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Riviere brings further evidence to substantiate her thesis—presented in the previous contribution … of an inner world as exemplified in literature. In the
previous examples, the writers consciously acknowledged the presence of other beings inside themselves.
In this paper, Riviere analyzes a drama, Ibsen's Master Builder, which is devoted almost exclusively to the portrayal of an inner world. The principals of the drama, Solness the Master Builder, his wife, and Hilda, who becomes his destructive inspiration, are all driven by 'daemons', 'trolls', devils and spirits. Solness the Master Builder is pursued and tortured by the 'daemon-troll' of his conscience and acts out his Oedipal and preoedipal conflicts with his wife, with Hilda and with his associates. Hilda, who finally drives the Master Builder to his death, is intent on gaining control over him and identifying with him. The wife's concern is for the dolls of her childhood which were burned in the fire that destroyed their home. Solness dreads the competition of his siblingcolleagues and fears castration and destruction in retaliation for his displacement of his father. In Hilda, he hopes to find the virgin mother.
External events become part of the scenery which the internal demons manipulate along with the chief actors themselves. The drama's particularly essential quality resides in this overall atmosphere of people being driven by specters yet real beings, although superficially they are imaginary personifications, 'daemons' and 'trolls', who direct their lives.