The Master Builder (Norwegian: Bygmester Solness) is a play by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. It was first published in 1892 and first performed in Berlin on January 19, 1893.

Plot

The action of the play occurs in the home of Halvard Solness, a middle-aged architect who has clawed his way to prominence. His single-minded focus on his job, however, has hardened him and prevented him and his wife Aline from having a meaningful private life. The costs of Solness's ambition are also symbolized in Solness's assistant, Knut Brovik, Solness's former employer whom he "scalped" to reach the top. Brovik, now dying, wants his son Ragnar to have more independence in the firm. Solness, however, fears that he will be eclipsed by a younger generation of architects, and refuses to allow Ragnar either to design original houses or to leave the firm and strike out on his own.

Into this tension comes Hilde Wangel, a vivacious young woman who has idolized Solness since ten years before, when, in the early stages of his career, he had built a large church in her hometown and climbed to the top of its tower during its dedication ceremony. While in town, Solness had promised Hilde, then a girl of twelve, "a kingdom"; now, Hilde says earnestly, she has come to collect her kingdom. In long conversations with Hilde, Solness describes his career and his frustration with how his ambition has kept him from achieving true satisfaction. Hilde urges him to allow Ragnar Brovik to leave the firm; Solness eventually acquiesces.

The play's final part deals with a new house which Solness has been building for himself and his wife. Now nearly complete, the house features a tall tower which both Solness and his wife fear is too great for him to climb in the dedication ceremony (like the one in Hilde's hometown). However, at Hilde's repeated requests, Solness agrees to make the climb, telling her that the two of them will together build "castles in the air ... the most wonderful thing in the world." In the play's final scene, Solness climbs to the top of the tower, but then falls to his death.

Criticism

The Master Builder was the first work Ibsen wrote upon after his return to Norway from Europe in July 1891. It is generally grouped with the three other works written during this late period of Ibsen's life - Little Eyolf , John Gabriel Borkman , and When We Dead Awaken - as "symbolic plays" which lack the thematic clarity of such earlier works as Hedda Gabler. Early reactions to the play by Ibsen's critics were mixed, probably due its heightened symbolism, much of which is unclear. Hilde, for example, seems to alternate roles between an inspiring force, urging Solness to temper his rampant ambition and pursue real happiness, and a temptress, pushing Solness to commitments he cannot possibly make. English critic William Archer, however, has suggested that the play is not as completely symbolic as some have maintained, interpreting it instead as "a history of a sickly conscience [Solness's], worked out in terms of pure psychology." He notes that in this regard the play is similar to earlier Ibsen works which deal mainly with a retrospective look at a character's psyche [1].

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