The Master Builder and Other Plays

by Henrik Ibsen

  HILDE: Huh – those scribbles! But if he has trained under you, then –

  SOLNESS: Ah, as to that –. There are plenty around here who’ve trained under me. And still didn’t amount to much.

  HILDE [looking at him and shaking her head]: No, for the life of me I don’t know how you can be so stupid.

  SOLNESS: Stupid? You think I’m very stupid, then?

  HILDE: Yes, I certainly do. That you can go around training up all these fellows, and –

  SOLNESS [puzzled]: Well? And why shouldn’t I?

  HILDE [standing up, half in earnest, half laughing]: Oh, pooh, Mr Master Builder! What’s the good of that! No one but you should be allowed to build anything. You and you alone. Do it all yourself. So now you know.

  SOLNESS [impulsively]: Hilde –

  HILDE: What?

  SOLNESS: What on earth brought all this into your head?

  HILDE: Why – do you consider it so very wrong of me to think that?

  SOLNESS: No, it’s not that. But I have to tell you something.

  HILDE: Oh? What?

  SOLNESS: I find myself wrestling here – constantly – in silence and in solitude – with that same thought.

  HILDE: Yes, well, that seems only natural, I would say.

  SOLNESS [giving her a rather searching glance]: And this you have already observed, I’m sure?

  HILDE: No, I truly haven’t, not at all.

  SOLNESS: But earlier – when you said you thought I was – not quite right? In one respect, I mean –?

  HILDE: Ah, I was thinking of something else entirely.

  SOLNESS: Of what else?

  HILDE: Never you mind, master builder.

  SOLNESS [crossing the room]: Well, well – please yourself. [Stopping in the window bay] Come over here and I’ll show you something.

  HILDE [moving closer]: What is it?

  SOLNESS: See there – down at the bottom of the garden –?

  HILDE: Yes?

  SOLNESS [pointing]: Just above the big quarry –?3

  HILDE: That new house, you mean?

  SOLNESS: The one that’s under construction, yes. Almost finished.

  HILDE: It looks as if it has a very tall tower on it.

  SOLNESS: The scaffolding is still up.

  HILDE: That’s your new house, is it?

  SOLNESS: Yes.

  HILDE: The house you’ll soon be moving into?

  SOLNESS: Yes.

  HILDE [looking at him]: Are there nurseries in that house too?

  SOLNESS: Three, as here.

  HILDE: And no children?

  SOLNESS: Nor will there be any.

  HILDE [with a faint smile]: There, now isn’t it just as I said –?

  SOLNESS: What –?

  HILDE: That you are – you know – a little bit mad after all.

  SOLNESS: Was that what you were thinking of?

  HILDE: Yes, of all those empty nurseries I slept in.

  SOLNESS [lowering his voice]: We did have children – Aline and I.

  HILDE [regarding him expectantly]: You did –!

  SOLNESS: Two little boys. They were the same age.

  HILDE: Twins, you mean.

  SOLNESS: Yes, twins. Eleven – twelve years ago that is now.

  HILDE [gently]: So they’re both –? So those twins, they’re no longer with you?

  SOLNESS [with quiet emotion]: We only had them for about three weeks. Barely that even. [Bursting out] Oh, Hilde, I can’t tell you how glad I am that you came! For now, at last, I have someone I can talk to!

  HILDE: But can’t you do that with – with her, too?

  SOLNESS: Not about this. Not the way I want to and need to. [Heavily] And not about so many other things either.

  HILDE [quietly]: Was that all you meant when you said you had need of me?

  SOLNESS: Mostly that, I suppose. Yesterday, that is. Today, though, I’m not so sure – [Breaking off] Come here, Hilde, let’s sit down. You sit yourself here, on the sofa – so you have a view of the garden.

  HILDE sits down on the sofa.

  SOLNESS [drawing a chair closer]: Would you like to hear about it?

  HILDE: Yes, I’d love to sit and listen to you.

  SOLNESS [sits down]: In that case I’ll tell you all about it.

  HILDE: There, now I have a view of the garden and of you, master builder. All right, tell me all! This instant!

  SOLNESS [pointing to the bay window]: Over there on the hill – where you can see the new house –

  HILDE: Yes?

  SOLNESS: – that’s where Aline and I lived for the first few years. Because up there in those days there was an old house that had belonged to her mother. And we inherited it from her. And the huge garden that came with it.

  HILDE: Was there a tower on that house too?

  SOLNESS: No, nothing like that. From the outside it looked like a great, hideous, gloomy wooden box. But inside it was really very warm and cosy.

  HILDE: So did you pull down the old dump?

  SOLNESS: No, it burned down.

  HILDE: The whole thing?

  SOLNESS: Yes.

  HILDE: Was that a terrible blow to you?

  SOLNESS: Depends on how you look at it. That fire, it took me to the top as a master builder –

  HILDE: Yes, but –?

  SOLNESS: Our two baby boys had been born just before this –

  HILDE: Those poor twins, yes.

  SOLNESS: They came into the world so strong and healthy. And they grew day by day, so much so that you could actually see them growing.

  HILDE: Babies do grow very fast during those first days.

  SOLNESS: It was the most beautiful sight imaginable, to see Aline lying there with the two of them. – But then came the night of the fire –

  HILDE [breathlessly]: What happened?! Tell me! Was anyone killed!

  SOLNESS: No; it wasn’t that. Everyone was brought out of the house safe and sound –

  HILDE: I see, then what –?

  SOLNESS: The fright had shaken Aline terribly. The fire alarm – the evacuation – in such a rush – and in the freezing night air at that. Because they had to be carried out just as they were, you see. Both she and the babies.

  HILDE: And they didn’t come through that?

  SOLNESS: No, no, they came through that all right. But Aline caught a fever. And that affected her milk.4 She still insisted on feeding them herself, though. Because it was her duty, she said. And both our little boys, they – [wringing his hands] they – oh!

  HILDE: That they did not get over.

  SOLNESS: No, that they did not get over. That was what took them from us.

  HILDE: It must have been terribly hard for you.

  SOLNESS: Hard enough for me. But ten times worse for Aline. [Clenches his fists in quiet fury.] Oh, that such things can be allowed to happen in this world! [Shortly and firmly] From the day I lost them I wouldn’t build a church if I could help it.

  HILDE: Not even our church tower, perhaps?

  SOLNESS: Not even that. I know how happy and relieved I was when that tower was finished.

  HILDE: I know it too.

  SOLNESS: And now I never – never build such things, not any more! Neither churches nor church towers.

  HILDE: Just houses for people to live in.

  SOLNESS: Homes for human beings, Hilde.

  HILDE: But homes with tall towers and spires on them.

  SOLNESS: Preferably, yes. [More brightly] You see – as I said – that fire, that is what took me to the top. As a master builder, I mean.

  HILDE: Why don’t you call yourself an architect, like the others?

  SOLNESS: Haven’t had enough book-learning for that. Most of what I know I’ve picked up as I went along.

  HILDE: But you got to the top anyway, master builder.

  SOLNESS: On the back of the fire, yes. I divided almost all of the garden up into plots for villas. And there I could build exactly as I pleased. And then things took off for me.

  HILDE
[studying him carefully]: You must be a very happy man. With the life you have.

  SOLNESS [dully]: Happy? You say that too, do you? Like everyone else.

  HILDE: Yes, because I would think you must be. If only you could stop thinking about those two little babies, I mean.

  SOLNESS [slowly]: Those two little babies – there’s really no getting away from them, Hilde.

  HILDE [a little uncertainly]: Do they still stand so much in the way? After such a long, long time?

  SOLNESS [eyes fixed on her, not answering this]: Happy man, you said –

  HILDE: Yes, well aren’t you – in other respects.

  SOLNESS [eyes still fixed on her]: When I told you all that about the fire – hm –

  HILDE: Well?

  SOLNESS: Was there not one thought in particular – that struck you about it?

  HILDE [giving this some thought, without success]: No. What thought might that have been?

  SOLNESS [softly and emphatically]: It was solely thanks to that fire that I was able to build homes for people. Cosy, warm, bright homes in which fathers and mothers and whole broods of children could live secure and content in the knowledge of what a very happy thing it is to be in the world. And most of all to belong together – in all things, great and small.

  HILDE [eagerly]: Yes, but doesn’t it give you great happiness, that you’re able to build such lovely homes?

  SOLNESS: The price, Hilde. The terrible price I had to pay in order to get on.

  HILDE: But surely it must be possible to get over that?

  SOLNESS: No. To be able to build homes for others I had to give up – give up for ever, any possibility of having a home myself. I mean a home for that brood of children. And for the father and mother too.

  HILDE [gently]: But did you really have to? For ever, as you say?

  SOLNESS [nodding slowly]: That was the price of the happiness that people are always talking about. [Breathing a heavy sigh] That happiness – hm – that happiness, it didn’t come cheap, Hilde.

  HILDE [as before]: But couldn’t that still be made right?

  SOLNESS: No, never. It never can. That too is a consequence of the fire. And of Aline’s subsequent illness.

  HILDE [considering him, an indefinable look in her eyes]: And yet you build all those nurseries.

  SOLNESS [gravely]: Have you never noticed, Hilde, how the impossible – seems somehow to pull at and call out to us?

  HILDE [thinking about this]: The impossible? [Brightly] Why, yes! Do you feel that way too?

  SOLNESS: Yes, I do.

  HILDE: Then there must be – a bit of the troll in you too?

  SOLNESS: Why troll?

  HILDE: Well what would you call it then?

  SOLNESS [standing up]: No, no, you may well be right. [Vehemently] But must I not become a troll – the way things always go for me! Always!

  HILDE: How do you mean?

  SOLNESS [softly, in inner turmoil]: Mark what I say, Hilde. That everything I’ve succeeded in producing, building, creating, all the beauty, the security, the warmth and comfort – and the grandeur too –. [Clenching his hands] Oh, isn’t it terrible to think –!

  HILDE: What is so terrible?

  SOLNESS: That all of this I have to compensate for. Pay for. Not with money. But with human happiness. And not only my own happiness, but other people’s too. Yes, oh yes, don’t you see, Hilde! That’s what my standing as an artist has cost me – and others. And every single day I have to watch that price being paid for me anew. Again, and again – time and again, for ever!

  HILDE [rising, eyes fixed on him]: Now you’re thinking, I take it, of – of her.

  SOLNESS: Yes. Mostly of Aline. Because Aline – she had her calling in life,5 too. Just as I had mine. [His voice quivers.] But her calling, that had to be thwarted, it had to be quashed, shattered – so that mine could win through to – to a great triumph of sorts. Oh yes, because the fact is, you see, that Aline – she also had a talent for building.

  HILDE: Her! For building?

  SOLNESS [shaking his head]: Not houses and towers and spires and so on – the sort of thing that I do –

  HILDE: Well, what then –?

  SOLNESS [tenderly and with feeling]: For building up the little souls of children, Hilde. Building up children’s souls in such a way that they could grow into well-balanced, noble and beautiful forms. So they could rise up into tall, upstanding adult souls. That is what Aline had a gift for. – And all of that – it lies there now. Unused – and unusable from now on. And all for nothing. Just like the piles of rubble left after a fire.

  HILDE: Yes, but even if that were so –

  SOLNESS: It is so! It is so! I know it.

  HILDE: All right, but you’re certainly not to blame for that.

  SOLNESS [fixing his eyes on her and nodding slowly]: Ah, but you see, that is the big – the awful – question. That is the doubt that nags at me – night and day.

  HILDE: That!

  SOLNESS: Yes, because what if it were so? That I was to blame. In a way, I mean.

  HILDE: You! For the fire!

  SOLNESS: For everything. All of it. – And yet, perhaps – completely innocent.

  HILDE [regarding him anxiously]: Oh, Mr Master Builder – if you can say such a thing then I think you must be – sick after all.

  SOLNESS: Hm – I don’t think I’ll ever be entirely well in that respect.

  RAGNAR BROVIK gently opens the narrow concealed door in the left-hand corner.

  HILDE moves away.

  RAGNAR [seeing HILDE]: Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr Solness – [He makes to withdraw.]

  SOLNESS: No, no, stay. Let’s get this out of the way.

  RAGNAR: Oh yes – if only we could!

  SOLNESS: Your father is no better, I hear.

  RAGNAR: Father is sinking fast now. Which is why I beg you, sir – write a good word or two about me on one of the drawings! Something Father can read before he –

  SOLNESS [vehemently]: Don’t say another word to me about those drawings of yours!

  RAGNAR: Have you looked at them?

  SOLNESS: Yes – I have.

  RAGNAR: And they’re no good? And I’m no good either, am I?

  SOLNESS [evasively]: Stay here with me, Ragnar. You can have everything just as you want it. Then you can marry Kaja. Live free of care. Happily even, perhaps. Just don’t think of building for yourself.

  RAGNAR: I see, well I’ll just have to go home and tell Father that, then. Because I promised him I would. – Shall I tell him that – before he dies?

  SOLNESS [sighing]: Oh, tell him – tell him whatever you like for all I care. Better still, don’t tell him anything! [Exclaiming] I cannot act any other way, Ragnar.

  RAGNAR: In that case may I take my drawings away with me?

  SOLNESS: Yes, take them – go on, take them! They’re over there on the table.

  RAGNAR [crossing to the table]: Thank you.

  HILDE [placing a hand on the portfolio]: No – no, leave them.

  SOLNESS: Why?

  HILDE: Well, because I’d like to look at them too.

  SOLNESS: But you have – [To RAGNAR] Oh, all right, leave them here, then.

  RAGNAR: Very well.

  SOLNESS: Now get on home to your father.

  RAGNAR: Yes, I suppose I’d better.

  SOLNESS [despairingly]: Ragnar – you mustn’t ask of me something which I cannot give; do you hear me, Ragnar! You mustn’t!

  RAGNAR: No. No, I’m sorry –

  He bows and leaves by the narrow door in the corner.

  HILDE goes over and sits down on a chair near the mirror.

  HILDE [eyeing SOLNESS crossly]: That was horrid of you.

  SOLNESS: You think so too, do you?

  HILDE: Yes, it was absolutely horrid. And harsh and wicked and cruel too.

  SOLNESS: Ah, but you’ve no idea how I feel.

  HILDE: Even so –. No, that’s no way for you to behave.

  SOLNESS: But you said yourself a mo
ment ago that no one but me should be allowed to build anything.

  HILDE: I’m allowed to say that. But not you.

  SOLNESS: Surely me more than anyone. Since I’ve bought my standing so dearly.

  HILDE: Oh, yes – with what you call domestic bliss – and what-not.

  SOLNESS: And my peace of mind into the bargain.

  HILDE [standing up]: Peace of mind! [Fervently] Oh, yes, you’re right there! – Poor master builder – you’ve convinced yourself that –

  SOLNESS [chuckling softly]: Now just sit down again, Hilde. And I’ll tell you something funny.

  HILDE [sits down again, tense and expectant]: Yes?

  SOLNESS: It sounds such a silly little thing. Because this whole business comes down, you see, to a crack in a chimney.

  HILDE: No more than that?

  SOLNESS: No, not to begin with anyway.

  He pulls a chair closer to HILDE and sits down.

  HILDE [impatiently, pounding her knee]: The crack in the chimney – what about it!

  SOLNESS: I had spotted this chink in the chimney wall a long, long while before the fire. Every time I was up in the attic I would check to see if it was still there.

  HILDE: And it was?

  SOLNESS: Yes, because no one else knew about it.

  HILDE: And you said nothing?

  SOLNESS: No, I didn’t.

  HILDE: Never thought about fixing the chimney wall either?

  SOLNESS: Thought about it maybe – but never got beyond that. Every time I was about to see to it, it was exactly as if a hand got in the way. Not today, I’d think. Tomorrow. And nothing was ever done.

  HILDE: But why did you keep putting it off like that!

  SOLNESS: Because I got to thinking. [Slowly, softly] Through that tiny black crack in the chimney I might win my way to the top – as a master builder.

  HILDE [gazing into space]: That must have been so exciting.

  SOLNESS: Almost irresistible. Utterly irresistible. Because back then it all seemed so simple and straightforward to me. I wanted it to happen in the winter some time. Just before midday.6 I would have taken Aline for a ride in the sleigh.7 At home they would have the stoves well stoked up –

  HILDE: Yes, because it would be dreadfully cold that day, wouldn’t it?

  SOLNESS: Bitterly so – yes. And they would want it to be really nice and warm for Aline when she came home.

  HILDE: Because she really feels the cold, I expect.

  SOLNESS: Yes, she does. And it would be on the way home that we would see the smoke.