Scandals and Corruption in An Enemy of the People

“Scandals on corruption are common in most societies” Basing your illustrations on Henrik Ibsen’s play, “ An Enemy of the People,” write an essay showing how it is difficult to fight corruption.

corruption means dishonest or illegal behaviour by officials or people in a position of power.

• How difficult it is to fight corruption. Most societies find it difficult to fight corruption because corrupt officials always tend to fight back. In an Enemy of The People, Dr. Stockmann who tries to fight corruption is warned by Peter Stockmann, the mayor, that he will be ruthless with him. That the doctor should deny his rumours about his publicity findings.

    - That the doctor should agree to make an expression of his confidence in the committees’ leadership which will put him to a disadvantage.
    - That he should carry out a fictitious investigation and conclude that the matter is not as dangerous as he (Dr. Stockmann) had imagined in his first report.
    - He is told that as a member of the Baths committee he does not own an opinion of his own since he is a subordinate employee.

• Corruption is not easy to fight since it mostly involves officials or people in position or power whose views admit the existence of corruption. For example:

    - Peter Stockmann denies that the water baths are contaminated. He tells Dr. Stockmann that the contamination is the doctor’s own imagination and not true as charged.
    That the doctor is merely displaying his usual recklessness and seeking an outlet to his combativeness by picking a quarrel with his superiors (the town leaders)

• Fighting corruption is not easy since the citizens are sometimes gullible for they can decide to fall easily into the trap of praising and defend the corrupt leaders /officials.

-|Vote against the incorruptible members of the society i.e. they vote against Dr. Stockmann and participate in declaring him an enemy of the people.
- They become wild and stone Dr. Stockmann’s house.

• The press is sometimes manipulated by the officials in power to perpetrate corruption and ends up becoming an accomplice in corruption e.g.

    - Billing, Aslaksen and Hovstad aid the mayor in defeating justice.
    - Are easily manipulated to go along with the Peter Stockmann’s version of the truth
        The process of fighting corruption faces a lot of challenges. It requires efforts from each individual in the society. One man cannot achieve anything as demonstrated of Dr. Stockmann in the play An Enemy of The People.