The Enemy of the People

I thought I had taken a three day break from reading for Eid celebrations in my family. But then I found myself reading a play I saw in a High School English textbook lying around my sister's library. I stole the textbook from my sister (yes, I did!) and read it on the drive home. I managed to squeeze in some reading time after all!

The Enemy of the People is a play written by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. I first discovered Ibsen when I read his play Hedda Gabler as a part of my Master's course in English literature. His style of writing and the issues he dealt with instantly appealed to me. This is because many of these issues are still problems here where I live - Pakistan. The plays seemed like a portrayal not of 19th century Norwegian society, but my own here and now.  

The Enemy of the People dealt with some of the larger issues we find in the world today. The problems in politics and the concept of truth. Truth, again is an important part of Ibsen's dramas. Almost all of his plays have to some extent dealt with it. In The Enemy of the People, we are shown how a man struggles to keep himself clean from all the filth and lies around him; how truth is simply what the majority believes; and how people are easily manipulated and led by what they believe is the truth.