MOLIERE, JEAN BAPTISTE.   Term Paper ID:24220 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Life & career of 17th Cent. French playwright & his satirical social comedies, focusing on [Tartuffe].... More...

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Paper Abstract: Life & career of 17th Cent. French playwright & his satirical social comedies, focusing on [Tartuffe]. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this research is to examine the life and work of the French playwright Moliиre, with special focus on the play Tartuffe. The plan of the research will be to set forth the biographical context in which Moliиre's work emerged, and then to discuss how Moliиre's work reflected the culture in which he lived and how that culture influenced and is reflected by his plays, as well as how his unique style of comedic theatre connected with the social environment of the period. Among the most significant features of Moliиre's work is that it took place by and large in the milieu of the French court. Born in 1622 into the bourgeois family licensed as upholsterers to the king, Moliиre abandoned a law career to create an acting troupe in 1643, and he spent the next thirty years as an actor-playwright-manager whose company was either under Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Moliиre's comedies are at most an imitation of life; they are anythingbut a duplication, and after all nothing more need be required of comedy,which by its nature has an unreal quality about it. The employment of character mask in this playmeant that the characters invited ridicule by remaining stubbornly faithfulto their given character traits. Theinitial reaction of the French court to Les Precieuses ridicules, Moliиre'sfirst royal commission, is evidence of the fact that some of his jests hittoo close to home. to decide Louis XIV againstlicensing Le Tartufe" (Lewis 115). "Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliиre." European Theories of the Drama. Atone point a servant reports to Orgon that, among other things, his wifeElmira "could not get a wink of sleep," "And Tartuffe?" says Orgon. Later this aspect was to limit very severely the power of the monarchy to adapt itself and French society to ever more pressing problems (Moore 59). The audience, ofcourse, knows that Tartuffe is wearing a mask from the shrewdly perceptiveservant Dorina's immediate response: "What affectation and roguery!" Within the framework of Tartuffe's religious hypocrisy is built theunscrupulous, ambitious man on the make. Clark. Theplan of the research will be to set forth the biographical context in whichMoliиre's work emerged, and then to discuss how Moliиre's work reflectedthe culture in which he lived and how that culture influenced and isreflected by his plays, as well as how his unique style of comedic theatreconnected with the social environment of the period. . In this regard, Gassner says thatMoliиre's protagonists are "absolute egotists who invent values--generallyillusory, hence the humor--to satisfy their appetites. They were "stillsufficiently influential in high places . 11 -11.Gassner, John. Works CitedChapelain, Jean. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1959.Moliиre, Jean Baptiste Poquelin. This comedy sounded the death-knell of the most fashionable cult of the court. 2 vols. In La Critique de L'Ecole des femmes, Moliиre enterswhat could be called the culture wars of neoclassical France, declaring theAcademy's view to be so much nonsense. Moore describes France in the period before theRevolution as "an illuminating mixture of competing traits . "French Dramatic Criticism of the Seventeenth Century." European Theories of the Drama. Trans. Upon release, he reconstituted a troupethat performed so successfully in the French provinces between 1645 and1658 that when it again arrived in Paris to perform for Louis XIV, it was asuccess. Frame. He"slept comfortably till next morning." Orgon's reply: "The poor man" (I,v). Tartuffe aggressively enacts his pathology on others insociety, and this legitimates that society's determined ejection of himfrom it. 18-3 .Lewis, D.B.W. Ofhumble origin, Tartuffe has duped his patron Orgon into believing that he(Tartuffe) has the admirable quality of religious piety. "If it bethe aim of comedy to correct man's vices, then I do not see for what reasonthere should be a privileged class," he writes in the preface to Tartuffe."People do not mind being wicked; but they object to being made ridiculous"(Moliиre, "Preface to Tartuffe" 113). Barrett H. His target is Elmira, Orgon'swife. 81-2.---. 112-13.---. Barrett H. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. . Donald M. New York: Crown Publishers, 1965. Yet public, and sometimes royal,disapproval that Moliиre so frequently experienced as a consequence of hisplays demonstrates that social truth unmistakably recognizable to Moliиre'saudience formed the subtext of his work. They achievedhigh public profile in 1636 during the so-called quarrel of The Cid, a playthat had compressed courtship, marriage, a crusade, battle, and duel to thedeath into one day's time. However, in Moliиre's hands, thesubtext of social organization served as the basis for forceful socialcommentary. Ed. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. New York: Crown Publishers, 1965. Thus can comedy in Moliиre's hand beinterpreted as a weapon masquerading as a diversion, with the objective ofbattle effective social satire. New York: Signet-New American Library, 1967.Moore, Barrington, Jr. Ed. John Gassner and Edward Quinn. What is necessary to appreciate about Moliиre's struggles to maintaina theatre company is that the reign of Louis XIV was very much marked by asocial dynamic, reinforced by the royal absolutist ethos, that the crownwas a class by itself. That ejection is of course metaphorical, for Moliиre's realproject is to engage in social reform, using the theatrical structure tolegitimate the rejection of religious hypocrisy and its pathological socialprogeny. Now Moliиre died 1 6 years before the French Revolution, but thedynamic of social criticism that is embedded in his plays is consistentwith a society defined by the competing traits of which Moore speaks, notleast by the competition for the institutional benefits of royal licensingacross a variety of social segments. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1964. Orgon is ingenuous, easilysusceptible to Tartuffe's mask of humility and flattery, and he resemblesdoubtless as vulnerable to false sincerity as Tartuffe gulls his patron Orgon into an inordinate affection, and hisconcern for Tartuffe's welfare comes at the expense of his own family. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964.---. New York: Signet-New American Library, 1967.---. . . The actioninvolves the lecherous infatuation of an old man, Arnolph, with his youngand extraordinarily naive ward Agnes. Moliиre: The Comic Mask. He does not learn this, however, until he catchesTartuffe in the act of seducing his wife. Tartuffe, finally discredited, disgraced, exposed, remains anunregenerate religious hypocrite throughout. Boston: Beacon P, 1966.Nicoll, Allardyce. One character cites "a man whoshould have found an excellent sauce, and should examine whether 'tweregood by the rules of a French cook" (Moliиre 365). Donald M. As Nicoll points out, Les Precieuses ridicules was not Moliиre's firstplay, but it was the first that gave force to his "individual style," whichis essentially that of the playwright of "social comedy" (32 -1). Self-absorbed to the end, Tartuffe personifiesGassner's judgment that by way of his characterizations Moliиre "impliedthat every human impulse can be reduced to an illusion that masks atyrannical egotism, and hence the values or interests that are consideredmost sacred [e.g., duty, piety] may become objects of derision" (Gassner,Reader's 583). As Hartnoll says, by the time he hadreturned to Paris from the province Moliиre was engaged in "viewing thelife of Paris with an acuteness sharpened by years of absence andexperience" (Hartnoll 648). It is not really logical that a man become so concerned about anyfriend--even a master con artist like Tartuffe--that he become completelyoblivious of his family's welfare. In the character of Tartuffe, religious hypocrisy is personified. His practice came first, and the theory after"(Clark 111). 3rd ed. World Drama from Aeschylus to Anouilh. Miller, 1739. The subject of satire in Tartuffe is religious hypocrisy, whichMoliиre views as a meaningful social problem. Hisfirst entrance establishes once and for all his false personality, i.e.,his mask. . When the play was produced at court, it caused muchindignation owing to the satirical characterization of rather silly youngladies of fashion posing as intellectuals, as if they were too young tocarry off the demanding grace of the grown-up salon. Trans. Moliиre's rejoinder was the play La Critique del'Ecole des femmes, in which he highlighted issues that the outcry hadraised, chiefly the view that the principal function of comedy isentertainment and meaning according to common sense rather than slavishattention to supposed rules of dramatic structure, notably unity of time,place, and action, supposedly derived from Aristotle's Poetics--which as amatter of fact insists only on the unity of action (beginning, middle,end), such that if one part should be "transposed, or taken away, the wholewould become different and changed" (Aristotle 11). Everything Tartuffe says and does can be traced to character type. The servant reports other maladies of Elmira; each time Orgon voicesthe same concern for Tartuffe. I amgone to the prisons to distribute my alms" (III, i). Clark. He leaves the stage not withan abject apology, but with a self-righteous "I think of nothing but doingmy duty" (V, viii). And given Orgon's disproportionate lovefor Tartuffe, it does not logically follow that Elmira would care to remainfaithful to Orgon as she does when Tartuffe tries to seduce her. Trans. The School for Wives Criticized. Yet both Agnesand Arnolph are credible comedic creations because they represent extremepersonalities that, as in real life, may not change in relation to theirsituations. Right. For in his choice of subject matter and in dramaticconstruction he appears to have tested the tolerance of everyone from thecrown to the aristocrats to the intelligentsia, by taking the contemporarysocial environment as his subject and personifying idiosyncraticexpressions of its manners, mores, and attitudes in charactersconceptualized as figures of fun. Hisconcern is the good laugh, with repetition one principal source of humor.For example, Orgon's repeated, illogical "And Tartuffe?" and "The poorman!" drive home the truth of foolish priorities. New York: Random House, 194 .---. Ed. Among the most significant features of Moliиre's work is that it tookplace by and large in the milieu of the French court. Throughouthis work, he derives laughter from the foibles, follies, and pretenses ofall classes of society in seventeenth-century France; in so doing, heexposes many faults of mankind in general. According to Clark, inhis "principle that to please is the best criterion of success, he seemsdistinctly modern. In a loud and pious voice he says, "Lock up my hair cloth andscourge, and beg of Heaven ever to enlighten you with grace. Theatre and Drama in the Making. Moliиre's first troupe failed financially in Paris after two years,and he was sent to debtor's prison. Clark. John Gassner and Ralph G. In other words, social approval was a factor ofartistic success. The purpose of this research is to examine the life and work of theFrench playwright Moliиre, with special focus on the play Tartuffe. . Hartnoll(195) describes the play as the first play of the Comedy of Manners. Traits of Moliиre's charactersrarely change; neither do masks change expression. Baker and J. . Engelwood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1964. The public found the play scandalous, and critics attacked "hisaesthetics, his ethics, and even his private life. Barrett H. Masters of the Drama. New York: Crown Publishers, 1965. Although Jansenism was denounced as a heresy, theJansenists had well-entrenched social power in France. Barrett H. The prudes and thelearned considered him a morally dangerous writer and a degrading actor"(Gassner, Reader's 583). Ed. 582-4.Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. Allen. Its proponents were still sufficiently powerful to make their wrath felt, and Moliиre placated them somewhat by declaring that he had not aimed his barbs at them but at their bourgeois imitators (Gassner, Masters 292). Ed. "Moliиre." Moliиre: A Collection of Critical Essays. . Only an extreme hypocrite-lecher would be seemingly afraid of fallinginto mortal sin at the mere sight of a partially exposed bosom. Moliиre's plays reveal that social satire was his forte. This is an implicit formulationof the view that the line between farce and tragedy is thin, and Gassnerlocates the difficulty that Moliиre had in sustaining a theatre company inthe fact that his enemies "could not bear the pessimism represented by hiscomic spirit" (583). The fact that Tartuffe had to berewritten twice over a period of years in order to obtain a public Parisproduction with royal sanction strongly supports the view that Moliиre'saesthetic was a conscious assertion of social commentary, not to say socialreform, as well as a deliberate and instrumental manipulation of socialattitudes, with comedy his principal and potent weapon. Indeed, some productions of his plays causedpublic scandal, notably Les Precieuses ridicules, L'Ecole des femmes, andTartuffe, the last-named undergoing three versions before Louis XIV wouldpermit it to be performed in public instead of exclusively at the court(Gassner, Reader's 583). Clark. Ed. "Opinions of the French Academy on the Tragi Comedy 'The Cid.'" European Theories of the Drama. New York: Thomas Y. In Tartuffe, the pathology is social, i.e., not confined topersonal conflict. "Preface to Tartuffe." European Theories of the Drama. But ifthis were not the case, we would have no play, for on this comic situationrests the entire premise of Tartuffe. New York: Crown Publishers, 1965. L'Ecole des femmes was even more controversial for Moliиre. . Tartuffe and Other Plays. This had the effectof institutionalizing royal patronage and of maintaining royal control overall: The bourgeois drive toward property found considerable satisfaction through the royal bureaucracy, while any drive toward political independence was blunted by converting the bourgeois into an aristocrat. Frame. In neoclassical France,however, this injunction had attained the stature of aesthetic laws; Clarkcites the "many and oft-repeated pleas for the Unities" (81). Born in 1622 into thebourgeois family licensed as upholsterers to the king, Moliиre abandoned alaw career to create an acting troupe in 1643, and he spent the next thirtyyears as an actor-playwright-manager whose company was either under thepatronage of Louis XIV or attempting to acquire royal patronage and alicensed performance venue in Paris (Gassner, Reader's 582-3). "Moliиre." The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Arnolph learns nothing and is just aspossessive of Agnes at the end of the play as at the beginning; the onlydifference is that he loses bodily possession of her, and she by the way isjust as naive at the end of the play as at the beginning. London: Oxford UP, 1972.Lanson, Gustave. 89-91.Clark, Barrett H., ed. Jacques Guicharnaud. Until his death in 1673, Moliиre continually produced his own andothers' plays for both court and public, with variable success (Gassner,Reader's 582-3; Clark 11 ). Crowell Company, 1969. Gassner describes Moliиre's dramatic genre as "character comedy"embodying pathological inner forces that are "similar to the fatality ofpassion in Racine" (Gassner, Reader's 583). Nor are his charactersa duplication of actual people but character types or more exactlyarchetypes of character. It is on this basis that Hartnoll says that Moliиreenlarged the project of the Comedy of Manners and in Tartuffe "adventuredinto the Comedy of Morals--the correction of abuse by the lash of ridicule"(Hartnoll 195). Tartuffe and Other Plays. The characters themselves have been compared tomasks employed by the commedia dell'arte, which was contemporaneous withMoliиre's theatre (Lanson 23, et passim). In other words, in seventeenth-centuryFrance, and in the case of Moliиre, the creative process was experienced assomething of a social construction. H. Tartuffepretends that this is the case in Act III so that he may 1) chide Dorinafor immodesty, and 2) stuff his handkerchief down her front in the process.Meanwhile, unlike most of Moliиre's characters, Orgon learns something fromhis experience with Tartuffe, even if it is only that Tartuffe is not whathe appears to be. Produced in 1662, the play provoked apublic outcry against Moliиre's taste and his flouting of the rules ofdramatic decorum in comedy. Ed. Dupes of themselvesor calculating creatures, such characters are prisoners of their ownnatures" (Gassner, Reader's 583). . In the play, Moliиre embeddedcharacter comedy into a critique of social morality, incurring the wrath ofthe Jansenists, a Roman Catholic religious sect comparable to sternProtestant Calvinists and very much concerned to be seen as the premieremoral authority. School for Wives. Under the mask ofrighteousness he worms his way into Orgon's household so that he may gainaccess to Orgon's fortune and his wife's bed. Tartuffe. Social masks, deception,hypocrisies--these are the principal issues that engage Moliиre. Moliиre is not concernedto show development; rather, he takes snapshots of behavior and follows thelogic of that behavior to its conclusion. Logic is Moliиre's least concern. During the quarrel, articulated in the massmedia of the day, the French Academy took the view that a "regularly-constructed" play that failed to entertain was not "the fault of the rules,but of the author, whose sterile wit was unable to exercize [sic] his artupon sufficiently rich material" (Chapelain 9 ). feudalism,bourgeoisie, and bureaucracy," and its most important political attributewas the fact that the crown tried to increase its control over all byselling or granting positions in the royal bureaucracy. The position of theAcademy as quasi-official arbiter of aesthetic taste ineluctably exercisedinfluence on the French fine arts, including but not limited to the comicand tragic theatre. 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