SOLNESS: Are you really dismissing them,
Halvard?
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
DR. HERDAL: On hers, then?
SOLNESS: Hardly a fair question! Still, you know
she's engaged to Ragnar; but since she came here she
seemed to drift quite away from _him_.
DR. HERDAL: She drifted over to you, then?
SOLNESS: Yes, entirely. She quivers when she comes
near me.
DR. HERDAL: Why on earth don't you tell your wife
the rights of it?
SOLNESS: Because I seem to find a sort of--of salutary
self-sacrifice in allowing Aline to do me an injustice.
It's like paying off a little bit of a huge, immeasurable
debt I owe her. Oh, I know she thinks I'm ill--crazy.
And, I think, so do you.
DR. HERDAL: And what then?
SOLNESS: Then I dare say you fancy I'm an extremely
happy man--Solness, the master builder!
DR. HERDAL: You've certainly had luck on your side.
First of all, the home of your wife's family was burnt
down for you. A great grief to her--but _you_ rose on the
ruins. Yes, you've had luck.
SOLNESS: But luck must turn. The younger generation
will come knocking at my door. Then there's an
end of Halvard Solness, the master builder. (_A knock
at the door. Starts_. ) What's that?
DR. HERDAL: Someone is knocking at the door.
SOLNESS (_loudly_): Come in!
[HILDA WANGEL _enters. She is dressed in a tourist
costume, skirt caught up for walking, and carries
a knapsack and alpenstock_.
HILDA: You don't recognise me?
SOLNESS (_doubtfully_): No. I must admit that--just
for the moment.
DR. HERDAL: But I recognise you, Miss Wangel.
SOLNESS: Wangel? You must be the doctor's daughter
up at Lysanger?
HILDA: Yes. Who else's daughter should I be?
[SOLNESS _calls in his wife, an old friend of_ MISS
WANGEL'S. HILDA _asks leave to stay the night_. MRS.
SOLNESS _consents amiably. She and the doctor go
out. _ HILDA and SOLNESS _alone_.
HILDA: Mr. Solness, have you a bad memory?
SOLNESS: Not that I'm aware of.
HILDA: Don't you remember what happened up at Lysanger?
SOLNESS: It was nothing much, was it?
HILDA: How can you say that? Don't you remember
how you climbed the new church tower when it was
finished, and hung a great wreath on the weather-cock; and
how I stood with the other white-frocked schoolgirls and
screamed, "Hurrah for Mr. Solness? " And you sang up
there--like harps in the air! And afterwards you
kissed me, kissed me and said in ten years I'd be _your_
princess, and you'd come back and give me a castle in
Spain--a kingdom--
SOLNESS (_open-mouthed_): _I_ did?
HILDA: Yes, _you_. Well, the ten years are up to-day.
I want my kingdom! Out with my kingdom, Mr. Solness!
On the table!
SOLNESS: But, seriously, what do you want to do here?
HILDA: I don't want that stupid imaginary kingdom--I've
set my heart upon quite a different one.
SOLNESS (_gazing at her_): I seem--it's strange--to
have gone about all these years torturing myself with the
effort to recover something--some experience which I
seem to have forgotten. What a good thing it is that
you have come to me now. I'd begun to be so afraid--so
terribly afraid of the younger generation. One day
they'll thunder at my door.
HILDA: Then I'd go out and open it. Let them come
in to you on friendly terms, as it were.
SOLNESS: No, no, no! The younger generation--it
means retribution.
HILDA (_with quivering lips_): Can _I_ be of any use to
you, Mr. Solness?
SOLNESS: Yes, you can. For you, too, come--under
a new banner, it seems to me. Youth marshalled against
youth! _You_ are the very one I have most needed.
HILDA (_with happy, wondering eyes_): Oh, heavens, how
lovely!
SOLNESS: What?
HILDA: Then I _have_ my kingdom!
SOLNESS _(involuntarily)_: Hilda!
HILDA _(with quivering lips): Almost_--I was going to say.
[_She goes out_. SOLNESS _follows her_.
ACT II
SCENE. --_A small drawing-room in the house of_ SOLNESS. SOLNESS _is
examining_ RAGNAR BROVIK'S _drawings_. MRS. SOLNESS _is
attending to her flowers_.
SOLNESS: Is she still asleep?
MRS. SOLNESS _(looking at him_): Is it Miss Wangel
you are sitting there thinking about? She was up long
ago.
SOLNESS: Oh, was she? So we've found a use for one
of our three nurseries, after all, Aline, now that Hilda
occupies one of them.
MRS. SOLNESS: Yes, we have. Their emptiness is
dreadful.
SOLNESS: We'll get on far better after this, Aline.
Things will be easier.
MRS. SOLNESS: Because _she_ has come?
SOLNESS _(checking himself_): I mean when once we've
moved into our new house. It's for your sake I've
built it.
MRS. SOLNESS: You do far too much for me.
SOLNESS: I can't bear to hear you say that. Stick to
what I said. Things 'll be easier in the new place.
MRS. SOLNESS _(lamenting)_: Oh heavens, easier!
Halvard, you can never build up a real home again for
_me. This_ is no home; It will be just as desolate, as
empty there as here.
[HILDA WANGEL _comes in_.
HILDA: Good-morning, Mr. Solness!
SOLNESS (_nods_): Slept well?
HILDA: Deliciously! As if in a cradle. Oh, I lay
and stretched myself like--like a princess. But I
dreamed I was falling over a precipice. It's tremendously
thrilling when you fall and fall----
MRS. SOLNESS (_ready to go out_): I must go into town
now, Halvard. (_To_ HILDA) And I'll try to get one or
two things that may be of use to you.
HILDA: Oh, you dear, sweet Mrs. Solness. You're
frightfully kind----
MRS. SOLNESS: It's only my duty.
[MRS. SOLNESS _goes out_.
HILDA: What made her say that about her duty?
Doesn't it sting you?
SOLNESS: H'm! Haven't thought much about it.
HILDA: Yes it does. Why should she talk in that
way? She might have said something really warm and
cordial, you understand.
SOLNESS: Is that how you'd like to have it?
HILDA: Yes, precisely. (_She wanders over to the
table and looks over_ RAGNAR'S _portfolio of drawings_. )
Are all these drawings yours?
SOLNESS: No; they're drawn by a young man I employ.
HILDA (_sits down_): Then I suppose he's frightfully
clever.
SOLNESS: Oh, he's not bad, for my purpose.
HILDA: I can't understand why you should be so
stupid as to go about teaching people. No one but yourself
should be allowed to build.
SOLNESS: I keep brooding on that very thought.
(_Calling her to the window_) Look over there; that's
my new house.
HILDA: It seems to have a tremendously high tower.
Are there nurseries in _that_ house, too?
SOLNESS: Three--as there are here. But there will
never be any child in them. We have had children,
Aline and I, but we didn't keep them long, our two
little boys. The fright Aline got when our old house
was burnt down affected her health, and she failed to
rear them. Yet that fire made me. I built no more
churches; but cosy, comfortable homes for human beings.
But my position as an artist has been paid for in Aline's
happiness. I could have prevented that fire by seeing to
a flue. But I didn't. And yet the flue didn't actually
cause the fire. Yet it was my fault in a certain sense.
HILDA: I'm afraid you must be--ill.
SOLNESS: I don't think I'll ever be quite of sound
mind on that point.
[RAGNAR _enters, and begs a few kind words about his
drawings to cheer his father, who is dying_. SOLNESS
_dismisses him almost brutally, and bids him never
think of building on his own account_.
HILDA (_when_ RAGNAR _has gone_): That was horribly
ugly--and hard and bad and cruel as well.
SOLNESS: Oh, you don't understand my position,
which I've paid so dear for. _(Confidentially)_ Hilda,
don't you agree with me that there exists special chosen
people, who have the power of desiring, _craving_ a thing,
until at last it _has_ to happen? And aren't there helpers
and servers who must do their part too? But they never
come of themselves. One has to call them very persistently,
inwardly. So the fire happened conveniently
for me; but the two little boys and Aline were sacrificed.
She will never be the woman she longed to be.
HILDA: I believe you have a sickly conscience. I
should like your conscience to be thoroughly robust.
SOLNESS: Is _yours_ robust?
HILDA: I think it is.
SOLNESS: I think the Vikings had robust consciences.
And the women they used to carry off had robust consciences,
too. They often wouldn't leave their captors
on any account.
HILDA: These women I can understand exceedingly
well.
SOLNESS: Could you come to love a man like that?
HILDA: One can't choose whom one's going to love.
SOLNESS: Hilda, there's something of the bird of prey
in you!
HILDA: And why not? Why shouldn't I go a-hunting
as well as the rest? Tell me, Mr. Solness, have you
never called me to you--inwardly, you know?
SOLNESS _(softly)_: I almost think I must have.
HILDA: What did you want with me?
SOLNESS: You are the younger generation, Hilda.
HILDA: Which you fear so much----
SOLNESS: Towards which, in my heart, I yearn so
deeply.
[_In the next scene_ HILDA _compels_ SOLNESS _to write a
few kind words on_ RAGNAR'S _drawings, and send
them to_ BROVIK. _He entrusts the portfolio to_ KAIA,
_and thereupon dismisses her and_ RAGNAR _from his
service. _ MRS. SOLNESS _re-enters. _
MRS.
SOLNESS: Are you really dismissing them, Halvard?
SOLNESS: Yes.
MRS. SOLNESS: Her as well?
SOLNESS: Wasn't that what you wished?
MRS. SOLNESS: But how can you get on without
_her_----? Oh, no doubt you've someone else in reserve,
Halvard.
HILDA _(playfully)_: Well, _I_ for one am not the person
to stand at that desk.
SOLNESS: Never mind, never mind. It'll be all right,
Aline. Now for moving into our new home--as quickly
as we can. This evening we'll hang up the wreath--right
on the pinnacle of the tower. What do you say to
that, Hilda?
HILDA _(with sparkling eyes_): It'll be splendid to see
you up so high once more.
MRS. SOLNESS: For heaven's sake, don't, Miss Wangel.
My husband! --when he always gets so dizzy.
HILDA: He--dizzy? 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.
