Ibsen's Symbolism 5 



It is not rash to suppose that Ibsen's final study of this problem 

 was affected by Hauptmann's solution. When Meister Heinrich 

 feels the doubts taking possession of him he says : " So mag der 

 Satan dieses Werk vollenden, Kartoffeln will ich legen, Riiben 

 baun, will essen, trinken, schlafen und dann sterben." 



Rubek does the same thing. He makes portrait busts for 

 money, into each one of which he puts the features of some 

 animal. He buys a villa, marries a young wife and decides to 

 live without reference to his old artistic ideals. 



This is the more external relationship, for Ibsen might have 

 based this much upon his own Master Builder. But we have a 

 different conception of the ideal which accords rather with that 

 of the Sunken Bell than that of The Master Builder. Hilde 

 remains steadfast and prods Solnesz up to the promise of his 

 youth. In Sunken Bell Rautendelein goes to the Nickelmann 

 when Heinrich forsakes her. The conception clearly is that an 

 ideal degenerates when it is forsaken. This idea Ibsen works out 

 consistently in When We Dead Awaken. Rubek casts aside 

 Irene. She becomes totally depraved, yet when he meets her 

 later he interprets into her all and more than all that she had ever 

 been to him. 



In When We Dead Awaken, the characters are typical just as 

 they had been in The Master Builder. Rubek is the artist who at 

 first lives up to the highest demands of his art, but then reso- 

 lutely turns his back upon his ideals, commercializes his art and 

 buys the comforts of life scorned by the real artist. His wife 

 Maja (type counterpart) is the village belle without higher aspi- 

 ration, who marries for position. Ulfheim is the brute man, Irene 

 is the woman typical of the degenerated ideal. 



Hauptmann in Sunken Bell and Und Pip pa tanst gives us a 

 naturalistic picture of the inner life of Heinrich and the director; 

 hence Rautendelein and Pippa are presented entirely as conceived 

 by Heinrich and the director. Ibsen in The Master Builder and 

 When We Dead Aivaken presents typical characters, but in addi- 

 tion points out that Solnesz and Rubek encounter in real life 

 actual experiences which remind us strongly of a man's relation 



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