An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen Essay -- Enemy People Henrik Ib

An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen An Enemy of the People deals with the extent to which individual desires and beliefs are compromised by society. In particular, the play focuses on the ways in which an individual can be ostracized by the society he is trying to help. One primary message of the play is that the individual, who stands alone, is more often "right" than the mass of people, who are portrayed as ignorant and sheeplike. Isben who turned atheist during his encounter with Georg Brandes, presents many Christian values in ‘An enemy of the people’, and religious references. Both Dr. Stockmann and Mrs. Stockmann reveal signs of religious references and show Christian values. We learn that Dr. Stockmann has strong moral values when it comes to honesty and truth. From the following we can tell that he believes that the truth should not be hidden from anyone let alone the community, and that the truth shall prevail in the end. ‘I should think he would be very glad that such an important truth has been brought to light’. We can also see that the truth is a very important part of Dr. Stockmann’s life, and that the truth is what rightly should be stood up for, as he says, ‘In god’s name, what else do you suppose I should do but take my stand on right and truth?’ and the ‘truth and the people will win the fight you may be certain!’. Apart from sticking up for the truth he also believes in sticking up for what he believes in which is a strong Christian value. You can almost compare Jesus Christ to Dr. Stockmann as both stands up for what they believe are the truth and what they believe in. Just as Jesus preached to people to back his side, Dr Stockmann does the same. ‘If I can’t hire a hall, I shall... ... don’t know; but I don’t like it. We also see many religious expressions made by her, such as ‘good heavens’, or Good lord help us’. She also makes reference to God when speaking to Dr. Stockmann., ‘I don’t know anything about it but God preserve us. Apart from Mrs. Stockmann and Dr Stockmann showing some religious reference we see Petra reveal that hard work is also presented as a good Christian value. ‘Yes – but that is good. One is so delightfully tired after it’. In the end we see similarities in both Jesus and Dr. Stockman that they both struggle to get the truth out to people, and that both are seen as enemies although they are in fact people doing right for others. Dr Stockmann does stand alone in the end but he was the one in the right, and stood up to his believes, and in his mind, ‘the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone’.