Act 2, Part 4 Summary

Hilda grabs Ragnar's drawings and insists that Solness write something positive on them. Just as insistently Solness refuses, becoming angrier and angrier as Hilda insists more and more forcefully. He shouts that if he makes this gesture Ragnar will rise up and destroy him in the same way as he (Solness) destroyed Brovik. Hilda tells him to stop talking that way, saying that hearing him talk of his destruction robs her of "what means more to [her] than life ... the need to see [him] great." She convinces him to take out a pencil and write something supportive on the drawings.

As he writes Solness asks why Hilda never contacted him in the ten years since they met. She says she was afraid that if she did it would ruin everything. He then asks her whether she ever loved anyone else. She...