An Enemy Of The People Analysis

There are many parallels that can be found between Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. Both follow respected men who go against authority and majority opinion to save the lives of the people around them. These productions are iconic in their field, but it is not because of their story but because of their message: Tyranny of the Majority and Dangers of Ignorance. In An Enemy of the People there is pollution in the water, in Jaws, Spielberg chooses to poison the water with sharks. Before the realization of the poisons in the water, both of their jobs had been relatively calm and nothing tragic had happened in either towns. In both of these works there is political satire that caused the immediate hatred of both productions, now they are regarded as ingenious pieces
In An Enemy of the People one of the essential questions of the play is, “is the majority always right”? In many situations the majority is uninformed. For example, in Jaws nobody is aware of the true danger of the shark therefore they see no need to shut down the beach. This is also an example of the dangers of ignorance. The truth gets dilluded when the majority decides they will not support it, “What sort of truths are they that the majority usually supports? They are truths that are of such advanced age that they are beginning to break up. And if a truth is as old as that, it is also in a fair way to become a lie, gentlemen.” ( An Enemy of the People page ). In An Enemy of the People, the citizens choose to embrace ignorance, even though most of them know that there is some truth to the poison in the water. The political satire that is within each production shows the corruption within certain governments and the ability to manipulate large masses of people. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect ” (Mark Twain)