An Enemy of the People

“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”

Hovstad says this in Act I, and Horster, the ship captain, disagrees with him, stating that on an actual ship not everyone has the skill to be captain. Thomas ultimately embodies this quote in Act V when he decides that the only hope for the town is for him to stay and fight for the truth.

“If only I had the means I would start a school of my own, and it would be conducted on very different lines.”

Petra expresses her desire to teach children in her own way from the beginning of the play. She is dissatisfied with having to “lie” to the children. Her desire will ultimately be realized, somewhat against her will, in Act V, when Thomas declares that she will start a school for her brothers and other children to learn how to think for themselves.

“The whole place is a pesthouse!”

Thomas says this line when he first reveals the pollution at the Baths to Hovstad, Billing, and his family. At the time he is talking exclusively about the bacteria in the water, but the line quickly gains more meaning as the characters begin to discuss the government mismanagement that led to the pollution in the first place.

“It is a splendid thing for a man to be able to feel he has done a service to his native town and to his fellow citizens.”

When Thomas first discovers the pollution, he believes he will be viewed as a hero, having averted possible disaster before it happens. This line becomes ironic by the end of the play, when instead he is declared an “enemy of the people.”

“Oh well, it is better never to trust anybody; you may find you have been made a fool of before you know where you are.”

With this line, Morten Kiil sets himself apart from the trustworthy Thomas and begins to reveal his shrewd, calculating character. He is a wealthy, powerful citizen of the town, and is accustomed to everyone around him acting in untrustworthy, self-serving ways.

“The morass that the whole life of our town is built on and is rotting in.”

Henrik Ibsen uses the pollution in the Baths as a metaphor for the dangers of small-town democracy. Hovstad says this line when he first tries to convince Thomas that the Baths’ contamination is not the biggest problem they face, but only a symptom of the larger problems within their community.

“Moderation is always my aim; it is the greatest virtue in a citizen—at least I think so.”

Aslaksen prides himself on being moderate, and for the first three acts he implores other characters to follow his lead. This moderate temperament is shown to be somewhat of an act, though, when he leads the charge in damning Thomas in Act IV. 

“The idol of Authority must be shattered in this town.”

Hovstad wants to use the Baths’ contamination as a jumping-off point for a full-scale revolution in the town. Early lines like this one show that he only cares about the pollution if it helps him gain public support against the town’s leadership. 

“We should probably have to abandon the whole thing, which has cost us so much money—and then you would have ruined your native town.”

As soon as he hears about the pollution, Peter becomes convinced that Thomas’s main motivation is to undermine him. It is never clear why he feels this way, but lines like this one imply that he is worried that if he supports something that will damage the town’s economy, his status as mayor will be in peril. By immediately turning to hyperbole and suggesting that Thomas will destroy the town, Peter begins the process of painting his brother as a radical.

“As I sat in there reading this, I almost seemed to see a revolution in being.”

Billing, like Hovstad, is a committed revolutionary. When Thomas sends the report about the Baths, they view it not as a truthful article that they must publish but as a tool for their political goals. This results in their immediate rejection of the article when they are told that the community will not actually support it.

“We only need to stand by one another, and it will all be perfectly easy.”

Thomas trusts his early supporters to stand by the truth no matter what, and he is confused when they suggest that his article might result in action against him. This shows that he believes that other citizens, like him, value the truth more than power or money.

“If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above it; they feel more secure, as it were.”

This line reveals Billing and Hovstad’s crafty political tactics. They share Petra’s distaste for the sentimental English story, but they believe their readers will like it and thus be more inclined to trust the paper when it publishes more radical political opinions. Like her father, Petra is committed to the truth, and is shocked when she realizes that the newspaper writers will publish things they don’t believe if it helps them achieve their ultimate goals.

“I merely print what is put into my hands.”

Aslaksen says this line to Peter to absolve himself of responsibility for the newspaper’s publishing information about the pollution. It is shown to be untrue when Aslaksen agrees to suppress Thomas’s story.

“Truth and the People will win the fight, you may be certain! I see a whole army of the broad-minded middle class marching like a victorious army—!”

Even as Thomas begins to lose support, he believes that the truth will prevail. This line will be subverted in Act V when a crowd begins to march through the streets in opposition to the doctor.

“Dr. Stockmann is going to deliver an address attacking the Mayor.”

This statement by a person in the crowd at the meeting shows that misinformation has already begun to spread about the intent of Thomas’s speech. The crowd still knows nothing about the contamination, but believe that their beloved mayor is about to be criticized by his own brother.

“Since my fellow citizens choose to entrust me with this duty, I cannot refuse.”

Aslaksen says this line after being selected as the meeting’s chairman. He is in exactly the position he hoped for, but performs a deferential attitude, implying that his election is the will of the people rather than an intentional political tactic that he and Peter planned and executed.

“He talks about the Baths; but it is a revolution he is aiming at—he wants to get the administration of the town put into new hands.”

As soon as he is in charge of the meeting, Aslaksen begins to call Thomas’s intentions into question and put words in his mouth. Ironically, Hovstad, who throughout the play wanted to use the Baths as a revolutionary tactic, supports Aslaksen and publicly denounces the idea that he proposed in the first place.

“The majority never has right on its side. Never, I say! That is one of those social lies against which an independent, intelligent man must wage war.”

Enraged by the antics of his fellow citizens, Thomas reverses his opinions about the “liberal majority” held through most of the play. His hyperbolic speech plays directly into his enemies’ hands as he begins to denounce democracy completely and imply that everyone in the crowd is simply following whatever their leaders tell them to think.

“The kind of common people I mean are not only to be found low down on the social scale; they crawl and swarm all around us, even in the highest social positions.”

Ibsen does not believe in the common Victorian-era view that upper class people are more suited for leadership than those in the lower classes. Instead, he believes that misinformation and dangerous opinions are rampant throughout all of society. Thomas reflects this throughout his speech.

“Yes, yes! He is an enemy of the people! He hates his country! He hates his own people!”

As the meeting ends, the crowd is whipped into a frenzy without really knowing why. Still ignorant of Thomas’s true intentions, they are persuaded by the other powerful community members to declare him an enemy. This shows that contrary to Thomas’s belief, truth is not the most important thing in democratic society, and that people are willing to follow their leaders blindly.

“I shall treasure these stones as relics.”

Thomas sees the stones that have broken his windows as symbols of his moral superiority. Despite the entire town being angry with him, he has remained steadfast in his commitment to fight for the Baths to be closed. He declares that he will pass the stones down to his sons as a reminder for them to tell the truth no matter the consequences.

“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.”

When Peter asks him to renounce his pollution report after the meeting, the mayor implies that regaining community respect should be more important to Thomas than telling the truth. This line is part of Thomas’s response, after Peter states that he has no right to damage his family. Thomas believes that if a person is forced to go against what they believe, they are not really free.

“I mean to live and die a clean man.”

This line shows Morten Kiil’s internal hypocrisy. His actions in Act V can be viewed as highly immoral, but he believes that as long as the public sees him as a good person, he will be a “clean man”