by Henrik Ibsen
HOVSTAD: Instead of standing there, talking up-in-the-air like that, it would be amusing to hear what these marrowless old truths are that we all live on.
Sounds of agreement from many quarters.
DR STOCKMANN: Oh, I could reel off a multitude of such abominations; but for now I’ll stick to one approved truth, which is actually a foul lie, but which Mr Hovstad and The Messenger and all The Messenger’s supporters live by nevertheless.
HOVSTAD: And that is –?
DR STOCKMANN: It’s the doctrine you’ve inherited from your forefathers, that you preach mindlessly far and wide – the doctrine that the common folk, the hordes, the masses, are the nation’s core – that it is the very people itself – that the common man, the ignorant and uncultivated member of society, has as much right to condemn or approve, to govern and control, as the few spiritually noble individuals.
BILLING: God strike me dead, I’ve never –
HOVSTAD [shouting at the same time]: Citizens, take note of this!
ANGRY VOICES: Oho! Aren’t we the people? Is it only noble folk who should govern?
A WORKER: Out with that man – talking like that!
ANOTHER: Chuck him out the door!
ANOTHER [calling out]: Toot your horn, Evensen!
A horn blasts out, whistles are blown, and there is a raging uproar in the room.
DR STOCKMANN [when the noise has quietened a little]: But be reasonable now! Can’t you bear to hear the voice of truth for once? I certainly don’t expect you all to agree with me right away; but I’d certainly have expected Mr Hovstad to admit I was right, when he’d gathered himself a little. Mr Hovstad does after all claim to be a freethinker –57
PERPLEXED VOICES [hushed]: Freethinker, did he say? Is the editor a freethinker?
HOVSTAD [shouting]: Prove it, Dr Stockmann! When have I ever said that in print?
DR STOCKMANN [chewing it over]: No, damn it all, you’re quite right – that free-spoken you’ve never been. But I wouldn’t want to get you into trouble, Mr Hovstad. Let’s assume I’m the freethinker then. Because now I shall turn to natural science to make it clear to each and every one of you, that The People’s Messenger is leading you shamefully by the nose, when it declares that you – the common folk, the masses, the crowd – make up the nation’s true core. That’s just a newspaper lie! The common people are merely the base material from which the nation must fashion true people.
Snarls, laughter and unease in the room.
DR STOCKMANN: Yes, because isn’t that the way of things in the rest of the living world? There’s a great difference, surely, between a cultivated and uncultivated species of animal? Just look at an ordinary farm hen. What meat value has a stunted chicken carcase of that sort? Not a great deal! And what kind of eggs does it lay? Any half respectable crow or raven can lay almost as decent an egg. But take a well-bred Spanish or Japanese hen, or a noble pheasant or turkey – yes, then you’ll see the difference all right. And now let me turn to dogs, to whom we humans are so closely related. First, imagine a simple common dog – I mean, the kind of vile, ragged, badly behaved mongrel that runs around in the streets fouling the house walls. And put one of these mongrels next to a poodle whose pedigree goes back several generations, and who comes from a noble house where it’s been fed with good food and had the chance to hear harmonious voices and music. Don’t you think that the poodle’s cranium has developed quite differently from that of the mongrel?58 Yes, you can be sure. It is these cultivated poodle puppies that showmen train to do the most amazing tricks. Things an ordinary peasant mongrel could never learn if it stood on its head.
Scattered commotion and joking.
A CITIZEN [shouts]: Are you turning us into dogs now, too?
ANOTHER CITIZEN: We’re not animals, doctor!
DR STOCKMANN: Ah, but by God, we are animals, old chap! We are, all of us, the finest animals anyone could wish. But there certainly aren’t many noble animals among us. Oh, there’s a quite terrifying distance between poodle-humans and mongrel-humans. And the hilarious thing is that our editor, Mr Hovstad, agrees with me entirely, so long as we’re talking about four-legged animals –
HOVSTAD: Well, they are what they are.
DR STOCKMANN: Quite; but as soon as I extend this law to those on two legs, Mr Hovstad stops short; then he no longer dares to believe his own beliefs, to think his own thoughts to their conclusion; then he turns the whole doctrine on its head, proclaiming in The Messenger that the peasant cockerel and street mongrel – that these are the truly splendid specimens in the menagerie. But that’s the way of it, always, so long as the mentality of the common man remains inside you, and so long as you haven’t worked your way out to spiritual nobility.
HOVSTAD: I lay no claim to any such nobility. I descend from simple farming stock; and I’m proud that I have my roots deep among the common folk who are being insulted here.
MANY WORKERS: Hurrah for Hovstad! Hurrah! Hurrah!
DR STOCKMANN: The kind of common folk I’m talking about are not just found in the lower depths; they are creeping and crawling all around us – right up to the highest echelons of society. Just look at your own fine, dapper mayor! My brother Peter is as good a commoner as anyone who wears two shoes –
Laughter and shushing.
THE MAYOR: I object to such personal remarks.
DR STOCKMANN [unperturbed]: – and he’s not that way because he’s descended, just as I am, from some nasty old pirate from Pomerania or thereabouts – yes, because we are –
THE MAYOR: Absurd hearsay. I deny it!
DR STOCKMANN: – but he’s like that because he thinks the thoughts of his superiors, and believes what his superiors believe. People who do that are spiritual commoners; and that’s why at bottom my magnificent brother Peter is so terribly far from being noble – and consequently so far from being liberal-minded too.
THE MAYOR: Mr Moderator –!
HOVSTAD: So it’s the noble folk who are the liberal people here in this country? That’s interesting news!
Laughter in the crowd.
DR STOCKMANN: Indeed, that comes with my new discovery. And, what also comes with it is this: that liberal-mindedness and morality are practically the same thing. I say, therefore, that it’s inexcusable when The Messenger promotes, day after day, the false doctrine that it’s the masses, the crowd, the solid majority who can lay claim to liberal-mindedness and morality – and that vice, swinishness and spiritual depravity ooze out of high culture, like the foul sludge that’s oozing into the Spa from the tanneries up there in Mølledalen!
Commotion and interruptions.
DR STOCKMANN [unperturbed, laughs in his excitement]: And yet this same People’s Messenger can go on preaching that the masses should be lifted to more elevated living conditions! But, damn it all – if The Messenger’s teachings were right, then to elevate the masses would be tantamount to toppling them straight into depravity! But fortunately, the idea that culture corrupts is nothing more than an old, inherited lie.59 No, it is ignorance, poverty, ugly living conditions that do that devil’s work! In a house which isn’t aired and swept each day – my wife Katrine maintains that the floor ought to be washed too; although that’s open to debate – anyway – within two or three years in such a house, I tell you, people lose the capacity to think or act morally. Lack of oxygen debilitates the conscience. And there must, it seems, be a huge dearth of oxygen in many, many houses here in town, since the entire solid majority have so little conscience that they want to build the town’s progress on a quagmire of lies and deceit.
ASLAKSEN: Such grave accusations shouldn’t be hurled at an entire community.
A GENTLEMAN: I suggest the moderator order the speaker to stand down.
EAGER VOICES: Yes, yes! That’s right! Make him stand down!
DR STOCKMANN [flaring up]: Then I shall shout the truth from every street corner! I shall write it in the out-of-town newspapers! The whole country will learn what’s going on here!
&
nbsp; HOVSTAD: The doctor seems almost intent on destroying this town.
DR STOCKMANN: Yes, I hold my native town so dear that I’d rather destroy it than see it flourish on a lie.
ASLAKSEN: These are strong words.
Commotion and whistles being blown. MRS STOCKMANN coughs to no avail; The DOCTOR no longer hears her.
HOVSTAD [shouting over the din]: A man who wishes to destroy an entire community must be an enemy of its citizens.
DR STOCKMANN [with growing passion]: It’s of no consequence if a lie-ridden community is destroyed. It should be razed to the ground, I say! All those who live a lie should be eradicated like vermin! You’ll bring a plague upon the entire country in the end; you’ll make it so the entire country deserves to be laid waste. And if it comes to that, then I say from the depths of my heart: let the entire country be laid waste, let this entire people be eradicated!
ONE MAN [in the crowd]: That’s the talk of an enemy of the people!60
BILLING: There sounded, God strike me dead, the voice of the people!
THE WHOLE CROWD [shouting]: Yes, yes, yes! He’s an enemy of the people! He hates his country! He hates our whole people!
ASLAKSEN: I am, both as a citizen of this country and as a human being, deeply shaken by what I’ve had to listen to here. Dr Stockmann has betrayed himself in ways I’d never have dreamed possible. I must sadly concur with the opinion expressed here by our most worthy citizens; and I hold that we ought to give that opinion expression in a resolution. I propose the following: ‘This meeting declares that it considers the medical officer, Dr Tomas Stockmann, an Enemy of the People.’
A storm of cheers and applause. Many people encircle the DOCTOR, blowing their whistles at him. MRS STOCKMANN and PETRA have got up. MORTEN and EILIF are fighting the other SCHOOLBOYS who have also been whistling. Some adults separate them.
DR STOCKMANN [to the men who are whistling]: Oh, what fools ye be – I tell you this –
ASLAKSEN [ringing his bell]: The doctor no longer has the floor. A formal vote needs to be taken; but, to spare any personal feelings, this should be done in writing and anonymously. Have you got some clean paper, Mr Billing?
BILLING: I’ve got blue paper and white here –
ASLAKSEN [steps down]: Excellent; that’ll be quicker. Cut it into pieces – that’s it, yes. [To the assembly] Blue means no; white means yes. I’ll come round to collect the votes myself.
PETER STOCKMANN leaves the room. ASLAKSEN and a couple of other citizens go round the hall with the slips of paper in their hats.
A GENTLEMAN [to HOVSTAD]: What’s come over the doctor, eh? What are we to make of all this?
HOVSTAD: Well, you know how hot-headed he is.
SECOND GENTLEMAN [to BILLING]: Listen, Billing, you visit the house. Have you noticed if the man drinks?
BILLING: God strike me dead if I know what to say. The toddy’s always on the table when anybody comes.
THIRD GENTLEMAN: No, I just think he’s a bit unhinged at times.
FIRST GENTLEMAN: Yes, I wonder if there’s any hereditary madness in the family?
BILLING: Could well be, yes.
FOURTH GENTLEMAN: No, it’s pure malice, that’s what; revenge for something or other.
BILLING: Well, he mentioned a pay rise a day or so ago; but he didn’t get it.
ALL THE GENTLEMEN [together]: Aha; that explains it!
THE DRUNKEN MAN [who is in the crowd]: I want a blue one! And a white one too!
SHOUTS: It’s that drunkard again! Get him out!
MORTEN KIIL [approaching the DOCTOR]: So, Stockmann, do you see now what comes of such monkey tricks?
DR STOCKMANN: I’ve done my duty.
MORTEN KIIL: What was it you said about the tanneries in Mølledalen?
DR STOCKMANN: You heard; I said they were where all the muck came from.
MORTEN KIIL: From my tannery too?
DR STOCKMANN: Unfortunately, your tannery’s probably the worst.
MORTEN KIIL: Are you going to get that printed in the newspapers?
DR STOCKMANN: I shan’t brush anything under the carpet.
MORTEN KIIL: That may cost you dear, Stockmann. [Goes out.]
MR VIK61 [walks over to
CAPTAIN HORSTER without greeting the LADIES]: So, captain, you lend out your house to enemies of the people, eh?
HORSTER: I think I can do what I want with my own property, Mr Vik.
MR VIK: So, you’d have nothing against my doing the same with mine.
HORSTER: What do you mean, sir?
MR VIK: You’ll hear from me tomorrow. [Turns his back on him and goes.]
PETRA: Wasn’t that your shipowner, Captain Horster?
HORSTER: Yes, it was Mr Vik.
ASLAKSEN [with the voting papers in his hands, climbs up on to the platform and rings the bell]: Gentlemen, allow me to inform you of the result. By all votes to one –
A YOUNG GENTLEMAN: That was the drunkard’s!
ASLAKSEN: By all votes to one intoxicated man’s, this citizens’ assembly declares the medical officer, Dr Tomas Stockmann, an enemy of the people. [Shouts and noises of approval] Long live our old and honourable community of citizens! [More approval] Long live our accomplished and capable mayor, who has so loyally ignored the ties of blood! [Cheering] The meeting is closed. [Climbs down.]
BILLING: Long live the moderator!
THE WHOLE CROWD: Hurrah for Aslaksen!
DR STOCKMANN: My hat and jacket, Petra! Captain, have you any room on your ship for passengers to the New World?
HORSTER: For you and yours, doctor, room will be found.
DR STOCKMANN [as PETRA helps him get his jacket on]: Good. Come on, Katrine! Come on, boys!
He takes his wife by the arm.
MRS STOCKMANN [quietly]: Tomas, my sweet, let’s go by the back door.
DR STOCKMANN: No back doors, Katrine. [With raised voice] You’ll hear more from this enemy of the people before he shakes the dust from his feet!62 I’m not as meek and mild as a certain man was; I shall not say: ‘I forgive you, for you know not what you do.’63
ASLAKSEN [shouts]: That is a blasphemous comparison, Dr Stockmann!
BILLING: That is, God strike – That’s a shocking thing for a serious-minded man to hear.
A GRUFF VOICE: And he’s threatening us too!
AGITATED VOICES: Let’s break his windows! Duck him in the fjord!
A MAN IN THE CROWD: Blow your horn, Evensen! Toot, toot!
Blowing of horn and whistles, wild screaming. The DOCTOR goes with his family towards the exit, HORSTER clearing the way for them.
THE WHOLE CROWD [yelling after them as they leave]: Enemy of the People! Enemy of the People!
BILLING [as he tidies his notes]: Well, God strike me dead, I wouldn’t want to be over at the Stockmanns’ drinking toddy tonight!
The crowd presses towards the exit. The noise continues outside; shouts of ‘Enemy of the People!’ are heard from the street.
Act Five
Dr Stockmann’s study. Bookcases and cabinets containing various medicines line the walls. In the background is a door leading to the hall; downstage left, a door leading to the living room. In the wall to the right there are two windows, in which all the panes are broken. In the middle of the room stands the doctor’s desk, covered with books and papers. The room is in disorder. It is late morning.
DR STOCKMANN in his dressing-gown, slippers and smoking cap, is bent over, raking about under one of the cabinets with an umbrella; finally he pulls out a stone.
DR STOCKMANN [talking through the open living-room door]: Katrine, I’ve found another one.
MRS STOCKMANN [from the living room]: Oh, I’m sure you’ll find a lot more.
DR STOCKMANN [adds the stone to a heap of others on the table]: I’m going to keep these stones like sacred relics. Eilif and Morten will look at them every day, and when they’re grown up they’ll inherit them from me. [Rakes about under a bookcase.] Hasn’t – oh, what the hell’s her name
– that girl – hasn’t she gone for the glazier yet?
MRS STOCKMANN [coming in]: Yes, but he said he wasn’t sure he could come today.
DR STOCKMANN: I think you’ll find he doesn’t dare.
MRS STOCKMANN: No, Randine also thought he didn’t dare because of the neighbours. [Talks into the living room] What do you want, Randine? Oh, right. [Goes in and comes straight back.] There’s a letter for you, Tomas.
DR STOCKMANN: Let me see that. [Opens and reads it.] Ah, I see.
MRS STOCKMANN: Who’s it from?
DR STOCKMANN: From the landlord. He’s giving us our notice.
MRS STOCKMANN: Are you serious? But he’s such a decent man –
DR STOCKMANN [looking at the letter]: He dare not, he says, do otherwise. He does it with the greatest reluctance; but dare not do otherwise – with regard to his fellow citizens – on account of public opinion – is dependent on – dare not offend certain influential men –
MRS STOCKMANN: Well, there you see, Tomas.
DR STOCKMANN: Yes, yes, I see it all right; they’re cowards in this town, the whole lot of them; not one of them dares do anything on account of all the others. [Throws the letter on to the table.] But it makes no odds to us now, Katrine. We’re leaving for the New World now, and then –
MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, but, Tomas – this business of leaving, is it really so well advised?
DR STOCKMANN: Should I stay here, perhaps, after they’ve pilloried me as an enemy of the people, branded me, smashed my windows! And just look at this, Katrine; they’ve ripped a hole in my black trousers too.
MRS STOCKMANN: Oh, dear; and they’re your best!
DR STOCKMANN: People should never wear their best trousers when they’re out fighting for truth and freedom. Not that I care much about my trousers, of course; you can always patch them up for me. But it’s the fact that the mob, the masses, dare to intrude on my person as though they were my equals, that’s what I can’t stomach, dammit!
MRS STOCKMANN: Yes, they’ve behaved appallingly towards you in this town, Tomas; but does that mean we have to leave the country altogether?
