A Book And A Movie: Citadel

Abstract

At the center of The Citadel is Dr. Andrew Manson. The novel portrays a young and idealistic physician who begins his career in a Welsh mining community and struggles with poverty, poor working conditions, epidemics, and profit-driven doctors who neglect their professional responsibilities. Although Dr. Manson begins his career with a strong commitment to idealism and genuine medical practice, he gradually becomes attracted by money and drifts away from these ideals. His eventual moral self-questioning and confrontation with ethical dilemmas at the end of the novel are particularly striking. The Citadel has been adapted for film and television several times. Among these adaptations, the BBC’s ten-episode television series produced in 1983 is considered one of the most faithful to the novel. The series was also broadcast in Türkiye by TRT. Cronin’s novel was published in Türkiye in 1980 by Altın Kitaplar under the title Şahika. From a public health perspective, the novel is particularly noteworthy for its remarkably rich content. It addresses a wide range of themes, including communicable diseases (typhoid fever, tuberculosis, measles, etc.), occupational health—particularly miners’ health—pneumoconiosis, health inequalities, preventive medicine, scientific approaches to medical practice, medical ethics, and the privatization of healthcare.

Keywords: Health System, Healthcare Privatization, Occupational Health, Professional Ethics