Though women are not the focus of the play, their role in An Enemy of the People is an important issue. It is important to recognize everyone’s role in a literary work, because the author might be using these roles to voice some opinion or theme. In this adaptation by Arthur Miller, the subservient lives that women led during the play’s era is a small, yet insightful part of the overall story. In fact, the book version of this play did a better job of handling the issue, because it was more realistic in regards to women’s status in society than the performance was.