Dilemma And Choice

The Master Builder is a important masterpiece of the late plays of Ibsen, and it is the first play, written after returning to the motherland from living abroad for27years. This drama describes various contradictions and disputes around the master builder Solness about career and life, idea and the reality, happiness and life. And the main clue is discussing ethical issues throughout the play. Based on analyzing of this drama, combining with Ibsen’s other masterpiece from early to late, this paper discusses the ethics of this drama from the perspective of ethical criticism, and probe into the development of Ibsen’s ethics thought and the aesthetic ideas of his dramatic works.This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter mainly analyzes triple ethical dilemma around of Solness, and explore the reasons for the formation of ethical dilemmas. The second chapter explores the ethical choices from three perspectives’ examining and reflection. The third chapter probes into Ibsen’s aesthetic ideal and ethical reflection from analyzing of the dramatic elements of this play. Solness fall into triple ethical dilemmas because of self-centered utilitarian ethics. Ibsen once self-proclaimed a master builder, and he discuss deeply the ethical relationship between self and self, self and others’. At the end of19th century, facing with the impact of the traditional ethics of modern irrationalism, Solness have to think how to deal with the relationship between freedom and responsibility, how to reflect on individual value and the ethics thought of himself. Discussing the ethical issues is the important clue, running through Ibsen’s drama works. I consider revealing the ethical dilemmas and ethical choices of the characters’ in this play, is a summary and reflection on Ibsen’s early dramas. In this play, Ibsen raise new questions concerning about how to build ethics and values facing impact of irrationalism on traditional ethics, how to strive for freedom and liberation after the subversion and deconstruction, and what is the value of freedom of humanity. The significance of discussing the ethics of the play is that, the spirit of reflection and self-examination forces the roles,the author and all the readers to always explore, to inquire about human’s being.