What are the motifs in An Enemy of the People by Arthur Miller?

Convictions and beliefs are recurring ideas in the play. The characters in Arthur Miller's "An Enemy of the People, who stick with their convictions can literally be counted on one hand. The protagonist, Dr. Tom Stockmann, is a medical doctor and a scientist. When he is presented with a scientific analysis that finds the town's water supply to be contaminated, to him there is nothing to weigh or decide. The report is an unbiased lab report that is accurate. When trouble begins to brew over the report and the issue becomes a huge controversy, Dr. Stockmann's wife, Catherine, asks what truth is without power. She is expressing her concern that if her husband became embroiled in a battle with the city administration that her family might suffer as a result. As history will attest, fear sometimes make people abandon even closely held convictions.