Politics of Satire in Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People

Abstract

The title of this paper is “Politics of Satire in Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People”. Ibsen satires upon leading figures who try to ignore prevailing socio- political issues and problems of the time like corruption. He is not only making fun to people through satire rather than trying to remind of their responsibilities to find solution to mitigate them. The majority of people are suffering due to the corrupted politicians. They work for the sake of their own interest not for common interest. The researcher has analyzed primary text through application theoretical ideas, Gilbert Highet’s The Anatomy of Satire, Deacon Roger’s Truth, Power and Pedagogy: Michael Foucault on the rise of the Disciplines and Raman Selden’s Post structural Theories etc. The researcher come up with the conclusion that the society of the time wanted some changes in traditional politicians that’s why political matters and politician’s follies are satirized harshly. Although this play was written in 19th century, it is a very good example for the life present people. What the writer mentions at that time is happening again nowadays in most of the countries in the world. Keywords: An Enemy of the People, Politics, Satire, Current issue, Provoke