Ein Volksfeind
An Enemy of the People (original Norwegian title: "En folkefiende"), an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, followed his previous play, "Ghosts", which criticized the hypocrisy of his society's moral code. Ibsen, Ellen Mortensen ("Ibsen Studies" v.7, 169) argues, wrote "An Enemy of the People" in response to the public outcry against "Ghosts", which openly discussed adultery and syphilis. That response included accusations of both "Ghosts" and its author's being "scandalous," "degenerate," and "immoral." In "An Enemy of the People", a man dares to expose an unpalatable truth publicly and is punished for it.