PETER STOCKMANN: I’m quite capable of understanding that. But you don’t happen to be one of those men.
DR. STOCKMANN, after a slight pause: What do you mean by that now?
PETER STOCKMANN: You know damned well what I mean by that. Morten Kiil is what I mean by that.
DR. STOCKMANN: Morten Kiil?
PETER STOCKMANN: Your father-in-law, Morten Kiil.
DR. STOCKMANN: I swear, Peter, one of us is out of his mind! What are you talking about?
PETER STOCKMANN: Now don’t try to charm me with that professional innocence!
DR. STOCKMANN: What are you talking about?
PETER STOCKMANN: You don’t know that your father-in-law has been running around all morning buying up stock in Kirsten Springs?
DR. STOCKMANN, perplexed: Buying up stock?
PETER STOCKMANN: Buying up stock, every share he can lay his hands on!
DR. STOCKMANN: Well, I don’t understand, Peter. What’s that got to do with—
PETER STOCKMANN, walking around agitatedly: Oh, come now, come now, come now!
DR. STOCKMANN: I hate you when you do that! Don’t just walk around gabbling “Come now, come now!” What the hell are you talking about?
PETER STOCKMANN: Very well, if you insist on being dense. A man wages a relentless campaign to destroy confidence in a corporation. He even goes so far as to call a mass meeting against it. The very next morning, when people are still in a state of shock about it all, his father-in-law runs all over town, picking up shares at half their value.
DR. STOCKMANN, realizing, turns away: My God!
PETER STOCKMANN: And you have the nerve to speak to me about principles!
DR. STOCKMANN: You mean you actually believe that I . . . ?
PETER STOCKMANN: I’m not interested in psychology! I believe what I see! And what I see is nothing but a man doing a dirty, filthy job for Morten Kiil. And let me tell you—by tonight every man in this town’ll see the same thing!
DR. STOCKMANN: Peter, you, you . . .
PETER STOCKMANN: Now go to your desk and write me a statement denying everything you’ve been saying, or . . .
DR. STOCKMANN: Peter, you’re a low creature!
PETER STOCKMANN: All right then, you’d better get this one straight, Thomas. If you’re figuring on opening another attack from out of town, keep this in mind: the morning it’s published I’ll send out a subpoena for you and begin a prosecution for conspiracy. I’ve been trying to make you respectable all my life; now if you want to make the big jump there’ll be nobody there to hold you back. Now do we understand each other?
DR. STOCKMANN: Oh, we do, Peter! Peter Stockmann starts for the door. Get the girl—what the hell is her name—scrub the floors, wash down the walls, a pestilence has been here!
Kiil enters. Peter Stockmann almost runs into him. Peter turns to his brother.
PETER STOCKMANN, pointing to Kiil: Ha! He turns and goes out.
Kiil, humming quietly, goes to a chair.
DR. STOCKMANN: Morten! What have you done? What’s the matter with you? Do you realize what this makes me look like?
Kiil has started taking some papers out of his pocket. Dr. Stockmann breaks off on seeing them. Kiil places them on the table.
DR. STOCKMANN: Is that—them?
KIIL: That’s them, yes. Kirsten Springs shares. And very easy to get this morning.
DR. STOCKMANN: Morten, don’t play with me—what is this all about?
KIIL: What are you so nervous about? Can’t a man buy some stock without . . . ?
DR. STOCKMANN: I want an explanation, Morten.
KIIL, nodding: Thomas, they hated you last night—
DR. STOCKMANN: You don’t have to tell me that.
KIIL: But they also believed you. They’d love to murder you, but they believe you. Slight pause. The way they say it, the pollution is coming down the river from Windmill Valley.
DR. STOCKMANN: That’s exactly where it’s coming from.
KIIL: Yes. And that’s exactly where my tannery is.
Pause. Dr. Stockmann sits down slowly.
DR. STOCKMANN: Well, Morten, I never made a secret to you that the pollution was tannery waste.
KIIL: I’m not blaming you. It’s my fault. I didn’t take you seriously. But it’s very serious now. Thomas, I got that tannery from my father; he got it from his father; and his father got it from my great-grandfather. I do not intend to allow my family’s name to stand for the three generations of murdering angels who poisoned this town.
DR. STOCKMANN: I’ve waited a long time for this talk, Morten. I don’t think you can stop that from happening.
KIIL: No, but you can.
DR. STOCKMANN: I?
KIIL, nudging the shares: I’ve bought these shares because—
DR. STOCKMANN: Morten, you’ve thrown your money away. The springs are doomed.
KIIL: I never throw my money away, Thomas. These were bought with your money.
DR. STOCKMANN: My money? What . . . ?
KIIL: You’ve probably suspected that I might leave a little something for Catherine and the boys?
DR. STOCKMANN: Well, naturally, I’d hoped you’d . . .
KIIL, touching the shares: I decided this morning to invest that money in some stock.
DR. STOCKMANN, slowly getting up: You bought that junk with Catherine’s money!
KIIL: People call me “badger,” and that’s an animal that roots out things, but it’s also some kind of a pig, I understand. I’ve lived a clean man and I’m going to die clean. You’re going to clean my name for me.
DR. STOCKMANN: Morten . . .
KIIL: Now I want to see if you really belong in a strait jacket.
DR. STOCKMANN: How could you do such a thing? What’s the matter with you!
KIIL: Now don’t get excited, it’s very simple. If you should make another investigation of the water—
DR. STOCKMANN: I don’t need another investigation, I—
KIIL: If you think it over and decide that you ought to change your opinion about the water—
DR. STOCKMANN: But the water is poisoned! It is poisoned!
KIIL: If you simply go on insisting the water is poisoned—he holds up the shares—with these in your house, then there’s only one explanation for you—you’re absolutely crazy. He puts the shares down on the table again.
DR. STOCKMANN: You’re right! I’m mad! I’m insane!
KIIL, with more force: You’re stripping the skin off your family’s back! Only a madman would do a thing like that!
DR. STOCKMANN: Morten, Morten, I’m a penniless man! Why didn’t you tell me before you bought this junk?
KIIL: Because you would understand it better if I told you after. He goes up to Dr. Stockmann, holds him by the lapels. With terrific force, and the twinkle still in his eye: And, goddammit, I think you do understand it now, don’t you? Millions of tons of water come down that river. How do you know the day you made your tests there wasn’t something unusual about the water?
DR. STOCKMANN, not looking at Kiil: Yes, but I . . .
KIIL: How do you know? Why couldn’t those little animals have clotted up only the patch of water you souped out of the river? How do you know the rest of it wasn’t pure?
DR. STOCKMANN: It’s not probable. People were getting sick last summer . . .
KIIL: They were sick when they came here or they wouldn’t have come!
DR. STOCKMANN, breaking away: Not intestinal diseases, skin diseases . . .
KIIL, following him: The only place anybody gets a bellyache is here! There are no carbuncles in Norway? Maybe the food was bad. Did you ever think of the food?
DR. STOCKMANN, with the desire to agree with him: No, I didn’t look into the food . . .
KIIL: Then what makes you so s
ure it’s the water?
DR. STOCKMANN: Because I tested the water and—
KIIL, taking hold of him again: Admit it! We’re all alone here. You have some doubt.
DR. STOCKMANN: Well, there’s always a possible . . .
KIIL: Then part of it’s imaginary.
DR. STOCKMANN: Well, nothing is a hundred per cent on this earth, but—
KIIL: Then you have a perfect right to doubt the other way! You have a scientific right! And did you ever think of some disinfectant? I bet you never even thought of that.
DR. STOCKMANN: Not for a mass of water like that, you can’t . . .
KIIL: Everything can be killed. That’s science! Thomas, I never liked your brother either, you have a perfect right to hate him.
DR. STOCKMANN: I didn’t do it because I hate my brother.
KIIL: Part of it, part of it, don’t deny it! You admit there’s some doubt in your mind about the water, you admit there may be ways to disinfect it, and yet you went after your brother as though these doubts didn’t exist; as though the only way to cure the thing was to blow up the whole Institute! There’s hatred in that, boy, don’t forget it. He points to the shares. These can belong to you now, so be sure, be sure! Tear the hatred out of your heart, stand naked in front of yourself—are you sure?
DR. STOCKMANN: What right have you to gamble my family’s future on the strength of my convictions?
KIIL: Aha! Then the convictions are not really that strong!
DR. STOCKMANN: I am ready to hang for my convictions! But no man has a right to make martyrs of others; my family is innocent. Sell back those shares, give her what belongs to her. I’m a penniless man!
KIIL: Nobody is going to say Morten Kiil wrecked this town. He gathers up the shares. You retract your convictions—or these go to my charity.
DR. STOCKMANN: Everything?
KIIL: There’ll be a little something for Catherine, but not much. I want my good name. It’s exceedingly important to me.
DR. STOCKMANN, bitterly: And charity . . .
KIIL: Charity will do it, or you will do it. It’s a serious thing to destroy a town.
DR. STOCKMANN: Morten, when I look at you, I swear to God I see the devil!
The door opens, and before we see who is there . . .
DR. STOCKMANN: You!
Aslaksen enters, holding up his hand defensively.
ASLAKSEN: Now don’t get excited! Please!
Hovstad enters. He and Aslaksen stop short and smile on seeing Kiil.
KIIL: Too many intellectuals here: I’d better go.
ASLAKSEN, apologetically: Doctor, can we have five minutes of—
DR. STOCKMANN: I’ve got nothing to say to you.
KIIL, going to the door: I want an answer right away. You hear? I’m waiting. He leaves.
DR. STOCKMANN: All right, say it quick, what do you want?
HOVSTAD: We don’t expect you to forgive our attitude at the meeting, but . . .
DR. STOCKMANN, groping for the word: Your attitude was prone . . . prostrated . . . prostituted!
HOVSTAD: All right, call it whatever you—
DR. STOCKMANN: I’ve got a lot on my mind, so get to the point. What do you want?
ASLAKSEN: Doctor, you should have told us what was in back of it all. You could have had the Messenger behind you all the way.
HOVSTAD: You’d have had public opinion with you now. Why didn’t you tell us?
DR. STOCKMANN: Look, I’m very tired, let’s not beat around the bush!
HOVSTAD, gesturing toward the door where Kiil went out: He’s been all over town buying up stock in the springs. It’s no secret any more.
DR. STOCKMANN, after a slight pause: Well, what about it?
HOVSTAD, in a friendly way: You don’t want me to spell it out, do you?
DR. STOCKMANN: I certainly wish you would. I—
hovstad: All right, let’s lay it on the table. Aslaksen, you want to . . . ?
ASLAKSEN: No, no, go ahead.
HOVSTAD: Doctor, in the beginning we supported you. But it quickly became clear that if we kept on supporting you in the face of public hysteria—
DR. STOCKMANN: Your paper created the hysteria.
HOVSTAD: One thing at a time, all right? Slowly, to drive it into Dr. Stockmann’s head: We couldn’t go on supporting you because, in simple language, we didn’t have the money to withstand the loss in circulation. You’re boycotted now? Well, the paper would have been boycotted too, if we’d stuck with you.
ASLAKSEN: You can see that, Doctor.
DR. STOCKMANN: Oh, yes. But what do you want?
HOVSTAD: The People’s Messenger can put on such a campaign that in two months you will be hailed as a hero in this town.
ASLAKSEN: We’re ready to go.
HOVSTAD: We will prove to the public that you had to buy up the stock because the management would not make the changes required for public health. In other words, you did it for absolutely scientific, public-spirited reasons. Now what do you say, Doctor?
DR. STOCKMANN: You want money from me, is that it?
ASLAKSEN: Well, now, Doctor . . .
HOVSTAD, to Aslaksen: No, don’t walk around it. To Dr. Stockmann: If we started to support you again, Doctor, we’d lose circulation for a while. We’d like you—or Mr. Kiil rather—to make up the deficit. Quickly: Now that’s open and aboveboard, and I don’t see anything wrong with it. Do you?
Pause. Dr. Stockmann looks at him, then turns and walks to the windows, deep in thought.
ASLAKSEN: Remember, Doctor, you need the paper, you need it desperately.
DR. STOCKMANN, returning: No, there’s nothing wrong with it at all. I—I’m not at all averse to cleaning up my name—although for myself it never was dirty. But I don’t enjoy being hated, if you know what I mean.
ASLAKSEN: Exactly.
HOVSTAD: Aslaksen, will you show him the budget . . .
Aslaksen reaches into his pocket.
DR. STOCKMANN: Just a minute. There is one point. I hate to keep repeating the same thing, but the water is poisoned.
HOVSTAD: Now, Doctor . . .
DR. STOCKMANN: Just a minute. The Mayor says that he will levy a tax on everybody to pay for the reconstruction. I assume you are ready to support that tax at the same time you’re supporting me.
ASLAKSEN: That tax would be extremely unpopular.
HOVSTAD: Doctor, with you back in charge of the baths, I have absolutely no fear that anything can go wrong.
DR. STOCKMANN: In other words, you will clean up my name—so that I can be in charge of the corruption.
HOVSTAD: But we can’t tackle everything at once. A new tax—there’d be an uproar!
ASLAKSEN: It would ruin the paper!
DR. STOCKMANN: Then you don’t intend to do anything about the water?
HOVSTAD: We have faith you won’t let anyone get sick.
DR. STOCKMANN: In other words, gentlemen, you are looking for someone to blackmail into paying your printing bill.
HOVSTAD, indignantly: We are trying to clear your name, Doctor Stockmann! And if you refuse to cooperate, if that’s going to be your attitude . . .
DR. STOCKMANN: Yes? Go on. What will you do?
HOVSTAD, to Aslaksen: I think we’d better go.
DR. STOCKMANN, stepping in their way: What will you do? I would like you to tell me. Me, the man two minutes ago you were going to make into a hero—what will you do now that I won’t pay you?
ASLAKSEN: Doctor, the public is almost hysterical . . .
DR. STOCKMANN: To my face, tell me what you are going to do!
HOVSTAD: The Mayor will prosecute you for conspiracy to destroy a corporation, and without a paper behind you, you will end up in prison.
DR. STOCKMANN: And you’ll support him, wo
n’t you? I want it from your mouth, Hovstad. This little victory you will not deny me. Hovstad starts for the door. Dr. Stockmann steps into his way. Tell the hero, Hovstad. You’re going to go on crucifying the hero, are you not? Say it to me! You will not leave here until I get this from your mouth!
HOVSTAD, looking directly at Dr. Stockmann: You are a madman. You are insane with egotism. And don’t excuse it with humanitarian slogans, because a man who’ll drag his family through a lifetime of disgrace is a demon in his heart! He advances on Dr. Stockmann. You hear me? A demon who cares more for the purity of a public bath than the lives of his wife and children. Doctor Stockmann, you deserve everything you’re going to get!
Dr. Stockmann is struck by Hovstad’s ferocious conviction. Aslaksen comes toward him, taking the budget out of his pocket.
ASLAKSEN, nervously: Doctor, please consider it. It won’t take much money, and in two months’ time I promise you your whole life will change and . . .
Offstage Mrs. Stockmann is heard calling in a frightened voice, “What happened? My God, what’s the matter?” She runs to the front door. Dr. Stockmann, alarmed, goes quickly to the hallway. Ejlif and Morten enter. Morten’s head is bruised. Petra and Captain Horster enter from the left.
MRS. STOCKMANN: Something happened! Look at him!
MORTEN: I’m all right, they just . . .
DR. STOCKMANN, looking at the bruise: What happened here?
MORTEN: Nothing, Papa, I swear . . .
DR. STOCKMANN, to Ejlif: What happened? Why aren’t you in school?
EJLIF: The teacher said we better stay home the rest of the week.
DR. STOCKMANN: The boys hit him?
EJLIF: They started calling you names, so he got sore and began to fight with one kid, and all of a sudden the whole bunch of them . . .
MRS. STOCKMANN, to Morten: Why did you answer!
MORTEN, indignantly: They called him a traitor! My father is no traitor!
EJLIF: But you didn’t have to answer!
MRS. STOCKMANN: You should’ve known they’d all jump on you! They could have killed you!
MORTEN: I don’t care!
DR. STOCKMANN, to quiet him—and his own heart: Morten . . .
MORTEN, pulling away from his father: I’ll kill them! I’ll take a rock and the next time I see one of them I’ll kill him!
The Penguin Arthur Miller Page 36