Introduction
If Henrik Ibsen is known for any single contribution to theater, it is his commitment to exploring dangerous ideas and realities uncomfortable to the public. A Doll’s House deals with the injustice of gender roles, as Ghosts is centered on sexually transmitted diseases damaging families. Ibsen is always concerned with exposing truth, and this creates conflict with a society insisting on maintaining stable norms. An Enemy of the People then actually exists as the playwright’s response to how his work had been judged. Telling the story of Dr. Stockmann’s failed efforts to protect the health of the people actually lead to his being seen as dangerous to the welfare of all. Norms and commercial interests destroy the good man’s efforts, so it is seen that Ibsen has a powerful statement to make. In An Enemy of the People, the playwright emphasizes how the nature of a society is such that it will be hostile to anyone threatening its stability and economic health, no matter the truth needing to be revealed.

Discussion
To understand how and why Ibsen is making this statement in the play, it is first necessary to recognize why he felt this need It is widely acknowledged that, in this play, Ibsen was reacting to the severe criticism he received for Ghosts. That play had shocked the public with its open treatment of venereal disease, and the new play was to be an allegory of that reception (Gray 85).
If Ibsen was not entirely accurate in the play about how venereal disease is transmitted to others, the point remains that the public response was unacceptable to him, and because the society refused to realize how it would blind itself to important realities in order to preserve its way of being, Consequently, the playwright was strongly motivated to further challenge what he saw as a great wrong: the social insistence on its beliefs as correct, in spite of evidence to the contrary. In plain terms, the message is that truth is meaningless when it goes against the comforts or values of a society, and no matter how important that truth is.

This is underscored in the character of Petra, who supports Dr. Stockmann’s view that the baths must be closed, as well as by Stockmann’s conviction that the town leaders will appreciate the reality of the contaminated water. A schoolteacher, Petra is cynical because she has had experience with how the people demand thinking and behaviors in keeping with their own. A society, she believes, relies on lies that everyone accepts, and lies that only promote what is most acceptable to the majority: 典here is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the children�(Ibsen I). Later, when Morton Kiil is aware of Stockmann’s views, conflict grows. Stockmann cannot believe that the family friend, also wealthy and influential, has doubts about his findings: 笛ust imagine葉he old chap doesn’t believe a word of all this about the water supply�(Ibsen II). Consequently, Petra’s cynicism and Stockmann’s naive belief in truth highlight how a society will ignore virtually anything that threatens its prosperity and belief system, even when there is real danger.

Conclusion
The play in question may be seen as a political tract, as Ibsen is so determined to fight the complacency of his society. The message underscoring is plainly strong and unpleasant, but that Stockmann’s goodness and concern for the welfare of the people only underscores the irony of the title. Trying to save the people, he is viewed as an enemy by them, because what he is declaring is a threat to what they rely upon and believe. This is the core of Ibsen’s work here. Ultimately, his An Enemy of the People emphasizes how a society will fiercely resist the truth, no matter the importance of that truth, when it threaten its stability and economic health.