An Enemy of the People
Morten Kiil. (going up to DR. STOCKMANN). Well, Stockmann, do you see
what these monkey tricks of yours lead to?
Dr. Stockmann. I have done my duty.
Morten Kiil. What was that you said about the tanneries at Molledal?
Dr. Stockmann. You heard well enough. I said they were the source of
all the filth.
Morten Kiil. My tannery too?
Dr. Stockmann. Unfortunately your tannery is by far the worst.
Morten Kiil. Are you going to put that in the papers?
Dr. Stockmann. I shall conceal nothing.
Morten Kiil. That may cost you dearly, Stockmann. (Goes out.)
A Stout Man (going UP to CAPTAIN HORSTER, Without taking any notice of
the ladies). Well, Captain, so you lend your house to enemies of the
people?
Horster. I imagine I can do what I like with my own possessions, Mr.
Vik.
The Stout Man. Then you can have no objection to my doing the same with
mine.
Horster. What do you mean, sir?
The Stout Man. You shall hear from me in the morning. (Turns his back
on him and moves off.)
Petra. Was that not your owner, Captain Horster?
Horster. Yes, that was Mr. Vik the shipowner.
Aslaksen (with the voting-papers in his hands, gets up on to the
platform and rings his bell). Gentlemen, allow me to announce the
result. By the votes of every one here except one person—
A Young Man. That is the drunk chap!
Aslaksen. By the votes of everyone here except a tipsy man, this
meeting of citizens declares Dr. Thomas Stockmann to be an enemy of the
people. (Shouts and applause.) Three cheers for our ancient and
honourable citizen community! (Renewed applause.) Three cheers for our
able and energetic Mayor, who has so loyally suppressed the promptings
of family feeling! (Cheers.) The meeting is dissolved. (Gets down.)
Billing. Three cheers for the Chairman!
The whole crowd. Three cheers for Aslaksen! Hurrah!
Dr. Stockmann. My hat and coat, Petra! Captain, have you room on your
ship for passengers to the New World?
Horster. For you and yours we will make room, Doctor.
Dr. Stockmann (as PETRA helps him into his coat), Good. Come,
Katherine! Come, boys!
Mrs. Stockmann (in an undertone). Thomas, dear, let us go out by the
back way.
Dr. Stockmann. No back ways for me, Katherine, (Raising his voice.) You
will hear more of this enemy of the people, before he shakes the dust
off his shoes upon you! I am not so forgiving as a certain Person; I do
not say: "I forgive you, for ye know not what ye do."
Aslaksen (shouting). That is a blasphemous comparison, Dr. Stockmann!
Billing. It is, by God! It's dreadful for an earnest man to listen to.
A Coarse Voice. Threatens us now, does he!
Other Voices (excitedly). Let's go and break his windows! Duck him in
the fjord!
Another Voice. Blow your horn, Evensen! Pip, pip!
(Horn-blowing, hisses, and wild cries. DR. STOCKMANN goes out through
the hall with his family, HORSTER elbowing a way for them.)
The Whole Crowd (howling after them as they go). Enemy of the People!
Enemy of the People!
Billing (as he puts his papers together). Well, I'm damned if I go and
drink toddy with the Stockmanns tonight!
(The crowd press towards the exit. The uproar continues outside; shouts
of "Enemy of the People!" are heard from without.)
ACT V
(SCENE.—DR. STOCKMANN'S study. Bookcases and cabinets containing
specimens, line the walls. At the back is a door leading to the hall;
in the foreground on the left, a door leading to the sitting-room. In
the righthand wall are two windows, of which all the panes are broken.
The DOCTOR'S desk, littered with books and papers, stands in the middle
of the room, which is in disorder. It is morning. DR. STOCKMANN in
dressing-gown, slippers and a smoking-cap, is bending down and raking
with an umbrella under one of the cabinets. After a little while he
rakes out a stone.)
Dr. Stockmann (calling through the open sitting-room door). Katherine,
I have found another one.
Mrs. Stockmann (from the sitting-room). Oh, you will find a lot more
yet, I expect.
Dr. Stockmann (adding the stone to a heap of others on the table). I
shall treasure these stones as relics. Ejlif and Morten shall look at
them every day, and when they are grown up they shall inherit them as
heirlooms. (Rakes about under a bookcase.) Hasn't—what the deuce is
her name?—the girl, you know—hasn't she been to fetch the glazier yet?
Mrs. Stockmann (coming in). Yes, but he said he didn't know if he would
be able to come today.
Dr. Stockmann. You will see he won't dare to come.
Mrs. Stockmann. Well, that is just what Randine thought—that he didn't
dare to, on account of the neighbours. (Calls into the sitting-room.)
What is it you want, Randine? Give it to me. (Goes in, and comes out
again directly.) Here is a letter for you, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. Let me see it. (Opens and reads it.) Ah!—of course.
Mrs. Stockmann. Who is it from?
Dr. Stockmann. From the landlord. Notice to quit.
Mrs. Stockmann. Is it possible? Such a nice man
Dr. Stockmann (looking at the letter). Does not dare do otherwise, he
says. Doesn't like doing it, but dare not do otherwise—on account of
his fellow-citizens—out of regard for public opinion. Is in a
dependent position—dares not offend certain influential men.
Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, yes, I see well enough; the whole lot of them in
the town are cowards; not a man among them dares do anything for fear
of the others. (Throws the letter on to the table.) But it doesn't
matter to us, Katherine. We are going to sail away to the New World,
and—
Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas, are you sure we are well advised to take
this step?
Dr. Stockmann. Are you suggesting that I should stay here, where they
have pilloried me as an enemy of the people—branded me—broken my
windows! And just look here, Katherine—they have torn a great rent in
my black trousers too!
Mrs. Stockmann. Oh, dear!—and they are the best pair you have got!
Dr. Stockmann. You should never wear your best trousers when you go out
to fight for freedom and truth. It is not that I care so much about the
trousers, you know; you can always sew them up again for me. But that
the common herd should dare to make this attack on me, as if they were
my equals—that is what I cannot, for the life of me, swallow!
Mrs. Stockmann. There is no doubt they have behaved very ill toward
you, Thomas; but is that sufficient reason for our leaving our native
country for good and all?
Dr. Stockmann. If we went to another town, do you suppose we should not
find the common people just as insolent as they are here? Depend upon
it, there is not much to choose between them. Oh, well, let the curs
snap—that is not the worst part of it. The worst is that, from one end
of this country to the other, every man is the slave of his Party.
Although, as far as that goes, I daresay it is not much better in the
free West either; the compact majority, and liberal public opinion, and
all that infernal old bag of tricks are probably rampant there too. But
there things are done on a larger scale, you see. They may kill you,
but they won't put you to death by slow torture. They don't squeeze a
free man's soul in a vice, as they do here. And, if need be, one can
live in solitude. (Walks up and down.) If only I knew where there was a
virgin forest or a small South Sea island for sale, cheap—
Mrs. Stockmann. But think of the boys, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann (standing still). What a strange woman you are,
Katherine! Would you prefer to have the boys grow up in a society like
this? You saw for yourself last night that half the population are out
of their minds; and if the other half have not lost their senses, it is
because they are mere brutes, with no sense to lose.
Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas dear, the imprudent things you said had
something to do with it, you know.
Dr. Stockmann. Well, isn't what I said perfectly true? Don't they turn
every idea topsy-turvy? Don't they make a regular hotchpotch of right
and wrong? Don't they say that the things I know are true, are lies?
The craziest part of it all is the fact of these "liberals," men of
full age, going about in crowds imagining that they are the
broad-minded party! Did you ever hear anything like it, Katherine!
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, yes, it's mad enough of them, certainly;
but—(PETRA comes in from the sitting-room). Back from school already?
Petra. Yes. I have been given notice of dismissal.
Mrs. Stockmann. Dismissal?
Dr. Stockmann. You too?
Petra. Mrs. Busk gave me my notice; so I thought it was best to go at
once.
Dr. Stockmann. You were perfectly right, too!
Mrs. Stockmann. Who would have thought Mrs. Busk was a woman like that!
Petra. Mrs. Busk isn't a bit like that, mother; I saw quite plainly how
it hurt her to do it. But she didn't dare do otherwise, she said; and
so I got my notice.
Dr. Stockmann (laughing and rubbing his hands). She didn't dare do
otherwise, either! It's delicious!
Mrs. Stockmann. Well, after the dreadful scenes last night—
Petra. It was not only that. Just listen to this, father!
Dr. Stockmann. Well?
Petra. Mrs. Busk showed me no less than three letters she received this
morning—
Dr. Stockmann. Anonymous, I suppose?
Petra. Yes.
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, because they didn't dare to risk signing their
names, Katherine!
Petra. And two of them were to the effect that a man, who has been our
guest here, was declaring last night at the Club that my views on
various subjects are extremely emancipated—
Dr. Stockmann. You did not deny that, I hope?
Petra. No, you know I wouldn't. Mrs. Busk's own views are tolerably
emancipated, when we are alone together; but now that this report about
me is being spread, she dare not keep me on any longer.
Mrs. Stockmann. And someone who had been a guest of ours! That shows
you the return you get for your hospitality, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann. We won't live in such a disgusting hole any longer. Pack
up as quickly as you can, Katherine; the sooner we can get away, the
better.
Mrs. Stockmann. Be quiet—I think I hear someone in the hall. See who
it is, Petra.
Petra (opening the door). Oh, it's you, Captain Horster! Do come in.
Horster (coming in). Good morning. I thought I would just come in and
see how you were.
Dr. Stockmann (shaking his hand). Thanks—that is really kind of you.
Mrs. Stockmann. And thank you, too, for helping us through the crowd,
Captain Horster.
Petra. How did you manage to get home again?
Horster. Oh, somehow or other. I am fairly strong, and there is more
sound than fury about these folk.
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, isn't their swinish cowardice astonishing? Look
here, I will show you something! There are all the stones they have
thrown through my windows. Just look at them! I'm hanged if there are
more than two decently large bits of hard stone in the whole heap; the
rest are nothing but gravel—wretched little things. And yet they stood
out there bawling and swearing that they would do me some violence; but
as for doing anything—you don't see much of that in this town.
Horster. Just as well for you this time, doctor!
Dr. Stockmann. True enough. But it makes one angry all the same;
because if some day it should be a question of a national fight in real
earnest, you will see that public opinion will be in favour of taking
to one's heels, and the compact majority will turn tail like a flock of
sheep, Captain Horster. That is what is so mournful to think of; it
gives me so much concern, that—. No, devil take it, it is ridiculous
to care about it! They have called me an enemy of the people, so an
enemy of the people let me be!
Mrs. Stockmann. You will never be that, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. Don't swear to that, Katherine. To be called an ugly