Реферат: Master Builder Freudian Symbols Essay Research Paper

Master Builder Freudian Symbols Essay, Research Paper

Freudian Symbols in The Master Builder

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

152).

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

obsession that drives him through life; Solness is a nymphomaniac and can not handle his

wife?s infertility which results in the loss of their sexual relationship. In an effort to

obtain sexual freedom, Solness destroys himself.

Hilda is also a nymphomaniac. Because she went through adolescence without a

mother, she was unable to successfully resolve an identity conflict as a child. This results

in her inability to develop her own gender identity, and she can not, therefore, create a

relationship with Mrs. Solness, but turns to Halvard to fulfill her sexual needs instead.

While both of the previously mentioned characterizations may seem, at first

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

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

each character may be obtained.

The first obvious symbol in the play is the characters? perpetual references to

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