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.
Act IIAct Summaries & Analyses
Act II Summary
The next morning, Morten Kiil arrives at the Stockmann house. Mr. Kiil is Katherine’s adoptive father and the owner of the tannery that is leaching dangerous microbes into the water supply. He has heard about the contaminated Baths from Petra and believes that Thomas is making up stories about tiny “beasts” in the water. Since Kiil cannot see the pollution with his own eyes, he finds the concept ridiculous; he leaves the house convinced that Thomas has invented the story to teach the local authorities a lesson.
Hovstad enters, eager to discuss what he will publish about the pollution in the People’s Messenger. He has thought about the story all night and concluded that the contamination will act as a springboard for a full-scale takedown of the local authorities who developed the plan for the Baths. Hovstad believes that the wealthy families in the community have too much power and that they represent the real “contamination” in the town. Thomas agrees that the ruling class makes some poor decisions, such as routing the pipes for the Baths through the ground near the tannery, but he argues that they are wise men who have the community’s best interests in mind.
Aslaksen, a member of the Temperance Society and Householder’s Association, and an important local figure, stops by as Thomas and Hovstad continue to debate. He offers his support to Thomas and suggests that they stage a demonstration to show that the “compact majority” want the Baths to have a safe water supply. Thomas doesn’t see the need for this, but is grateful for Aslaksen’s assistance, since he knows there are many in the town who will follow his lead. Hovstad prepares to leave shortly after Aslaksen, telling Thomas that although Aslaksen is a good man, he is a coward, as are most of the people in town. Thomas agrees to let him publish everything about the pollution if Peter resists updating the water system, but he assures both Hovstad and himself that this will not happen.
To Thomas’s shock, Peter is angry when he arrives at the house. He is upset that Thomas ordered the water testing without speaking to him, and he tells him that it will cost too much and take too long to change the Bath’s pipes. He believes that Thomas’s fear is unfounded and that the problem should be addressed after a few years, if ever. Thomas is furious, especially when Peter says that the public should not find out about the water. The doctor tells the mayor that the newspaper is ready to publish a story, and he will give Hovstad the green light to do so if Peter doesn’t reconsider his stance. Peter counters that he gave Thomas a well-paying job as the Baths’ medical director after years of working for little pay in the countryside, and that he will fire him if he doesn’t make an announcement that the findings are false.
After Peter leaves, Katherine begs for Thomas to listen to his brother, worried that their family will be in danger if he loses his job and becomes a pariah among community leaders. Meanwhile, Petra tells him to stand up for what is right, and not let his brother tell him what to do. Ultimately Thomas sides with his daughter; he knows that the shame of lying about the pollution will be harder to bear than whatever consequences come from standing up for the truth.
Act II Analysis
In Act II, word of the pollution begins to spread throughout the town, and Ibsen shows how specific important citizens react to the news. The smallness of the town means that word of the pollution travels quickly and misinformation immediately begins to spread. When Morten Kiil arrives, it is clear that he does not believe the pollution is actually real. This is partly due to his ignorance of science; he concludes that since he cannot see the “beasts” in the water, they must not actually exist. More importantly, though, he assumes that Thomas has ulterior motives. Like many other characters, Kiil resents the town’s leadership. He thinks that Thomas has invented the story of contamination as a way to make the government look foolish, a plan he entirely supports. Kiil’s capriciousness is also revealed in this conversation. He sees the pollution story as so ridiculous that he doubts the leaders will actually believe it, but promises Thomas that he will give 10 pounds to charity right away if the doctor is able to convince them. Thomas accepts the proposal without question, which causes Kiil to respond that he does not have money to give so freely, and that he will give five pounds by Christmas instead. This exchange, like many of the conversations in An Enemy of the People, shows a common tactic used by Ibsen to reveal characters’ true dispositions before they become relevant to the plot. By showing Kiil’s hypocrisy in small ways when he first appears, Ibsen reveals the true extent of Thomas’s blindness to how dishonest many other characters truly are, and makes Kiil’s actions in Act V much more believable.
Despite Kiil’s doubts about the pollution, Thomas remains entirely trusting in this act. He is certain that once the truth is revealed, he will have the support of the community. His conversations with Aslaksen and Hovstad, who both show enthusiastic support for the doctor, reinforce this belief. Thomas innocently tells Katherine how happy he is to have the “compact majority” in his corner, but Ibsen is careful to reveal how tenuous this support actually is. It is clear that Hovstad does not actually care about the pollution; he sees it as a means to his own political goals. Aslaksen is primarily motivated by being prudent. During Act II, he sees fixing the dangerous baths as the most reasonable action, but his support is conditional on the opinions of the mayor, and by extension the opinions of the community as a whole. Ibsen uses Aslaksen to paint a picture of what he sees as a central paradox of Majority Rule in Democratic Society; the population views Aslaksen as a leader and will seemingly listen to whatever he says, but Aslaksen defines himself as a political moderate and thus conforms to whatever the majority view may be. Like many other characters, he is skeptical of the town leadership for his own personal reasons, but he is clearly uncomfortable taking any view that will rock the boat too much.
Thomas remains innocently convinced, throughout most of Act II, that the truth will prevail; he is confused when Aslaksen proposes a demonstration to show the town leaders that the majority believe the Baths should be fixed. After meeting with his brother, Thomas suddenly realizes that the mayor values the financial “goldmine” of the Baths over public safety, and he is willing to put visitors at risk as long as it brings money to the town. Although this enrages the doctor, he continues to believe that his brother is in the minority, and that Hovstad, Aslaksen, and the others who have offered their support will help him convince the mayor that he is in the wrong.
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By Henrik Ibsen
