An Enemy of the People

An Enemy of the People (original Norwegian title: En folkefiende), an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, followed his previous play, Ghosts, which criticized the hypocrisy of his society's moral code. That response included accusations of both Ghosts and its author being "scandalous," "degenerate," and "immoral." In An Enemy of the People, a man dares to expose an unpalatable truth publicly and is punished for it.

This article is about the 1882 Henrik Ibsen play. For other uses, see Enemy of the people (disambiguation) and Public Enemy (disambiguation).
An Enemy of the People
Original manuscript cover page, 1882
Original titleEn folkefiende
Written byHenrik Ibsen
Date premiered1883
Original languageNorwegian

However, Ibsen took a somewhat skeptical view of his protagonist, suggesting that he may have gone too far in his zeal to tell the truth. Ibsen wrote to his publisher: "I am still uncertain as to whether I should call [An Enemy of the People] a comedy or a straight drama. It may [have] many traits of comedy, but it also is based on a serious idea."

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