An Enemy of the People
name may have the same effect as a pin-scratch in the lung. And that
hateful name—I can't get quit of it. It is sticking here in the pit of
my stomach, eating into me like a corrosive acid. And no magnesia will
remove it.
Petra. Bah!—you should only laugh at them, father,
Horster. They will change their minds some day, Doctor.
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, Thomas, as sure as you are standing here.
Dr. Stockmann. Perhaps, when it is too late. Much good may it do them!
They may wallow in their filth then and rue the day when they drove a
patriot into exile. When do you sail, Captain Horster?
Horster. Hm!—that was just what I had come to speak about—
Dr. Stockmann. Why, has anything gone wrong with the ship?
Horster. No; but what has happened is that I am not to sail in it.
Petra. Do you mean that you have been dismissed from your command?
Horster (smiling). Yes, that's just it.
Petra. You too.
Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann. And that for the truth's sake! Oh, if I had thought such
a thing possible—
Horster. You mustn't take it to heart; I shall be sure to find a job
with some ship-owner or other, elsewhere.
Dr. Stockmann. And that is this man Vik—a wealthy man, independent of
everyone and everything—! Shame on him!
Horster. He is quite an excellent fellow otherwise; he told me himself
he would willingly have kept me on, if only he had dared—
Dr. Stockmann. But he didn't dare? No, of course not.
Horster. It is not such an easy matter, he said, for a party man—
Dr. Stockmann. The worthy man spoke the truth. A party is like a
sausage machine; it mashes up all sorts of heads together into the same
mincemeat—fatheads and blockheads, all in one mash!
Mrs. Stockmann. Come, come, Thomas dear!
Petra (to HORSTER). If only you had not come home with us, things might
not have come to this pass.
Horster. I do not regret it.
Petra (holding out her hand to him). Thank you for that!
Horster (to DR. STOCKMANN). And so what I came to say was that if you
are determined to go away, I have thought of another plan—
Dr. Stockmann. That's splendid!—if only we can get away at once.
Mrs. Stockmann. Hush!—wasn't that some one knocking?
Petra. That is uncle, surely.
Dr. Stockmann. Aha! (Calls out.) Come in!
Mrs. Stockmann. Dear Thomas, promise me definitely—. (PETER STOCKMANN
comes in from the hall.)
Peter Stockmann. Oh, you are engaged. In that case, I will—
Dr. Stockmann. No, no, come in.
Peter Stockmann. But I wanted to speak to you alone.
Mrs. Stockmann. We will go into the sitting-room in the meanwhile.
Horster. And I will look in again later.
Dr. Stockmann. No, go in there with them, Captain Horster; I want to
hear more about—.
Horster. Very well, I will wait, then. (He follows MRS. STOCKMANN and
PETRA into the sitting-room.)
Dr. Stockmann. I daresay you find it rather draughty here today. Put
your hat on.
Peter Stockmann. Thank you, if I may. (Does so.) I think I caught cold
last night; I stood and shivered—
Dr. Stockmann. Really? I found it warm enough.
Peter Stockmann. I regret that it was not in my power to prevent those
excesses last night.
Dr. Stockmann. Have you anything in particular to say to me besides
that?
Peter Stockmann (taking a big letter from his pocket). I have this
document for you, from the Baths Committee.
Dr. Stockmann. My dismissal?
Peter Stockmann. Yes, dating from today. (Lays the letter on the
table.) It gives us pain to do it; but, to speak frankly, we dared not
do otherwise on account of public opinion.
Dr. Stockmann (smiling). Dared not? I seem to have heard that word
before, today.
Peter Stockmann. I must beg you to understand your position clearly.
For the future you must not count on any practice whatever in the town.
Dr. Stockmann. Devil take the practice! But why are you so sure of that?
Peter Stockmann. The Householders' Association is circulating a list
from house to house. All right-minded citizens are being called upon to
give up employing you; and I can assure you that not a single head of a
family will risk refusing his signature. They simply dare not.
Dr. Stockmann. No, no; I don't doubt it. But what then?
Peter Stockmann. If I might advise you, it would be best to leave the
place for a little while—
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, the propriety of leaving the place has occurred to
me.
Peter Stockmann. Good. And then, when you have had six months to think
things over, if, after mature consideration, you can persuade yourself
to write a few words of regret, acknowledging your error—
Dr. Stockmann. I might have my appointment restored to me, do you mean?
Peter Stockmann. Perhaps. It is not at all impossible.
Dr. Stockmann. But what about public opinion, then? Surely you would
not dare to do it on account of public feeling...
Peter Stockmann. Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing. And, to
be quite candid with you, it is a matter of great importance to us to
have some admission of that sort from you in writing.
Dr. Stockmann. Oh, that's what you are after, is it! I will just
trouble you to remember what I said to you lately about foxy tricks of
that sort!
Peter Stockmann. Your position was quite different then. At that time
you had reason to suppose you had the whole town at your back—
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and now I feel I have the whole town ON my
back—(flaring up). I would not do it if I had the devil and his dam on
my back—! Never—never, I tell you!
Peter Stockmann. A man with a family has no right to behave as you do.
You have no right to do it, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. I have no right! There is only one single thing in the
world a free man has no right to do. Do you know what that is?
Peter Stockmann. No.
Dr. Stockmann. Of course you don't, but I will tell you. A free man has
no right to soil himself with filth; he has no right to behave in a way
that would justify his spitting in his own face.
Peter Stockmann. This sort of thing sounds extremely plausible, of
course; and if there were no other explanation for your obstinacy—.
But as it happens that there is.
Dr. Stockmann. What do you mean?
Peter Stockmann. You understand, very well what I mean. But, as your
brother and as a man of discretion, I advise you not to build too much
upon expectations and prospects that may so very easily fail you.
Dr. Stockmann. What in the world is all this about?
Peter Stockmann. Do you really ask me to believe that you are ignorant
of the terms of Mr. Kiil's will?
Dr. Stockmann. I know that the small amount he possesses is to go to an
institution for indigent old workpeople. How does that concern me?
Peter Stockmann. In the first place, it is by no means a small amount
that is in question. Mr. Kiil is a fairly wealthy man.
Dr. Stockmann. I had no notion of that!
Peter Stockmann. Hm!—hadn't you really? Then I suppose you had no
notion, either, that a considerable portion of his wealth will come to
your children, you and your wife having a life-rent of the capital. Has
he never told you so?
Dr. Stockmann. Never, on my honour! Quite the reverse; he has
consistently done nothing but fume at being so unconscionably heavily
taxed. But are you perfectly certain of this, Peter?
Peter Stockmann. I have it from an absolutely reliable source.
Dr. Stockmann. Then, thank God, Katherine is provided for—and the
children too! I must tell her this at once—(calls out) Katherine,
Katherine!
Peter Stockmann (restraining him). Hush, don't say a word yet!
Mrs. Stockmann (opening the door). What is the matter?
Dr. Stockmann. Oh, nothing, nothing; you can go back. (She shuts the
door. DR. STOCKMANN walks up and down in his excitement.) Provided
for!—Just think of it, we are all provided for! And for life! What a
blessed feeling it is to know one is provided for!
Peter Stockmann. Yes, but that is just exactly what you are not. Mr.
Kiil can alter his will any day he likes.
Dr. Stockmann. But he won't do that, my dear Peter. The "Badger" is
much too delighted at my attack on you and your wise friends.
Peter Stockmann (starts and looks intently at him). Ah, that throws a
light on various things.
Dr. Stockmann. What things?
Peter Stockmann. I see that the whole thing was a combined manoeuvre on
your part and his. These violent, reckless attacks that you have made
against the leading men of the town, under the pretence that it was in
the name of truth—
Dr. Stockmann. What about them?
Peter Stockmann. I see that they were nothing else than the stipulated
price for that vindictive old man's will.
Dr. Stockmann (almost speechless). Peter—you are the most disgusting
plebeian I have ever met in all my life.
Peter Stockmann. All is over between us. Your dismissal is
irrevocable—we have a weapon against you now. (Goes out.)
Dr. Stockmann. For shame! For shame! (Calls out.) Katherine, you must
have the floor scrubbed after him! Let—what's her name—devil take it,
the girl who has always got soot on her nose—
Mrs. Stockmann. (in the sitting-room). Hush, Thomas, be quiet!
Petra (coming to the door). Father, grandfather is here, asking if he
may speak to you alone.
Dr. Stockmann. Certainly he may. (Going to the door.) Come in, Mr.
Kiil. (MORTEN KIIL comes in. DR. STOCKMANN shuts the door after him.)
What can I do for you? Won't you sit down?
Morten Kiil. I won't sit. (Looks around.) You look very comfortable
here today, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, don't we!
Morten Kiil. Very comfortable—plenty of fresh air. I should think you
have got enough to-day of that oxygen you were talking about yesterday.
Your conscience must be in splendid order to-day, I should think.
Dr. Stockmann. It is.
Morten Kiil. So I should think. (Taps his chest.) Do you know what I
have got here?
Dr. Stockmann. A good conscience, too, I hope.
Morten Kiil. Bah!—No, it is something better than that. (He takes a
thick pocket-book from his breast-pocket, opens it, and displays a
packet of papers.)
Dr. Stockmann (looking at him in astonishment). Shares in the Baths?
Morten Kiil. They were not difficult to get today.
Dr. Stockmann. And you have been buying—?
Morten Kiil. As many as I could pay for.
Dr. Stockmann. But, my dear Mr. Kiil—consider the state of the Baths'
affairs!
Morten Kiil. If you behave like a reasonable man, you can soon set the
Baths on their feet again.
Dr. Stockmann. Well, you can see for yourself that I have done all I
can, but—. They are all mad in this town!
Morten Kiil. You said yesterday that the worst of this pollution came
from my tannery. If that is true, then my grandfather and my father
before me, and I myself, for many years past, have been poisoning the
town like three destroying angels. Do you think I am going to sit quiet
under that reproach?
Dr. Stockmann. Unfortunately I am afraid you will have to.
Morten Kiil. No, thank you. I am jealous of my name and reputation.
They call me "the Badger," I am told. A badger is a kind of pig, I
believe; but I am not going to give them the right to call me that. I
mean to live and die a clean man.
Dr. Stockmann. And how are you going to set about it?
Morten Kiil. You shall cleanse me, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. I!
Morten Kiil. Do you know what money I have bought these shares with?
No, of course you can't know—but I will tell you. It is the money that
Katherine and Petra and the boys will have when I am gone. Because I
have been able to save a little bit after all, you know.
Dr. Stockmann (flaring up). And you have gone and taken Katherine's
money for this!
Morten Kiil. Yes, the whole of the money is invested in the Baths now.
And now I just want to see whether you are quite stark, staring mad,