ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, AN

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (original title: EN FOLKEFIENDE) is an 1882 play written by Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen wrote this play in the response to the public outcry against his play GHOSTS, which was considered scandalous for the time.

Dr. Thomas Stockmann, a public-minded doctor in a small town famous for its public baths, discovers that the water supply for the baths is contaminated, causing serious illness among the tourists who are the town's economic lifeblood. In his effort to clean up the water supply, Dr. Stockmann runs into political cowards, sold-out journalists, short-sighted armchair economists, and a benighted citizenry. His own principled idealism exacerbates the conflict. The well-meaning doctor is publicly labelled an enemy of the people, and he and his family are driven out of the town he was trying to save.

An Enemy of the People addresses the irrational tendencies of the masses, and the hypocritical and corrupt nature of the political system that they support. It is the story of one man's brave struggle to do the right thing and speak the truth in the face of extreme social intolerance.

This classic play was adapted by Arthur Miller in the 1950s. His adaptation was presented on National Educational Television in 1966, in a production starring James Daly. It was also made into a movie of the same name in 1978, starring Steve McQueen.