Great excitement is in the air. Dr. Thomas Stockman, a physician, planned a series of baths that would increase the health of the community and could be used for a profit. While a different model of construction than the one recommended by Dr. Stockman was developed by the town leaders and the baths committee, the town is beginning to anticipate their opening and the prosperity that is on the horizon. Peter Stockman, the doctor’s elder brother, is the town mayor and chairperson of the baths. Peter is a man of action who took the doctor’s idea and made it into a practical reality. He is an administrator, one who enjoys doing things, turning ideas into tangible results, and manipulating people for power and profit. Dr. Stockman, on the other hand, is an imaginative, creative, and idealistic professional who chafes at the bureaucratic process that seems to contaminate ideas by compromise and hidden agendas.
When the doctor tests the water because of some isolated cases of typhoid and other complaints, he discovers that the water, instead of being pure and healthy, is polluted by tanneries upstream. If the baths open, a serious public health problem would occur, with a major outbreak of illnesses. Seeking out a sympathetic ear, Dr. Stockman tells the editor of a liberal newspaper, who agrees to print the doctor’s findings.
Immediately, Dr. Stockman sends a copy to his brother, expecting the mayor to shut down the baths and praise him for saving the lives of people and the reputation of the community.
His realist brother, however, is not at all happy with this news. It would ruin the town’s plans as a health resort. Not only that, but the repairs the doctor recommends would take years to accomplish and would be extremely costly. The town has already invested a great deal of money, energy, and expectation on this project.
The entire economy of the town is based on the success of the baths. In addition, Peter Stockman rationalizes, there is no proof that people will really become ill, and if they do, it is the doctor’s responsibility to treat them. Dr. Stockman, the mayor asserts, has a moral obligation to the town not to attribute any illness to the baths unless it can be definitively proven. Moreover, the doctor himself is an employee of the baths, and frightening people without a clear scientific basis would display disloyalty as an employee. His brother, the mayor, as his boss, orders Dr. Stockman to keep quiet.
Shocked and indignant at his brother’s insensitive and authoritarian response, Dr. Stockman refuses to back down. A shrewd strategist, the mayor talks to the leader of the tradespeoples organization, telling them that if Dr. Stockman has his way, the mayor will be forced to raise taxes. Threatened with financial ruin as well, the editor of the newspaper decides not to print the doctor’s report. Seeing his support crumbling about him, the doctor decides to go directly to the citizens themselves.
The mayor, however, refuses to allow him to use a public building, so Stockman decides to give his speech at the home of a friend. The night of the speech, the bureaucracy surreptitiously has stacked the cards against the doctor. A chairperson is put in charge who permits the mayor to speak first. The mayor repeats how the baths are the lifeblood of the community, turning the crowd against the doctor even before he speaks. But Dr. Stockman begins anyway, accusing the people of being poisoned by their own greed. “A community that lives on lies deserves to be destroyed,” he says.
The crowd shouts, “He is an enemy of the people.” The chair of the meeting makes this sentiment official: “I move that we embody this opinion in a resolution.” Dr. Stockman, the responsible planner, is now the official enemy of the people.