An Enemy of the People

Act III, set in the newspaper office, explores the problems with Majority Rule in Democratic Society by showing how the media can shape public opinion to preserve its own power. Hovstad, Aslaksen, and, to some extent, Billing are shown to be underhanded and unreliable even before the mayor turns them entirely against Thomas. The first two acts lay the groundwork to show these characters as inherently untrustworthy, and this characterization comes to fruition in Act III. As the act opens, the men are discussing how they can use the doctor for their own gain. Hovstad and Billing are also shown to be using Aslaksen; when he leaves the room they discuss their disdain for him and how they are only working with him because without his financial support, the paper could not be published. The newspaper employees are not characterized as evil or entirely hypocritical; they appear to hold genuinely progressive views, but their need for income to publish those views leads them to make unscrupulous choices.

This small-town paper is a metonym for the media landscape as a whole; while most citizens consider the People’s Messenger to be a source of accurate information, the truth is much more complicated. This message is compounded by the interaction between Hovstad and Petra. When Petra brings the English story to the office and says she refuses to translate it, she assumes that Hovstad will share her opinion that they should not publish a story that paints a simplistic picture of good versus evil people, an idea that goes against their shared personal beliefs. She is shocked to learn that Hovstad and Billing knew the story’s message, and plan to publish it only because they know that most readers will find it appealing.

When Peter arrives at the newspaper office, it becomes clear how easily many characters can be swayed by financial motivations. As soon as Peter explains how devastating Thomas’s report will be to the Baths and their town, they wholeheartedly switch positions and begin to see the doctor as an eccentric fool. The relationship between Truth, Self-Respect, and Resilience becomes apparent here. All the men in this scene derive their sense of self-worth from their positions in the community, and in various ways all those positions depend on the economic success of the Baths. When their social status comes under threat, nothing else matters, and they readily abandon any other principles they claim to hold, focusing instead on how to discredit the doctor and keep the pollution story from spreading too far.

Act III is an important turning point in An Enemy of the People’s plot, as it marks the shift in majority opinion away from supporting Thomas and toward Peter. The narrative remains centered on the same few characters until the public meeting in the next act, but those characters are mostly all people with immense social power within their community. Without the support of Peter, Hovstad, Aslaksen, and Billing, Thomas never has a chance to spread his message to the larger population, and the community members never get the chance to form their own opinions about the pollution. This reflects a central theme not only in An Enemy of the People, but in much of Ibsen’s work. Many of Ibsen’s plays, especially his later work, similarly throw a light on the contradictions within democratic society. As Norway became more and more focused on democratic governance throughout the 19th century, Ibsen began to see vital flays in the system. He believed that when a small number of powerful people are able to sway majority opinion without allowing the public access to all relevant information, the democratic process becomes corrupted.