Ibsen's reluctant comedy

"An Enemy of the People": Ibsen's Reluctant Comedy Author(s): Harold C. Knutson Source: Comparative Drama, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer 1993), pp. 159-175 Published by: Comparative Drama Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41153616 Accessed: 06-12-2017 13:38 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

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1

COMPABATIVE

drama

Volume 27 Summer 1993 Number 2

An Enemy of the Peopl

Ibsen's Reluctant Com Harold C. Knutson That An Enemy of the People embodies notable comic elements few Ibsen specialists would contest. However, that the play may be a full-fledged comedy and informed by an integrated comic vision - here mainstream Ibsen scholarship is likely

to balk. Everyone is in agreement of course as to the truculent social satire that pervades the work from beginning to end. As

with the earlier League of Youth (1868-69) and to a lesser extent

The Pillars of Society (1877), Ibsen exposed with malicious

delight the underside of political life in small-town coastal

Norway.

However, above this mordant caricature towers the play's compelling moral issue: the absolute value of Truth. And if this lofty principle must be taken seriously, then - so goes the received logic - its proponent, rising as he does so far above his crass fellow-citizens, must needs draw our full admiration. And at first blush, Dr. Tomas Stockmann does appear to be exemplary. The idealistic staff physician of a fashionable spa, having ascertained that the water feeding the baths is dangerously polluted, hurls that truth in the face of his fellow-citizens only to find the entire town determined to cover up this threat to its live-

lihood. Indeed, so noble are Stockmann 's principles and so indomitable is his character that some critics strongly resist any 159

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160 Comparative Drama

sustained comic interpretation of h Van Laan, for example, concede that

to a degree. But Van Laan detects

side to Ibsen's hero and thus argues must be seen as a generic hybrid, c teristic of both comic and serious d

The tendency to give heroic statu beyond modern scholarship to the e

the play. Already at the end of th caught up in the political turbulen from what now seems to be egreg evidence in the text to the contra

identified as the prototypical demo less champion for justice against th

ercion. In the 1890 's French liber

Emile Zola and the truth about the ent evidence for Dreyfuss' innocenc the play in Moscow immediately aft sacre, as related by Stanislavsky, co time to turn Stockmann into a pr lenging a smug and ruthless politica That Stockmann is a firebrand in is incontestable; but to see him as blind eye to the shockingly reaction

drama - and to the failings of cha

him at best a flawed hero. But the

plexities in favor of a simplistic p

even in our own time, as Arthur M amply illustrates.

Whatever the historical misinterpr

reason why commentators have c Stockmann is the author's presen

doctor echoes many of Ibsen's most nouncements. The dramatist, like contempt for the tyranny of the m of the so-called liberal press, and ex

of aristocratic superiority and un

early as 1872, a decade before writin Ibsen addressed as a consolation to t the very words he has Stockmann

"the strongest man in the world

It is understandable, then, that so substance to Stockmann's role. How

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Harold

be

C.

Knutson

comic?

If

we

161

belittle

a

ste

the play, we must pour equ greatest dramatist of his c

serted, in the conventional w gave his character some beni

a

mere allegorical abstractio Yet, such views rest, it se assumption. Must the alter e rified image of the author? any number of emotions o age - admiration, to be sure, tachment, even self-loathing its hero bear closer scrutin writes to his publisher in a l of An Enemy of the People, ply a play; it has much of th

is also a serious basic theme."

So we have the author's own testimony as to an intended comic view of the play within the context of a high moral principle. "It has been fun working on this play," he adds. "Dr. Stock-

mann and I got on most excellently . . . but the Doctor has a

more muddled head on his shoulders than I have. . . ."6 Obvious-

ly, Stockmann was not created as a clear-thinking, consistent

character. More to the point yet is the tone of Ibsen's remark. It is ironic and playful, revealing a serene, amused detachment, not

angry solidarity or vigorous support. Above all, Ibsen makes it

clear that the play was conceived and worked out in a ludic spirit, in a light-hearted mood of amusement. By implication, then, the author warns us against taking a scatter-brained enthusiast

too seriously. At the same time, he invites us to look upon

Stockmann with indulgence and good humor. In short, there is every indication that Ibsen would agree with the even-handed judgment of the Norwegian critic Edvard Beyer: Stockmann is "a superb comic figure, enthusiastic and impractical, irascible and naive, colourful in his passionate eloquence, bubbling over with fighting spirit and humour."7 An important point, however, remains to be dealt with: Even if Ibsen caricatures himself to a degree in his portrayal of Stock-

mann, how can a character be truly laughable when he deplores in the society around him the very faults we ourselves denounce in that same community? Must we not be guided by the dictum that our enemy's enemy is our friend? It might be opportune to cite in this regard an example from an entirely different comic

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162 Comparative Drama

tradition. Two hundred years bef a satirical playwright can throw a c

is himself a vehicle for the autho

Molière makes clear his low opinion interested world that Alceste denou of An Enemy of the People, mutati self - coierie, inconsistent, sour, ta As with Stockmann, there is alway ceste a noble votary of truth-telling It is evident from any number of in

Alceste to have a ridiculous side,

judgment of his fellows.

Helge R0nning has already comp

ple to Le Misanthrope in the way in both plays clash with those he belongs.8 The two dramas are sim tion of the empire of self and in structure. But above all, as the fo to prove, Ibsen too mocked his ow

gently than did Molière) and thus i a general, integrated comic vision To be sure, we would never place satirical perspective from which Ib ies. But whatever his winning warm evidence in the text that Stockma tempered, impulsive, and almost ch character which, far from inflatin him down to our common humanit

No one will deny that Ibsen's po

Enemy of the People (the allite

Folkefiende) goes to the limits of community's reactions to Stockma

caricatures three centers of power he mocks the petty officialdom tha

Peter Stockmann, Tomas' older b

and exuberant sibling, Peter carries multiple roles as indicated in the dr

closest approximation to "byfogd ("politimester"), chairman of the adds Ibsen with what seems to be

The printer Aslaksen represents t his role as leader of the property o

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Harold

C.

Knutson

163

phy of moderation ("mâde chairmanship of the local Norwegian

term

"Moderation

for

that

or

Association."

Billing, the self-proclaimed dent press fearlessly exposin embody the most naked for These characters Ibsen fles The mayor's self-important

him a kind of Scandinavia calls for "mâdehold" reveal authorities are involved; h comes to distant ones (p. 2 journalists' private convers

the others of the repugnant sona and self-serving priva ful, Hovstad and Billing pro establishment as they are to The naked self-interest, sm these people are reinforced

mouths.

It

is

well

known

patterns with almost trates brilliantly the

cal

life

-

including,

scienti various

as

we

s

speech habits. The mayor en Latinizing vocabulary. The c nately difficult to convey in

Peter's talk must have seem good illustration is the fol Peter repeats skeptically T

spa

vi

water:

ma

"Og

bygge

sä

en

kommer

kloak,

d

som

keter" ("So you reach by you build a sewer which can carr 264; foreign derivations ap

normal word for "sewer"]) mayor's support at the beg of a chairman to keep order an "ordstyrer," or "word gent" (p. 298).10

In

a

way,

mayor,

is

bent

but

Aslaksen

he

upon

is

much

is

as

less

challenging

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a

164 Comparative Drama

great restraint [mâdehold], doctor; for restraint is a citizen's first vi sides over the meeting in Act IV, h

phy as "besindig moderation" ("di scours his brain for the suitable w ("moderate discretion" [p. 299]). H

dehold" may indicate a desire to em gian term carries also, as we noted perance"; thus a heckler during the Aslaksen utter the word once too o

the Temperance Union!" ("Mâde

299]).

Finally, it is Aslaksen who introduces the famous catchphrase which will so obsess Dr. Stockmann: "den kompakte majoritet" (p. 261), using again a Gallicism instead of a Norwegian term for "majority" (i.e., "flertal").

As for Hovstad, he does little else but echo threadbare revolutionary clichĂŠs about the stench of corruption in the body poli-

tic, "the swamp on which our whole communal life is standing

and rotting" (p. 257) - words, however, that will have their effect

upon Tomas. And Billing's bellicose verbiage is as ludicrous as it is hollow. Promised a state of war by Stockmann, he exults:

"War with knives I hope; knives at the throat, doctor!" (p. 276);

and later: "Hurray! We'll have war! We'll have war!" (p. 278).

If we add to these four characters the sniggering and vengeful Kiil and the unruly mob of citizens appearing in Act IV, we have a collective antagonist pilloried with a flaying satire reminiscent of Ben Jonson.

Defying this gallery of rogues is a single protagonist, progressively embattled, humiliated, and ostracized. Tomas Stock-

mann has allies, it is true; his family supports him with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and Horster, the free-spirited sea captain, remains a faithful friend to the end. But the story concerns the doctor's single-minded, solitary promotion of truth as he sees it

and his progressive disillusionment with his fellow-citizens'

overweening self-interest and self-blindness. The obstinacy of his community goads him to greater and greater extremes. But while

we may share his (and Ibsen's) opinion of the many, we shall

see that being a solitary oppositionist is no protection from our laughter.

As the play begins, Ibsen loses no time in sketching in broad strokes a winning, but ego-centred man, a self-indulgent dreamer

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Harold

C.

Knutson

165

expansive in his creatural c sive high-quality food an

wears

and

his

draws

smoking

attention

cap to

wi

the

tablecloth, a lampshade. guests, even freeloaders

stuffing

Tomas

his

face

considers

with

this

Sto

fine

years spent "in my hole up to fund such luxury is put which he attributes to his

as much as we spend." His is directed, loses no time "almost!" (pp. 240-41). An earth, practical Katrine

voice.

Tomas reveals himself to be a self-involved dreamer particularly in the way that he handles the first among the three "op-

dagelser" or "discoveries" he will make during the play. We

learn during the first act that he is awaiting an important letter, which turns out to be the laboratory analysis of the suspect spa

water. We then find out that this self-styled man of science ("videnskapsmand," in his words [p. 241]) has already prejudged

that matter by writing his condemnatory report before receiving the expected clinical confirmation of his suspicions (p. 250). And

he shows no sense whatsoever of the practical impact of his revelation, either political or economic. Indeed, he plays his-

trionically with his family as he builds up to his great effect; his main attitude seems that of a prickly, thin-skinned oppositionist

who is finally vindicated. "Now the good folk will see! Now they'll just see! ... Now you will see a real commotion in town,

Katrine," he declares with the apparent delight of anticipation (p.

250).

This egotistical nature comes out yet more strongly when he is faced finally in Act III with the choice of obeying his brother or breaking with his community. While Katrine reminds him ap-

prehensively of his responsibility to the family, especially the two under-age sons (p. 273), his own reasoning is couched almost entirely in first-person terms: "[If I give in], will I ever

have a happy moment again in my life?" (p. 273). And reminded

once again of his family responsibilities, he repeats dreamily

"the boys," thereafter immediately proclaiming with characteristic hyperbole and first-person terms: "Never if the whole world

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166 Comparative Drama

collapses will I bow my neck u

right to look my boys in the ey

At a much more serious momen

unthinking selfishness. His fath dilemma by buying up the now

money intended to be willed to K persists in his talk about pollution

paper and Katrine will lose all;

family will be secure with stocks

a high value again. He tells Kiil 328) before deciding. It will be

cynical bargain; but we do expect

the person who will ultimately promised consultation with Kat

characteristic theatricality he fin large letters on a piece of paper

Kiil. When Katrine asks about t

merely says, "You will find out af he neglects to honor in the remai Thus Ibsen attributes to Stockm ment that could be problematical by his guileless histrionic nature. this self-inflation by putting in h provoking as that of his adversa

a "vâgnende folkel0ve" ("an awa

and speaks lyrically of the "sejren

quering might of the communit

pion. This is mock-heroic cant, as reminiscent of epic pre-battle tau ground, I shall crush them, raze t eyes of the whole right-minded This trait reaches comic heights III where the scene has shifted to aware that his brother is hidden mann throws down his challenge og folket skal vinde slaget, det k den frisindede borgerstand fylke

in English, we hear the rhythm arms: "Truth and the people wi count on. Oh, I see the whole, fr into a conquering army!" (p. 29

epic pronouncement made than St hat and staff of office on a nearb

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Harold

ingly

C.

prosaic,

fanden

291).11

Knutson

er

167

given

det

der

what

for

Unforgettable as this moment may be, there is perhaps no

better example in the play of Ibsen's obvious design to undercut his hero than when he quotes Scripture at the end of Act IV. The mockery and incomprehension of his fellow-citizens have driven him into a wild rage, and to prove his unforgiving combativeness he declares: "I am not as gentle as a certain person. I do not say: 'I forgive you, for ye know not what ye do'" (p. 314). The shock of this blasphemy is immediately attentuated by the obvious way

the doctor has altered Luke 23.34. The Norwegian Bible reads:

"Fader, forlat dem! Thi de vide ikke hva de gj0re" - "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." If Tomas identifies with Christ and makes of his fellow-citizens a rabble screaming "Crucify him!" he immediately falls into his characteristic ego-

centrism by presuming to do what the dying God put in the hands of his Father. Not "Father forgive them" but "I forgive you" Or, rather, "I don't!" If Ibsen had intended to confer serious intent at this moment, he surely would not have had Tomas adulterate a sacred text so ludicrously and so self-servingly.

Above all, if Ibsen had intended to portray Stockmann as a

full-fledged hero, he would have made him the author of his own

ideas, an original and deep thinker. However, his eloquence in proclaiming his truth and in defying authority, his reasoned political stance as he disputes hotly with his adversaries, should not make us forget that these opinions are freshly hatched and from

an egg other than his own. His great "opdagelse" formulated in Act IV before his fellow citizens - that the real pollution is not in the water but in the entire community - comes straight from the sham revolutionary, Hovstad, who had denounced the local authorities in a private conversation with Stockmann in the second act. At that time the doctor, thoroughly shocked by Hovstad's snide innuendos, had defended the establishment with some energy, pointing out that "these people have really both competence and insight" (p. 257).

Nor did Stockmann always heap scorn on the compact majority. On the contrary, he had warmly welcomed their support as offered by Aslaksen in Act III: "Many thanks, my dear Mr. Aslaksen" (p. 261). The same goes for the "free and independent press," whose support Tomas had accepted from Hovstad and Billing with the same enthusiasm. Indeed, he had reveled in the delight of being in "brotherly union with [his] fellow-citizens"

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w

no

168 Comparative Drama [p. 263]) and praised the "folk"

linked with truth. Yet, in Act IV denounces the liberal press, and li pack of mongrels deserving no p

tion.

We cannot speak, then, of a reasoned progression toward an intellectual enlightenment or a spiritual anagnorisis - a true "opdagelse," in short. What lies, then, between the self-satisfied hedonist and defender of the system in Acts I and II and the rant-

ing ideologue of Act IV? Stockmann 's second great discovery, that the body politic is a poisonous swamp, could well reflect

little more than bitter personal disappointment, the exacerbation

of a wounded and misunderstood ego.

Not only has Stockmann borrowed ideas from another, but he endeavours comically to hide his indebtedness. It is significant, for example, that he uses a form of the passive when he alludes to his new enlightenment: "an endless vista has opened to me" (a reflexive in Norwegian: "det har âbnet sig . . ." [p. 278]).

And later: "my spiritual eyes were opened" (again the reflexive:

"Da âbnet sig mine ândelige 0jne" [p. 303]).

Most telling of all is Stockmann 's lapsus as he addresses the public meeting. He first states that his discovery dates from "yesterday morning" ("igâr formiddag"), but quickly corrects himself to say "the evening of the day before yesterday" ("iforgârs aftes"

[p. 301]). We could easily ignore this little touch if we did not

have in mind the time-frame of the play. Assuming Act I as Day I, the first act takes place in the early afternoon of that day. Act II, with Hovstad's denunciation of local authorities followed by the visit from Peter, is thus the morning of Day 2. The afternoon

of Day 2 takes place in the printer's locale as Act III. At that

point, the utterly disillusioned doctor announces his intention of calling a town meeting to expound publicly the appalling truths denied by the establishment.

Ibsen is vague on the timing of the meeting, but the logic of the play situates it at Day 3. The mayor's rectification, apparent-

ly delivered to the printer during Act III, has already ap-

peared - presumably the next morning, given the urgent need to

mollify the public. Moreover, if the meeting occurred later,

Stockmann would have no reason to speak at first of a great discovery "yesterday." It is thus virtually certain that Stockmann 's "yesterday" is that of Acts II and III, of Hovstad's visit and con-

demnation of the town's power structure as a contaminated swamp. But Stockmann concludes by referring to "the evening

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Harold

of

C.

the

Knutson

day

169

before

yester

first "opdagelse" concernin of his society as a poisoned Obviously Stockmann is t debtors; without actually p ideological stance sprang

after he had received the been exposed to Hovstad's givable as it is, reveals an egoism.

Ibsen's hero can be readily seen, then, as a complex blend of likeable qualities, to be sure, but of serious shortcomings as well, common faults which make him one of us. As consistency is a virtue few can maintain, we should not expect it in Stockmann either. Indeed, one of the favorite techniques of a comic playwright is to show a character, under the pressure of a human weakness, betraying his own dearest principles. Molière 's Aiceste constitutes a particularly memorable example: this fanatical votary of total sincerity, in despair over his enslavement to Celimene, begs her in Act IV to pretend to love him and he will endeavor to believe her - earning thereby the deserved rebuke that nothing will induce her to fake her emotions.

There is, I would argue, a comparable moment in An Enemy of the People, one that Ibsen uses to puncture again Stockmann's inflated stance. In general, Tomas is a truth-bearer concerned philanthropically with the health of the community and its visitors. His love of humanity, his warm and indulgent spirit informs

all of Act I. Yet, goaded from one extreme position to another

during the town meeting, he ends up championing the disquieting eugenics argument that so many critics have difficulty coming to terms with. Not only does he relegate the humanity before him

to the status of mixed-breed barnyard fowl and mongrelized dogs, not only does he place himself among the well bred de-

serving to prevail over the masses, but he maintains that a society based on lies - lies by his definition - should be utterly destroyed. "Let the whole country be laid waste; let the whole people be eradicated!" he shouts to a shocked audience (p. 312).

This outrageous declaration provokes a pardonable outburst - "he hates his country! He hates the whole people!" (p.

312) - and is the direct cause of the collective decision to label

him what he has in fact become by his own pronouncements: an enemy of the people. Thus the philanthropist, under the pressure of a wounded ego and a hostile public, becomes a hater of man-

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170 Comparative Drama

kind and joins the company of Al lière 's hero in misanthropic virulen By this time we seem far from co

ticularly, the idea of human bre

today be termed genocide carry the

stage the comic spirit can easily n

tions of the most repugnant id

femmes, for instance, the education nolphe are on the surface abhorren his hero to such a degree that his id Similarly, Ibsen makes a point dur ing Stockmann back to his common

outrageous expostulations to betra brother by two extravagant ad ho

Peter in the first instance as "slow-

prejudices" (p. 304). Obstinate, pe

witted. Peter had been closer to the mark in his own evaluation

of Tomas in Act II: "you have a restless, combative, rebellious character" (p. 267); "you need an outlet for your combative spir-

it" (p. 268). Act IV proves his opinion right.

Even Stockmann 's eugenics thesis is made comic by his very

illustrations. He could have brought forth the example of the noble thoroughbred horse, but instead he uses the common barnyard rooster and the poodle. These two instances sound so ludi-

crous that, in his translation, Michael Meyer replaces "puddelhund" with the more elevated "greyhound." "Poodle dog," he feels, carries the wrong associations.13 But perhaps Ibsen actu-

ally wanted to evoke these wrong associations for comic effect, a touch arguably consistent with his general procedure.

Finally, the hilarious atmosphere of the meeting, with its

heckling, catcalls, histrionics, confusion, hyperbole, the jack-in-

the-box appearances of the drunk man - surely that exuberant

comic context softens the impact of any idea propounded, however abhorrent at face value. There are other moments of farce

reinforcing the ludic atmosphere. In Act HI the doctor engages in an energetic and ludicrous authority dance with his brother's mayoralty tokens. At the end of the play, furious that the journalists and Aslaksen have seen fit to visit him in his vandalized

house, Stockmann uses the weaponry of his umbrella to drive

them out as Aslaksen bleats: "Mâdehold!"

We have yet one more technique of comic deflation to consider, one diffused throughout the play rather than concentrated

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Harold

C.

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171

at certain moments. It wa trinsically comic effect of of machine-like regularit

man nature: "du mécaniq memorable phrase.13 Th abounds with repetitions

nected with Dr. Stockmann. No one can fail to note the doctor's

predilection for swearing; curses recur in his speech with truly mechanical regularity. Among the fifty-five or so instances one notes a predilection for "Pokker," "fanden" (both meaning "devil"), the adjectives "fordomte," "forbandet" (meaning "damned," "cursed"), "minsael" ("upon my soul"), etc. In this regard Stock-

mann is a unique creation, for no other character in Ibsen's realistic canon is so given to expletives.

It is he, moreover, who makes of "den kompakte majoritet" a veritable cant-word in the play, for he repeats it at will and

embroiders upon it according to his emotional state. The support

he welcomes at least twice in Acts II and III becomes in Act IV

"the damned, compact, liberal majority" (p. 305) that he curses three more times in Act V. As only Aslaksen shows the same kind of tic with his oft-repeated "mâdehold," Ibsen clearly intends a demeaning comparison.

The same sort of mechanical response draws our laughter

when Tomas repeatedly forgets his servant-girl's name, and the timing of such effects obviously shows a deflating intent. Thus,

at the somber beginning of Act V, as Stockmann is picking

through the rocks, or rather what he calls the "sacred relics" that have shattered his windows, he says: "Hasn't - what the devil is

her name - oh, that wench - hasn't she gone to get the glazier yet?" (p. 316). Later in the same act he rages once more against the girl, while searching for her name: "Have her come in with

a broom, she - she - damn - she who always has a dirty nose" (p.

325).

Beyond a doubt, the most comic repetition occurs in Act IV when Katrine, desperately trying to make her husband keep his

composure, coughs repeatedly as a calming signal, with the coughs increasing in intensity as the mood of the meeting

becomes more and more unruly and as Stockmann gets progressively carried away. A theater-goer familiar with Molière 's Tartuffe will be reminded of Elmire's frustrations in Act IV when, fending off Tartuffe, she coughs more and more energetically as

a signal to her husband hidden under the table. Again, two

skilled comic playwrights exploit proven stock-in-trade.

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172 Comparative Drama

As with Tartuffe, the fifth act

begins in a somber mood, a poin

language, a moment when all seem possible. The cascade of misfortu final act reinforces this atmosp The Stockmann family will be tur dismissed from the spa staff, his teaching position, the children,

are sent home. The loyal Horste

tainship for having hosted the m

Nevertheless, against all expec

premely funny. Indeed, Tomas see trionic than before. We have no

his housemaid. His whimsical

pants - "One should never be we

one is out fighting for freedom an sets the tone, especially when he

so concerned about the trousers, fix them for me" (p. 317). And to a virgin forest or a low-pric lightness of tone (p. 318).

The last act is supremely even Kiil's proposed bargain, impulsi

Stockmann. Then he chooses to st strong enough to rebuild his life they will have a roof over their h

read all this as heroic defiance,

dramatist brings us and his hero

ous but ludic ending. Because S strongest man in the world is h so majestically, it is easy to ima

the play, and their heroic ring tem

Yet, let us examine the domina (pp. 334-35). Stockmann has just longer go to school but will gro "free, superior men." They are na the older, asks: "And what are we

come free and superior men?"

wolves to the far west, my boy principle of the play, observes w not the wolves who have been c "Are you completely crazy, Ka

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Harold

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173

am the town's strongest "you, the strongest, now?

"I dare go so far as to say in the whole world." "Tow Then, having lost none of brood conspiratorially aro talk of this yet, but I have one," moans Katrine, hav "Yes, yes . . ." - and then c hyperbole: now he is the s However, the play does shakes her head. "Tomas, Tomas!" And Petra seizes his hands with the admiring "Father!" So Ibsen ends on a somewhat ambiguous note, with resigned skepticism and impetuous loyalty competing for attention. But the fact remains that on the whole the fifth act, contrary to all expectations given the turbulent events that preceded it, confirms the dominant comic mood that Ibsen was at pains to create. One has but to contrast this ending with the last moments of Act II where the same sequence occurred: a portentous statement by Tomas, doubt expressed by Katrine, and intense support pledged by Petra. Only then Katrine broke down into sobs with a despairing "God help us and comfort us all!" (p. 274).

Finally, let us note one more indicator of comic intent. Just

before the final scene an exuberant Stockmann drinks in what he

calls "den velsignede friske vârluft" - "that blessed, fresh spring air" (p. 334) coming through the shattered windows. Instinctively Ibsen alludes to the mythos of spring long before Northrop Frye formulated it.14

An Enemy of the People is often considered a "thin" play, even flawed. Such judgments are attributable to the temptation to make it a thesis play, to make Stockmann a kind of OldTestament prophet - or a later version of Brand - fulminating against a mean, corrupt, and disloyal people. Seen in this light, Ibsen's drama can be only an inconsistent mixture of fierce satire and heroic defiance. But the foregoing analysis has shown, I hope, that Stockmann is a complex comic figure fitting perfectly into the consistent ludic framework of the play. If there is any duality of vision it is the traditional combination of satire and humor so characteristic of Restoration comedy - glorying laughter such as Hobbes labelled it, directed in Ibsen's play against the pillars of the community, and a more forgiving mirth by

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174 Comparative Drama

which we recognize in ourselves t good doctor.

A tendency to dwell on the position of this play in the canon also explains this undervaluing. An Enemy of the People immediately follows a consummate masterpiece of sustained tragedy such as the world had not seen since Sophocles: Ghosts (1881).

It looks ahead to a series of plays where the comic spirit, if it exists at all, is gratingly juxtaposed to the tragic. Ibsen's very next drama, The Wild Duck (1883), is typical of this jarring blend of genres. In a way Stockmann points ahead to both the self-absorbed declaimer Hjalmar Ekdal and the fanatical truthteller-at-all-costs Gregers Werle. Indeed, Stockmann 's mania to "fâ rettet pâ saken" - "have the thing set right" (p. 250) - anticipates the disease which Dr. Relling diagnoses in young Werle: "rettskaffenhetsfeber," or, literally, "the fever to set things right."

Werle himself will continue the poisoned swamp imagery espoused by Stockmann - imagery applied, however, not to the whole of society but to a marriage based on lies.

From henceforth Ibsen's main task will be to plumb the hu-

man soul and grapple with the fateful riddles of life in plays

where comic effects, if they exist at all, are jarring and unset-

tling. So An Enemy of the People is Ibsen's farewell to comedy as a genre, the last expression of an exuberant, high-spirited side of his genius that produced a significant, if neglected part of the

canon. Its uneasy position between Ghosts and The Wild Duck

should not prevent us from judging it for what it is - a geniune comedy of uncommon merit.

The University of British Columbia NOTES 1 In his recent Text and Supertext in Ibsen's Drama (University Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1989), Brian Johnston admits no comic inconsistencies in Stockmann 's character. If he has weaknesses, they are "failings of a good man," "a brave social rebel"

(p. 176).

2 Thomas F. Van Laan, "Generic Complexity in Ibsen's An Enemy of the People," Comparative Drama, 20 (1986), 95-1 15. Van Laan provides an excellent summary of the various oversimplified interpretations that make of Stockmann an exemplary character.

3 For a summary of the early reception of the play, see Michael Meyer, Ibsen: A Biography (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971), pp. 507-10.

4 Quoted in ibid., p. 358.

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Harold

C.

Knutson

175

3 Random examples that come to m Daedalus, Sartre's self -contempt in

of

his

childhood

inflation.

6

Quoted

in

7

Edvard

Beyer,

134.

life.

Meyer,

Chateaubria

Ibsen,

Ibsen:

p.

The

497.

Man

a

8 Helge Running, "Individualism a logical Interpretation of An Enemy Approaches to Ibsen (Oslo: Univers 9

Quotations

will

be

my

own

fairl

cated. When the original carries m phasis, I will quote the original as w ed. (Christiania and Copenhagen: G 10

This

is

examples:

"position,"

an

ingrained

"fatalt," etc.

habit

with

"akceptere,"

P

"

11 Stockmann 's passionate, inflate tunistic hero of The League of You matory rhetoric is much different, Stensgaard can be seen as a distant,

12

1963), p. 125.

Henrik

Ibsen,

An

Enemy

13 Henri Bergson, Le Rire (Paris: PUF, 1950), p. 38.

14 Apart from timeless comic elements such as just noted, Ibsen's play, as Van Laan rightly notes, can be placed in the lineage of traditional classical comedy as practiced in particular by Ludvig Holberg. Van Laan points out the resemblances between Holberg's

Erasmus Montanus (1723) and An Enemy of the People ("Generic Complexity," pp.

106-07).

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of

th