Play An Enemy of the People - Book Report/Review Example

It was the story of a struggle by a daring person to do the morally correct deeds and speaking the truth even facing the immense social prejudice. Before analyzing the characters of the drama it would be appropriate to describe in a few words the story of the play. Main character of the play is of Dr. Thomas Stockman who portrayed as an admired resident of his small town near a coast side of Norway. It is the story of the time when western countries were socio-economically developing and had a lot of problems that the present day under developed world is facing.

So, the town of Dr Thomas was also receiving the improvements through community efforts. For this a considerable sum of public and private funds were invested to develop baths in the town for attracting tourists. This project was guided by Dr. Stockmann and his brother who was by profession the Mayor of that town. The development of baths was considered as a matter of pride for the community but as the baths were demonstrating success, Dr. Stockmann exposed before the authority and town people that the waste material of the town's tannery was polluting the water reserves.

He thought this discovery would be his greatest discovery. Assuming this he sent proposal and problem to his brother who was the Mayor of the town. But the attitude of authority astonished Stockmann as he could not even get in to the authorities. Nobody valued the sensitivity of the issue rather they were reluctant to declare the problem publicly as it could be an economic damage for their town. The quarrel started between the authorities and Stockmann but his brother, the Mayor warned him to comply with the community decisions.

But Stockmann refused and called for an address to the people of the town at Captain Horster's place to convince people that the pools are polluted and must be closed as they had become a threat for community health. The townspeople on the other hand were expecting that the baths will bring wealth to the community. But because of improper planning of baths its closure became indispensible. When Stockmann called town people they refused to accept Stockmann's claims and stood against Dr Stockmann and those who had honestly expressed hold for his movement.

People mocked him by calling him, an "Enemy of the People" as he rejeted the Victorian notion of community and the principles of democracy by his individual ideology that in the matters of the truth and falsehood, the individual must be higher to the masses. Dr Stockmann went over the main point of Ibsen's disapproval on the majority public of a society, with the extraordinary excerpt "the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone."The characters of this fabulous play are: Dr.

Thomas Stockmann. Mrs. Stockmann, Petra, their offsprings: a daughter who was a teacher as a professional. Ejlif & Morten, were his sons. Peter Stockman was the elder brother of Dr Stockmann and was the mayor of the town. Morten Kiil was a character of a tanner (Mrs. Stockmann's adoptive father), also known as the badger. Hovstad was an editor, Billing, sub-editor and Aslaksen, a publisher. Captain Horster. By these characters Ibsen has tried to show the attitudes of people who have different occupations to portray his radical and