368 LITERARY PAPERS 



Ibsen in " An Enemy of the People," a play eminently adapted 

 for study and representation in any community. From the 

 beginning to the end, the action of the play is a crusade in 

 the cause of truth. 



The situation is drawn with an unsparing hand. The in- 

 difference of the many and the cowardliness of others in not 

 openly living up to their convictions are equally delineated. 

 Refreshingly contrasting is the picture of Dr. Stockmann and 

 his daughter Petra, who would willingly sacrifice all self-in- 

 terests to stand on the rock of truth and freedom. Pathetic 

 is the utterance of the doctor, when, in answer to his wife's 

 solicitude for the materialities of life, he replies, "That 's my 

 least concern. Now, what does trouble me is, that I don't see 

 any man with enough independence and nobility of character 

 to dare to take up my work after me." To this Petra hope- 

 fully suggests that others will come, and tells her father he is 

 not to " bother about that." 



In "The Doll's House" is shown that woman has duties to 

 herself as well as to others. In fact, duty to self is first. Only 

 by a knowledge of self and by developing her own character 

 may she hope with a stronger personality to live for some per- 

 manent good. The obligation that evolution imposes on her 

 to think out for herself her own problems is a text Ibsen often 

 reads from. In the last scene between Nora and Helmer, where 

 she tells him she has other duties equally sacred with those 

 of wife and mother, the duties to herself, Helmer reiterates, 

 "Before all else you are a wife and a mother." She replies, 

 "That I no longer believe. I think that before all else I am 

 a human being just as much as you are or, at least, I will 

 try to become one. I know that most people agree with you, 

 Torvald, and that they say so in books, but henceforth I can't 

 be satisfied with what most people say, and what is in books. 

 I must think them out for myself and try to get clear about 

 them." 



Many critics, as well as a not deep-thinking public, have 

 cavilled and reviled Ibsen's plays, and this because he dares 

 to raise the curtain on true situations not uncommonly met 

 with in life. Truly these situations may be unpleasant ones 



