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The Master Builder (1892)

   

Brief description

In July 1891 Ibsen returned to Norway and Christiania after 27 years abroad. The Master Builder was written the following year, but the creative process began in a way in Gossensass in the summer of 1889 – more precisely with his experiences with 27-year-old Emilie Bardach from Vienna. In February 1891 Ibsen visited his friend the literature scholar Julius Elias, in Berlin. Elias later published the following report of what Ibsen had said during this visit:

«Do you know, my next play [The Master Builder] is already hovering before me – in general outline, of course. One thing I can see clearly, though – an experience I once had myself – a female character. Very interesting – very interesting.» Then he related how he had met in the Tyrol (where she was staying with her mother) a Viennese girl of very remarkable character, who had at once made him her confidant. The gist of it was that she was not interested in the idea of marrying some decently brought-up young man; most likely she would never marry. What tempted, fascinated and delighted her was to lure other women's husbands away from them. She was a demonic little wrecker; she often seemed to him like a little bird of prey, who would gladly have included him among her victims. He had studied her very, very closely. But she had had no great success with him. «She did not get hold of me, but I got hold of her – for my play. Then I fancy she consoled herself with someone else.»
(Michael Meyer, Henrik Ibsen – A biography, Garden City and New York 1971, p. 626)

Thus Emilie Bardach inspired the character Hilde Wangel. It is assumed that Emily Bardach is presented as far more «devilish» and calculating in the play than she ever was towards Ibsen. Possibly the description fits the character Hilde Wangel better than Emilie Bardach.

After his visit to Berlin in February 1891 Ibsen must – as was his wont – have thought about the subject for about a year. On 16 March 1892 he wrote the following poem, which when first published in Samlede Værker (Collected Works) (1899), is described as «The first preliminary work for 'The Master Builder'»:

They sat there, those two, in so snug a house
through autumns and chill Decembers.
Then fire destroyed it. Mere rubble to douse.
The pair have to rake the embers.

For under it all lies a hidden gem,
a gem that's impervious to burning.
And if they keep looking, either of them
might find it by raking and turning.

But even if the blaze-ravaged pair should find
that priceless, fire-proof jewel,
she'll not recover her peace of mind,
nor he find bright joy's renewal.
(Translation: John Northam)

The poem touches on the theme of The Master Builder. Several times earlier, while planning new plays, Ibsen had written poems with a similar function: to summarize the theme in a concentrated form.

No other preliminary work on The Master Builder has been preserved. Ibsen is thought to have destroyed this, together with the first draft and possibly a second draft in the spring or summer of 1892. Another lost source of information about the play`s creative process is the correspondence between Ibsen and the pianist Hildur Andersen, who was an intimate friend from August 1891 and for many years. His relationship with her resembles those with Emilie Bardach and Helene Raff in many ways.

In February 1892 Hildur Andersen left for Vienna to study there for six months. During this time she and Ibsen wrote a number of letters to each other, in which Ibsen's work on The Master Builder was mentioned. These letters have not been preserved. On 9 August 1892 Ibsen began work on what was to be the final version of The Master Builder. The fair copy was completed during September and October 1892.

The Master Builder was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) in Christiania on December 12th and in Copenhagen on 14 December 1892 in an edition of 10 000 copies. The play had a somewhat mixed reception, but on the whole more positive than in the case of the preceding plays.

As in the case of Hedda Gabler in 1890, the English publisher William Heinemann issued The Master Builder in a «mini-edition» (12 copies) in London, in order to secure the copyright. This took place on 6 December 1892.

The first public performance of The Master Builder was a reading at the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket in London – in Norwegian. The reading took place on December 7th 1892 – five days before the play was even published in Christiania and Copenhagen – and was part of William Heinemann's strategy to secure the copyright for himself (see above).

The first professional staging of the play was on 19 January 1893 at the Lessing-Theater in Berlin. The director Emanuel Reicher played the title role.

(From ibsen.net)

Plot summary

Halvard Solness is a master builder and self-taught architect who is married to Aline, a woman above his station. Through an ambitious career he has built himself up to be a man of power in his home town, and it is hinted that he founded his success on an incident in which his wife's childhood home burned down to the ground. Aline has never got over the loss of her childhood home and the death of her newborn twins soon after. Latterly she has also been worried about her husband's mental health, as she confides to their family doctor and friend, Dr. Herdal. Solness has three employees: Ragnar Brovik, his father Knut Brovik who as a younger man trained Solness in his work and is now an ailing, bitter old man, and Kaja Fosli, who is engaged to Ragnar but deeply and unhappily in love with Solness. When Solness finds out that Ragnar wants to set up in business on his own, he is unwilling to help Ragnar, whom he tries to get Kaja to marry, in order to keep them both in his own employment. Solness has an unexpected visit by a young woman, Hilde Wangel, whom he met ten years earlier at a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the roofing of a church tower he had built in her home town. She tells him that on that occasion he had kissed her and promised to return in ten years' time to offer her a «kingdom», which she has now come to claim.

Solness has just built a new house, with a high tower, for Aline and himself, and Hilde dares him to climb to the top of the tower, carrying the celebratory wreath, as he had done before, although he is obviously afraid of heights. As he reaches the top she waves a white shawl and calls out in triumph, but the master builder falls to his death.

(Source: Merete Morken Andersen, Ibsenhåndboken, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995.)

Read The Master Builder (in Norwegian)

In the online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe), you can read The Master Builder in various formats. This content is currently only available in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read the play:

Introduction to the work (in Norwegian)

The online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe) offers extensive information about The Master Builder in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read about various aspects connected to the play. 

Reviews

Here you can find reviews in full text and an overview of registered reviews in various languages. 

Translations

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Published July 10, 2023 1:27 PM - Last modified June 25, 2024 11:52 AM
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