[Why do Ibsen's children die?].

Death of children is a remarkably frequent theme in Henrik Ibsen's writings and may be a key to understanding of his work. In this paper I refer to writings where children die, and I analyze case histories and question of causes. The medical courses are very diverse. In his earliest works, some children die by starvation. In our time we tend to forget the enormous child mortality rate in Norway during the mid 1800s. In his contemporary dramas, the causes of death are often complex. Even though he uses symbols, there are elements that are medically reasonable. He rarely makes mistakes in a medical context. A common feature in these tragic child destinies is that the poet shows us inadequate and poor parents.