An Enemy of the People

Dr. Thomas Stockmann thinks he has done his town a great service. The medicinal baths that draw visitors and money to the community are, he discovers, poisoned by runoff from a nearby tannery, and he expects to be thanked for catching the danger before it harms anyone. Instead the townspeople, led by his own brother the mayor, turn on him rather than face the cost of a cleanup. Ibsen wrote this 1882 play partly in anger at the reception of his earlier work, and it burns with contempt for the cowardice of what he calls the compact majority. The result is a sharp, still-pointed study of one stubborn man who would rather be right and alone than comfortable and quiet. Free to download as a PDF or EPUB.