By the time of The Master Builder, Ibsen’s reputation was so unquestionable that this play was quickly performed all over Europe and the United States, including Berlin, Christiania, Copenhagen, Chicago, and London shortly after its publication in 1893. The play puzzled audiences because many of its elements seemed familiar from earlier Ibsen plays, such as the insurance, the dirty secret at the source of success, and the young and independent woman threatening a defunct marriage, but they were arranged in a more intangible play. The castle in the air, the nine puppets that were burned, and other elements seemed incomprehensible symbols, at odds with the putative realism of Ibsen’s earlier plays. They should be seen as powerful attempts by the playwright to rethink the treatment of his most elemental themes, the question of the home and of modern tragedy. Both are placed in a startling new form that continues to exert its mysterious influence on directors and playwrights today.

  —Martin Puchner

  CHARACTERS

  HALVARD SOLNESS, Master Builder.

  ALINE SOLNESS, his wife.

  DOCTOR HERDAL, physician.

  KNUT BROVIK, formerly an architect, now in SOLNESS’s employment.

  RAGNAR BROVIK, his son, draughtsman.

  KAIA FOSLI, his niece, book-keeper.

  MISS HILDA WANGEL.

  Some Ladies.

  A Crowd in the street.

  The action passes in and about SOLNESS’s house.

  ACT FIRST

  A plainly-furnished work-room in the house of HALVARD SOLNESS. Folding doors on the left lead out to the hall. On the right is the door leading to the inner rooms of the house. At the back is an open door into the draughtsmen’s office. In front, on the left, a desk with books, papers and writing materials. Further back than the folding door, a stove. In the right-hand corner, a sofa, a table, and one or two chairs. On the table a water-bottle and glass. A smaller table, with a rocking-chair and arm-chair, in front on the right. Lighted lamps, with shades, on the table in the draughtsmen’s office, on the table in the corner, and on the desk.

  In the draughtsmen’s office sit KNUT BROVIK and his son RAGNAR, occupied with plans and calculations. At the desk in the outer office stands KAIA FOSLI, writing in the ledger. KNUT BROVIK is a spare old man with white hair and beard. He wears a rather threadbare but well-brushed black coat, spectacles, and a somewhat discoloured white neckcloth. RAGNAR BROVIK is a well-dressed, light-haired man in his thirties, with a slight stoop. KAIA FOSLI is a slightly built girl, a little over twenty, carefully dressed, and delicate-looking. She has a green shade over her eyes.—All three go on working for some time in silence.

  KNUT BROVIK [Rises suddenly, as if in distress, from the table; breathes heavily and laboriously as he comes forward into the doorway.]

  No, I can’t bear it much longer!

  KAIA [Going up to him.]

  You are feeling very ill this evening, are you not, uncle?

  BROVIK

  Oh, I seem to get worse every day.

  RAGNAR [Has risen and advances.]

  You ought to go home, father. Try to get a little sleep——

  BROVIK [Impatiently.]

  Go to bed, I suppose? Would you have me stifled outright?

  KAIA

  Then take a little walk.

  RAGNAR

  Yes, do. I will come with you.

  BROVIK [With warmth.]

  I will not go till he comes! I am determined to have it out this

  evening with—

  [in a tone of suppressed bitterness]

  —with him—with the chief.

  KAIA [Anxiously.]

  Oh no, uncle,—do wait awhile before doing that!

  RAGNAR

  Yes, better wait, father!

  BROVIK [Draws his breath laboriously.]

  Ha—ha—! I haven’t much time for waiting.

  KAIA [Listening.]

  Hush! I hear him on the stairs.

  [All three go back to their work. A short silence.]

  HALVARD SOLNESS comes in through the hall door. He is a man no longer young, but healthy and vigorous, with close-cut curly hair, dark moustache and dark thick eyebrows. He wears a greyish-green buttoned jacket with an upstanding collar and broad lapels. On his head he wears a soft grey felt hat, and he has one or two light portfolios under his arm.

  SOLNESS [Near the door, points towards the draughtsmen’s office, and asks in a whisper:]

  Are they gone?

  KAIA [Softly, shaking her head.]

  No.

  [She takes the shade off her eyes. SOLNESS crosses the room, throws his

  hat on a chair, places the portfolios on the table by the sofa, and ap

  proaches the desk again. KAIA goes on writing without intermission, but

  seems nervous and uneasy.]

  SOLNESS [Aloud]

  What is that you are entering, Miss Fosli?

  KAIA [Starts]

  Oh, it is only something that——

  SOLNESS

  Let me look at it, Miss Fosli.

  [Bends over her, pretends to be looking into the ledger, and whispers:]

  Kaia!

  KAIA [Softly, still writing.]

  Well?

  SOLNESS

  Why do you always take that shade off when I come?

  KAIA [As before.]

  I look so ugly with it on.

  SOLNESS [Smiling.]

  Then you don’t like to look ugly, Kaia?

  KAIA [Half glancing up at him.]

  Not for all the world. Not in your eyes.

  SOLNESS [Strokes her hair gently.]

  Poor, poor little Kaia——

  KAIA [Bending her head.]

  Hush—they can hear you!

  [SOLNESS strolls across the room to the right, turns and pauses at the

  door of the draughtsmen’s office.

  SOLNESS

  Has any one been here for me?

  RAGNAR [Rising.]

  Yes, the young couple who want a villa built, out at Lövstrand.

  SOLNESS [Growling.]

  Oh, those two! They must wait. I am not quite clear about the plans yet.

  RAGNAR [Advancing, with some hesitation.]

  They were very anxious to have the drawings at once.

  SOLNESS [As before.]

  Yes, of course—so they all are.

  BROVIK [Looks up.]

  They say they are longing so to get into a house of their own.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, yes—we know all that! And so they are content to take whatever is offered them. They get a—a roof over their heads—an address—but nothing to call a home. No thank you! In that case, let them apply to somebody else. Tell them that, the next time they call.

  BROVIK [Pushes his glasses up on to his forehead and looks in astonishment at him.]

  To somebody else? Are you prepared to give up the commission?

  SOLNESS [Impatiently.]

  Yes, yes, yes, devil take it! If that is to be the way of it——.

  Rather that, than build away at random.

  [Vehemently.]

  Besides, I know very little about these people as yet.

  BROVIK

  The people are safe enough. Ragnar knows them. He is a friend of the family. Perfectly safe people.

  SOLNESS

  Oh, safe—safe enough! That is not at all what I mean. Good

  lord—don’t you understand me either?

  [Angrily.]

  I won’t have anything to do with these strangers. They may apply

  to whom they please, so far as I am concerned.

  BROVIK [Rising.]

  Do you really mean that?

  SOLNESS [Sulkily.]

  Yes, I do.—For once in a way.

  [He comes forward.]

  [BROVIK exchanges a glance with RAGNAR, who makes a warning

  gesture.Then BROVIK comes into the front room.]

  BROVIK

  May I have a few words with you?

  SOLNESS

  Certainly.

  BROVIK [To KAIA.]

  Just go in there for a moment, Kaia.

  KAIA [Uneasily.]

  Oh, but uncle——

  BROVIK

  Do as I say, child. And shut the door after you.

  [KAIA goes reluctantly into the draughtsmen’s office, glances anxiously

  and imploringly at SOLNESS, and shuts the door.]

  BROVIK [Lowering his voice a little.]

  I don’t want the poor children to know how ill I am.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, you have been looking very poorly of late.

  BROVIK

  It will soon be all over with me. My strength is ebbing—from day to day.

  SOLNESS

  Won’t you sit down?

  BROVIK

  Thanks—may I?

  SOLNESS [Placing the arm-chair more conveniently.]

  Here—take this chair.—And now?

  BROVIK [Has seated himself with difficulty.]

  Well, you see, it’s about Ragnar. That is what weighs most upon me. What is to become of him?

  SOLNESS

  Of course your son will stay with me as long as ever he likes.

  BROVIK

  But that is just what he does not like. He feels that he cannot stay here any longer.

  SOLNESS

  Why, I should say he was very well off here. But if he wants more money, I should not mind——

  BROVIK

  No, no! It is not that.

  [Impatiently.]

  But sooner or later he, too, must have a chance of doing some

  thing on his own account.

  SOLNESS [Without looking at him.]

  Do you think that Ragnar has quite talent enough to stand alone?

  BROVIK

  No, that is just the heartbreaking part of it—I have begun to have my doubts about the boy. For you have never said so much as—as one encouraging word about him. And yet I cannot but think there must be something in him—he can’t be without talent.

  SOLNESS

  Well, but he has learnt nothing—nothing thoroughly, I mean. Except, of course, to draw.

  BROVIK [Looks at him with covert hatred, and says hoarsely.]

  You had learned little enough of the business when you were in

  my employment. But that did not prevent you from setting to

  work—

  [breathing with difficulty]

  —and pushing your way up, and taking the wind out of my

  sails—mine, and so many other people’s.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, you see—circumstances favoured me.

  BROVIK

  You are right there. Everything favoured you. But then how can you have the heart to let me go to my grave—without having seen what Ragnar is fit for? And of course I am anxious to see them married, too—before I go.

  SOLNESS [Sharply.]

  Is it she who wishes it?

  BROVIK

  Not Kaia so much as Ragnar—he talks about it every day.

  [Appealingly.]

  You must—you must help him to get some independent work

  now! I must see something that the lad has done. Do you hear?

  SOLNESS [Peevishly.]

  Hang it, man, you can’t expect me to drag commissions down from the moon for him!

  BROVIK

  He has the chance of a capital commission at this very moment. A big bit of work.

  SOLNESS [Uneasily, startled.]

  Has he?

  BROVIK

  If you would give your consent.

  SOLNESS

  What sort of work do you mean?

  BROVIK [With some hesitation.]

  He can have the building of that villa out at Lövstrand.

  SOLNESS

  That! Why I am going to build that myself.

  BROVIK

  Oh you don’t much care about doing it.

  SOLNESS [Flaring up.]

  Don’t care! I! Who dares to say that?

  BROVIK

  You said so yourself just now.

  SOLNESS

  Oh, never mind what I say.—Would they give Ragnar the building of that villa?

  BROVIK

  Yes. You see, he knows the family. And then—just for the fun of the thing—he has made drawings and estimates and so forth——

  SOLNESS

  Are they pleased with the drawings? The people who will have to live in the house?

  BROVIK

  Yes. If you would only look through them and approve of them——

  SOLNESS

  Then they would let Ragnar build their home for them?

  BROVIK

  They were immensely pleased with his idea. They thought it exceedingly original, they said.

  SOLNESS

  Oho! Original! Not the old-fashioned stuff that I am in the habit of turning out!

  BROVIK

  It seemed to them different.

  SOLNESS [With suppressed irritation.]

  So it was to see Ragnar that they came here—whilst I was out!

  BROVIK

  They came to call upon you—and at the same time to ask whether you would mind retiring——

  SOLNESS [Angrily.]

  Retire? I?

  BROVIK

  In case you thought that Ragnar’s drawings——

  SOLNESS

  I! Retire in favour of your son!

  BROVIK

  Retire from the agreement, they meant.

  SOLNESS

  Oh, it comes to the same thing.

  [Laughs angrily.]

  So that is it, is it? Halvard Solness is to see about retiring now!

  To make room for younger men! For the very youngest, perhaps!

  He must make room! Room! Room!

  BROVIK

  Why, good heavens! there is surely room for more than one single man——

  SOLNESS

  Oh, there’s not so very much room to spare either. But, be that as it may—I will never retire! I will never give way to anybody! Never of my own free will. Never in this world will l do that!

  BROVIK [Rises with difficulty.]

  Then I am to pass out of life without any certainty? Without a gleam of happiness? Without any faith or trust in Ragnar? Without having seen a single piece of work of his doing? Is that to be the way of it?

  SOLNESS [Turns half aside, and mutters.]

  H’m—don’t ask more just now.

  BROVIK

  I must have an answer to this one question. Am I to pass out of life in such utter poverty?

  SOLNESS [Seems to struggle with himself; finally he says, in a low but firm voice:]

  You must pass out of life as best you can.

  BROVIK

  Then be it so.

  [He goes up the room.]

  SOLNESS [Following him, half in desperation.]

  Don’t you understand that I cannot help it? l am what I am, and I

  cannot change my nature!

  BROVIK

  No, no; I suppose you can’t.

  [Reels and supports himself against the sofa-table.]

  May I have a glass of water?

  SOLNESS

  By all means.

  [Fills a glass and hands it to him.]

  BROVIK

  Thanks.

  [Drinks and puts the glass down again.]

  [SOLNESS goes up and opens the door of the draughtsmen’s office.]

  SOLNESS

  Ragnar—you must come and take your father home.

  RAGNAR rises quickly. He and KAIA come into the work-room.

  RAGNAR

  What is the matter, father?

  BROVIK Give me your arm. Now let us go.

  RAGNAR

  Very well. You had better put your things on, too, Kaia.

  SOLNESS

  Miss Fosli must stay—just for a moment. There is a letter I want written.

  BROVIK [Looks at SOLNESS.]

  Good night. Sleep well—if you can.

  SOLNESS

  Good night.

  [BROVIK and RAGNAR go out by the hall-door. KAIA goes to the

  desk. SOLNESS stands with bent head, to the right, by the arm-chair.