The Master Builder, by Henrik Ibsen, is a play about individuality, morality, and

self. But beneath those very ambiguous descriptions lies a play with symbols that clearly

depict the collective unconscious. Through a careful psychoanalytical critique of the

text, the relationship between the symbolism and the psychological themes can be

discovered as they interact throughout the play.

Within a play, "symbolism has a broader role as a kind of natural metaphor, or

mode of comparison" (Neu 115). A psychoanalytic criticism will concentrate in the

symbols within the play and discover their "hidden meanings," because "elements of the

latent content are expressed not directly but symbolically in manifest content" (Erdelyi

Solness, the primary character, is a successful but aging architect who uses others

to fulfill his own selfish intentions. He demands respect and fear from all characters who

interact with him. Even his old carpentry teacher refers to him as "the chief" and refuses

to make decisions without Solness' consent (Ibsen 13). But, beneath the hard exterior, he

wrestles with instincts and dark forces. And yet, he can not surmount the sexual

flying symbolizes the capability to perform sexually, the bird epitomizes the sexual

glance, to be quite unrealistic, the actuality of each of them is much more plausible after

While the initial description is rather self-explanatory, the most interesting section can be

a close analysis of the Freudian symbols in the play. Then, an accurate personality for

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1706
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)