MASTER BUILDER, The. The tendency toward symbolism, to be observed in the early romantic works of Ibsen, and occasionally in his dramas of social awakening, becomes dominant in
As a drama of ideas
Solness, the master builder, has achieved success at the expense of his wife and his business associates. He has checked the rise of old Knut Brovik, and refused to young Ragnar Brovik permission to build independ ently. He has employed the latter's sweetheart
and captured her affections only as a ruse by which to retain Ragnar's services. Obsessed, as he admits, with dread of the younger genera tion, yet thinking himself at last secure from it, he succumbs when the younger generation knocks at his door in the person of Hilda Wan gel. Hilda, who had already appeared in a minor role in