The Master Builder

This play contains realistic and symbolic elements fused together. It represents a movement from his earlier realistic plays, such as A Doll's House, into a more symbolic style. It begins with realistic characters being presented, and then as the story progresses, it shifts into the inner world of the mind of the leading character. The setting and plot of The Master Builder can be taken as one of realism: the destructive outcome of a middle-aged, professional man's infatuation with a younger, teasing woman or, as critic Desmond MacCarthy describes this concept of the work: the tragedy of an "elderly architect who falls off his scaffold while trying to show off before a young lady". If, however, one takes Solness's belief in his powers at their face value, the play also can be a lyrical and poetic fairy tale, in the manner of Peer Gynt travelling the Earth in his magical adventures while the faithful Solveig waits for his return. On stage, both interpretations are possible, but it is difficult to give equal weight to both meanings in the same production.