An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen

The key themes in the classic play An Enemy of the People by the world renowned Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen are eternal. This beautiful and interesting play is about the fight between truth and power, a fight witnessed every day in the newspapers all over the world. Ibsen lets the contradiction between truth and the concerns of the powerful play out in a drama involving a community threatened by pollution. We witness the plays of the media, the responses of the powerful, the role of family and friends, as well as “the public”. As well as the role of truth, this play also concerns the strong individual’s manipulation over the simple-minded majority and the potential tyranny of that majority.

Henrik Ibsen is said to have written An Enemy of the People in somewhat of a fury, as he was angered by the way the critics treated his previous play, Ghosts. He had expected the Liberal press to receive Ghosts with a greater understanding. Instead he found himself “fighting at the outposts of thought”. Thus An Enemy of the People was written with an satirical intention, but became one of his most brilliantly crafted social dramas.

When Dr. Stockmann, the main character in the play, discovers a poison in the town’s water supply, after some suspicious illnesses and conclusive tests, he believes he will be seen as a hero. But even his brother, Mayor Peter Stockmann, sees things differently. Seeing a potential for an unpopular tax hike, Peter rallies the people against Dr. Stockmann’s “irresponsible research”. We witness the reactions of the different social actors and groups to the potentially very damaging news for the community, and the various ways they try to spin the story, cover it up, or benefit from it. This comes to a climax at a town meeting at which Dr. Stockmann is labeled an enemy of the people. Even with seemingly factual and solid research – the truth as he views it – on his side, the majority of the population spurns Dr. Stockmann as a liar. Thus, Ibsen raises the fundamental question of whether the truth should always be told, regardless of consequences. Or, whether the community should be sacrificed or huge costs incurred in order for truth to prevail?

An Enemy of the People is a wonderful play, one of Henrik Ibsen’s most famous, and one that still poses questions of the highest importance even at this day and age!

Links to works by Henrik Ibsen at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

You can also order Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People (Faber plays), from Amazon UK. See also Ibsen’s Ghosts (Dover Thrift), as well as Kierkegaard’s Either/or: A Fragment of Life (Penguin Classics).

Tagged as: book review, classic play, Dr. Stockmann, Henrik Ibsen