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Katherine Stockmann
Dr. Stockmann’s adult daughter, a schoolteacher who is eventually fired for supporting her father’s ideas. Like Dr. Stockmann, Petra is a freethinker with a rigorous notion of truth: early in the play she laments that her job forces her to teach schoolchildren conservative ideas that she does not believe in, and she falls out with Hovstad after discovering that he plans to publish a moralistic novel simply to increase newspaper sales. In comparison with her mother, Petra exemplifies changing norms and opportunities for women: while Katherine is a housewife who ventures into public life only reluctantly, Petra demonstrates a high level of independence, voices her ideas and interacts with men freely, and supports herself. These factors make her more able and willing to unequivocally support her father’s ideas, while her mother’s social conditioning and financial status prevents her from doing so. Yet Katherine and Petra are also alike in their innate sense of loyalty and their ability to see through the hypocrisy of others. At the end of the novel, Petra vows to help her father in the new school he plans to establish, simultaneously adopting a position of some authority and committing herself to supporting the goals of the dominant man in her life. This outcome demonstrates the new possibilities and old limitations that exist for women of Petra’s generation.
Petra Stockmann Quotes in An Enemy of the People
The An Enemy of the People quotes below are all either spoken by Petra Stockmann or refer to Petra Stockmann. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act I
Quotes
Petra: There is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the children.
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Act II
Quotes
Katherine: Oh yes, right—right. What is the use of having right on your side if you have not got might?
Petra: Oh, mother!—how can you say such a thing!
Dr. Stockmann: Do you imagine that in a free country it is no use having right on your side? You are absurd, Katherine. Besides, haven’t I got the liberal-minded, independent press to lead the way, and the compact majority behind me? That is might enough, I should think!
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Act III
Quotes
Hovstad. You are perfectly right; but an editor cannot always act as he would prefer. He is often obliged to bow to the wishes of the public in unimportant matters. Politics are the most important thing in life—for a newspaper, anyway; and if I want to carry my public with me on the path that leads to liberty and progress, I must not frighten them away. If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above it; they feel more secure, as it were.
Petra. For shame! You would never go and set a snare like that for your readers; you are not a spider!
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Petra Stockmann Quotes in An Enemy of the People
The An Enemy of the People quotes below are all either spoken by Petra Stockmann or refer to Petra Stockmann. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act I
Quotes
Petra: There is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the children.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Act II
Quotes
Katherine: Oh yes, right—right. What is the use of having right on your side if you have not got might?
Petra: Oh, mother!—how can you say such a thing!
Dr. Stockmann: Do you imagine that in a free country it is no use having right on your side? You are absurd, Katherine. Besides, haven’t I got the liberal-minded, independent press to lead the way, and the compact majority behind me? That is might enough, I should think!
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Explanation and Analysis:
Act III
Quotes
Hovstad. You are perfectly right; but an editor cannot always act as he would prefer. He is often obliged to bow to the wishes of the public in unimportant matters. Politics are the most important thing in life—for a newspaper, anyway; and if I want to carry my public with me on the path that leads to liberty and progress, I must not frighten them away. If they find a moral tale of this sort in the serial at the bottom of the page, they will be all the more ready to read what is printed above it; they feel more secure, as it were.
Petra. For shame! You would never go and set a snare like that for your readers; you are not a spider!
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