Essay - Review of Henrik Ibsen's Play, the Master Builder Henrik Ibsen's...

Review of Henrik Ibsen's play, The Master Builder

Henrik ***** play, The Master Builder, explores the complexities ***** ***** human mind. Through the mental processes of Solness, Ibsen illustrates the power ***** guilt, a force so strong th*****t it alienates him from his world, ***** people in his life and, more importantly, himself. Guilt manifests itself through fear and confusion and causes him to make several mistakes. Solness never learns who he is and in a fin*****l attempt to find himself, ***** loses everything.

One major source of *****' guilt is the fire. He tells Herdal that because ***** fire was the reason he was able to achieve success, ***** was "horribly afraid" (I.447) ***** one day his luck would turn. What is interesting about ***** ***** is the fact that it started in the closet and not the chimney, a ***** that should absolve Solness from any *****. However, because ***** associates h***** success w*****h the fire, he believes that he has gained success at his wife's expense. This ***** us to believe th***** perhaps Solness' guilt stems from the fact he knew about the crack and did ********** about it, revealing an unspoken desire for ***** ho*****e to burn. ***** notion has caused an imbalance in Solness' psyche that can only be alleviated with *****. Solness ***** determ*****ed that building a house ***** a tower atop will somehow free him from his guilt. In this sense, we can see how the tower is a symbol of ***** good and ********** life. ***** he does not realize is that the guilt will never leave *****, regardless ***** what he builds because his wife has lost *****r only home.

***** learn ***** ***** breeds ***** when ***** admits to the doctor ***** ***** day, the younger generation will take over. Later, he admits to Hilde that this fear is the reason he has "locked and barred" (II.460) himself in.

Here we see how Solness is reacting to his guilt from his youth, when he did ***** very same thing To Brovik. He also does not tell his ***** about his situation with Kaja because it is "a kind of salutary self-torture" (I.445) of letting h***** wife do him this "injustice" (I.445). ***** *****s t***** doctor ***** the guilt he feels is part of a huge, imme*****sur***** debt" (I.445) that relieves his mind. Here we ***** how ***** is operating from the perspective that our inner, unmet desires possess the ability to make us feel *****ier than our fulfilled desires. As s*****n through *****, th***** psychological force has ********** power to turn one against oneself if not kept in check. An excellent example of this ***** be seen ***** how Solness does not feel guilty for his circumstance with Kaja but does feel guilt over ***** lust for Hilde. Here we see how Ibsen is focusing on the po*****r of the inner self, emphasizing that it ***** a formidable force. ***** fact, it might even be said that the inner *****