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= The_Master_Builder =
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Introduction
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'The Master Builder' () is a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik
Ibsen. It was first published in December 1892 and is regarded as one
of Ibsen's more significant and revealing works.
Performance
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The play was published by Gyldendal AS in Copenhagen in 1892 and its
first performance was on 19 January 1893 at the Lessing Theatre in
Berlin, with Emanuel Reicher as Solness. It opened at the Trafalgar
Theatre in London the following month, with Herbert H. Waring in the
name part and Elizabeth Robins as Hilda. The English translation was
by the theatre critic William Archer and poet Edmund Gosse.
Productions in Oslo and Copenhagen were coordinated to open on 8 March
1893. In the following year, the work was staged by Théâtre de
l'Œuvre, the international company based in Paris. The first U.S.
performance was at the Carnegie Lyceum in New York on 16 January
1900, with William Pascoe and Florence Kahn.
Characters
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* Halvard Solness, master builder
* Aline Solness, his wife
* Doctor Herdal, physician
* Knut Brovik, formerly an architect, now in Solness's employment
* Ragnar Brovik, Knut Brovik's son, a draftsman
* Kaia Fosli, a book-keeper
* Hilda Wangel, a character introduced earlier, in Ibsen's 'The Lady
from the Sea'
Synopsis
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Halvard Solness is a middle-aged master builder of a small town in
Norway who has become a successful architect of some distinction — a
lack of formal training prevents him from calling himself an
"architect" — and a local reputation. One day while at home talking
with his friend Doctor Herdal, Solness is visited by Hilda Wangel, a
young woman of 23, whom Doctor Herdal recognizes from a recent trip
that he had taken. The doctor leaves; Solness is alone with Hilda, and
she reminds him that they are not strangers — they have previously met
in her home town 10 years ago when she was 13 years old. When Solness
does not respond immediately, she reminds him that at one point during
their encounter he had made advances to her, had offered her a
romantic interlude, and promised her "a kingdom", all of which she
believed. He denies this. She gradually convinces him, however, that
she can assist him with his household duties, and so he takes her into
his home.
Solness is also the manager of an architectural office in which he
employs Knut Brovik, his son Ragnar Brovik, and Kaia Fosli. Kaia and
Ragnar are romantically linked, and Ragnar has ambitions to become
promoted in his architectural vocation, which Solness is reluctant to
grant or support. Solness also has a complicated relationship with his
wife Aline, and the two are revealed to have lost twin sons some years
ago. During this time, Solness builds a closer tie with Hilda while
she is in his home, and she supports his architectural vocation and
new projects.
During the construction of his most recent project--a new home for
himself and Aline — which includes a towering steeple, Hilda learns
that Solness suffers from acrophobia, a morbid fear of extreme
heights, but nonetheless she encourages him to climb the steeple to
the top at the public opening of the newly completed building.
Solness, inspired by her words, achieves the top of the tower, when he
suddenly loses his footing and crashes to his death on the ground
before the spectators who have arrived for the opening of the new
building. Among the spectators standing aghast at the sight, only
Hilda comes forward as if in silent triumph. She waves her shawl and
cries out with wild intensity “My—my Master Builder!”
Interpretation
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The search for a meaning or interpretation has engaged and often
bewildered audiences and critics all over the world. It is seen as an
exploration of the author’s autobiographical history, or of issues
dealing with youth versus maturity, or of issues of psychology, and
other possible interpretations.
Halvard Solness, the master builder, has become the most successful
builder in his home town by a fortunate series of coincidences for him
which were the chance misfortunes of his competitors. He had
previously conceived these fortunate coincidences in his mind,
powerfully wished for them to come to pass, but never actually did
anything about them. By the time his wife's ancestral home was
destroyed by a fire in a clothes cupboard, he had imagined how he
could cause such an accident and then profit from it by dividing the
land on which the house stood into plots and covering it with homes
for sale. Between this fortuitous occurrence and some chance
misfortunes of his competitors, Solness comes to believe that he only
has to wish for something to happen in order for it to come about. He
rationalises this as a particular gift from God, bestowed so that,
through his unnatural success, he can carry out God's ordained work of
church building.
Realism fused with symbolism
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This play contains realistic and symbolic elements fused together. It
represents a movement from his earlier realistic plays, such as 'A
Doll's House', into a more symbolic style. It begins with realistic
characters being presented, and then as the story progresses, it
shifts into the inner world of the mind of the leading character.
The setting and plot of 'The Master Builder' can be taken as one of
realism: the destructive outcome of a middle-aged, professional man's
infatuation with a younger, teasing woman or, as critic Desmond
MacCarthy describes this concept of the work: the tragedy of an
"elderly architect who falls off his scaffold while trying to show off
before a young lady". If, however, one takes Solness's belief in his
powers at their face value, the play also can be a lyrical and poetic
fairy tale, in the manner of 'Peer Gynt' travelling the Earth in his
magical adventures while the faithful Solveig waits for his return. On
stage, both interpretations are possible, but it is difficult to give
equal weight to both meanings in the same production.
Autobiographical elements
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At the time Ibsen was working on 'The Master Builder', he was taking a
holiday in the mountain resort of Gossensass and spending much time
with Emilie Bardach, an 18-year-old Viennese student with whom he
found a temporary, "high, painful happiness" in a brief affair. The
real-life prototype of Hilda made no secret of her delight at stealing
husbands. "She did not get a hold of me", Ibsen was later to claim,
"but I got hold of her -- for my play". Theatre director Harold
Clurman notes that many interpreters of Ibsen's text have associated
his frequent references in the play to Hilda as a "bird of prey" with
Bardach's predatory behaviour. After leaving Gossensass, Ibsen
carried on a correspondence with Bardach, but he continued to see
Helene Raff, an acquaintance of Bardach whom he had also met that
summer. It was Raff who told Ibsen the story of the architect of St.
Michael's Church, Munich, who had cast himself from the tower as soon
as it was finished. Ibsen took this tale, a common legend at many
German churches, as evidence of a pervasive human belief that a man
could not achieve success without paying a price. From Ibsen's
inscription in the copy of the play he sent to Raff (he sent no copy
to Bardach), she too can be regarded as an inspiration for the unequal
affair between Hilda and Solness. An equally obvious influence is
Ibsen's relationship with Hildur Andersen, whom he met as the
10-year-old child of friends and who, when she had reached the age of
27, became his constant companion. He wrote of Hildur as "his bird of
the woods", the phrase he initially uses to describe his character
Hilda, but the character refuses this, accepting only that she is a
"bird of prey", as was Bardach. The character of Hilda is a blend of
all three women, but Hildur Andersen was the most significant.
The autobiographical elements Ibsen includes go further than his
relationships with Bardach, Raff and Andersen: In the character of
Solness, Ibsen is drawing parallels with his own situation as the
"master playwright" and the consequences in his own life. That Ibsen
was offering a parable was noted in a review of the first London
staging, when the joint translator, Edmund Gosse, was asked to explain
the meaning of the work. "An allegory of Dr Ibsen's literary career",
he replied.
Reception
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Following the controversy attached to 'Ghosts', with its sensitive
topic of inherited syphilis, the play's reception in London was not
favourable. The more charitable reviews took Solness at his own
assessment, as a madman, and decided the other two protagonists were
mad as well. Some transferred the conclusion to Ibsen, his translators
and his director. Even 'The Pall Mall Gazette', a champion of Ibsen's
work, offered sympathy to the "daring" actors whose mediocre talents
were unable to relieve the tedium of this lapse on the part of the
"northern genius". 'The Daily Graphic', however, found the
performances of Waring and Robins the "redeeming feature" of the
production. At the end of the run at the Trafalgar Theatre, the two
principals engaged a new supporting cast and secured a transfer to the
nearby Vaudeville Theatre but, again, reviews were hostile.
Criticism
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'The Master Builder' was the first work Ibsen wrote upon his return to
Norway in July 1891 after many years spent elsewhere in Europe. It is
usually grouped with Ibsen's other works written during this late
period of Ibsen's life such as 'Little Eyolf', 'John Gabriel Borkman',
'When We Dead Awaken', and 'Hedda Gabler'. Early reactions to the play
by Ibsen's critics were mixed, possibly due its heightened
ambiguities. Hilda, for example, seems to alternate roles between an
inspiring force, urging Solness to temper his rampant ambition and so
find real happiness, and a temptress, pushing Solness to commitments
he cannot possibly fulfill. English critic William Archer (the play's
original translator) suggests that the play is not as completely
symbolic as some have maintained, interpreting it instead as "a
history of a sickly conscience, worked out in terms of pure
psychology". He notes that, in this regard, the play is similar to
earlier works that deal mainly with a retrospective look at a
character's psyche.
Translations
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The authoritative translation in the English language for Ibsen
remains the 1928 10-volume version of the 'Complete Works of Henrik
Ibsen' from Oxford University Press. Many other translations of
individual plays by Ibsen have appeared since 1928 though none have
purported to be a new version of the complete works of Ibsen.
The Kannada translation is titled 'Baalura Gudikaara' written by B
Suresh. It was performed by Vijayanagara Bimba in 2018('Temple Builder
of Baaluru').
Adaptations
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In 1958, BBC produced an adaptation with Donald Wolfit as the master
builder.
The play was performed in 1960 starring E.G. Marshall as Halvard
Solness, the master builder, on the American television anthology
series 'The Play of the Week'.
In 1988, BBC produced another adaptation with Leo McKern as the master
builder.
The 2008 Malayalam-language film 'Aakasha Gopuram' directed by K.P.
Kumaran is an adaptation of the play starring Mohanlal as the master
builder and Nithya Menen as his wife.
The 2013 film 'A Master Builder' was directed by Jonathan Demme. It
stars Wallace Shawn, who had translated and adapted it for the stage
in collaboration with Andre Gregory. This stage adaptation was the
basis for the film.
The German director Michael Klette adapted this story for his movie
'Solness' (2015).
A two-part adaptation for radio by David Hare from a literal
translation by Torkil Heggstad directed by Gary Brown was broadcast on
15 and 22 August 2021 on BBC Radio 4, with David Schofield as Solness,
Siobhan Redmond as Aline and Laura Aikman as Hilda.
The story inspired a play by Lila Raicek, 'My Master Builder', which
premiered in 2025.
External links
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* [
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357895/ Internet Movie Database] 1960
television version
License
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_Builder
