Dr. Thomas Stockmann

“ I would not do it if I had the devil and his dam on my back—! Never—never, I tell you!
Peter Stockmann. A man with a family has no right to behave as you do. You have no right to do it, Thomas.
Dr. Stockmann. I have no right! There is only one single thing in the world a free man has no right to do. Do you know what that is?
Peter Stockmann. No.
Dr. Stockmann. Of course you don't, but I will tell you. A free man has no right to soil himself with filth; he has no right to behave in a way that would justify his spitting in his own face. ”

“ Stockmann. [Looking at the letter.] He daren’t do otherwise, he says. He is very unwilling to do it; but he daren’t do otherwise—on account of his fellow citizens—out of respect for public opinion—is in a dependent position—doesn’t dare to offend certain influential men——
Mrs. Stockmann. There, you see, Thomas.
153Dr. Stockmann. Yes, yes, I see well enough; they are all cowards, every one of them, in this town; no one dares do anything for fear of all the rest. [Throws the letter on the table.] But it’s all the same to us, Katrina. We will shape our course for the new world, and then ”

“ Thomas Stockmann is a conscientious physician. He loves his native town, but he loves his fellow-men more. He considers it his duty to communicate his discovery to the highest authority of the town, the Burgomaster, his brother Peter Stockmann.
Dr. Stockmann is indeed an idealist; else he would know that the man is often lost in the official. Besides, Peter Stockmann is also the president of the board of directors and one of the heaviest stockholders of the Baths. Sufficient reason to upbraid his reckless medical brother as a dangerous man ”

“ Dr. Stockmann. Are you out of your senses, Katherine! Because a man has a wife and children, is he not to be allowed to proclaim the truth-is he not to be allowed to be an actively useful citizen—is he not to be allowed to do a service to his native town!
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, Thomas—in reason.
Aslaksen. Just what I say. Moderation in everything.
Mrs. Stockmann. And that is why you wrong us, Mr. Hovstad, in enticing my husband away from his home and making a dupe of him in all this.
Hovstad. I certainly am making a dupe of no one—
Dr. Stockmann. Making a dupe of me! ”

“ Mrs. Stockmann (putting her arm into his) . Then I will show them that an old woman can be a man for once. I am going to stand by you, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann. Bravely said, Katherine! It shall be made public—as I am a living soul! If I can't hire a hall, I shall hire a drum, and parade the town with it and read it at every street-corner.
Peter Stockmann. You are surely not such an errant fool as that!
Dr. Stockmann. Yes, I am.
Aslaksen. You won't find a single man in the whole town to go with you.
Billing. No, I'm damned if you will.
Mrs. Stockmann. Don't give in, Thomas. ”

“ Peter Stockmann. Yes, Thomas, you are an extremely cantankerous man to work with—I know that to my cost. You disregard everything that you ought to have consideration for. You seem completely to forget that it is me you have to thank for your appointment here as medical officer to the Baths.
Dr. Stockmann. I was entitled to it as a matter of course!—I and nobody else! ”

“ Mrs. Stockmann. Why, my dear Thomas, what have you been doing to him now?
Dr. Stockmann. Nothing at all. He can’t possibly expect me to account to him for everything—before the time comes.
18Mrs. Stockmann. What have you to account to him for?
Dr. Stockmann. H'm;—never mind about that, Katrina.—It’s very odd the postman doesn’t come.
[Hovstad, Billing and Horster have risen from table and come forward into the sitting-room. Eilif and Morten presently follow.
Billing. [Stretching himself.] Ah! Strike me dead if one doesn’t feel a new man after such a meal. ”

“ Stockmann. But really, my dear Thomas, you do say such imprudent things.
Dr. Stockmann. What! Isn’t it the truth that I tell them? Don’t they turn all ideas upside down? Don’t 155they stir up right and wrong into one hotch-potch? Don’t they call lies everything that I know to be the truth? But the maddest thing of all is to see crowds of grown men, calling themselves Liberals, go about persuading themselves and others that they are friends of freedom! Did you ever hear anything like it, Katrina?
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, yes, no doubt. But——
Petra enters from the sitting-room. ”

“ Do you hear, Katherine?—I won't accept it.
Mrs. Stockmann. You are quite right, Thomas.
Petra (lifting her glass) . Your health, father!
Hovstad and Billing. Your health, Doctor! Good health!
Horster (touches glasses with DR. STOCKMANN) . I hope it will bring you nothing but good luck.
Dr. Stockmann. Thank you, thank you, my dear fellows! I feel tremendously happy! It is a splendid thing for a man to be able to feel that he has done a service to his native town and to his fellow-citizens. Hurrah, Katherine! ”

“ Stockmann. Yes, they have behaved abominably to you here, Thomas; but is that any reason for leaving the country altogether?
Dr. Stockmann. Do you think the plebeians aren’t just as insolent 154in other towns? Oh yes, they are, my dear; it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. Well, never mind; let the curs yelp; that’s not the worst; the worst is that every one, all over the country, is the slave of his party. Not that I suppose—very likely it’s no better in the free West either; the compact majority, and enlightened public opinion, and all the other devil’s trash is rampant there too. ”

“ Yes, yes—only give me time, and you shall know all about it. If only I had Peter here now! It just shows how we men can go about forming our judgments, when in reality we are as blind as any moles—
Hovstad. What are you driving at, Doctor?
Dr. Stockmann (standing still by the table) . Isn't it the universal opinion that our town is a healthy spot?
Hovstad. Certainly.
Dr. Stockmann. Quite an unusually healthy spot, in fact—a place that deserves to be recommended in the warmest possible manner either for invalids or for people who are well—
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, but my dear Thomas—
Dr. Stockmann. ”

“ Peter Stockmann. Well remember, he is the Medical Officer to the Baths.
Hovstad. Yes, and what is more, they owe their existence to him.
Peter Stockmann. To him? Indeed! It is true I have heard from time to time that some people are of that opinion. At the same time I must say I imagined that I took a modest part in the enterprise,
Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, that is what Thomas is always saying.
Hovstad. But who denies it, Mr. Stockmann? You set the thing going and made a practical concern of it; we all know that. I only meant that the idea of it came first from the doctor. ”

“ Dr. Stockmann. Out at the window with you, Mr. Hovstad!
Hovstad. [By the hall door.] Are you utterly crazy?
Dr. Stockmann. Out at the window, Mr. Aslaksen! Jump I tell you! Be quick about it!
Aslaksen. [Running round the writing-table.] Moderation, Doctor; I'm not at all strong; I can’t stand much—— [Screams.] Help! help!
Mrs. Stockmann, Petra, and Horster enter from sitting-room.
Mrs. Stockmann. Good heavens, Thomas! what can be the matter?
Dr. Stockmann. [Brandishing the umbrella.] Jump, I tell you! Out into the gutter!
Hovstad. An unprovoked assault! I call you to witness, Captain Horster. ”

“ It is much more wholesome in the long run—and a little more economical, too.
Mrs. Stockmann (smiling) . Now you mustn't think that Thomas and I are spendthrifts.
Peter Stockmann. Not you, my dear; I would never think that of you. (Points to the Doctor's study.) Is he not at home?
Mrs. Stockmann. No, he went out for a little turn after supper— he and the boys.
Peter Stockmann. I doubt if that is a wise thing to do. (Listens.) I fancy I hear him coming now.
Mrs. Stockmann. No, I don't think it is he. (A knock is heard at the door.) Come in! (HOVSTAD comes in from the hall.) Oh, it is you, Mr. ”

“ Mrs. Busk's own views are tolerably emancipated, when we are alone together; but now that this report about me is being spread, she dare not keep me on any longer.
Mrs. Stockmann. And someone who had been a guest of ours! That shows you the return you get for your hospitality, Thomas!
Dr. Stockmann. We won't live in such a disgusting hole any longer. Pack up as quickly as you can, Katherine; the sooner we can get away, the better.
Mrs. Stockmann. Be quiet—I think I hear someone in the hall. See who it is, Petra.
Petra (opening the door) . Oh, it's you, Captain Horster! Do come in. ”

“ He talks about the Baths; but it is a revolution he is aiming at—he wants to get the administration of the town put into new hands. No one doubts the honesty of the Doctor's intentions—no one will suggest that there can be any two opinions as to that, I myself am a believer in self-government for the people, provided it does not fall too heavily on the ratepayers. But that would be the case here; and that is why I will see Dr. Stockmann damned—I beg your pardon—before I go with him in the matter. You can pay too dearly for a thing sometimes ”

“ The compact majority behind me? That's might enough, I should think!
Katrine Stockmann is wiser than her husband. For he who has no might need hope for no right. The good Doctor has to drink the bitter cup to the last drop before he realizes the wisdom of his wife.
Threatened by the authorities and repudiated by the People's Messenger, Dr. Stockmann attempts to secure a hall wherein to hold a public meeting. A free-born citizen, he believes in the Constitution and its guarantees; he is determined to maintain his right of free expression. ”

“ And if only we proceed with moderation, I cannot imagine that there will be any risk.
Dr. Stockmann. Who the devil cares whether there is any risk or not! What I am doing, I am doing in the name of truth and for the sake of my conscience.
Hovstad. You are a man who deserves to be supported, Doctor.
Aslaksen. Yes, there is no denying that the Doctor is a true friend to the town—a real friend to the community, that he is.
Billing. Take my word for it, Aslaksen, Dr. Stockmann is a friend of the people.
Aslaksen. I fancy the Householders' Association will make use of that expression before long. ”

“ Public opinion is seldom so important as private opinion. Socrates was right and Athens wrong. Very frequently the multitude at the foot of the mountain are worshiping a golden calf, while the prophet, lonely and aloof upon the summit, is hearkening to the very voice of God.
The journalist is limited by the necessity of catering to majorities; he can never experience the felicity of Dr. Stockmann, who felt himself the strongest man on earth because he stood most alone. It may sometimes happen that the majority is right ”

“ Stockmann inevitably has to pay the penalty of his credulity. He finds every hall in town closed against him. Only one solitary citizen has the courage to open his doors to the persecuted Doctor, his old friend Horster. But the mob follows him even there and howls him down as an enemy of society. ”

“ Aslaksen. The man was evidently intoxicated.—Continue, Dr. Stockmann; but pray endeavour to be moderate.
Dr. Stockmann. Well, fellow citizens, I shall say no more about our leading men. If any one imagines, from what I have just said, that it’s these gentlemen I want to make short work of to-night, he is mistaken—altogether mistaken. For I cherish the comfortable 133conviction that these laggards, these relics of a decaying order of thought, are diligently cutting their own throats. They need no doctor to hasten their end. ”

“ In order to render the peripety of the third act more striking, he has made Hovstad, Billing, and Aslaksen, in the earlier scenes, unnaturally inapprehensive of the sacrifices implied in Stockmann’s scheme of reform. It is scarcely credible that they should be so free and emphatic in their offers of support to the Doctor’s agitation, before they have made the smallest inquiry as to what it is likely to cost the town. They think, it may be said, that the shareholders of the Baths will have to bear the whole expense ”

“ Stockmann accompanies him into the hall.
Hovstad. [As the Doctor re-enters.] Well, what do you say to that, Doctor? Don’t you think it is high time we should give all this weak-kneed, half-hearted cowardice a good shaking up?
Dr. Stockmann. Are you speaking of Aslaksen?
Hovstad. Yes, I am. He’s a decent enough fellow, but he’s one of those who are sunk in the swamp. And most people here are just like him; they are for ever wavering and wobbling from side to side; 54what with scruples and misgivings, they never dare advance a step. ”

“ Poor, silly old Stockmann in An Enemy of the People blurts it out, blurts out that the water-supply is contaminated and his native health-resort no better than a death-trap, for no better reason than that he feels it is what he ought to do. ”

“ The minority is always in the right. (Renewed uproar.)
Hovstad. Aha!—so Dr. Stockmann has become an aristocrat since the day before yesterday!
Dr. Stockmann. I have already said that I don't intend to waste a word on the puny, narrow-chested, short-winded crew whom we are leaving astern. Pulsating life no longer concerns itself with them. I am thinking of the few, the scattered few amongst us, who have absorbed new and vigorous truths. Such men stand, as it were, at the outposts, so far ahead that the compact majority has not yet been able to come up with them ”