Enemy of the People

The translation that I read was done by Farquharson Sharp provided for free by Penn State. I read that he also did translations of A Doll House and Peer Gynt, and I think the translations were done around the time they were written. But I am not exactly sure on that last bit.

I think I read the play differently than both Steve McQueen/Arthur Miller and Professor Sexson. Or maybe bridging the gap is a more appropriate term. I didn't see Stockman as such a steadfast character as Miller did. I think that Miller ignored some things, like Stockman playing with Peter's cane and hat in the newspaper office, or how Stockman seems to bring up not wanting recognition an awful lot for a guy not wanting it. But at the same time I didn't read it quite like Professor Sexson. I didn't see Stockman as a bumbling boob, causing problems and full of himself. (Probably putting words in your mouth, professor. Sorry about that.) I guess I saw him as more of a mixture, somebody who didn't handle the situation very well, and at times got a little carried away, but who tried to do the right thing the entire time.

This might be because I have read A Doll House before this class, but what I noticed was Petra's character. For all of Stockman's talk about progressing and such, he doesn't give his wife a lot of voice in the matter. She is often silenced in the play, with Stockman ignoring her towards the end of act IV, and planning on moving the family to America without discussing the matter with her, I felt like Stockman was a product of his generation. However, Petra has a job of her own teaching, and she has ideas that are "extremely emancipated". It seemed to me that her character is far more liberated than her mother is, which makes me feel like Ibsen's intent was to make her the most sympathetic character in the play. Or what is probably happening is that my having read A Doll House is slanting my views.

I think it would be awesome to have McQueen's facial hair in this movie. Seriously, the beard was epic.