You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
With the “Master Builder” Ibsen began a new period in his play-writing—a period of retrospection and synthesis culminating in the philosophy expressed in “When We Dead Awaken”. It is the final period of Ibsen's creative life and one of preoccupation with the problems faced by a man who is aging.
Halvard Solness, the master builder, is living through such a period in his life. The physical processes of involution are making themselves felt and Solness is reacting to them emotionally with an intensity so disproportionate to the actual circumstances that contact with reality is lost and disaster occurs. A personality study based on an interpretation of Halvard's phantasies and actions in the light of his lifelong development reveals many interesting factors contributing to the total picture of involutional psychosis with paranoid trends.
The play opens with a scene in the workship of Halvard Solness, the master builder. Knut Brovick, erstwhile employer and present employee of Solness, is begging the master builder to give his son, Ragnar Brovick, a chance to prove his ability as an architect and thus gain sufficient independence to make possible his marriage to Kaia, Solness' bookkeeper. Solness refuses to do this on the grounds that he does not wish to be pushed aside by the younger generation and that he will use any means in his power—even the exploitation of Kaia's affection for him—to keep Ragnar dependent. While Solness is discussing this problem with Dr. Herdal, his wife's physician, the young and beautiful Hilda enters. She reminds him of his youthful vigor and ambition, and gives him new confidence, in contrast to the feeling of hopelessness and inability created by his wife, Aline.