2. Analyze Dr. Stockmann's motivation in revealing the truth about the polluted springs. Selfish or unselfish motives? Explain.
Personally I am an advocate for doing the right thing, and trying to help people. I am all for the truth revealing the truth no matter difficult it may be as long it is not detrimental to others. Just because an individual (Dr. Stockmann) is trying to do right by others doesn’t mean that they can’t go about it in wrong ways. Initially Dr. Stockmann’s intentions I feel were righteous, he as doctor he genuinely cares for others well being. On page 1005 Dr. stockman mentions how he was an advocate of the springs and in the past have written about how wonderful they are. Investigating the harmfulness of the springs was just a theory the doctor had as to what could be the cause of his patient’s illnesses. Many would agree that those intentions are harmless and unselfish. In the event of his research he did find that Kristen spring were in fact contaminated. Thus he felt compelled to protect the people from potential harm the organisms are capable of. I do believe that Dr. Stockmann’s intentions were to try to prevent an epidemic and prevent sickness, but I also believe that he had ulterior motives. What I gathered from reading act 1 and 2 was that there was a lot of sibling rivalry between the Stockmann’s. Possibly Dr. Stockmann felt that by coming out with this information first before notifying the board he would have to upper hand over his brother (the mayor) and he would be the more popular Stockmann in the community. Page 1005 Dr. Stockman states “now let the baboons running the town call me a lunatic” conveys his dislike towards the government. I believe that the actions of individual are never accompanied with just one intention. Therefore I do feel it is impossible to define ones motivations as either selfish or unselfish. Dr. Stockamnn’s case his motivation was both selfish and unselfish. Unselfish in that he wants to protect the people from harm, but selfish by the fact that he doesn’t mind receiving a little recognition, and in his eyes possibly viewed as a hero in doing so.
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I can definitely see the selfishness and unselfishness of your post. Although he wanted to make sure he had the proper information about the water quality, I think he maybe wanted to wait until he found out more information that way he could get the great recognition for it all. I would also have to agree that there is a little bit of sibling rivalry going on. Peter is known for his position in society and although Dr. Stockman is up there as well, the information he has might surpass the relevance of the mayor’s position.
ReplyDeleteI was reading your post and waiting for you to get to the part about sibling rivalry. I was hoping you were going to mention something about that. From the very beginning of the play where Peter was talking about how Dr. Stockmann's family always eat big meals and thought it was too often there was sibling rivalry. I thought this was a great point and a good post.
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