41 pages • 1 hour read
Henrik IbsenAn Enemy of the People
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1882A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Contamination
Contamination and pollution are a running motif throughout An Enemy of the People. This motif begins when Thomas Stockmann discovers the literal contamination of the Baths; what was meant to be a source of purifying medicinal water is instead responsible for several illnesses among the Baths’ initial clients. Since the contamination consists of invisible microbes, many people do not believe Thomas’s claims. The water appears to be clear, so they assume it must be pure, and Thomas must be mistaken. Morten Kiil, whose tannery bears primary responsibility for the contamination, epitomizes this skepticism. He refers to the bacteria dismissively as “beasts” and “little animals,” strongly implying that what he cannot see with his own eyes must be imaginary.
Soon, the contamination of the water becomes a metaphor for the political situation in the town; everything appears well run on the surface, and citizens are generally satisfied, but people like Hovstad and Petra see that a few wealthy people are making all the decisions and that many of their choices are misguided. At first, many of the characters agree that this “pollution” should be addressed. Hovstad, Billing, and Petra yearn for revolution from the beginning, and Thomas begins to agree with them after he realizes that Peter cares more about money than about keeping the town safe.
By Act IV, it is clear that the metaphorical contamination runs deeper than Thomas ever realized. When Peter reveals that fixing the Baths will come at immense cost and require the facility to close for two years, all of Thomas’s supporters switch sides and use their own beliefs against him, painting him as a foolish radical who seeks to destroy the town. Throughout most of the play Thomas cares only about the literal pollution in the Baths, but as he sees the town turn against him, those concerns become secondary to his belief that the town is metaphorically poisoned. By Act V, his refusal to lie about the water contamination appears to be less motivated by a desire to prevent sickness and more by an emotional need to prove his point about the community in general.
The Town and its Citizens
The unnamed town in An Enemy of the People acts as a symbol for 19th-century Norwegian society as a whole, and in many ways for society in general. Although the story plays out on a relatively small scale, Henrik Ibsen intended the story as a critique of his culture on a larger scale, especially the government, the media and what he calls the “liberal majority.” Peter—who, as mayor, represents the government—is shown to be charming but self-serving and ultimately damaging to the people he aims to lead. The media, represented by the People’s Messenger employees Hovstad and Billing, are depicted as somewhat manipulative; their real views are very different from those that they share with the public, and although they claim they want to share the truth with the population, they avoid printing anything that will upset their readership. The “liberal majority” is symbolized by Aslaksen and the other townspeople. They are most concerned with “moderation,” which in Ibsen’s mind means going along with majority opinion even when the majority is demonstrably wrong.
Petra, Thomas, and, to some extent, Horster symbolize “free-thinking,” which Ibsen sees as exceedingly rare in his local culture. They are the only characters who are not swayed by the forces of money and public opinion, and as a result they are ostracized from the community. In the end, the contamination in the Baths is all but forgotten, and the reader is left to assume that any future visitors to the town will likely be poisoned, and the town will be destroyed by its own lack of foresight. This becomes a symbol for the dangers of democracy; if the citizens of a democratic society value money and status over truth, they are bound to make bad decisions with disastrous consequences.
Alcohol
Alcohol appears as a symbol several times. In the opening scenes, many characters gather at the Stockmann house for drinks. On one level, this can be seen as a symbol of the camaraderie that exists between the primary characters before the pollution becomes public; characters freely enter the Stockmann house at any time and are greeted with hospitality and lively conversation. Before anyone’s livelihoods are at stake, it is clear that most people in the town get along well and are willing to debate politics openly.
Even in the opening scenes, though, some characters see the Stockmanns’ and their friends’ drinking habits as a symbol of depravity. In his first visit to the house, Peter puts down his brother’s lavish lifestyle after refusing the offer of a toddy. Aslaksen, the secretary of the Temperance society, similarly declines a drink and implies that he is morally superior because of his teetotaling. Temperance is aligned with political progressivism as this era defined it, and Ibsen suggests that a sense of smug superiority underlies both positions. Peter and Aslaksen’s anti-alcohol stance is subtle in the opening acts, but by the time of the public meeting it becomes clear that they are willing to weaponize the question of alcohol against their political enemies, as they attempt to discredit Thomas by spreading the rumor that he drinks too much. At the meeting in which Thomas is declared an enemy of the people, a man who is clearly intoxicated serves as the sole voice of reason in the crowd. When the crowd refuses to let the drunk man participate in the meeting, it becomes clear that to them, drunkenness is a reason to discount a person entirely.
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By Henrik Ibsen
