Chapter XXXVII: 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. BERNICK
OLAF, _their son_
MARTHA BERNICK, _sister of the consul_
LONA HESSEL, _elder stepsister of Mrs. Bernick_
JOHAN TÖNNESEN, _her younger brother_
HILMAR TÖNNESEN, _Mrs. Bernick's brother_
RECTOR RÖRLUND
DINA DORF, _a young lady living at the consul's_
KRAP, _the consul's clerk_
SHIPBUILDER AUNE
MRS. RUMMEL _and other ladies, friends of the consul's family_