An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen - HTML preview

ACT V

 

 

(SCENE.--DR. STOCKMANN'S study. Bookcases and cabinets containing specimens, line the walls.  At  the  back  is a  door  leading  to  the  hall;  in  the foreground on the left, a door leading to the sitting-room. In the righthand wall are two windows, of which all the panes are broken. The DOCTOR'S desk, littered with books and papers, stands in the middle of the room, which is in disorder. It is morning. DR. STOCKMANN in dressing- gown, slippers and a smoking-cap, is bending down and raking with an umbrella under one of the cabinets. After a little while he rakes out a stone.)

 

Dr. Stockmann (calling through the open sitting-room door). Katherine, I have found another one.

 

Mrs. Stockmann (from the sitting-room). Oh, you will find a lot more yet, I expect.

 

Dr. Stockmann (adding the stone to a heap of others on the table). I shall treasure these stones as relies. Ejlif and Morten shall look at them everyday, and when they are grown up they shall inherit them as heirlooms. (Rakes about under a bookcase.) Hasn't--what the deuce is her name?--the girl, you know--hasn't she been to fetch the glazier yet?

 

Mrs. Stockmann (coming in). Yes, but he said he didn't know if he would be able to come today.

 

Dr. Stockmann. You will see he won't dare to come.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Well, that is just what Randine thought--that he didn't dare to, on account of the neighbours. (Calls into the sitting-room.) What is it you want, Randine? Give it to me. (Goes in, and comes out again directly.) Here is a letter for you, Thomas.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Let me see it. (Opens and reads it.) Ah!--of course.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Who is it from?

 

Dr. Stockmann. From the landlord. Notice to quit.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Is it possible? Such a nice man

 

Dr. Stockmann (looking at the letter). Does not dare do otherwise, he says. Doesn't like doing it, but dare not do otherwise--on account of his fellow-citizens-- out of regard for public opinion. Is in a dependent position--dares not offend certain influential men.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas!

 

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, yes, I see well enough; the whole lot of them in the town are cowards; not a man among them dares do anything for fear of the others. (Throws the letter on to the table.) But it doesn't matter to us, Katherine. We are going to sail away to the New World, and--

 

Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas, are you sure we are well advised to take this step?

 

Dr. Stockmann. Are you suggesting that I should stay here, where they have pilloried me as an enemy of the people--branded me-- broken my windows! And just look here, Katherine--they have torn a great rent in my black trousers too!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Oh, dear!--and they are the best pair you have got!

 

Dr. Stockmann. You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth. It is not that I care so much about the trousers, you know; you can always sew them up again for me. But that the common herd should dare to make this attack on me, as if they were my equals--that is what I cannot, for the life of me, swallow!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. There is no doubt they have behaved very ill toward you, Thomas; but is that sufficient reason for our leaving our native country for good and all?

 

Dr. Stockmann. If we went to another town, do you suppose we should not find the common people just as insolent as they are here? Depend upon it, there is not much to choose between them. Oh, well, let the curs snap--that is not the worst part of it. The worst is that, from one end of this country to the other, every man is the slave of his Party. Although, as far as that goes, I daresay it is not much better in the free West either; the compact majority, and liberal public opinion, and all that infernal old bag of tricks are probably rampant there too. But there things are done on a larger scale, you see. They may kill you, but they won't put you to death by slow torture. They don't squeeze a free man's soul in a vice, as they do here. And, if need be, one can live in solitude. (Walks up and down.) If only I knew where there was a virgin forest or a small South Sea island for sale, cheap--

 

Mrs. Stockmann. But think of the boys, Thomas!

 

Dr. Stockmann (standing still). What a strange woman you are, Katherine! Would you prefer to have the boys grow up in a society like this? You saw for yourself last night that half the population are out of their minds; and if the other half have not lost their senses, it is because they are mere brutes, with no sense to lose.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. But, Thomas dear, the imprudent things you said had something to do with it, you know.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Well, isn't what I said perfectly true? Don't they turn every idea topsy-turvy? Don't they make a regular hotchpotch of right and wrong? Don't they say that the things I know are true, are lies? The craziest part of it all is the fact of these "liberals," men of full age, going about in crowds imagining that they are the broad-minded party! Did you ever hear anything like it, Katherine!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, yes, it's mad enough of them, certainly; but--(PETRA comes in from the silting-room). Back from school already?

 

Petra. Yes. I have been given notice of dismissal.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Dismissal?

 

Dr. Stockmann. You too?

 

Petra. Mrs. Busk gave me my notice; so I thought it was best to go at once.

 

Dr. Stockmann. You were perfectly right, too!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Who would have thought Mrs. Busk was a woman like that!

 

Petra. Mrs. Busk isn't a bit like that, mother; I saw quite plainly how it hurt her to do it. But she didn't dare do otherwise, she said; and so I got my notice.

 

Dr. Stockmann (laughing and rubbing his hands). She didn't dare do otherwise, either! It's delicious!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Well, after the dreadful scenes last night--

 

Petra. It was not only that. Just listen to this, father!

 

Dr. Stockmann. Well?

 

Petra. Mrs. Busk showed me no less than three letters she received this morning--

 

Dr. Stockmann. Anonymous, I suppose?

 

Petra. Yes.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, because they didn't dare to risk signing their names, Katherine!

 

Petra. And two of them were to the effect that a man, who has been our guest here, was declaring last night at the Club that my views on various subjects are extremely emancipated--

 

Dr. Stockmann. You did not deny that, I hope?

 

Petra. No, you know I wouldn't. Mrs. Busk's own views are tolerably emancipated, when we are alone together; but now that this report about me is being spread, she dare not keep me on any longer.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. And someone who had been a guest of ours! That shows you the return you get for your hospitality, Thomas!

 

Dr. Stockmann. We won't live in such a disgusting hole any longer. Pack up as quickly as you can, Katherine; the sooner we can get away, the better.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Be quiet--I think I hear someone in the hall. See who it is, Petra.

 

Petra (opening the door). Oh, it's you, Captain Horster! Do come in.

 

Horster (coming in). Good morning. I thought I would just come in and see how you were.

 

Dr. Stockmann (shaking his hand). Thanks--that is really kind of you.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. And thank you, too, for helping us through the crowd, Captain Horster.

 

Petra. How did you manage to get home again?

 

Horster. Oh, somehow or other. I am fairly strong, and there is more sound than fury about these folk.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, isn't their swinish cowardice astonishing? Look here, I will show you something! There are all the stones they have thrown through my windows. Just look at them! I'm hanged if there are more than two decently large bits of hard stone in the whole heap; the rest are nothing but gravel-- wretched little things. And yet they stood out there bawling and swearing that they would do me some violence; but as for doing anything--you don't see much of that in this town.

 

Horster. Just as well for you this time, doctor!

 

Dr. Stockmann. True enough. But it makes one angry all the same; because if some day it should be a question of a national fight in real earnest, you will see that public opinion will be in favour of taking to one's heels, and the compact majority will turn tail like a flock of sheep, Captain Horster. That is what is so mournful to think of; it gives me so much concern, that--. No, devil take it, it is ridiculous to care about it! They have called me an enemy of the people, so an enemy of the people let me be!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. You will never be that, Thomas.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Don't swear to that, Katherine. To be called an ugly name may have the same effect as a pin-scratch in the lung. And that hateful name--I can't get quit of it. It is sticking here in the pit of my stomach, eating into me like a corrosive acid. And no magnesia will remove it.

 

Petra. Bah!--you should only laugh at them, father,

 

Horster. They will change their minds some day, Doctor.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, Thomas, as sure as you are standing here.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Perhaps, when it is too late. Much good may it do them! They may wallow in their filth then and rue the day when they drove a patriot into exile. When do you sail, Captain Horster?

 

Horster. Hm!--that was just what I had come to speak about-–

 

Dr. Stockmann. Why, has anything gone wrong with the ship?

 

Horster. No; but what has happened is that I am not to sail in it.

 

Petra. Do you mean that you have been dismissed from your command?

 

Horster (smiling). Yes, that's just it.

 

Petra. You too.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas!

 

Dr. Stockmann. And that for the truth's sake! Oh, if I had thought such a thing possible--

Horster. You mustn't take it to heart; I shall be sure to find a job with some ship- owner or other, elsewhere.

 

Dr. Stockmann. And that is this man Vik--a wealthy man, independent of everyone and everything--! Shame on him!

 

Horster. He is quite an excellent fellow otherwise; he told me himself he would willingly have kept me on, if only he had dared--

 

Dr. Stockmann. But he didn't dare? No, of course not.

 

Horster. It is not such an easy matter, he said, for a party man--

 

Dr. Stockmann. The worthy man spoke the truth. A party is like a sausage machine; it mashes up all sorts of heads together into the same mincemeat-- fatheads and blockheads, all in one mash!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Come, come, Thomas dear!

 

Petra (to HORSTER). If only you had not come home with us, things might not have come to this pass.

 

Horster. I do not regret it.

 

Petra (holding out her hand to him). Thank you for that!

 

Horster (to DR. STOCKMANN). And so what I came to say was that if you are determined to go away, I have thought of another plan--

 

Dr. Stockmann. That's splendid!--if only we can get away at once.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Hush!--wasn't that some one knocking?

 

Petra. That is uncle, surely.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Aha! (Calls out.) Come in!

 

Mrs. Stockmann. Dear Thomas, promise me definitely--. (PETER STOCKMANN comes in from the hall.)

 

Peter Stockmann. Oh, you are engaged. In that case, I will--

 

Dr. Stockmann. No, no, come in.

 

Peter Stockmann. But I wanted to speak to you alone.

 

Mrs. Stockmann. We will go into the sitting-room in the meanwhile.

 

Horster. And I will look in again later.

 

Dr. Stockmann. No, go in there with them, Captain Horster; I want to hear more about--.

 

Horster. Very well, I will wait, then. (He follows MRS. STOCKMANN and PETRA

into the sitting-room.)

 

Dr. Stockmann. I daresay you find it rather draughty here today. Put your hat on.

 

Peter Stockmann. Thank you, if I may. (Does so.) I think I caught cold last night; I stood and shivered--

 

Dr. Stockmann. Really? I found it warm enough.

 

Peter Stockmann. I regret that it was not in my power to prevent those excesses last night.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Have you anything in particular to say to me besides that?

 

Peter Stockmann (taking a big letter from his pocket). I have this document for you, from the Baths Committee.

 

Dr. Stockmann. My dismissal?

 

Peter Stockmann. Yes, dating from today. (Lays the letter on the table.) It gives us pain to do it; but, to speak frankly, we dared not do otherwise on account of public opinion.

 

Dr. Stockmann (smiling). Dared not? I seem to have heard that word before, today.

 

 Peter Stockmann. I must beg you to understand your position clearly. For the future you must not count on any practice whatever in the town.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Devil take the practice! But why are you so sure of that?

 

Peter Stockmann. The Householders' Association is circulating a list from house to house. All right-minded citizens are being called upon to give up employing you; and I can assure you that not a single head of a family will risk refusing his signature. They simply dare not.

 

Dr. Stockmann. No, no; I don't doubt it. But what then?

 

Peter Stockmann. If I might advise you, it would be best to leave the place for a little while--

 

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, the propriety of leaving the place has occurred to me.

 

Peter Stockmann. Good. And then, when you have had six months to think things over, if, after mature consideration, you can persuade yourself to write a few words of regret, acknowledging your error--

 

Dr. Stockmann. I might have my appointment restored to me, do you mean?

 

Peter Stockmann. Perhaps. It is not at all impossible.

 

Dr. Stockmann. But what about public opinion, then? Surely you would not dare to do it on account of public feeling...

 

Peter Stockmann. Public opinion is an extremely mutable thing. And, to be quite candid with you, it is a matter of great importance to us to have some admission of that sort from you in writing.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Oh, that's what you are after, is it! I will just trouble you to remember what I said to you lately about foxy tricks of that sort!

 

Peter Stockmann. Your position was quite different then. At that time you had reason to suppose you had the whole town at your back--

 

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, and now I feel I have the whole town ON my back--(flaring up). I would not do it if I had the devil and his dam on my back--! Never--never, I tell you!

 

Peter Stockmann. A man with a family has no right to behave as you do. You have no right to do it, Thomas.

 

Dr. Stockmann. I have no right! There is only one single thing in the world a free man has no right to do. Do you know what that is?

 

Peter Stockmann. No.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Of course you don't, but I will tell you. 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.

 

Peter Stockmann. This sort of thing sounds extremely plausible, of course; and if there were no other explanation for your obstinacy--. But as it happens that there is.

 

Dr. Stockmann. What do you mean?

 

Peter Stockmann. You understand, very well what I mean. But, as your brother and as a man of discretion, I advise you not to build too much upon expectations and prospects that may so very easily fail you.

 

Dr. Stockmann. What in the world is all this about?

 

Peter Stockmann. Do you really ask me to believe that you are ignorant of the terms of Mr. Kiil's will?

 

Dr. Stockmann. I know that the small amount he possesses is to go to an institution for indigent old workpeople. How does that concern me?

 

Peter Stockmann. In the first place, it is by no means a small amount that is in question. Mr. Kiil is a fairly wealthy man.

 

Dr. Stockmann. I had no notion of that!

 

Peter Stockmann. Hm!--hadn't you really? Then I suppose you had no notion, either, that a considerable portion of his wealth will come to your children, you and your wife having a life-rent of the capital. Has he never told you so?

 

Dr. Stockmann. Never, on my honour! Quite the reverse; he has consistently done nothing but fume at being so unconscionably heavily taxed. But are you perfectly certain of this, Peter?

 

Peter Stockmann. I have it from an absolutely reliable source.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Then, thank God, Katherine is provided for--and the children too! I must tell her this at once--(calls out) Katherine, Katherine!

 

Peter Stockmann (restraining him). Hush, don't say a word yet!

 

Mrs. Stockmann (opening the door). What is the matter?

 

Dr, Stockmann. Oh, nothing, nothing; you can go back. (She shuts the door. DR. STOCKMANN walks up and down in his excitement.) Provided for!--Just  think of it, we are all provided for! And for life! What a blessed feeling it is to know one is provided for!

 

Peter Stockmann. Yes, but that is just exactly what you are not. Mr. Kiil can alter his will any day he likes.

 

Dr. Stockmann. But he won't do that, my dear Peter. The "Badger" is much too delighted at my attack on you and your wise friends.

 

Peter Stockmann (starts and looks intently at him). Ali, that throws a light on various things.

 

Dr. Stockmann. What things?

 

Peter Stockmann. I see that the whole thing was a combined manoeuvre on your part and his. These violent, reckless attacks that you have made against the leading men of the town, under the pretence that it was in the name of truth--

 

Dr. Stockmann. What about them?

 

Peter Stockmann. I see that they were nothing else than the stipulated price for that vindictive old man's will.

 

Dr. Stockmann (almost speechless). Peter--you are the most disgusting plebeian I have ever met in all my life.

 

Peter Stockmann. All is over between us. Your dismissal is irrevocable--we have a weapon against you now. (Goes out.)

 

Dr. Stockmann. For shame! For shame! (Calls out.) Katherine, you must have the floor scrubbed after him! Let--what's her name-- devil take it, the girl who has always got soot on her nose--

 

Mrs. Stockmann. (in the sitting-room). Hush, Thomas, be quiet!

 

Petra (coming to the door). Father, grandfather is here, asking if he may speak to you alone.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Certainly he may. (Going to the door.) Come in, Mr. Kiil. (MORTEN KIIL comes in. DR. STOCKMANN shuts the door after him.) What can I do for you? Won't you sit down?

 

Morten Kiil. I won't sit. (Looks around.) You look very comfortable here today, Thomas.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, don't we!

 

Morten Kiil. Very comfortable--plenty of fresh air. I should think you have got enough to-day of that oxygen you were talking about yesterday. Your conscience must be in splendid order to- day, I should think.

 

Dr. Stockmann. It is.

 

Morten Kiil. So I should think. (Taps his chest.) Do you know what I have got here?

 

Dr. Stockmann. A good conscience, too, I hope.

 

Morten Kiil. Bah!--No, it is something better than that. (He takes a thick pocket- book from his breast-pocket, opens it, and displays a packet of papers.)

 

Dr. Stockmann (looking at him in astonishment). Shares in the Baths?

 

Morten Kiil. They were not difficult to get today.

 

Dr. Stockmann. And you have been buying--?

 

Morten Kiil. As many as I could pay for.

 

Dr. Stockmann. But, my dear Mr. Kiil--consider the state of the Baths' affairs!

 

Morten Kiil. If you behave like a reasonable man, you can soon set the Baths on their feet again.

 

Dr. Stockmann. Well, you can see for yourself that I have done all I can, but--. They are all mad in this town!

 

Morten Kiil. You said yesterday that the worst of this pollution came from my tannery. If that is true, then my grandfather and my father before me, and I myself, for many years past, have been poisoning the town like three destroying angels. Do you think I am going to sit quiet under that reproach?

 

Dr. Stockmann. Unfortunately I am afraid you will have to.

 

Morten Kiil. No, thank you. I am jealous of my name and reputation. They call me "the Badger," I am told. A badger is a kind of pig, I believe; but I am not going to give them the right to call me that. I mean to live and die a clean man.

 

Dr. Stockmann. And how are you going to set about it?

 

Morten Kiil. You shall cleanse me, Thomas.

 

Dr. Stockmann. I!

 

Morten Kiil. Do you know what money I have bought these shares with? No, of course you can't know--but I will tell you. It is the money that Katherine and Petra and the boys will have when I am gone. Because I have been able to save a little bit after all, you know.

 

Dr, Stockmann (flaring up). And you have gone and taken Katherine's money for this!

 

Morten Kiil. Yes, the whole of the money is invested in the Baths now. And now I just want to see whether you are quite stark, staring mad, Thomas! If you still make out that these animals and other nasty things of that sort come from my tannery, it will be exactly as if you were to flay broad strips of skin from Katherine's body, and Petra's, and the boys'; and no decent man would do that-- unless he were mad.

 

Dr. Stockmann (walking up and down). Yes, but I am mad; I am mad!

 

Morten Kiil. You cannot be so absurdly mad as all that, when it is a question of your wife and children.

 

Dr. Stockmann (standing still in front of him). Why couldn't you consult me about it, before you went and bought all that trash?

 

Morten Kiil. What is done cannot be undone.

 

Dr. Stockmann (walks about uneasily). If only I were not so certain about it--! But I am absolutely convinced that I am right.

 

Morten Kiil (weighing the pocket-book in his hand). If you stick to your mad idea, this won't be worth much, you know. (Puts the pocket-book in his pocket.)

 

Dr. Stockmann. But, hang it all! It might be possible for science to discover some prophylactic, I should think--or some antidote of some kind--

 

Morten Kiil. To kill these animals, do you mean?

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