Enemy of the People - Play Review

An Enemy of the People is a play based on a town whose community is very close knit. This play addresses many unreasonable and irrational tendencies of the people of the town and also how dishonest the political system can be. The story is based on one man's struggle to do the right thing and also tell the truth in a situation where everyone seems to be against him. The overall play focuses on the extent of how individuals' desires and beliefs are compromised by society. A major theme addressed in An Enemy of the People deals with how there are many factors that cause people to veer from the truth.

The story starts out with Dr. Thomas Stockmann who is a well-known citizen in the town. Recently, the town, including the doctor, his brother Peter Stockmann, and the Mayor, hav invested in a vast amount of private and public money to developing baths of the town. In the beginning of the play Dr. Stockmann does some research on the baths and finds that the water of the baths is polluted from the town's tannery which is causing severe illnesses around the town. This discovery of his is supposed to be a very important and great achievement for him. When he brings this issue to the mayor and the town, no one seems to appreciate and understand quiet how serious this issue is. The mayor argues that he is not willing to publicly acknowledge the problem due to the fact that it could financially ruin the town. Dr. Stockmann cannot seem to accept this and decides to hold a town meeting in order to persuade the people that the baths must be closed. Unfortunately, at the meeting no one is willing to give the Doctor a chance because they know how much prosperity the baths will bring to them. Everyone who had in the beginning given Dr. Stockmann all of their support for his discovery seem to slowly be turning against him. Matters become worse and no matter what Dr. Stockmann has to say, everyone is turning their backs and all start to chant "Enemy of the People!" After the meeting the mayor and everyone in the town try to bring the doctor down and threaten to have his medical practice taken away from him if he does not leave the town. At the end Dr. Stockmann and his family conclude to stay in the town even as an enemy. He says "The strongest man in the world in the man who stands most alone."

The play An Enemy of the People deals with focusing on the truth and how all of the people of the town show their feelings about it. We learn that motivation is the key to the way how a person acts and reacts. We see throughout the play how everyone is motivated by certain things which cause them to act a different way. This causes them all to end up in fights and conflicts due to their different views about the truth, in this case the truth of the baths. An example of how motivation drives certain characters in the play to act the way they do would be the Mayor. The Mayor's motivation in this play is money. He acts the way he does because he is hungry for money and is not willing to let anything get in the way of it. The motivation of Dr. Stockmann is the fact that his is genuinely concerned about the health of the public and he believes that he is doing the right thing. This is the reason why he exposes the truth of the polluted baths. Mrs. Stockmann is motivated by her loyalty towards her husband and this is what causes her to act the way she does. Everyone is motivated by different things that are important to them and it is what causes their actions.

In An Enemy of the People the Mayor ignores the truth because of the money. One big motivation for the Mayor was money