The Master Builder - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Halvard Solness, the master builder, has become the most successful builder in his home town by a fortunate series of coincidences. He had previously conceived these in his mind, powerfully wished for them to come to pass, but never actually did anything about them. By the time his wife's ancestral home was destroyed by a fire in a clothes cupboard, he had already imagined how he could cause such an accident and then profit from it by dividing the land on which the house stood into plots and covering it with homes for sale. Between this fortuitous occurrence and some chance misfortunes of his competitors Solness comes to believe that he has only to wish for something to happen in order for it to come about. He rationalises this as a particular gift from God, bestowed so that, through his unnatural success, he can carry out His ordained work of church building.

Solness confides his beliefs to Hilda, a young woman whom he first met ten years when she was a child and while Solness was building a fine new church in her village. Hilda unexpectedly visits Solness at his home. Although to Solness these fantasies are indications of his own madness, Hilda dismisses them as no more than rationalisations to appease his uneasy conscience regarding the supernatural "helpers and servers" he believes he conjures up to help him to worldly success. Later, however, Hilda plays upon these fancies to introduce in Solness' mind the notion that his desire for her, supposedly still fresh from their encounter ten years previously, has summoned her to him after ten long years. Solness warns Hilda that she may be the one with the mysterious power and that through her exaggerated memory of how she had once seen him at the top of her village church tower she may be the one whose secret desires are controlling events. Hilda concocts a fantasy of the earlier "ecstatic erotic encounter" in order to entrap Solness through awakened desire and guilt; however, all Solness can remember of Hilda is that she was "one of those little devils in white…screaming up at me". The realistic interpretation is that Hilda has maintained a girlish, erotic obsession for her "ageless prince" and has arrived to claim the "magic life" he can offer.

Meanwhile, Solness' wife Aline remains deeply hurt after losing her two sons to an infection contracted as a consequence of the fire that destroyed their home, and their marriage has suffered since then. It is of little consequence to her that her husband is building a fine house with an imposing tower for them to live in together, all in her honor. Prior to Hilda coming into his life Solness had lost his zest for the project, however Hilda and her plan to build a "castle in the air" together with Solness soon preoccupies Solness' mind and he renews his efforts. As a result Hilda persuades Solness to attach a garland to the highest point of the tower, as she had seen him do at her village church, although Solness has developed an intense fear of heights. Nevertheless, Solness ultimately agrees, however in doing so he falls to his death.