Theme of Suffering

Theme of Suffering in An enemy of the people
In the attempt to show how far an individual can stand against a strong opposition, Ibsen portrays, a man and his family who undergo and endure pain and distress in their endeavour to not only preserve the truth, but also to communicate it to the rest of the society.Dr. Stockmann and his family suffer in two major ways. First, the distress and psychological pain they experienced when   Peter Stockmann influences the whole town to reject them, Members of the family lose their jobs and their children are ejected out of the schools.

This expulsion from public and social amenities would bring a stigma on the family as nobody in the whole town would want to associate with a family that is tagged to be an enemy of the people.
It therefore subjects them to suffering loneliness in a crowded town and this leads him to contemplate exile. The attempt to leave for exile is again disrupted when captain Horster, who would help them sail away is retrenched from his job. Dr. Stockmann then resolves to live on in his town.

Secondly, physical suffering is brought out in the play when Dr. Stockmann’s children, Morten and Ejlif fight out with other boys in the town and at school.  They therefore inflict pain on each other. In addition, at the end of Dr. Stockmann’s lecture people in the crowd decide to mash Dr. Stockmann’s windows and Duck him into the fjords. This violence, decreed on Dr. Stockmann led to them tearing his  trousers though they didn’t duck him into the fjord.

Theme of Suffering in An enemy of the people