DINA: But are not many great things being
accomplished?
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
I've seen him with my own eyes
at the top of a high church tower.
MRS. SOLNESS: Impossible!
SOLNESS: True, all the same.
MRS. SOLNESS: You, who can't even go out on the
second-floor balcony?
SOLNESS: You will see something different this evening.
MRS. SOLNESS: You're ill, you're ill! I'll write at
once to the doctor. Oh, God, Oh, God!
[_She goes out. _
HILDA: Don't tell me _my_ master builder daren't, _cannot_
climb as high as he builds. You promised me a kingdom,
and then you went and--well! Don't tell me you
can ever be dizzy!
SOLNESS: This evening, then, we'll hang up the wreath,
Princess Hilda.
HILDA (_bitterly_): Over your new home--yes.
SOLNESS: Over the new house, which will never be a
_home_ for _me_.
HILDA (_looks straight in front of her with a far-away
expression, and whispers to herself. The only words
audible are_): Frightfully thrilling----
ACT III
SCENE. --_A large, broad verandah attached to_ SOLNESS'S
_dwelling-house. A flight of steps leads down to the garden
below. Far to the right, among the trees, is a glimpse of
the new villa, with scaffolding round the tower. Evening
sky, with sun-lit clouds. _
MRS. SOLNESS: Have you been round the garden, Miss
Wangel?
HILDA: Yes, and I've found heaps of flowers.
MRS. SOLNESS: Are there, really? You see, I seldom
go there. I don't feel that it is _mine_ any longer. They've
parcelled it out and built houses for strangers, who can
look in upon me from their windows.
HILDA: Mrs. Solness--may I stay here with you a
little?
MRS. SOLNESS: Yes, by all means, if you care to; but
I thought you wanted to go in to my husband--to help
him?
HILDA: No, thanks. Besides, he's not in. He's with
the men over there. He looked so fierce, I didn't dare
to talk to him.
MRS. SOLNESS: He's so kind and gentle in reality.
HILDA: _He_------
MRS. SOLNESS: You don't really know him yet, Miss
Wangel.
HILDA: Are you pleased about the new house?
MRS. SOLNESS: It's what Halvard wants. It's simply
my duty to submit myself to _him_.
HILDA: That must be difficult, indeed, when one has
gone through so much as you have--the loss of your two
little boys------
MRS. SOLNESS: One must bow to Providence and be
thankful, too.
[DR. HERDAL _enters and goes in again with_ MRS. SOLNESS.
_She wishes to talk to him about her husband's mad
scheme. As they go_ SOLNESS _enters_.
SOLNESS: Poor Aline! I suppose she was talking
about the two little boys? (HILDA _shudders_) Poor
Aline, she will never get over it.
HILDA: I am going away.
SOLNESS: I won't allow you to. I wish you simply to
_be_ here, Hilda.
HILDA: Oh, thank you. You know it wouldn't end
there. That's why I'm going. You have duties to _her_.
Live for those duties.
SOLNESS: Too late! Those powers--devils, if you
will! --and the troll within me as well, have drawn the
life-blood out of her. I'm chained alive to a dead
woman! --(_in wild anguish_) _I--I_, who cannot live without
joy in life.
HILDA: What will you build next?
SOLNESS (_shaking his head_): Not much more.
HILDA (_with an outburst_): Oh, it seems all so foolish--not
to be able to grasp your own happiness, merely because
someone you know happens to stand in the way----
SOLNESS: If only one had the Viking spirit in life----
HILDA: And the other thing? What was that?
SOLNESS: A robust conscience.
HILDA (_radiant_): I know what you're going to build
next.
SOLNESS: What?
HILDA: The castle--_my_ castle. Build it for me this
moment. The ten years are up. Out with my castle,
Mr. Solness! It shall stand on a very great height, so
that I can see far--far around. We shall build--we two
together--the very loveliest thing in all the world!
SOLNESS: Hilda, tell me what it is.
HILDA: Builders are such very, very stupid people----
SOLNESS: No doubt--but tell me what we two are to
build together?
HILDA: Castles in the air! So easy to build (_scornfully_),
especially for builders who have a--a dizzy conscience.
SOLNESS: We shall build one--with a firm foundation.
(RAGNAR _enters with the wreath_) Have _you_ brought
the wreath, Ragnar? Then I suppose your father's better?
Wasn't he cheered by what I wrote him?
RAGNAR: It came too late--he was unconscious. He
had had a stroke.
SOLNESS: Go home to him. Give _me_ the wreath.
RAGNAR: You don't mean that you yourself--no--I'll
stop.
HILDA: Mr. Solness, I will stand here and look at you.
[SOLNESS _takes the wreath and goes down through the
garden. _ MRS. SOLNESS, _in an agony of apprehension,
re-enters and sends_ RAGNAR _to fetch her husband
back from the new building. She returns indoors. _
SOLNESS (_re-entering_): Oh, it's _you_, Hilda! I was
afraid it was Aline or the doctor that wanted me.
HILDA: You're easily frightened. They say you're
afraid to climb about scaffoldings. Is it true you're
afraid?
SOLNESS: Not of death--but--of retribution.
HILDA: I don't understand that.
SOLNESS: Sit down, and I'll tell you something. You
know I began by building churches. I'd been piously
brought up. I thought it was the noblest task, pleasing
to Him for Whom churches are built. Then up at Lysanger
I understood that He meant me to have no love
and happiness of my own, but just to be a master builder
for Him all my life long. That was why He took my
little children! Then, that day, I did the impossible. I
was able to climb up to a great height. As I stood hanging
the wreath on the vane, I cried, "O Mighty One, I
will be a free builder--I, too, in my sphere as Thou in
Thine. I will build no more churches for Thee--only
homes for human beings. " But _that_ is not worth six-pence,
Hilda.
HILDA: Then you will never build anything more?
SOLNESS: On the contrary, I'm just going to begin--the
only possible dwelling-place for human happiness------
HILDA: Our castles in the air.
SOLNESS: Our castles in the air--yes.
HILDA: Then let me see you stand free and high up
(_passionately_). I will have you do it--just once more,
Mr. Solness. Do the _impossible_, once again.
SOLNESS: If I do, I will talk to Him once again up
there--"Mighty Lord, henceforth I will build nothing
but the loveliest thing in the world. "
HILDA (_carried away_): Yes--yes--yes! My lovely,
lovely castle! My castle in the air!
[_The others go out upon the verandah. The band of the
Masons' Union is heard_. RAGNAR _tells_ SOLNESS
_that the foreman is ready to go up with the wreath_.
SOLNESS _goes out. The others watch eagerly_.
DR. HERDAL: There goes the foreman up the ladder.
RAGNAR: Why, but it's------
HILDA (_jubilant_): It's the master builder himself.
MRS. SOLNESS: Oh, my God! Halvard, Halvard! I
must go to him!
DR. HERDAL (_holding her_): Don't move, any of you.
Not a sound.
RAGNAR: I feel as if I were looking at something
utterly impossible.
HILDA (_ecstatically_): It is the _impossible_ that he is
doing now. Can you see anyone else up there with him?
There is One he is striving with. I hear a song--a
mighty song. He is waving to us. Oh, wave back.
Hurrah for Master Builder Solness!
[_The shout is taken up. Then a shriek of horror. A
human body, with planks and pieces of wood, is
vaguely seen crashing down behind the trees_.
HILDA: _My_ Master Builder!
A VOICE: Mr. Solness is dead. He fell right into the
quarry.
RAGNAR: So, after all, he could not do it.
HILDA: But he mounted right up to the top. And I
heard harps in the air. (_Waves her shawl, and shrieks
with wild intensity) My--my_ Master Builder!
FOOTNOTES:
[N] Henrik Ibsen, poet and the creator of a new type of drama,
was born at Skien, in South Norway, on March 20, 1828. Apprenticed
first to a chemist at Grimstad, he next entered Christiania University,
but speedily wearied of regular academic studies. He then undertook
journalistic work for two years, and afterwards became a theatrical
manager at Bergen. In 1857 he was appointed director of the National
Theatre at Christiania, and about this time wrote, at intervals,
plays in the style of the ancient Norse sagas. "The Master Builder"
("Bygmester Solness") belongs to his later efforts, and was completed
in 1892. In it many critics discern the highest attainments of Ibsen's
genius, and its realism is strangely combined with romance. It is a
plea for the freedom of the human spirit; and the terrible drama is
wrought out in language of extraordinary symbolism. Hilda Wangel is
the "superwoman," who will suffer nothing to stand between her and the
realisation of herself. Had Solness been as strong a spirit, the end
might have been different. But he has a "sickly conscience," unable to
bear the heights of freedom. Here again Ibsen is unique in his estimate
of mankind. Nevertheless, his characters are all actual personalities,
and live vividly. Ibsen died on May 23, 1906.
The Pillars of Society[O]
_Persons in the Drama_
CONSUL BERNICK
MRS. BERNICK
OLAF, _their son_
MARTHA BERNICK, _sister of the consul_
LONA HESSEL, _elder stepsister of Mrs. Bernick_
JOHAN TONNESEN, _her younger brother_
HILMAR TONNESEN, _Mrs. Bernick's brother_
RECTOR RORLUND
DINA DORF, _a young lady living at the consul's_
KRAP, _the consul's clerk_
SHIPBUILDER AUNE
MRS. RUMMEL _and other ladies, friends of the consul's family_
ACT I
SCENE. --_A large garden-room in_ CONSUL BERNICK'S _house. A number of
ladies are seated in the room_. AUNE, _who has been sent for
by the_ CONSUL, _is addressed by_ KRAP _at the door of the_
CONSUL'S _room_.
KRAP: I am ordered by the consul to tell you that you
must stop those Saturday talks to the workmen about the
injury that our new machines will do to them. Your
first duty is to this establishment. Now you know the
will of the consul.
AUNE: The consul would have said it differently.
But I know I have to thank for this the American that
has put in for repairs.
KRAP: That is enough. You know the consul's wishes.
Pardon, ladies!
[KRAP _bows to ladies, and he and_ AUNE _go into the
street_. RECTOR RORLUND _has been reading aloud,
and now shuts the book and begins to converse with
the ladies_.
RORLUND: This book forms a welcome contrast to the
hollowness and rottenness we see every day in the papers
and magazines, which reflect the condition of the whited
sepulchres, the great communities to-day. Doubt, restlessness,
and insecurity are undermining society.
DINA: But are not many great things being accomplished?
RORLUND: I do not understand what you mean by
great things.
MRS. RUMMEL: Last year we narrowly escaped the
introduction of a railroad.
MRS. BERNICK: My husband managed to block the
scheme, but the papers, in consequence, said shameful
things about him. But we are forgetting, dear rector,
that we have to thank you for devoting so much time
to us.
RORLUND: Do you not all make sacrifices in a good
cause to save the lapsed and lost?
HILMAR TONNESEN (_coming in with a cigar in his
mouth_): I have only looked in in passing. Good-morning,
ladies! Well, you know Bernick has called a cabinet
council about this railway nonsense again. When it is a
question of money, then everything here ends in paltry
material calculations.
MRS. BERNICK: But at any rate things are better than
formerly, when everything ended in dissipation.
MRS. RUMMEL: Only think of fifteen years ago.
What a life, with the dancing club and music club! I
well remember the noisy gaiety among families.
MRS. LYNGE: There was a company of strolling players,
who, I was told, played many pranks. What was
the truth of the matter?
Mrs. Rummel, when Dina is out of the room, explains to the ladies
that the girl is the daughter of a strolling player who years before
had come to perform for a season in the town. Dorf, the actor, had
deserted both wife and child, and the wife had to take to work to
which she was unaccustomed, was seized with a pulmonary malady, and
died. Then Dina had been adopted by the Bernicks.
Mrs. Rummel goes on to explain that at that season also Johan, Mrs.
Bernick's brother, had run away to America. After his departure it
was discovered that he had been playing tricks with the cash-box of
the firm, of which his widowed mother had become the head. Karsten,
now Consul, Bernick had just come home from Paris. He became engaged
to Betty Tonnesen, now his wife, but when he entered her aunt's room,
with the girl on his arm, to announce his betrothal, Lona Hessel rose
from her chair and violently boxed his ear. Then she packed her box,
and went off to America. Little had been heard of Lona, except that
she had in America sung in taverns, and had given lectures, and had
written a most sensational book.
ACT II
SCENE. --_The same garden-room. _ MRS. BERNICK. AUNE _enters and greets_
CONSUL BERNICK.
BERNICK: I am not at all pleased, Aune, with the way
things are going on in the yard. The repairs are slow.
The _Palm Tree_ should long since have been at sea.
That American ship, the _Indian Girl_, has been lying here
five weeks. You do not know how to use the new machines,
or else you will not use them.
AUNE: Consul, the _Palm Tree_ can go to sea in two
days, but the _Indian Girl_ is as rotten as matchwood in
the bottom planking. Now, I am getting on for sixty,
and I cannot take to new ways. I am afraid for the
many folk whom the machinery will deprive of a livelihood.
BERNICK: I did not send for you to argue. Listen
now. The _Indian Girl_ must be got ready to sail in two
days, at the same time as our own ship. There are reasons
for this decision. The carping newspaper critics
are pretending that we are giving all our attention to the
_Palm Tree_. If you will not do what I order, I must
look for somebody who will.
AUNE: You are asking impossibilities, consul. But
surely you cannot think of dismissing me, whose father
and grandfather worked here all their lives before me.
Do you know what is meant by the dismissal of an old
workman?
BERNICK: You are a stubborn fellow, Aune. You
oppose me from perversity. I am sorry indeed if we
must part, Aune.
AUNE: We will not part, consul. The _Indian Girl_
shall be cleared in two days.
[AUNE _bows and retires. _ HILMAR TONNESEN _comes
through the garden gate. _
HILMAR: Good-day, Betty! Good-day, Bernick.
Have you heard the new sensation? The two Americans
are going about the streets in company with Dina Dorf.
The town is all excitement about it.
BERNICK (_looking out into the street_): They are
coming here. We must be sure to treat them well.
They will soon be away again.
[JOHAN _and_ LONA _enter. Presently all disperse into
the garden, and_ BERNICK _goes up to_ JOHAN.
BERNICK: Now we are alone, Johan, I must thank
you. For to you I owe home, happiness, position, and
all that I have and am. Not one in ten thousand would
have done all that you then did for me. I was the guilty
one. On the night when that drunken wretch came home
it was for Betty's sake that I broke off the entanglement
with Madame Dorf; but still, that you should act in such
a noble spirit of self-sacrifice as to turn appearances
against yourself, and go away, can never be forgotten
by me.
JOHAN: Oh, well, we were both young and thoughtless.
I was an orphan, alone and free, and was glad to get
away from office drudgery. You had your old mother
alive, and you had just engaged yourself to Betty, who
was very fond of you. We agreed that you must be
saved, and I was proud to be your friend. You had
come back like a prince from abroad, and chose me for
your closest friend. Now I know why. You were
making love to Betty. But I was proud of it.
BERNICK: Are you going back to your American
farm? Not soon, I hope.
JOHAN: As soon as possible. I only came over to
please Lona. She felt homesick. You can never think
what she has been to me. You never could tolerate her,
but to me she has been a mother, singing, lecturing, writing
to support me when I was ill and could not work.
And I may as well tell you frankly that I have told her
all. But do not fear her. She will say nothing. But
who would have dreamt of your taking into your house
that little creature who played angels in the theatre, and
scampered about here? What became of her parents?
BERNICK: I wrote you all that happened. The
drunken scoundrel, after leaving his wife, was killed in
a drinking bout. After the wife died it was through
Martha that we took little Dina in charge.
To the amazement of the Bernicks and some others, Johan makes it known
that he has asked Dina to be his wife, and that she has consented. To
their further astonishment and annoyance, Lona declares her profound
approval of this engagement. Moreover, Lona now challenges Bernick
to clear his soul of the lie on which he has stood for these fifteen
years. It is a three-fold lie--the lie towards Lona, then the lie
towards Betty, then the lie towards Johan. But Bernick shrinks from
the terrible shame that would come on him as one of the "pillars of
society. "
ACT III
SCENE. --CONSUL BERNICK'S _garden-room again_. KRAP _is
speaking to the_ CONSUL.
KRAP: The _Palm Tree_ can sail to-morrow, but as for
the _Indian Girl_, in my opinion she will not get far. I
have been secretly examining the bottom of the ship,
where the repairs have been pushed on very fast. The
rotten place is patched up, and made to look like new, for
Aune has been working himself all night at it. There is
some villainy at work. I believe Aune wants, out of
revenge for the use of the new machines, to send that
ship to the bottom of the sea.
BERNICK: This is horrible. True, Aune is an agitator
who is spreading discontent, but this is inconceivable.
[KRAP _goes out, and presently_ LONA HESSEL _enters_.
BERNICK: Well, Lona, what do you think of me now?
LONA: Just what I thought before. A lie more or
less----
BERNICK: I can talk to you more confidentially than
to others. I shall hide nothing from you. I had a part
in spreading that rumour about Johan and the cash-box.
But make allowance for me. Our house when I came
home from my foreign tour was threatened with ruin,
and one misfortune followed another. I was almost in
despair, and in my distraction got into that difficulty
which ended with the disappearance of Johan. Then
after you and he left various reports were spread. Some
folks declared that he had taken the money to America.
I was in such difficulty that I did not say a word to contradict
the rumours.
LONA: So a lie has made you one of the pillars of
society.
JOHAN (_entering_): I have come to tell you that I intend
not only to marry Dina Dorf, but to remain here and
to defy all these liars. Yesterday I promised to keep
silence, but now I need the truth. You must set me free
by telling the truth, that I may win Dina.
BERNICK (_in great agitation_): But just reflect on my
position. If you aim such a blow as this at me I am
ruined irretrievably. The welfare of this community is
also at stake. If my credit is not impaired, I shall soon
be a millionaire, when certain company projects mature.
Johan, go away, and I will share with you. I have
staked all I possess on schemes now about to mature, but
if my character is impaired, my utter ruin is inevitable.
To the surprise of Bernick, Johan announces that he will go to
America, but will shortly return for Dina, and that accordingly he
will sail next day in the _Indian Girl_, the captain having promised
to take him. He will sell his farm and be back in two months, and then
the guilty one must take the guilt on himself.
JOHAN: The wind is good, and in three weeks I shall
be across the Atlantic unless the _Indian Girl_ should go to
the bottom.
BERNICK (_involuntarily starting_): Go to the bottom?
Why should she?
JOHAN: Yes, indeed, why?
BERNICK (_very softly_): Go to the bottom?
They separate, and Aune enters, and anxiously asks if Bernick is
positively determined that the American ship shall sail the next day,
on pain of his dismissal. He replies that he supposes the repairs
are properly finished, and therefore the _Indian Girl_ must sail. A
merchant steps in to say that the storm-signals have been hoisted,
for a tempest is threatening. This gentleman says to Bernick that the
_Palm Tree_ ought to start all the same, for she is a splendidly-built
craft, and she is only to cross the North Sea; but as for the _Indian
Girl_, such an old hulk would be in great peril. But Bernick evades
the remonstrance, and no alteration is made in the plans of procedure.
The ship is to sail.
ACT IV
SCENE. --_The same garden-room. It is a stormy afternoon and growing
dark_.
Bernick is apprised that he is to be most honourably feted by his
fellow citizens who are about to form a procession, and to parade
before his house with music. The proudest moment of his life is at
hand. But the fact that the sea is running high outside the harbour
is causing great agitation to the mind of Bernick. Lona looks in to
say that she has been saying farewell to Johan. He has not changed his
determination to sail. A strange incident happens. Little Olaf Bernick
runs away from home to slip on board the ship and accompany his uncle
to America.
LONA: So the great hour has arrived. The whole
town is to be illuminated.
BERNICK (_pacing to and fro in agitation_): Yes.
Lona, you despise me.
LONA: Not yet.
BERNICK: You have no right to despise me. For you
little realise how lonely I stand in this narrow society.
What have I accomplished, with all my efforts? We
who are considered the pillars of society are but its tools
after all. Since you came home from America I have
been keenly feeling all this. All this show and deception
gives me no satisfaction. But I work for my son, who
will be able to found a truer state of things and to be
happier than his father.
LONA: With a lie for its basis? Think what an
heritage you are preparing for Olaf.
BERNICK: Why did you and Johan come home to
crush me?
LONA: Let me just tell you that after all Johan will
not come back to crush you. For he has gone for ever
and Dina has gone also to become his wife.
BERNICK (_amazed_): Gone--in the _Indian Girl_?
LONA: They did not dare to risk their lives in that
crazy tub. They are in the _Palm Tree_.
Bernick rushes to his office to order the _Indian Girl_ to be stopped
in the harbour, but he learns that she already is out at sea. But
presently Hilmar comes to tell him that Olaf has run away in the
_Indian Girl_. He cries out that the ship must be stopped at any cost.
Krap says it is impossible. Music is heard, for the procession is
approaching. Bernick, in an agony of soul, declares that he cannot
receive anyone. The whole street blazes with the illuminations, and
on a great transparency on the opposite house gleams the inscription,
"Long live Karsten Bernick, the Pillar of our Society! "
BERNICK (_at the window, shrinking back_): I cannot
look at all this. Away with all these mocking words! I
shall never see Olaf again.
MRS. BERNICK: You will see him again, Karsten, all
right. I have got him. Do you think a mother does not
watch? I overheard a few words from our boy which
set me on my guard. I and Aune went in the sailing
boat from the yard and reached the _Indian Girl_ when she
was on the point of sailing, and he was soon discovered
hiding away.
BERNICK: And is the ship under sail again?
MRS. BERNICK: No. The darkness came on more
densely, the pilot was alarmed, and so Aune, in your
name, took it on himself to order the ship to stay till
to-morrow.
BERNICK: What an unspeakable blessing.
at the top of a high church tower.
MRS. SOLNESS: Impossible!
SOLNESS: True, all the same.
MRS. SOLNESS: You, who can't even go out on the
second-floor balcony?
SOLNESS: You will see something different this evening.
MRS. SOLNESS: You're ill, you're ill! I'll write at
once to the doctor. Oh, God, Oh, God!
[_She goes out. _
HILDA: Don't tell me _my_ master builder daren't, _cannot_
climb as high as he builds. You promised me a kingdom,
and then you went and--well! Don't tell me you
can ever be dizzy!
SOLNESS: This evening, then, we'll hang up the wreath,
Princess Hilda.
HILDA (_bitterly_): Over your new home--yes.
SOLNESS: Over the new house, which will never be a
_home_ for _me_.
HILDA (_looks straight in front of her with a far-away
expression, and whispers to herself. The only words
audible are_): Frightfully thrilling----
ACT III
SCENE. --_A large, broad verandah attached to_ SOLNESS'S
_dwelling-house. A flight of steps leads down to the garden
below. Far to the right, among the trees, is a glimpse of
the new villa, with scaffolding round the tower. Evening
sky, with sun-lit clouds. _
MRS. SOLNESS: Have you been round the garden, Miss
Wangel?
HILDA: Yes, and I've found heaps of flowers.
MRS. SOLNESS: Are there, really? You see, I seldom
go there. I don't feel that it is _mine_ any longer. They've
parcelled it out and built houses for strangers, who can
look in upon me from their windows.
HILDA: Mrs. Solness--may I stay here with you a
little?
MRS. SOLNESS: Yes, by all means, if you care to; but
I thought you wanted to go in to my husband--to help
him?
HILDA: No, thanks. Besides, he's not in. He's with
the men over there. He looked so fierce, I didn't dare
to talk to him.
MRS. SOLNESS: He's so kind and gentle in reality.
HILDA: _He_------
MRS. SOLNESS: You don't really know him yet, Miss
Wangel.
HILDA: Are you pleased about the new house?
MRS. SOLNESS: It's what Halvard wants. It's simply
my duty to submit myself to _him_.
HILDA: That must be difficult, indeed, when one has
gone through so much as you have--the loss of your two
little boys------
MRS. SOLNESS: One must bow to Providence and be
thankful, too.
[DR. HERDAL _enters and goes in again with_ MRS. SOLNESS.
_She wishes to talk to him about her husband's mad
scheme. As they go_ SOLNESS _enters_.
SOLNESS: Poor Aline! I suppose she was talking
about the two little boys? (HILDA _shudders_) Poor
Aline, she will never get over it.
HILDA: I am going away.
SOLNESS: I won't allow you to. I wish you simply to
_be_ here, Hilda.
HILDA: Oh, thank you. You know it wouldn't end
there. That's why I'm going. You have duties to _her_.
Live for those duties.
SOLNESS: Too late! Those powers--devils, if you
will! --and the troll within me as well, have drawn the
life-blood out of her. I'm chained alive to a dead
woman! --(_in wild anguish_) _I--I_, who cannot live without
joy in life.
HILDA: What will you build next?
SOLNESS (_shaking his head_): Not much more.
HILDA (_with an outburst_): Oh, it seems all so foolish--not
to be able to grasp your own happiness, merely because
someone you know happens to stand in the way----
SOLNESS: If only one had the Viking spirit in life----
HILDA: And the other thing? What was that?
SOLNESS: A robust conscience.
HILDA (_radiant_): I know what you're going to build
next.
SOLNESS: What?
HILDA: The castle--_my_ castle. Build it for me this
moment. The ten years are up. Out with my castle,
Mr. Solness! It shall stand on a very great height, so
that I can see far--far around. We shall build--we two
together--the very loveliest thing in all the world!
SOLNESS: Hilda, tell me what it is.
HILDA: Builders are such very, very stupid people----
SOLNESS: No doubt--but tell me what we two are to
build together?
HILDA: Castles in the air! So easy to build (_scornfully_),
especially for builders who have a--a dizzy conscience.
SOLNESS: We shall build one--with a firm foundation.
(RAGNAR _enters with the wreath_) Have _you_ brought
the wreath, Ragnar? Then I suppose your father's better?
Wasn't he cheered by what I wrote him?
RAGNAR: It came too late--he was unconscious. He
had had a stroke.
SOLNESS: Go home to him. Give _me_ the wreath.
RAGNAR: You don't mean that you yourself--no--I'll
stop.
HILDA: Mr. Solness, I will stand here and look at you.
[SOLNESS _takes the wreath and goes down through the
garden. _ MRS. SOLNESS, _in an agony of apprehension,
re-enters and sends_ RAGNAR _to fetch her husband
back from the new building. She returns indoors. _
SOLNESS (_re-entering_): Oh, it's _you_, Hilda! I was
afraid it was Aline or the doctor that wanted me.
HILDA: You're easily frightened. They say you're
afraid to climb about scaffoldings. Is it true you're
afraid?
SOLNESS: Not of death--but--of retribution.
HILDA: I don't understand that.
SOLNESS: Sit down, and I'll tell you something. You
know I began by building churches. I'd been piously
brought up. I thought it was the noblest task, pleasing
to Him for Whom churches are built. Then up at Lysanger
I understood that He meant me to have no love
and happiness of my own, but just to be a master builder
for Him all my life long. That was why He took my
little children! Then, that day, I did the impossible. I
was able to climb up to a great height. As I stood hanging
the wreath on the vane, I cried, "O Mighty One, I
will be a free builder--I, too, in my sphere as Thou in
Thine. I will build no more churches for Thee--only
homes for human beings. " But _that_ is not worth six-pence,
Hilda.
HILDA: Then you will never build anything more?
SOLNESS: On the contrary, I'm just going to begin--the
only possible dwelling-place for human happiness------
HILDA: Our castles in the air.
SOLNESS: Our castles in the air--yes.
HILDA: Then let me see you stand free and high up
(_passionately_). I will have you do it--just once more,
Mr. Solness. Do the _impossible_, once again.
SOLNESS: If I do, I will talk to Him once again up
there--"Mighty Lord, henceforth I will build nothing
but the loveliest thing in the world. "
HILDA (_carried away_): Yes--yes--yes! My lovely,
lovely castle! My castle in the air!
[_The others go out upon the verandah. The band of the
Masons' Union is heard_. RAGNAR _tells_ SOLNESS
_that the foreman is ready to go up with the wreath_.
SOLNESS _goes out. The others watch eagerly_.
DR. HERDAL: There goes the foreman up the ladder.
RAGNAR: Why, but it's------
HILDA (_jubilant_): It's the master builder himself.
MRS. SOLNESS: Oh, my God! Halvard, Halvard! I
must go to him!
DR. HERDAL (_holding her_): Don't move, any of you.
Not a sound.
RAGNAR: I feel as if I were looking at something
utterly impossible.
HILDA (_ecstatically_): It is the _impossible_ that he is
doing now. Can you see anyone else up there with him?
There is One he is striving with. I hear a song--a
mighty song. He is waving to us. Oh, wave back.
Hurrah for Master Builder Solness!
[_The shout is taken up. Then a shriek of horror. A
human body, with planks and pieces of wood, is
vaguely seen crashing down behind the trees_.
HILDA: _My_ Master Builder!
A VOICE: Mr. Solness is dead. He fell right into the
quarry.
RAGNAR: So, after all, he could not do it.
HILDA: But he mounted right up to the top. And I
heard harps in the air. (_Waves her shawl, and shrieks
with wild intensity) My--my_ Master Builder!
FOOTNOTES:
[N] Henrik Ibsen, poet and the creator of a new type of drama,
was born at Skien, in South Norway, on March 20, 1828. Apprenticed
first to a chemist at Grimstad, he next entered Christiania University,
but speedily wearied of regular academic studies. He then undertook
journalistic work for two years, and afterwards became a theatrical
manager at Bergen. In 1857 he was appointed director of the National
Theatre at Christiania, and about this time wrote, at intervals,
plays in the style of the ancient Norse sagas. "The Master Builder"
("Bygmester Solness") belongs to his later efforts, and was completed
in 1892. In it many critics discern the highest attainments of Ibsen's
genius, and its realism is strangely combined with romance. It is a
plea for the freedom of the human spirit; and the terrible drama is
wrought out in language of extraordinary symbolism. Hilda Wangel is
the "superwoman," who will suffer nothing to stand between her and the
realisation of herself. Had Solness been as strong a spirit, the end
might have been different. But he has a "sickly conscience," unable to
bear the heights of freedom. Here again Ibsen is unique in his estimate
of mankind. Nevertheless, his characters are all actual personalities,
and live vividly. Ibsen died on May 23, 1906.
The Pillars of Society[O]
_Persons in the Drama_
CONSUL BERNICK
MRS. BERNICK
OLAF, _their son_
MARTHA BERNICK, _sister of the consul_
LONA HESSEL, _elder stepsister of Mrs. Bernick_
JOHAN TONNESEN, _her younger brother_
HILMAR TONNESEN, _Mrs. Bernick's brother_
RECTOR RORLUND
DINA DORF, _a young lady living at the consul's_
KRAP, _the consul's clerk_
SHIPBUILDER AUNE
MRS. RUMMEL _and other ladies, friends of the consul's family_
ACT I
SCENE. --_A large garden-room in_ CONSUL BERNICK'S _house. A number of
ladies are seated in the room_. AUNE, _who has been sent for
by the_ CONSUL, _is addressed by_ KRAP _at the door of the_
CONSUL'S _room_.
KRAP: I am ordered by the consul to tell you that you
must stop those Saturday talks to the workmen about the
injury that our new machines will do to them. Your
first duty is to this establishment. Now you know the
will of the consul.
AUNE: The consul would have said it differently.
But I know I have to thank for this the American that
has put in for repairs.
KRAP: That is enough. You know the consul's wishes.
Pardon, ladies!
[KRAP _bows to ladies, and he and_ AUNE _go into the
street_. RECTOR RORLUND _has been reading aloud,
and now shuts the book and begins to converse with
the ladies_.
RORLUND: This book forms a welcome contrast to the
hollowness and rottenness we see every day in the papers
and magazines, which reflect the condition of the whited
sepulchres, the great communities to-day. Doubt, restlessness,
and insecurity are undermining society.
DINA: But are not many great things being accomplished?
RORLUND: I do not understand what you mean by
great things.
MRS. RUMMEL: Last year we narrowly escaped the
introduction of a railroad.
MRS. BERNICK: My husband managed to block the
scheme, but the papers, in consequence, said shameful
things about him. But we are forgetting, dear rector,
that we have to thank you for devoting so much time
to us.
RORLUND: Do you not all make sacrifices in a good
cause to save the lapsed and lost?
HILMAR TONNESEN (_coming in with a cigar in his
mouth_): I have only looked in in passing. Good-morning,
ladies! Well, you know Bernick has called a cabinet
council about this railway nonsense again. When it is a
question of money, then everything here ends in paltry
material calculations.
MRS. BERNICK: But at any rate things are better than
formerly, when everything ended in dissipation.
MRS. RUMMEL: Only think of fifteen years ago.
What a life, with the dancing club and music club! I
well remember the noisy gaiety among families.
MRS. LYNGE: There was a company of strolling players,
who, I was told, played many pranks. What was
the truth of the matter?
Mrs. Rummel, when Dina is out of the room, explains to the ladies
that the girl is the daughter of a strolling player who years before
had come to perform for a season in the town. Dorf, the actor, had
deserted both wife and child, and the wife had to take to work to
which she was unaccustomed, was seized with a pulmonary malady, and
died. Then Dina had been adopted by the Bernicks.
Mrs. Rummel goes on to explain that at that season also Johan, Mrs.
Bernick's brother, had run away to America. After his departure it
was discovered that he had been playing tricks with the cash-box of
the firm, of which his widowed mother had become the head. Karsten,
now Consul, Bernick had just come home from Paris. He became engaged
to Betty Tonnesen, now his wife, but when he entered her aunt's room,
with the girl on his arm, to announce his betrothal, Lona Hessel rose
from her chair and violently boxed his ear. Then she packed her box,
and went off to America. Little had been heard of Lona, except that
she had in America sung in taverns, and had given lectures, and had
written a most sensational book.
ACT II
SCENE. --_The same garden-room. _ MRS. BERNICK. AUNE _enters and greets_
CONSUL BERNICK.
BERNICK: I am not at all pleased, Aune, with the way
things are going on in the yard. The repairs are slow.
The _Palm Tree_ should long since have been at sea.
That American ship, the _Indian Girl_, has been lying here
five weeks. You do not know how to use the new machines,
or else you will not use them.
AUNE: Consul, the _Palm Tree_ can go to sea in two
days, but the _Indian Girl_ is as rotten as matchwood in
the bottom planking. Now, I am getting on for sixty,
and I cannot take to new ways. I am afraid for the
many folk whom the machinery will deprive of a livelihood.
BERNICK: I did not send for you to argue. Listen
now. The _Indian Girl_ must be got ready to sail in two
days, at the same time as our own ship. There are reasons
for this decision. The carping newspaper critics
are pretending that we are giving all our attention to the
_Palm Tree_. If you will not do what I order, I must
look for somebody who will.
AUNE: You are asking impossibilities, consul. But
surely you cannot think of dismissing me, whose father
and grandfather worked here all their lives before me.
Do you know what is meant by the dismissal of an old
workman?
BERNICK: You are a stubborn fellow, Aune. You
oppose me from perversity. I am sorry indeed if we
must part, Aune.
AUNE: We will not part, consul. The _Indian Girl_
shall be cleared in two days.
[AUNE _bows and retires. _ HILMAR TONNESEN _comes
through the garden gate. _
HILMAR: Good-day, Betty! Good-day, Bernick.
Have you heard the new sensation? The two Americans
are going about the streets in company with Dina Dorf.
The town is all excitement about it.
BERNICK (_looking out into the street_): They are
coming here. We must be sure to treat them well.
They will soon be away again.
[JOHAN _and_ LONA _enter. Presently all disperse into
the garden, and_ BERNICK _goes up to_ JOHAN.
BERNICK: Now we are alone, Johan, I must thank
you. For to you I owe home, happiness, position, and
all that I have and am. Not one in ten thousand would
have done all that you then did for me. I was the guilty
one. On the night when that drunken wretch came home
it was for Betty's sake that I broke off the entanglement
with Madame Dorf; but still, that you should act in such
a noble spirit of self-sacrifice as to turn appearances
against yourself, and go away, can never be forgotten
by me.
JOHAN: Oh, well, we were both young and thoughtless.
I was an orphan, alone and free, and was glad to get
away from office drudgery. You had your old mother
alive, and you had just engaged yourself to Betty, who
was very fond of you. We agreed that you must be
saved, and I was proud to be your friend. You had
come back like a prince from abroad, and chose me for
your closest friend. Now I know why. You were
making love to Betty. But I was proud of it.
BERNICK: Are you going back to your American
farm? Not soon, I hope.
JOHAN: As soon as possible. I only came over to
please Lona. She felt homesick. You can never think
what she has been to me. You never could tolerate her,
but to me she has been a mother, singing, lecturing, writing
to support me when I was ill and could not work.
And I may as well tell you frankly that I have told her
all. But do not fear her. She will say nothing. But
who would have dreamt of your taking into your house
that little creature who played angels in the theatre, and
scampered about here? What became of her parents?
BERNICK: I wrote you all that happened. The
drunken scoundrel, after leaving his wife, was killed in
a drinking bout. After the wife died it was through
Martha that we took little Dina in charge.
To the amazement of the Bernicks and some others, Johan makes it known
that he has asked Dina to be his wife, and that she has consented. To
their further astonishment and annoyance, Lona declares her profound
approval of this engagement. Moreover, Lona now challenges Bernick
to clear his soul of the lie on which he has stood for these fifteen
years. It is a three-fold lie--the lie towards Lona, then the lie
towards Betty, then the lie towards Johan. But Bernick shrinks from
the terrible shame that would come on him as one of the "pillars of
society. "
ACT III
SCENE. --CONSUL BERNICK'S _garden-room again_. KRAP _is
speaking to the_ CONSUL.
KRAP: The _Palm Tree_ can sail to-morrow, but as for
the _Indian Girl_, in my opinion she will not get far. I
have been secretly examining the bottom of the ship,
where the repairs have been pushed on very fast. The
rotten place is patched up, and made to look like new, for
Aune has been working himself all night at it. There is
some villainy at work. I believe Aune wants, out of
revenge for the use of the new machines, to send that
ship to the bottom of the sea.
BERNICK: This is horrible. True, Aune is an agitator
who is spreading discontent, but this is inconceivable.
[KRAP _goes out, and presently_ LONA HESSEL _enters_.
BERNICK: Well, Lona, what do you think of me now?
LONA: Just what I thought before. A lie more or
less----
BERNICK: I can talk to you more confidentially than
to others. I shall hide nothing from you. I had a part
in spreading that rumour about Johan and the cash-box.
But make allowance for me. Our house when I came
home from my foreign tour was threatened with ruin,
and one misfortune followed another. I was almost in
despair, and in my distraction got into that difficulty
which ended with the disappearance of Johan. Then
after you and he left various reports were spread. Some
folks declared that he had taken the money to America.
I was in such difficulty that I did not say a word to contradict
the rumours.
LONA: So a lie has made you one of the pillars of
society.
JOHAN (_entering_): I have come to tell you that I intend
not only to marry Dina Dorf, but to remain here and
to defy all these liars. Yesterday I promised to keep
silence, but now I need the truth. You must set me free
by telling the truth, that I may win Dina.
BERNICK (_in great agitation_): But just reflect on my
position. If you aim such a blow as this at me I am
ruined irretrievably. The welfare of this community is
also at stake. If my credit is not impaired, I shall soon
be a millionaire, when certain company projects mature.
Johan, go away, and I will share with you. I have
staked all I possess on schemes now about to mature, but
if my character is impaired, my utter ruin is inevitable.
To the surprise of Bernick, Johan announces that he will go to
America, but will shortly return for Dina, and that accordingly he
will sail next day in the _Indian Girl_, the captain having promised
to take him. He will sell his farm and be back in two months, and then
the guilty one must take the guilt on himself.
JOHAN: The wind is good, and in three weeks I shall
be across the Atlantic unless the _Indian Girl_ should go to
the bottom.
BERNICK (_involuntarily starting_): Go to the bottom?
Why should she?
JOHAN: Yes, indeed, why?
BERNICK (_very softly_): Go to the bottom?
They separate, and Aune enters, and anxiously asks if Bernick is
positively determined that the American ship shall sail the next day,
on pain of his dismissal. He replies that he supposes the repairs
are properly finished, and therefore the _Indian Girl_ must sail. A
merchant steps in to say that the storm-signals have been hoisted,
for a tempest is threatening. This gentleman says to Bernick that the
_Palm Tree_ ought to start all the same, for she is a splendidly-built
craft, and she is only to cross the North Sea; but as for the _Indian
Girl_, such an old hulk would be in great peril. But Bernick evades
the remonstrance, and no alteration is made in the plans of procedure.
The ship is to sail.
ACT IV
SCENE. --_The same garden-room. It is a stormy afternoon and growing
dark_.
Bernick is apprised that he is to be most honourably feted by his
fellow citizens who are about to form a procession, and to parade
before his house with music. The proudest moment of his life is at
hand. But the fact that the sea is running high outside the harbour
is causing great agitation to the mind of Bernick. Lona looks in to
say that she has been saying farewell to Johan. He has not changed his
determination to sail. A strange incident happens. Little Olaf Bernick
runs away from home to slip on board the ship and accompany his uncle
to America.
LONA: So the great hour has arrived. The whole
town is to be illuminated.
BERNICK (_pacing to and fro in agitation_): Yes.
Lona, you despise me.
LONA: Not yet.
BERNICK: You have no right to despise me. For you
little realise how lonely I stand in this narrow society.
What have I accomplished, with all my efforts? We
who are considered the pillars of society are but its tools
after all. Since you came home from America I have
been keenly feeling all this. All this show and deception
gives me no satisfaction. But I work for my son, who
will be able to found a truer state of things and to be
happier than his father.
LONA: With a lie for its basis? Think what an
heritage you are preparing for Olaf.
BERNICK: Why did you and Johan come home to
crush me?
LONA: Let me just tell you that after all Johan will
not come back to crush you. For he has gone for ever
and Dina has gone also to become his wife.
BERNICK (_amazed_): Gone--in the _Indian Girl_?
LONA: They did not dare to risk their lives in that
crazy tub. They are in the _Palm Tree_.
Bernick rushes to his office to order the _Indian Girl_ to be stopped
in the harbour, but he learns that she already is out at sea. But
presently Hilmar comes to tell him that Olaf has run away in the
_Indian Girl_. He cries out that the ship must be stopped at any cost.
Krap says it is impossible. Music is heard, for the procession is
approaching. Bernick, in an agony of soul, declares that he cannot
receive anyone. The whole street blazes with the illuminations, and
on a great transparency on the opposite house gleams the inscription,
"Long live Karsten Bernick, the Pillar of our Society! "
BERNICK (_at the window, shrinking back_): I cannot
look at all this. Away with all these mocking words! I
shall never see Olaf again.
MRS. BERNICK: You will see him again, Karsten, all
right. I have got him. Do you think a mother does not
watch? I overheard a few words from our boy which
set me on my guard. I and Aune went in the sailing
boat from the yard and reached the _Indian Girl_ when she
was on the point of sailing, and he was soon discovered
hiding away.
BERNICK: And is the ship under sail again?
MRS. BERNICK: No. The darkness came on more
densely, the pilot was alarmed, and so Aune, in your
name, took it on himself to order the ship to stay till
to-morrow.
BERNICK: What an unspeakable blessing.
