Nexus between Truth and Power: Reading Ibsen's An Enemy of the People

Abstract

Henrik Ibsen in this play An Enemy of the People depicts the relative nexus between 'Truth' and 'Power' by dramatizing the issue of polluted baths in the small Norwegian town. The Burgomaster of the municipality Peter Stockmann, Who by means of his power converts the pollution as false which is discovered by the protagonist Dr. Thomas Stockmann. Through the great discovery power is exercised in the society and converts the truth, as they like. Such as in the play Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the protagonist, reveals that how the truth of pollution is constructed by means of power by the Burgomaster of the municipality, Peter Stockmann. But after knowing the economic and political consequences of the discovery, they oppose it and through power of the majority they prove it as false. The truth related to the public interest and health also changes by power. So, truth is the construct of political and economic forces that command the majority of power is the societal web. Thus the play dramatizes the role that the power plays in constructing truth.