ibsen´s condition. The nurse said that she thought he was doing a little better. Then suddenly those present heard Ibsen say loudly: “To the contrary”. One can hardly imagine a better summary of Ibsen´s life and work, characterised as it is by irony, ambivalence, radical doubt and protest.

23 May 1906 at 2:30 PM he passed away. The cause of death was Arteriosclerosis, the medical term for calcification of the blood vessels.

The funeral took place, at the state´s expense, at the Trefoldighets Church in Kristiania on 1 June. Ibsen´s old friend, Christopher Bruun officiated. Ibsen is buried at the cemetery Vår Frelsers Gravlund. The headstone, a black obelisk engraved with a hammer, was chosen by his son Sigurd.

Literature:

• Jan C. Frich and Erlend Hem: “Den fatale historie - Ibsens helse i hans siste år”, Tidsskrift for Den norske Lægeforening, 126: 1497-501 [digital version available here].
• Jan C. Frich and Erlend Hem: “Ibsens siste år - legene og deres krevende pasient”, Tidsskrift for Den norske Lægeforening, 126: 1502-6 [digital version available here].
• The last eight chapters of Erik Henning Edvardsen, Henrik Ibsen om seg selv, Oslo 2001.
• NB Oslo Ms 4° 3159 (manuscript at the National Library of Norway in Oslo) Fra Henrik Ibsens tre sidste Leveaar. Optegnelser af Dr. med. Edvard Bull. Juli 1906 [digital version available here].
• Last chapter from Michael Meyer, Ibsen - a biography, New York 1971.

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Henrik Ibsen´s relations and family

Parents and siblings

Henrik Ibsen´s parents were Marichen Cornelia Martine Ibsen (maiden name, Altenburg) (1799-1869) and Knud Ibsen (1797-1877). Marichen came from a prosperous home. Her father Johan Altenburg, who was first a shipmaster and later a merchant, died in 1824 leaving a considerable fortune. Knud Ibsen was a wholesaler and merchant and in 1825 established − the same year that he married Marichen - his own business at Stockmanngården in downtown Skien. Henrik Johan Ibsen was born at Stockmanngården on 20 March 1828. Knud and Marichen Ibsen´s first child, Johan Altenburg Ibsen, was born in 1826, but he died when he was only one and a half years old, three and a half weeks after Henrik came into the world. Henrik hereby became the oldest child. Knud and Marichen´s other children (and a few words about their lives):

• Johan Andreas (born 17 March 1830 - year of death, unknown): emigrated to the USA in 1849; according to a letter he sent home in 1860 he settled down in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
• Hedvig Katrine (born 15 November 1831 − deceased 1920): became active in the Lammers Movement (independent congregation); married Hans Jacob Stousland; was the sibling closest to Henrik.
• Nicolai Alexander (born 11 September 1834 - deceased 25 April 1888): as a child was disabled for life when his nanny dropped him on the floor; tried without any particular success his hand at being a merchant in Skien; emigrated to the USA at the end of the 1860s; settled down in Estherville, Iowa and lived there until his death.
• Ole Paus (born 19 December 1835 − deceased 1917): was a sailor and skipper, subsequently a lighthouse keeper´s assistant on Kvitingsøy outside of Stavanger for 17 years; moved to Stavern when he retired in 1904.

Ancestors

Henrik´s grandparents on his mother´s side were shipmaster and merchant Johan Altenburg and Hedevig Christine Paus, on his father´s side skipper Henrich Ibsen and Johanne Cathrine Plesner. The family was originally from Bergen but settled in the Skien region when Henrich Ibsen´s mother − in other words, Henrik Ibsen´s great-grandmother on his father´s side − Wenche Ibsen (maiden name Dishington), settled there in 1771 with her second husband, Jacob von der Lippe, who was appointed parish pastor of Solum.

Descendants

18 June 1858 Henrik Ibsen married Suzannah Thoresen. 23 December 1859 their only son, Sigurd, was born. But this was not Ibsen´s first child. While he was an apothecary´s apprentice for Jens Aarup Reimann in Grimstad, he fathered an illegitimate child with Else Sophie Jensdatter Birkedalen, who was Reimann´s maidservant. The child was born on 9 October 1846 and was christened Hans Jacob Hendrichsen Birkedalen. Else Sophie went home to her parents in Birkedalen in Vestre Moland to give birth to the child. Ibsen paid child support for fourteen years but had no contact with the child or with the mother. (Read more about Ibsen´s illegitimate descendants in Roger Trondstad´s article “Henrik Ibsen i Grimstad - Bosted, farskapssak og etterkommere” [ “Henrik Ibsen in Grimstad − Residence, the paternity suit and descendents”].)

Ibsen´s legitimate son, Sigurd Ibsen (1859-1930) completed his PhD in law in Rome in 1882, at the young age of 22 and later became a politician and author. He wrote two plays for the theatre, but made his mark predominantly as an essayist and author of political works. 1903-05 he was Norway´s Premier in Stockholm. In 1892 he married Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson´s youngest daughter, Bergliot (1869-1953). They had three children: Tancred (1893-1978), who became a film director, Irene (1901-1985) and Eleonora (1906-1978).

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Facts about When We Dead Awaken

When We Dead Awaken was the last play Ibsen wrote before he died. He wrote it in Christiania in 1899, and it is thought he began to plan it in the summer of 1897. In a letter dated June 3rd 1897 to Georg Brandes, Ibsen wrote:

Can you guess what I am dreaming of and planning and picturing to myself as something so delightful? That`s settling down by Øresund, between Copenhagen and Elsinore, at a place with an open view, where I can see all the sea-going yachts coming and going on their long voyages. I can`t do that here. Here all the sounds are shut in, in every sense of the word, and every channel to understanding is stopped up. Oh, my dear Brandes, one is not unaffected by living abroad for 27 years in a free and liberating cultural climate. In here, or rather up here beside the fjords, is the country of my birth. But - but - but: where can I find my home country? The sea is what I am most drawn to. - - - Otherwise I go round here on my own, planning some sort of new drama. But I can`t see clearly yet what it`s going to be.
[see the letter in original handwriting]

The letter is interesting, not only because it indicates that a new play is being planned, but also because we recognize Ibsen himself in Arnold Rubek as we meet him in the opening scene of When We Dead Awaken, with both of them feeling homeless in their own country.

After John Gabriel Borkman (1896) three years passed instead of the usual two, before Ibsen published a new play. There were many factors that distracted Ibsen in his work with When We Dead Awaken. For one thing, he was unavoidably involved in planning the first two collected editions of his works: the German one, published in nine volumes by the historians of literature Julius Elias and Paul Schlenther in the years 1898-1903, and the Norwegian one, published by Danish Gyldendal in nine volumes from 1898 to 1900 (a supplementary volume was published in 1902).
In the spring of 1898 Ibsen celebrated his 70th birthday, with large-scale festivities held for him in Christiania, Copenhagen and Stockholm. He made speeches, gave interviews and received frequent visits in Christiania, so he did not get anything down in writing for When We Dead Awaken until the beginning of 1899.

The first date was February 20th, 1899, and the first draft was begun two days later, with the title “The Day of Resurrection”. The work still proceeded slowly, and it was not until the end of July that the first act was completed. The first act and the ensuing fair copy are dated as follows:

^*Correct date: August 2nd

The title was changed during the writing of the fair copy, first to “When The Dead Awaken”, and then to the final “When We Dead Awaken”. The fair copy of the manuscript was sent to the publisher the same day as it was completed, November 21st, 1899.

The full title of the play, When We Dead Awaken. A Dramatic Epilogue in Three Acts, became known before the book was for sale. The Danish newspaper Politiken concluded from the word “epilogue” that “the writer has spoken his last words in this play and has thus concluded his dramatic works”. But this was denied by Ibsen himself in an interview in the newspaper Verdens Gang on December 12th, 1899.

No, that is an over-hasty conclusion. The term «epilogue» does not refer to any such thought on my part. Whether I come to write something more is another matter. What I meant by the term epilogue in this connection is simply that the play forms an epilogue to a number of my dramas, beginning with «A Doll`s House», and ending now with «When We Dead Awaken». The latter work comes under the experiences I have wanted to describe in these plays. They form a unity, a whole, and thus I have finished. If I come to write something more hereafter, it will all be in quite a different connection, and perhaps in a different form as well.

First edition

The Gyldendal edition
When We Dead Awaken was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) on December 22nd 1899 in Copenhagen, Christiania, Stockholm and Berlin, and consisted of 12 000 copies. A second issue of 2 000 copies had to be printed even before the book was on sale (the same thing had happened on the publication of John Gabriel Borkman three years previously), on account of the large number of advance orders. Thus the first and second issues - 14 000 copies altogether - were released simultaneously.

The Heinemann edition and others
As had been the case with the four previous plays, When We Dead Awaken was also published by William Heinemann in London in a “mini-edition” of 12 copies. This took place on December 19th 1899, three days before the Gyldendal edition.
A German edition of the play, in Christian Morgenstern`s translation, was published in Berlin later the same month. Shortly after that, English, French, Italian, Russian and Polish translations were published.

The book was received with respect.

Reviews (not translated):

• Edvard Brandes, Politiken, December 20th 1899 [read the review]
• Carl Nærup, Verdens Gang, December 21st 1899
• Morgenbladet, December 21st 1899
• Kristofer Randers, Aftenposten, December 22nd 1899 [read the review]
• Georg Brandes, Verdens Gang, December 28th 1899 [read the review]
• Sophus Claussen, Lolland-Falsters Folketidende, December 30th 1899 [read the review]
• Carl David af Wirsén, Post och inrikes tidningar, January 8th 1900 [read the review]
• Sven Lange, Illustreret Tidende, January 21st 1900 [read the review]
• Vald. Vedel, Tilskueren, January 1900 [read the review]
• James Joyce, Fortnightly Review, April 1st 1900 [read the review]

First performance

The first public performance of When We Dead Awaken was a reading at the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket, London, on December 16th, 1899. This was a part of William Heinemann`s strategy in order to obtain the copyright to the play (see above).

The first full staging of the play was at the Hoftheater in Stuttgart on January 26th, 1900, followed shortly afterwards by productions in Copenhagen, Helsingfors, Christiania, Stockholm and Berlin. It proved difficult to make the play function satisfactorily on the stage. Edvard Brandes wrote in connection with Det Kongelige Teater`s production the “The actors were too small”.

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A Listing of Ibsen´s Works

Catiline (1850)
The Burial Mound (written in 1850, revised version published in 1854)
Norma (1851)
St. John`s Night (written in 1852, first published in 1909) 
Lady Inger (written in 1854, first published in 1857)
The Feast at Solhoug (1856)
Olaf Liljekrans (written in 1856, first published in 1902) 
The Vikings at Helgeland (1858)
Love`s Comedy (1862)
The Pretenders (1863)

Brand (1866)
Peer Gynt (1867)
The League of Youth (1869)
Poems (1871)
Emperor and Galilean (1873)
Pillars of Society (1877)
A Doll`s House (1879)
Ghosts (1881)
An Enemy of the People (1882)
The Wild Duck (1884)
Rosmersholm (1886)
The Lady from the Sea (1888)
Hedda Gabler (1890)
The Master Builder (1892)
Little Eyolf (1894)
John Gabriel Borkman (1896)
When We Dead Awaken (1899)

Works by Period

Ibsen´s dramatic works are often divided into four parts:

1. National-romantic and historical dramas
   The dramas from Catiline to The Pretenders.
2. Dramas of ideas
   Love`s Comedy, Brand, Peer Gynt and Emperor and Galilean
3. Realistic contemporary dramas
   Pillars of Society, A Doll`s House, Ghosts and An Enemy of the People.
4. Psychological and symbolical dramas
   The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The Lady from the Sea, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman and When We Dead Awaken.

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Chronological survey of Ibsen´s life and works

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