Lisa Joyce: Hilde Wangel

A Master Builder

Hilde Wangel

Hilde Wangel: Oh, it's you!
Dr. Ejlert Herdal: Yes, it's me. Yes, we met this summer up at one of those hostels in the mountains. I've always wondered where that whole group of ladies went. What happened to them?
Hilde Wangel: Oh, they all left the hotel for some unknown reason.
Dr. Ejlert Herdal: They probably weren't crazy about listening to us having so much fun in the evenings.
Hilde Wangel: Ah, no, they certainly weren't.
Dr. Ejlert Herdal: Now, you - you have to admit that you were just toying with all of us, weren't you? That's right. You were just playing games with all of us.
Hilde Wangel: Well, it was certainly more fun than sitting with those ladies and knitting winter stockings.
Dr. Ejlert Herdal: I understand. I understand.

Hilde Wangel: I don't have any clothes here at all. I mean, apart from the ones I'm wearing. And I have some underwear in my bag here, but it's absolutely filthy. Overdue for a wash.

Halvard Solness: You know, the funny thing is that I've become so disturbed by younger people.
Hilde Wangel: What? Younger people?
Halvard Solness: They upset me so much - that I've sort of closed my door here and locked myself in. I mean, I'm afraid that they're gonna come here and they're gonna knock on the door and then they're going to break in.
Hilde Wangel: Well, I think you should just open the door and let them in.
Halvard Solness: Open the door?
Hilde Wangel: Yes. Yes. So that they can gently - and quietly come inside - and it can be something good for you. ...
Halvard Solness: Open the door?
Hilde Wangel: Can you? Master Builder, can you?

Halvard Solness: Do you know that I honestly can't figure you out at all?
Hilde Wangel: You can't? Really? I am so simple.
Halvard Solness: Well, you're not so simple - 'cause I honestly can't tell whether you really mean all these things you're saying or whether you're joking.
Hilde Wangel: Oh, you mean teasing? The way you teased me.

Hilde Wangel: You haven't actually forgotten anything. You're just a little bit - a little bit embarrassed about what you did. People don't forget things like that. They just don't.

Halvard Solness: You see, there's always a balancing - that has to occur. In other words, everything I've done, everything I've achieved, it all has to be balanced out. Has to be paid for. Even after the down payment, a price must still be paid. And the currency, in which the payment is demanded, isn't money. It's human happiness. And my good fortune, it can't be paid for just with my happiness alone. No, it also has to be paid for with the happiness of other people. You see, every day, I have to get up and I have to watch the price being paid for my benefit all day long.
Hilde Wangel: Obviously you're talking about your wife.

Hilde Wangel: It sounds like there might be some weird, half-human mountain creature just running around somewhere inside you.

Halvard Solness: It's so good for me - that you came to me. It's such a wonderful feeling to have someone to talk with.
Hilde Wangel: You mean you can't talk with her?
Halvard Solness: Well, not in the way I want to talk - and need to talk. I mean, we simply can't talk about this. Or about most things, really.

Hilde Wangel: Oh, dear, lovely Mrs. Solness, that's so incredibly kind of you. You're being so kind to me.
Hilde Wangel: Minimal obligation to a guest. I'm not kind at all.

Halvard Solness: You know, in all those old books of the Norse sagas, have you done any reading in those old books, Hilde?
Hilde Wangel: Yes, certainly.
Halvard Solness: Well, they always talk about the Vikings. They always describe how the Vikings went to foreign countries and - they set fire to the countryside and they robbed and they stole and they beat men to death.
Hilde Wangel: They seized the women.
Halvard Solness: They just took them away.
Hilde Wangel: Carried them off in their ships.
Halvard Solness: Well, those Vikings really had those consciences that were - that were strong and robust. You know, and in so many of those stories, some of those women whom they carried off, they became so attached to the men that they refused to be parted from them. Does that make any sort of sense to you, Hilde?
Hilde Wangel: It makes complete sense to me.

Hilde Wangel: Master Builder, I wonder if perhaps you were simply born with an oversensitive conscience.
Halvard Solness: Wh-What does that mean?
Hilde Wangel: It means that your conscience is very delicate and it's much too weak and it is too easily crushed by heavy things.
Halvard Solness: I see. And what sort of a conscience should I have then?
Hilde Wangel: I would like you to have a more robust conscience which can *lift* up those things and bear their weight.

Halvard Solness: Would you agree with me, possibly, that there are certain people in the world, certain particular selected individuals, who've received a certain favor, and they've been granted a certain power, so that they can desire something so passionately - that the thing they wish for simply has to take place?
Hilde Wangel: Well, if there are, we'll learn one day whether I'm one of them.
Halvard Solness: But see, Hilde, an individual can't accomplish things like that entirely on their own. See, there are forces in the universe that serve people and that help people. And in order for one's desires to be realized those forces have to be there. And they don't just suddenly appear, Hilde. One has to call for them - with a sort of intense inner determination. And I did that. I called for them. I called, and they came, and they did exactly what I wanted them to do.

Halvard Solness: Oh, Hilde, you are like a wild bird of the forest, Hilde.
Hilde Wangel: No, I'm not - because I don't fly off and hide in the shrubbery.
Halvard Solness: Yes. Maybe you're more like a bird of prey.
Hilde Wangel: Perhaps I am something more like that sort of bird. Why shouldn't I be? Why shouldn't I go off in search of my prey? Why shouldn't I seize the prize I want so desperately?

Halvard Solness: Have you ever noticed that the minute I show up somewhere, my wife leaves?
Hilde Wangel: Actually, I've noticed that the minute you show up somewhere, you drive her out.
Halvard Solness: Maybe. But that's completely out of my control, I'm afraid.