More on "Enemy of the People"

This is a play written by Henrik Ibsen and adapted by Arthur Miller.  A doctor discovers that the waters  in a recently built health spring are contaminated. The spring is vital to the town's economy and to modify the water supply properly would require  a new tax levied on the not very prosperous town and two years. The play explores how the town is turned against the doctor and how most townspeople refuse to even hear what the doctor has to say, but are willing to see him as utterly evil and even threaten his safety and that of his family.  I am afraid that this type of behavior is becoming more common.

The play also has many subthemes. For example, it explores the mixed motives of a born rebel against authority (the doctor) who imagines himself as being lauded while showing the world how he is right and the people in power who chose the wrong water source were wrong. It shows the cupidity of journalists who are all for overthrowing authority until they see that opposing authority might threaten the circulation and income of their newspaper. It asks does an individual have the right to endanger his family in pursuit of  what he sees as the right. But the main theme is how an unthinking populace, egged on by demagogues, can turn a deaf ear to truth and become unreasoning and violent mob.