The tragic fall of Solness in ''The Master Builder?''

[KHaight]

I would have trouble coming up with a reading that viewed the fall of Solness as a 'happy' one (perhaps reminiscent of the Fortunate Fall...). His fall, literal and figurative, doesn't strike me as being a happy one. But is it a tragic fall? In any event, what courage by Ibsen to portray the dramatic (and perhaps tragic) fall of Solness by means of a physical fall, meaning how on earth is he going to do a satisfactory job on this? (An aside: I don't know Norwegian and I don't know if the 'fall' in any Norwegian expression for 'dramatic fall' is the same 'fall' used for a physical fall.) Is it really being linear-minded and literal-minded just to think that the physical fall of Solness stands for his tragic fall? I would look to the narcissism of Solness as my way into this matter. And I would call it his magical narcissism, his belief that he can will things into being. And I would add one more word there....'youth' as in narcissism of youth or something like that. At the end of the play, Solness's youthful aggressive and self-confident ways come back to destroy him, is a tentative reading. I would even see Hilde as partaking in this narcissism. Maybe Ragnar and his father stand for something more solid, more community-minded. But I am really struck by the 'magical narcissism.' This is something like obsessive-compulsive behaviour, in my view, and it is very modern. I would love to hear from some Ibsen scholars or fans on this topic, if just to see if I am on the right track or not! I think I like these forums and I hope to participate from time to time. K. H.

[Gladys]

At the end of the play, Solness's youthful aggressive and self-confident ways come back to destroy him, is a tentative reading. I would even see Hilde as partaking in this narcissism ... This is something like obsessive-compulsive behaviour, in my view, and it is very modern.

It is not so much aggression and self-confidence, I think, that returns to Solness at the end, but rather the idealism and noble aspirations of youth. Early in life, Solness was a young man with ideals and dreams aplenty. As a master builder, he once built churches and, later, "houses for people to live in". In his old age Solness is trapped in the detritus of these "dreams of youth", and so the play begins.

His dutiful wife, Aline Solness, is a woman steeped in tragedy after her beloved "castle" burnt down, "But it's what came of the fire--the dreadful thing that followed---! That is the thing! That, that, that!" We learn much later that "'the dreadful thing" is not the death of her twins, "That was a dispensation of Providence; and in such things one can only bow in submission--yes, and be thankful, too." When they married, Aline had long been a princess in a castle! Not for her, mere "houses for people to live in", "houses for strangers". But, Solness then felt "that he had to sacrifice her chance to be a mother…for his art as a builder to soar" and "the death of the children is what enabled him to make houses for other people to live in…his wife's gift as that of being able to build lives in her children, but she had to give that up for him."

So for a decade, Aline has been trapped in a dreadful "cage" of conjugal duty to husband Solness, a virtual stranger overburdened with shattered dreams and lost ideals. In daring to climb to the pinnacle of his new house, again talking face to face with almighty God and laying that wreath, the aging master builder builds a new castle (in the air) for Aline and for Ragnar. The radically aspirational Hilda is understandably ecstatic: what is life for, if not to build castles in the air for princesses to live in?

The ending of the play is transcendently happy, although bitter-sweet for Solness himself. Ibsen's ending are always infused with ambivalent transcendence, and with a full measure of irony.