On returning to his mother’s hut in his native village, after these and
many other adventures, Peer finds her on her death-bed, and remains with
her through the night, during which she passes away, enlivening her last
hours with the most preposterous tales and pantomimes. This scene of the
drama, in spite of its solemnity and sadness, carries the fantastic to
the extreme verge of the grotesque.
The illustrative music is cast in the mold of a “funeral march,” without
trio and with but one well-developed theme. In it Grieg has emphasized
only the somber and tragical aspect of the situation, ignoring entirely
its touches of ghastly humor. The utter and crushing despair of a
wrecked and disappointed life, of shattered hopes and unrequited and
unappreciated maternal affection, sobs through its strains, enhancing
the pangs of approaching dissolution. Its mood is that of unqualified
gloom, unrelieved by a single vibration of hope or consolation.