The Master Builder Solness - a demonically erotic dialogue between two souls - is the first of Ibsen's later works, where the two main characters embody hidden desires and self-destructive instincts.

“But I want to tell you how I feel this 'happiness' - upon me! - like a piece in my chest that has been stripped of skin. And the assistants along with the servants - all demons - are peeling flesh from other people and bringing it to me to patch up my own wound!.. But the wound does not heal. Never,.. never! Oh, if you only knew how often it gnaws and burns me.”