Act 5 Synopsis

An Enemy of the People: Act 5 Synopsis

The scene of this act is in Dr. Stockmann’s study. He collects the stones lying in the house. These stones have been used to break the windowpanes as the mob in the previous night’s meeting had suggested.
    Things quickly move from bad to worse for Dr. Stockmann’s family. They are given a notice to quit their rented house, the glazier refuses to come to replace the broken window panes and Petra is dismissed from her job. All these things happen because the people could not dare do anything contrary to the influential people in the town. Indeed, Petra captures this clearly when she reports how Mrs. Busk dismissed her. She said “Mrs. Busk  isn’t a bit like that, mother; I saw quite plainly how it hurt her to do it. But she didn’t dare to do otherwise”, she said; and so I got my notice.
   
 The concept of tyranny of the majority is further exemplified when the town’s people sign a list not to ever employ Dr. Stockmann. Peter stockman says that no head of a family would dare to risk refusing his signature.
     Peter stockman presents doctor stockman with his dismissal letter from the baths committee. He then tries to implore Dr. Stockmann to rethink about his stand and probably write some few words expressing regret and acknowledging error on his part. Dr Stockmann would not hear of such a thing and therefore refuses and stands his ground.
    Unable to convince him, peter stockman then to informs the doctor how he could be blackmailed by Morten kiil. Morten Kiil himself promptly comes in and announces that in order to cleanse his name, he’d bought shares in the baths using the money that could have been his wife’s and children’s inheritance form the old man. This blackmail is meant to make Dr. Stockmann revert his statements and announce that the baths are not infected and polluted by filth from the tanneries. To this too, Dr. Stockmann refuses to listen.
    Aslaksen and Hovstad arrive just as Morten kiil is leaving. Thinking that Dr. stockmann had calculated his move to belittle the baths so that people may sell their shares to Morten kill and later rectify the problem cheaply so that he’s left with a lot of money after reselling the shares, the two thought of putting the people’s messenger at his disposal. Realizing the self seeking intentions held by Hovstad and Aslaksen, Dr. Stockmann doe not entertain them and instead throws them out of his room. Hovstad actually blackmails him by pointing out the darker side of the story.


CRITICAL LESSONS From act five synopsis
ACT V
1. Much of what happens in this, Act is a consummation of what Dr. Stockmann had foreshadowed in act III by saying in pg. 49……they have tried to intimidate me, to make a coward of me, to force me to put personal interests above my most sacred convictions.
2. In this act, we see everything crumbling down in Dr. Stockmann’s family. This spiral downward fall started in Act IV. Dr. Stockmann, Petra and Horster lose their jobs. Morten Kiil withdraws the inheritance he would have given the family and they are given a notice to leave the home.
3. At first, Dr. Stockmann contemplates to leave the town and exile himself in a new country. However, he changes his decision and would stay in the town, assisting the poor and educating a team of young boys in an attempt to make them liberal and high minded to achieve his goals.
A ray of hope arises at this chapter when Dr. Stockmann refuses to let go his struggle and instead he would pass it on to others.