Vocational Vanity and Career deterioration in Ibsen’s The Master Builder

Abstract

In The Master Builder, Henrik Ibsen gave the stage Halvard Solness, an architect and businessman as a tragic hero whose fall is precipitated by various factor: psychological, social and occupational. And while the psychological and social factors are researched and commented on extensively by many scholars and critics, the last area which has to do with Solness’s profession is hardly approached. Therefore, in the study, Solness’s business world, vocational principles and work ethics are explored in an attempt to read Solness’s tragic end as the natural corollary of his failure to maintain a staunch work morality. Reading The Master Builder from a vocational point of view proved that Solness possessed a flawed business logic that compromised his career and led him blindly towards his end. He is by no means the empowering boss, but a parasitic business owner who plans to promote his own occupational interests at the expense of his employee’s hard work.