An Enemy of the People
well-approved truth, which at bottom is a foul lie, but upon which
nevertheless Mr. Hovstad and the "People's Messenger" and all the
"Messenger's" supporters are nourished.
Hovstad. And that is—?
Dr. Stockmann. That is, the doctrine you have inherited from your
forefathers and proclaim thoughtlessly far and wide—the doctrine that
the public, the crowd, the masses, are the essential part of the
population—that they constitute the People—that the common folk, the
ignorant and incomplete element in the community, have the same right
to pronounce judgment and to approve, to direct and to govern, as the
isolated, intellectually superior personalities in it.
Billing. Well, damn me if ever I—
Hovstad (at the same time, shouting out). Fellow-citizens, take good
note of that!
A number of voices (angrily). Oho!—we are not the People! Only the
superior folk are to govern, are they!
A Workman. Turn the fellow out for talking such rubbish!
Another. Out with him!
Another (calling out). Blow your horn, Evensen!
(A horn is blown loudly, amidst hisses and an angry uproar.)
Dr. Stockmann (when the noise has somewhat abated). Be reasonable!
Can't you stand hearing the voice of truth for once? I don't in the
least expect you to agree with me all at once; but I must say I did
expect Mr. Hovstad to admit I was right, when he had recovered his
composure a little. He claims to be a freethinker—
Voices (in murmurs of astonishment). Freethinker, did he say? Is
Hovstad a freethinker?
Hovstad (shouting). Prove it, Dr. Stockmann! When have I said so in
print?
Dr. Stockmann (reflecting). No, confound it, you are right!—you have
never had the courage to. Well, I won't put you in a hole, Mr. Hovstad.
Let us say it is I that am the freethinker, then. I am going to prove
to you, scientifically, that the "People's Messenger" leads you by the
nose in a shameful manner when it tells you that you—that the common
people, the crowd, the masses, are the real essence of the People. That
is only a newspaper lie, I tell you! The common people are nothing more
than the raw material of which a People is made. (Groans, laughter and
uproar.) Well, isn't that the case? Isn't there an enormous difference
between a well-bred and an ill-bred strain of animals? Take, for
instance, a common barn-door hen. What sort of eating do you get from a
shrivelled up old scrag of a fowl like that? Not much, do you! And what
sort of eggs does it lay? A fairly good crow or a raven can lay pretty
nearly as good an egg. But take a well-bred Spanish or Japanese hen, or
a good pheasant or a turkey—then you will see the difference. Or take
the case of dogs, with whom we humans are on such intimate terms. Think
first of an ordinary common cur—I mean one of the horrible,
coarse-haired, low-bred curs that do nothing but run about the streets
and befoul the walls of the houses. Compare one of these curs with a
poodle whose sires for many generations have been bred in a gentleman's
house, where they have had the best of food and had the opportunity of
hearing soft voices and music. Do you not think that the poodle's brain
is developed to quite a different degree from that of the cur? Of
course it is. It is puppies of well-bred poodles like that, that
showmen train to do incredibly clever tricks—things that a common cur
could never learn to do even if it stood on its head. (Uproar and
mocking cries.)
A Citizen (calls out). Are you going to make out we are dogs, now?
Another Citizen. We are not animals, Doctor!
Dr. Stockmann. Yes but, bless my soul, we are, my friend! It is true we
are the finest animals anyone could wish for; but, even among us,
exceptionally fine animals are rare. There is a tremendous difference
between poodle-men and cur-men. And the amusing part of it is, that Mr.
Hovstad quite agrees with me as long as it is a question of four-footed
animals—
Hovstad. Yes, it is true enough as far as they are concerned.
Dr. Stockmann. Very well. But as soon as I extend the principle and
apply it to two-legged animals, Mr. Hovstad stops short. He no longer
dares to think independently, or to pursue his ideas to their logical
conclusion; so, he turns the whole theory upside down and proclaims in
the "People's Messenger" that it is the barn-door hens and street curs
that are the finest specimens in the menagerie. But that is always the
way, as long as a man retains the traces of common origin and has not
worked his way up to intellectual distinction.
Hovstad. I lay no claim to any sort of distinction, I am the son of
humble country-folk, and I am proud that the stock I come from is
rooted deep among the common people he insults.
Voices. Bravo, Hovstad! Bravo! Bravo!
Dr. Stockmann. The kind of common people I mean are not only to be
found low down in the social scale; they crawl and swarm all around
us—even in the highest social positions. You have only to look at your
own fine, distinguished Mayor! My brother Peter is every bit as
plebeian as anyone that walks in two shoes— (laughter and hisses)
Peter Stockmann. I protest against personal allusions of this kind.
Dr. Stockmann (imperturbably).—and that, not because he is like
myself, descended from some old rascal of a pirate from Pomerania or
thereabouts—because that is who we are descended from—
Peter Stockmann. An absurd legend. I deny it!
Dr. Stockmann. —but because he thinks what his superiors think, and
holds the same opinions as they, People who do that are, intellectually
speaking, common people; and, that is why my magnificent brother Peter
is in reality so very far from any distinction—and consequently also
so far from being liberal-minded.
Peter Stockmann. Mr. Chairman—!
Hovstad. So it is only the distinguished men that are liberal-minded in
this country? We are learning something quite new! (Laughter.)
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, that is part of my new discovery too. And another
part of it is that broad-mindedness is almost precisely the same thing
as morality. That is why I maintain that it is absolutely inexcusable
in the "People's Messenger" to proclaim, day in and day out, the false
doctrine that it is the masses, the crowd, the compact majority, that
have the monopoly of broad-mindedness and morality—and that vice and
corruption and every kind of intellectual depravity are the result of
culture, just as all the filth that is draining into our Baths is the
result of the tanneries up at Molledal! (Uproar and interruptions. DR.
STOCKMANN is undisturbed, and goes on, carried away by his ardour, with
a smile.) And yet this same "People's Messenger" can go on preaching
that the masses ought to be elevated to higher conditions of life! But,
bless my soul, if the "Messenger's" teaching is to be depended upon,
this very raising up the masses would mean nothing more or less than
setting them straightway upon the paths of depravity! Happily the
theory that culture demoralises is only an old falsehood that our
forefathers believed in and we have inherited. No, it is ignorance,
poverty, ugly conditions of life, that do the devil's work! In a house
which does not get aired and swept every day—my wife Katherine
maintains that the floor ought to be scrubbed as well, but that is a
debatable question—in such a house, let me tell you, people will lose
within two or three years the power of thinking or acting in a moral
manner. Lack of oxygen weakens the conscience. And there must be a
plentiful lack of oxygen in very many houses in this town, I should
think, judging from the fact that the whole compact majority can be
unconscientious enough to wish to build the town's prosperity on a
quagmire of falsehood and deceit.
Aslaksen. We cannot allow such a grave accusation to be flung at a
citizen community.
A Citizen. I move that the Chairman direct the speaker to sit down.
Voices (angrily). Hear, hear! Quite right! Make him sit down!
Dr. Stockmann (losing his self-control). Then I will go and shout the
truth at every street corner! I will write it in other towns'
newspapers! The whole country shall know what is going on here!
Hovstad. It almost seems as if Dr. Stockmann's intention were to ruin
the town.
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, my native town is so dear to me that I would rather
ruin it than see it flourishing upon a lie.
Aslaksen. This is really serious. (Uproar and cat-calls MRS. STOCKMANN
coughs, but to no purpose; her husband does not listen to her any
longer.)
Hovstad (shouting above the din). A man must be a public enemy to wish
to ruin a whole community!
Dr. Stockmann (with growing fervor). What does the destruction of a
community matter, if it lives on lies? It ought to be razed to the
ground. I tell you— All who live by lies ought to be exterminated like
vermin! You will end by infecting the whole country; you will bring
about such a state of things that the whole country will deserve to be
ruined. And if things come to that pass, I shall say from the bottom of
my heart: Let the whole country perish, let all these people be
exterminated!
Voices from the crowd. That is talking like an out-and-out enemy of the
people!
Billing. There sounded the voice of the people, by all that's holy!
The whole crowd (shouting). Yes, yes! He is an enemy of the people! He
hates his country! He hates his own people!
Aslaksen. Both as a citizen and as an individual, I am profoundly
disturbed by what we have had to listen to. Dr. Stockmann has shown
himself in a light I should never have dreamed of. I am unhappily
obliged to subscribe to the opinion which I have just heard my
estimable fellow-citizens utter; and I propose that we should give
expression to that opinion in a resolution. I propose a resolution as
follows: "This meeting declares that it considers Dr. Thomas Stockmann,
Medical Officer of the Baths, to be an enemy of the people." (A storm
of cheers and applause. A number of men surround the DOCTOR and hiss
him. MRS. STOCKMANN and PETRA have got up from their seats. MORTEN and
EJLIF are fighting the other schoolboys for hissing; some of their
elders separate them.)
Dr. Stockmann (to the men who are hissing him). Oh, you fools! I tell
you that—
Aslaksen (ringing his bell). We cannot hear you now, Doctor. A formal
vote is about to be taken; but, out of regard for personal feelings, it
shall be by ballot and not verbal. Have you any clean paper, Mr.
Billing?
Billing. I have both blue and white here.
Aslaksen (going to him). That will do nicely; we shall get on more
quickly that way. Cut it up into small strips—yes, that's it. (To the
meeting.) Blue means no; white means yes. I will come round myself and
collect votes. (PETER STOCKMANN leaves the hall. ASLAKSEN and one or
two others go round the room with the slips of paper in their hats.)
1st Citizen (to HOVSTAD). I say, what has come to the Doctor? What are
we to think of it?
Hovstad. Oh, you know how headstrong he is.
2nd Citizen (to BILLING). Billing, you go to their house—have you ever
noticed if the fellow drinks?
Billing. Well I'm hanged if I know what to say. There are always
spirits on the table when you go.
3rd Citizen. I rather think he goes quite off his head sometimes.
1st Citizen. I wonder if there is any madness in his family?
Billing. I shouldn't wonder if there were.
4th Citizen. No, it is nothing more than sheer malice; he wants to get
even with somebody for something or other.
Billing. Well certainly he suggested a rise in his salary on one
occasion lately, and did not get it.
The Citizens (together). Ah!—then it is easy to understand how it is!
The Drunken Man (who has got among the audience again). I want a blue
one, I do! And I want a white one too!
Voices. It's that drunken chap again! Turn him out!