Point of View

"An Enemy of the People," a three-act play by Arthur Miller, is based on the drama by Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen was a late 19th century dramatist who focused many of his works on "truth." Arthur Miller, who adapted the Ibsen drama for the American stage, focuses on truth and by extension, on the suppression of speech. Since World War II had just concluded a few years before Miller adapted the play, an allusion to Nazi Germany is apparent in Miller's version of the play. Much of the dialog in the play depicts the reaction of people to news that requires difficult changes and decisions. The mayor of the city decides that the people are better off if they don't the truth and it is the mayor who will decide what the truth is. The Mayor risks the health and well-being of his "people" in order to...