Dr. Thomas Stockmann: Hero or Enemy ?
Dr. Thomas Stockmann is the Medical Officer of the Baths in the play ''enemy of the people'' by Henrik Iben; and the brother of the Burgomaster (mayor) of the town. Jovial by nature, the doctor enjoys the company of "bright, cheerful, freedom loving young fellows" who share his idealism and ability to think freely.
Throughout the play, Stockman shows himself to be a conscientious person and a caring father.
He surely is the strongest character in this play with the most powerful motivation, which is truth and that only. Dr. Stockmann is determined to reveal to the public the health problems they are encountering with the contaminated baths, and is sure that they will thank him for that and appoint him as a hero for the caring of their welfare.
The doctor makes excessive attempts to make the fact known and he will not budge on his stance to protect the general public, even though it is against the will of the mayor, his brother, and the authorities.
Will the truth triumph over falsehood and the willingness of an individual to stand up against corrupt bureaucrats?
Dr. Stockmann bravely decides to fight but he doesn't realize the weight of the task he is undertaking,
His discovery that could lead him to be the hero of the town could as well make him the 'enemy of the people," if he doesn't handle the matter with extra care.
Dr. Stockmann originally came up with the plans for the baths. When the Burgomaster and the Town Council became involved, the doctor's plans were not followed and short cuts were taken. In fact, the Burgomaster insisted that the baths and the pipes be placed exactly in their present location.
The doctor grew suspicious about problems with the baths when he saw several sick patients. Through his own initiative, he tests the water and discovers that the baths, which supply much of the town's livelihood, are contaminated and became a "pestiferous hole,'' because of the faulty lying of the water pipes approaches the Burgomaster, who is also the Chairman of the Baths Committee. He reports the contamination and insists that the pipes be re-laid properly. He threatens to have his article about the baths printed in the local newspaper if corrective again is not immediately begun.
The Burgomaster insists that re-laying the pipes is out of the question because of the expense
Since the publication of, Night by Eliezer Wiesel, the holocaust has been deemed one of the darkest times in humanity, from the eradication of Jewish people to killing of innocents. Wiesel was one of the Jewish people to be in the holocaust and from his experience he gave us a memoir that manages to capture the dark side of human nature in the holocaust. He demonstrates the dark side of human nature through the cruelty the guards treat the Jews and how the Jews became cold hearted to each other. Wiesel uses foreshadowing and imagery, and metaphors to describe these events.
The article "The Frivolity of Evil" by Theodore Dalrymple analyzes the causes of human misery. His work as a psychiatrist in Great Britains slums afforded him a great vantage point to analyze this topic "nearer to the fundamental of human existence." He concluded that the citizens of Great Britian willingly participated in precipitating their own misery. Their are three recurring theme in his article the lack of moral responsibility, extreme individualism and lack of cultural expectations. Dalrymple begins his article by showing the mind frame of a prisoner released from prison, who had the idea that he had paid his debt to society. In order to get his point across Dalrymple compares the prisoners situation to his very own, the 14 years he spent as a psychiatrist in the slums of Great Britain. He had a choice to choose a different neighborhood just like the prisoner had a choice not to commit the crime. His argument in this article is that our misery stems from the choices we make about how we choose to live our lives. He was also able to cement his arguments by comparing and contrasting the political and social differences between Great Britain and those of Liberia, North Korea and Central America. Dalrymple observed that the people in other countries had their choices taken way from them the crimes and brutality committed in these countries where not their own making. However, in Great Britain the life of violence and poverty was "unforced and spontaneous." Dalrymple argues that the evils in his country are a product of a society that promotes individualism and accepts the right of its citizens to pursue pleasures for their own self interest.
older of the men, Doctor Jenkins, is the leader and his character is full of
Steven Pinker implied that, “As long as your ideology identifies the main source of the world's ills as a definable group, it opens the world up to the mass murder of people” (1). Steven Pinker revealed an interesting side to the controversial topic of mass murders and the causes of them. He revealed that as long as people in this world believe that they are better than other due to their race, religion, and everything else that defines a group of people as different from another group of people. People are and have been wrongfully treated differently due to the incompetence of some to realize that everyone is equal. They often believe that they were superior to others because of their physical attributes and beliefs that they had. The Holocaust is a major example of the ignorance of some in history. This ignorance often resulted in the murders and mistreatment of many. Elie Wiesel was one of the six million plus people who were wrongfully mistreated during the Holocaust. Many believe that this sort of event could not occur in the current time period because people have become more civilized and tolerable to the differences of others, but sadly the world is not ready to contain a social utopia. The mass murder, and violence that is occurring in Darfur is one of the many things that shows that the world is far from achieving this social utopia. Throughout history, many occurrences of genocide have occurred due to the diversity of people and even though society has evolved greatly, there are still people and places today that are suffering.
Many people say that the metal of a man is found in his ability to keep his ideals in spite of anything that life can through at you. If a man is found to have done these things he can be called a hero. Through a lifelong need to accept responsibility for all living things, Robert Ross defines his heroism by keeping faith with his ideals despite the betrayal, despair and tragedy he suffers throughout the course of The Wars by Timothy Findley.
In Enemy of the People, we see that science and technology are at the mercy of those who hold power, in this case, political power. Dr. Stockmann has discovered, through the use of science, that there is a problem with the economic center of the town-the baths. It is not Dr. Stockmann's use of science that questions the compatibility of science and human values, but his bother, Peter Stockmann's use of technology. Peter is able to control the newspaper, and therefore popular opinion, away from Dr. Stockmann (Act 3). The newspaper is a form of technology that allows news of many events to reach the common person. However, this holds a lot of responsibility with it. Whoever is in charge of what goes in the paper has the ability to shape public opi...
(Miller 21) A major character, Peter Stockmann, the mayor of the town and the chairman at Kirsten Springs, knows the pulse of the town and what is at stake if the springs should fail to bring about the much-needed growth to this small town. Dr. Stockmann, the main character and his brother, is at odds with his brother in this and decides to print a report with scientific facts to back up his words that the spring is contaminated and would need expensive repairs to fix
This is an early dramatization of something we know better a century later: the difficulty of translating medical scientific knowledge into political action. Ibsen's well-intentioned blustery doctor heroically fails. This is partly because the local democratic processes are quite cynical (powerful people prevent him from getting his information to the citizens). Dr. Stockmann also suffers from a professional blindness that keeps him from understanding how anyone could possibly disagree that his scientific "truth" (he uses the world frequently) requires rebuilding the town's waterworks. He is a classic case of virtue-based ethics sacrificing outcome for principle.
In J.M. Coetzee’s novel Waiting for the Barbarians, the Magistrate comes to discover the humanity of the barbarian through his interactions with the blind girl, which eventually leads him to learn about the nature of his own humanity. Although the Magistrate is more lenient on the Barbarians than Colonel Joll, he still unknowingly objectifies them, while placing himself above them. It is only when he is imprisoned that he comes to realize the fragility of his own humanity. Ultimately Coetzee uses the magistrate’s journey from empirical leader to broken and fearful prisoner to express that peace and stability between people can only be obtained when all humanity is valued.
`From the very start of the novel, Fred Trumper's crooked urinary tract is mentioned. It is no coincidence that Fred's life is as mixed up as his urinary tract. His urinary problem, much like his lifestyle, only leads to more problems. "Seven times in the last five years I have suffered this unnamable disorder. Once it was the clap, but that's another story" (Irving 12). One problem only leads to another, but the real problem occurs when trying to solve each situation. Fred Trumper always takes the temporary method of fixation rather than the slightly more tedious but effective permanent means. The water method is a perfect example of Trumper's ignorance towards solving situations. The water method would temporarily help Fred's symptoms, but the main problem, his crooked urinary tract, is never corrected.
Katherine, Mrs. Stockmann, is a mother and a wife who’s portrayed as a loving and loyal housewife. At the beginning of the play she was against the idea of Dr. Stockmann who wanted to write an article criticizing the Baths, “Ah, yes, right, right! But what good is the right, if you don’t have the might?” (96). However, when everyone began siding against Dr. Stockmann, Katherine decides to remain loyal to her husband and support his ideas. The reason she supports him is because she’s loyal and she wants to protect her family.
The play opens as Salieri, old and senile, sits hunched over and raving in his wheelchair as his servants scurry about, gossiping. He claims to have poisoned Mozart decades earlier, not with a potion, but with cunning and deceit. He then rises and transforms into his youthful self to tell the tale.
for the interpretation of the play. In this essay, I plan to analyse the role of
There are a few possible reasons why the townspeople conformed and turned against the doctor. However, I have come to the conclusion that the most likely reason for their behavior was because of his brother’s influence on the townsp...
• The doctor’s dilemma is that if he leaves the girl alone he will not be able to check if she has Diphtheria and may possibly die. If he continues on the road he’s going he will have to resort to measures that are socially unacceptable and even cruel.