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Tag Archives: Dialogues

La Critique de l’École des femmes: Details

15 Sunday Nov 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Molière

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Anagnorisis, Dialogues, Expectations, irony, L'École des femmes, La Critique de l'École des femmes, Meaning, Molière

L’École des femmes by François Boucher (peintre) and Laurent Cars (graveur)
La Critique de l’École des femmes par by François Boucher (peintre) and Laurent Cars (graveur)

The Deceiver Deceived

Oui, mais qui rit d’autrui,
Doit craindre, qu’en revanche, on rie aussi de lui.

Arnolphe à Chrysalde (I, i)
[Yes; but he who laughs at another must beware,
lest he inturn be laughed at himself
.]
Arnolphe to Chrysalde (I. 1, p. 96)

Irony is the literary device underlying L’École des femmes. In Act One, scene one, Arnolphe (see toutmolière.net) describes Agnès to Chrysalde. Agnès is innocent to the point of making him laugh:

La vérité passe encor mon récit./ Dans ses simplicités à tous coups je l’admire,/160 Et parfois elle en dit, dont je pâme de rire./ L’autre jour (pourrait-on se le persuader)/ Elle était fort en peine, et me vint demander,/ Avec une innocence à nulle autre pareille,/ Si les enfants qu’on fait, se faisaient par l’oreille.
Arnolphe à Chrysalde (I. i)
[What I have told you falls even short of the truth: I admire her simplicity on all occasions; sometimes she says things at which I split my sides with laughing. The other day would you believe it? she was uneasy, and came to ask me, with unexampled innocence, if children came through the ears.]
Arnolphe to Chrysalde (I. 1, p. 99)

There can be no doubt that laughing at others will cause others to laugh at Arnolphe when and if he is cuckolded. But, worse, Arnolphe will be cuckolded before he marries.

Expectations

  • Arnolphe
  • Climène the prude
  • le Marquis
  • Lysidas, the poet

As you know, communication cannot occur when an interlocuteur hears and sees what he expects to hear and see, which is irony. The Marquis, who has not even seen L’École des femmes, cannot say a word about it. Yet he maintains that the play is détestable. When Dorante asks him to say why the play is “détestable,” he cannot substantiate his “détestable.” All he can say is that the play is détestable because it is détestable, which is not an answer. He cannot dislike a play he hasn’t see, but he can dislike having been squeezed and frippé by the crowd at the entrance to the theatre. He has also heard laughter, which in his eyes is proof positive that the play is a flop, when in fact laughter proves that the play is enormously successful.

Molière seems way ahead of his time. This is the Theatre of the Absurd (le Théâtre de l’Absurde). Yet, it isn’t. Molière depicts humans “d’après nature,” as they are. By doing so, he illustrates flaws in information and communication that now constitute a theory (“noise” in Information Theory).

In other words, the Marquis has been told that the play is a flop, and expects to see a flop. In fact, laughter has caused him not to pay any attention to the play. He is, therefore, undone.

As for the poet Lysidas, he liked the play but says that the connoisseurs have not. So, he claims that L’École des femmes does not respect the rules of classical theatre, which it does. His response and the Marquis’s response have been conditioned by the attacks Molière faces and which he addresses by writing La Critique de l’École des femmes. Truth be told, the prude, the Marquis, and the poet reject The School for Wives because their judgement is flawed by “noise.” They see and hear what they have been told to see and hear. Spectators and readers will laugh honestly, but not a précieuse, a Marquis, or a poet.

Irony

In L’École des femmes, however, the main irony resides in Arnolphe’s failure to defeat Horace. Arnolphe has done the utmost to make sure Agnès knows no more than where to put the tarte à la crème, the cream tart. Moreover, young Horace, who does not know that Arnolphe is Monsieur de la Souche, tells Arnolphe, whom he trusts, all the stratagems he will use to take Agnès away from Monsieur de la Souche’s house, a doubling. Yet, although he is armed to the teeth, Arnolphe loses Agnès.

But an unforeseen event, the fortuitous return of a father, may prevent Horace and Agnès from marrying, despite their own stratagems. Oronte, Horace’s father, wants Horace to marry Enrique’s long-lost daughter. So, ironically, Oronte’s son Horace goes to Arnolphe to tell his woes and then asks our jaloux to protect him by keeping Agnès.

Jugez, en prenant part à mon inquiétude,/ S’il pouvait m’arriver un contre-temps plus rude;/ Cet Enrique, dont hier je m’informais à vous,/1635 Cause tout le malheur dont je ressens les coups;/ Il vient avec mon père achever ma ruine,/ Et c’est sa fille unique à qui l’on me destine.
Horace à Arnolphe (V, vi)
[Feel for my anxiety and judge if a more cruel disappointment could happen to me. That Enrique, whom I asked you about yesterday, is the source of all my trouble. He has come with my father to complete my ruin; it is for his only daughter that I am destined.]
Horace to Arnolphe (V. 6. p. 139)

An Anagnorisis

Fate may harm an authoritarian pater familias, but it is kind to young lovers and will not let the trompeur deceive anyone. It so happens, ironically, that Enrique’s daughter is Agnès and that he has returned much enriched. So, we have an anagnorisis. Horace had asked Arnolphe to hide Agnès so he would not lose her, which is the height of irony, Arnolphe being his rival. However, Agnès is Enrique’s daughter and the bride Oronte has chosen for his son. Moreover, Enrique is opposed to forced marriages and if there is a marriage, he will repay Arnolphe the full cost of bringing up Agnès. Agnès will owe nothing. Comedy may at times border on fairy tales. The young couple will marry. But, as mentioned above:

Oui, mais qui rit d’autrui,
Doit craindre, qu’en revanche, on rie aussi de lui.

Arnolphe à Chrysalde (I, i)
[Yes; but he who laughs at another must beware,
lest he inturn be laughed at himself
.]
Arnolphe to Chrysalde (I. 1, p. 96)

The play seems an exemplum (an example that illustrates a moral), as in a sermon or a fable. Comedy favours the marriage of a young couple. In Act Three, scene two of L’École des femmes, Arnolphe has Agnès read: Les Maximes du Mariage ou Les Devoirs de la femme mariée. Act Three, scene two pp. 37-40. Pleasure rules.

Le moyen de chasser ce qui fait du plaisir ?
Agnès à Arnolphe (V, iv)
[How can we drive away what gives us pleasure?]
Agnès to Arnolphe (V. 4. p, 137)

If obscénité there is in L’École des femmes and La Critique, it resides in the mind of prudes and it is the role some women choose to make up for their evanescent youth and beauty. They play a new role, but they are still on stage. The Marquis proves that the play is immensely successful. People were laughing. As noted above, Molière is way ahead of himself. This is théâtre de l’absurde (the Theatre of the Absurd). Yet, it isn’t. Molière depicts humans “d’après nature,” as they are. But by doing so, he illustrates flaws in information and communication that now constitute a theory (“noise” in Information Theory).

I will leave you to read whatever information I have had to leave out.

RELATED ARTICLES
Page on Molière
La Critique de l’Écoles des femmes: details (15 November 2020)
La Critique de l’École des femmes (10 November 2020)
Destiny in L’École des femmes (1st November 2020)

Sources and Resources

  • L’École des femmes is a toutmolière.net publication
  • The School for Wives Criticised is an Internet Archive publication
  • La Critique de l’École des femmes is a toutmolière.net publication
  • The School for Wives Criticised is an Internet Archive publication is an Internet Archive publication
  • Our translator is Henri van Laun
  • Images belong to théâtre-documention.com (BnF)
  • Wikipedia: various entries
  • The Encyclopædia Britannica: various entries

Love to everyone 💕

Marin Marais: Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève du Mont de Paris (The Bells of St. Geneviève)
Chef d’une femme par François Boucher

© Micheline Walker
13 Novembre 2020
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

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Molière: plots, jealousy & the dénouement

24 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by michelinewalker in Comedy, Molière, Varia

≈ Comments Off on Molière: plots, jealousy & the dénouement

Tags

Casuistry, Comédie-Ballet, Dialogues, jealousy, Le Misanthrope, Plots, Tartuffe, the pharmakos

François_Boucher_-_Young_Country_Girl_Dancing_-_Google_Art_Project

Young Country Girl Dancing by François Boucher (Photo credit: Wiki2.org.)

I reread chapters of my thesis on Molière‘s (1622 – 1673), a study of the pharmakós in six of Molière‘ comedies, and my article on L’École des femmes.[1] The article is fine. As for my thesis, its chapter on Le Misanthrope requires a few quotations and should be linked to “Le Misanthrope, ou la comédie éclatée,”[2] a paper I read at an international conference on the Age of Theatre in France. It was held at the University of Toronto, on 14-16 May 1987.

Following are a few comments on the plot of comedies and farces, on jealousy and the dénouement.

The Plot

  • All’s well that ends well
  • Le Blondin berne le barbon
  • Le Trompeur trompé (the deceiver deceived)
  • Hoist with his own petard

All’s well that ends well is a play by Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616),  which describes comedy in general. The French use the following formula: Le blondin berne le barbon, or The Young Man fools the Old Man. However, there are times when Molière blends the two formulas. One could say that the School for Wives‘ Arnolphe is “hoisted with his own petard” (Shakespeare’s Hamlet) or that he is le trompeur trompé (the deceiver deceived). He raises his future wife, but she marries a young man.

By keeping Agnès inside his house, Arnoldphe believes he is raising a wife who will not be unfaithful. When Arnolphe learns Agnès loves Horace, he does not speak like a lover. He speaks like an accountant. He brought her up, so she owes him. The matter of her debt is discussed. Arnolphe, the blocking character or alazṓn, senex iratus, Miles gloriosus, etc. alienates Agnès. After meeting Horace, she tells Arnolphe that the young man she loves knows how say what pleases her, which is not the case with Arnolphe, the embodiment of jealousy. The School for Wives was first performed at the Palais Royal theatre on 26 December 1662. Comedies promote marriage and pleasure.

Front page of L’École des femmes—engraving from the 1719 edition (Wiki2.org.)

Jealousy

AGNÈS

Lui, mais à vous parler franchement entre nous,
Il est plus pour cela, selon mon goût, que vous ;
Chez vous le mariage est fâcheux et pénible,
Et vos discours en font une image terrible :
Mais las ! il le fait lui si rempli de plaisirs,
Que de se marier il donne des désirs.
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[You did. But, to be frank with you, he is more to my taste for a husband than you. With you, marriage is a trouble and a pain, and your descriptions give a terrible picture of it; but there−he makes it seem so full of joy that I long to marry.]
(Agnès to Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

ARNOLPHE
But you ought to have driven away that amorous desire.
(Arnolphe to Agnès, V.5, p. 26)

AGNÈS
Le moyen de chasser ce qui fait du plaisir ?
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[How can we drive away what gives us pleasure?]
(Agnès to Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

AGNÈS
Vraiment il en sait donc là-dessus plus que vous ;
Car à se faire aimer il n’a point eu de peine.
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[Of a truth then he knows more about it than you; for he had no difficulty in making himself loved.]
(Agnès to Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

AGNÈS
Que ne vous êtes-vous comme lui fait aimer ?
(Agnès à Arnolphe, 5.iv)

[Heaven! you ought not to blame me. Why did you not make yourself loved, as he has done? I did not prevent you, I fancy.
(Agnès à Arnolphe, V.5, p. 26)

ALCESTE

Le Misanthrope’s Alceste is also jealous. Yet Célimène tells him that she loves him:

Mais, moi, que vous blâmez de trop de jalousie,
Qu’ai-je de plus qu’eux tous, Madame, je vous prie ?
(Alceste to Célimène, 2.iv)

[But, madam,
What have I more than all of them, I pray you?
—I, whom you blame for too much jealousy!]
(Alceste to Célimène, II.1)

Le bonheur de savoir que vous êtes aimé.
Célimène à Alceste, 2.i)
[The happiness of knowing you are loved.]
(Célimène to Alceste, II.1)

Célimène is ready to marry Alceste, but he refuses…  He hates what he loves. (5, scène dernière) (V .7)

Molière and Pierre Corneille (Getty images)

The Dénouement

The role Philinte plays has often been described as that of the raisonneur. When I studied Molière as an undergraduate, Philinte was the raisonneur. More recent scholarship opposes the alazṓn to the eirôn (as in ironic) in a form of contest called agôn (as in protagonist, antagonist, and agony). Normally, the alazṓn is defeated, but not necessarily ousted. In The Misanthrope (1665), no one is ousted, but all characters leave the stage. I am reading Gabriel Conesa’s Le Dialogue moliéresque, seeking information on the dialogue between Philinte and Alceste (1.i), in Le Misanthrope.[3]

We have a raisonneur[4] in The Misanthrope: Philinte. When Alceste reveals that civility does not allow him to know whether what praise he hears is mere flattery the truth, a mask falls. He is vain and not a raisonneur. The dialogue between Alceste and Philinte allows us to know the real Alceste (I.i.). As for his dialogue with Célimène, (II.1) it reveals insecurity, inquiétude. As we have seen in Portraits of the Misanthrope, Philinte’s flegme (his calmness) allows him to enjoy the world, however flawed. He is the eirôn, but also, a raisonneur. Alceste, as lover, is conflicted. The agôn, the contest opposing the alazṓn and the eirôn, takes place within him. How can there be a dénouement?

The plot of this comedy is circular. I have therefore suggested that although there is a dramatis personæ, comedic functions have been fused, blurring distribution: blocking character, alazṓn, senex iratus (crazy old man) the young lovers and the eirôn (Philinte as raisonneur). This would suggest the total absence in Molière’s Misanthrope of tragedy’s catharsis. No one can be removed.

However, Molière’s Tartuffe (1664-1669), features a pharmakós (as in pharmacy). Tartuffe, the hypocrite, is led to prison by an officer: l’Exempt. (Tartuffe.pdf) He is saved by “un Prince ennemi de la fraude.” (V, Scène dernière), (“Our prince is not a friend to double-dealing[.]” Tartuffe). Yet, Tartuffe was empowered by Orgon who was empowered by Tartuffe.[6] Orgon adopts Tartuffe so he, Orgon, can be a family tyrant with impunity or sin without sinning (casuistry).[7] The dénouement is not a genuine cleansing. Therefore, Tartuffe is a pharmakós, a scapegoat.

Comedies where the young lovers fool the blocking character and marry suggest a healthier society, the society of the play. Famous examples are The Would-be Genleman, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), and Le Malade imaginaire (1673), The Imaginary Invalid. These are classified as comédies-ballets. The music for The Imaginary Invalid was composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

You may know that Le Malade imaginaire was first performed on 10 February 1673. Molière suffered from tuberculosis. He collapsed on the stage on 17 February 1673, during the fourth performance of Le Malade imaginaire. He fainted when he was removed from the stage. He was hemorraging. He died a few hours later.

However, let us return to Tartuffe where “all’s well that ends well.”  Mariane will marry Valère.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Molière and the raisonneur (themorganlea.com)
  • Portraits of the Misanthrope (20 February 2019)
  • Molière’s Tartuffe, a reading (17 May 2016)
  • Molière’s Tartuffe and Northrop Frye (21 July 2014)
  • Casuistry, or how to sin without sinning (5 March 2012)

Sources and Resources

  • Comédie-ballet FR
  • L’École des femmes is e-text (UK) EN
  • The Plays of Molière are Internet Archive publications EN
  • L’ École des femmes is a toutmolière.net publication FR
  • Le Misanthrope is a toutmolière.net publication FR
  • The Misanthrope is a Wikisource publication EN
  • Tartuffe is a toutmolière.net publication FR
  • Tartuffe is a Wikisource publication EN

_________________________
(Notes 1 & 2 refer to material that should be included in a longer text.)

[1] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, “L’Échec d’Arnolphe: lois du genre, ou faille intérieure?,”Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 11, nº 20 (1984), 79-92.
[2] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, “Le Misanthrope ou la comédie éclatée,” in David Trott & Nicole Boursier, eds, L’Âge du théâtre en France/The Age of Theatre in France (Edmonton: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988), 53-63. ISBN 0-920980-30-9
[3] Gabriel Conesa, Le Dialogue moliéresque (Paris: CEDES, 1992) (narratives)
[4] Harold Knutson, “Yet another last word on Molière raisonneur,” Theatre Survey, 22, nº1 (1981), 125-140.
[5] Micheline Bourbeau-Walker, “Le Misanthrope ou la comédie éclatée.”
[6] Casuistry, or how to sin without sinning (michelinewalker.com)

Love to everyone  💕

—ooo—

Claire Lefilliâtre chante Plaisir d’amour — Le Poème harmonique

Portrait of Molière by Pierre Mignard, ca. 1658 (Google Art Project)

© Micheline Walker
24 February 2019
WordPress

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