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The Final Years of Ibsen’s Life and his Death31.05.2006
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.
 Ibsen on "lit de parade" in the apartment on Arbinsgate. Photo: Anders Beer Wilse © Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History). 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.  Photo taken by an unknown American, 8 July 1905. 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:
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