Despite the success of "Funny Primroses", Molière's troupe still often plays tragedies, although still without special success. After a series of failures, Moliere comes to a remarkably bold idea. Tragedy attracts with the opportunity to raise large social and moral problems, but it does not bring success and is not close to the audience of the Palais Royal. The comedy attracts the widest audience, but it does not have much content. This means that it is necessary to transfer moral issues from tragedy with its conventional ancient characters into a comedy depicting modern life ordinary people. This idea was first implemented in the comedy “The School for Husbands” (1661), which was followed by the even brighter comedy “The School for Wives” (1662). They pose the problem of education. To reveal it, Moliere combines the plots of a French farce and an Italian comedy of masks: he portrays guardians who raise girls left without parents in order to subsequently marry them.
Moliere's mature work. For 1664-1670 marks the peak of the great playwright's creativity. It was during these years that he created his best comedies: “Tartuffe”, “Don Juan”, “The Misanthrope”, “The Miser”, “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”.
The greatest comedy of Moliere "Tartuffe, or the Deceiver""(1664-1669) was the most difficult fate. It was first staged in 1664 during a grand celebration organized by the king in honor of his wife and his mother. Moliere wrote satirical play, in which he exposed the “Society of the Holy Gifts” - a secret religious institution that sought to subordinate all spheres of life in the country to its power. The king liked the comedy, as he feared the strengthening of the power of the clergy. But Queen Mother Anne of Austria was deeply outraged by the satire: after all, she was the unofficial patron of the “Society of the Holy Sacrament.” The clergy demanded that Moliere be severely tortured and burned at the stake for insulting the church. Comedy was banned. But Moliere continued to work on it, he adds two new actions to the original version, improves the characterization of the characters, and moves from criticism of fairly specific phenomena to more generalized issues. "Tartuffe" takes on the features of " high comedy».
In 1666, Anna of Austria died. Moliere took advantage of this and in 1667 presented the second version of Tartuffe on the stage of the Palais Royal. He renamed the hero Panyulf, called the comedy “The Deceiver,” and threw out especially harsh satirical passages or softened them. The comedy was a great success, but was again banned after the first performance. The playwright did not give up. Finally, in 1669, he staged the third version of Tartuffe. This time Moliere strengthened the satirical sound of the play and brought its artistic form to perfection. It was this third version of Tartuffe that was published and has been read and performed on stage for more than three hundred years.
Moliere focused his main attention on creating the character of Tartuffe and exposing his vile activities. Tartuffe (his name, coined by Molière, comes from the word “deception”) is a terrible hypocrite. He hides behind religion, pretends to be a saint, but he himself does not believe in anything, and secretly carries out his affairs. A. S. Pushkin wrote about Tartuffe: “In Moliere, the hypocrite drags after the wife of his benefactor, the hypocrite; asks for a glass of water, a hypocrite.” For Tartuffe, hypocrisy is not at all a dominant character trait, it is character itself. This character of Tartuffe does not change during the course of the play. But it is revealed gradually. When creating the role of Tartuffe, Moliere was unusually laconic. Of the 1962 lines of the comedy, Tartuffe owns 272 complete and 19 incomplete lines (less than 15% of the text). For comparison, Hamlet's role is five times larger. And in Moliere’s comedy itself, the role of Tartuffe is almost 100 lines less than the role of Orgon. The distribution of the text by act is unexpected: completely absent from the stage in acts I and II, Tartuffe dominates only in act III (166 complete and 13 incomplete lines), his role is noticeably reduced in act IV
(89 complete and 5 incomplete lines) and almost disappears in Act V (17 complete and one incomplete line). However, the image of Tartuffe does not lose its power. It is revealed through the character's ideas, his actions, the perception of other characters, and the depiction of the catastrophic consequences of hypocrisy.
The composition of the comedy is very original and unexpected: the main character Tartuffe appears only in the third act. The first two acts are a dispute about Tartuffe. The head of the family into which Tartuffe has infiltrated, Orgon and his mother Madame Pernelle consider Tartuffe a holy man, their trust in the hypocrite is limitless. The religious enthusiasm that Tartuffe aroused in them makes them blind and ridiculous. At the other pole are Orgon’s son Damis, daughter Mariana with her lover Valera, wife Elmira, and other heroes. Among all these characters who hate Tartuffe, the maid Dorina especially stands out. In many of Moliere's comedies, people from the people are smarter, more resourceful, more energetic, and more talented than their masters. For Orgon, Tartuffe is the height of all perfection, for Dorina it is “a beggar who came here thin and barefoot,” and now “fancies himself a ruler.”
The third and fourth acts are structured very similarly: Tartuffe, who finally appears, falls into the “mousetrap” twice, his essence becomes obvious. This saint has decided to seduce Orgon’s wife Elmira and acts completely shamelessly. For the first time, Orgon’s son Damis hears his frank confessions to Elmira. But Orgon does not believe his revelations; he not only does not kick Tartuffe out, but, on the contrary, gives him his home. It was necessary to repeat this entire scene especially for Orgon so that he could see the light. This scene of the fourth act, in which Tartuffe again demands love from Elmira, and Orgon sits at the table and hears everything, is one of the most famous scenes in all of Moliere’s works.
Now Orgon understood the truth. But unexpectedly Madame Pernelle objects to him, who cannot believe in Tartuffe’s crime. No matter how angry Orgon is with her, nothing can convince her until Tartuffe expels the entire family from the house that now belongs to him and brings an officer to arrest Orgon as a traitor to the king (Orgon entrusted Tartuffe with the secret documents of the Fronde participants). Thus, Moliere emphasizes the special danger of hypocrisy: it is difficult to believe in the baseness and immorality of a hypocrite until you are directly confronted with his criminal activities and see his face without a pious mask.
The fifth act, in which Tartuffe, having thrown off his mask, threatens Orgon and his family with the greatest troubles, acquires tragic features, Comedy develops into tragicomedy. The basis of the tragicomic in Tartuffe is Orgon’s insight. As long as he blindly believed Tartuffe, he only caused laughter and condemnation. Could a man who decided to give his daughter in marriage to Tartuffe, although he knew that she loved Valera, evoke different feelings? But finally Orgon realized his mistake and repented of it. And now he begins to evoke pity and compassion as a person who has become the victim of a scoundrel. The drama of the situation is enhanced by the fact that the whole family is on the street with Orgon. And what is especially dramatic is that there is nowhere to expect salvation: none of the heroes of the work can overcome Tartuffe.
But Moliere, obeying the laws of the genre, ends the comedy with a happy denouement: it turns out that the officer whom Tartuffe brought to arrest Orgon has a royal order to arrest Tartuffe himself. The king had been keeping an eye on this swindler for a long time, and as soon as Tartuffe’s activities became dangerous, a decree was immediately sent for his arrest. However, the completion of Tartuffe represents an ostensibly happy ending. Tartuffe is not a specific person, but a generalized image, literary type, behind him are thousands of hypocrites. The king, on the contrary, is not a type, but the only person in the state. It is impossible to imagine that he could know about all the Tartuffes. Thus, the tragicomic shade of the work is not removed by its happy ending.
For centuries, Tartuffe remained the most popular comedy Moliere. This work was highly appreciated by Hugo and Balzac, Pushkin and Belinsky. The name Tartuffe became a common noun for a hypocrite.
The banning of Tartuffe in 1664 brought significant damage to Molière's troupe: the performance was supposed to be the main premiere of the year. The playwright writes urgently new comedy- “Don Juan.” Completed in 1664, it was delivered early the next year. If we remember that “Tartuffe” of 1664 was not yet the great “Tartuffe”, but a three-act play that had to be improved and polished, then it will become clear why “Don Juan”, which appeared later than the initial version of “Tartuffe”, is considered the first great comedy by Moliere.
The plot is taken from a play by a 17th century Spanish writer. Tirso de Molina's "The Mischief of Seville, or the Stone Guest" (1630), where Don Juan (in French - Don Juan) first appeared. So we know this world literary type by the name given to the hero by Moliere. The French playwright greatly simplifies the plot of Tirso de Molina's play. He focuses mainly on the confrontation between Don Juan and his servant Sganarelle.
The name Don Juan has become a household name to denote a libertine who seduces many women and then abandons them. This property of Don Juan in Moliere’s comedy stems from his belonging to the aristocracy, to which everything is allowed and which does not want to feel responsible for anything.
Don Juan is an egoist, but he does not consider this bad, because egoism is completely consistent with the privileged position of an aristocrat in society. The portrait of an aristocrat is complemented by atheism and complete contempt for religion.
The aristocratic freethinking of Doi Juan is contrasted with the bourgeois freethinking of Sganarelle. Whose side is Moliere on? No one's. If Don Juan's free-thinking inspires sympathy, this feeling disappears when Doi Juan resorts to hypocrisy like Tartuffe. His opponent Sganarelle, who defends morality and religion, is cowardly, hypocritical, and loves money more than anything else.
Therefore, in the finale of the play, which also develops from a comedy into a tragicomedy, both heroes face a punishment commensurate with their characters: Don
Juan falls into hell, dragged there by the statue of the Commander he killed, and Sganarelle thinks that the owner, falling into hell, did not pay him. “My salary, my salary, my salary!” - the comedy ends with these sorrowful cries of Sganarelle.
The clergy immediately realized that it was no coincidence that Moliere had assigned such a nonentity as Sganarelle to defend religion in the play. The comedy was performed 15 times and was banned. It was published after the death of the playwright, and staged again in France only in 1841.
In comedy "Misanthrope"(1666) Moliere decided to explore another vice - misanthropy. However, he does not make the misanthropic Alceste the hero of the comedy negative character. On the contrary, he draws an honest, straightforward hero who wants to preserve his humanity. But the society in which he lives makes a terrible impression, “heinous injustice reigns everywhere.”
Moliere brings the main character of the comedy Alceste onto the stage immediately after the curtain rises, without any preparation. He is already nervous: “Please leave me alone!” (translated by T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik), he says to the reasonable Filint and adds: “I was really friendly with you until now, / But, know, I don’t need such a friend anymore.” The reason for the breakup is that Alceste witnessed Philinte’s too warm reception of a man whom he barely knew, as he later admitted. Philint tries to laugh it off (“...Although the guilt is heavy, / Let me not hang myself for now”), which provokes a rebuke from Alceste, who does not accept or understand humor at all: “How you become humorous at the wrong time!” Philint’s position: “Rotating in society, we are tributaries of decency, / Which are required by both morals and custom.” Alceste’s answer: “No! We must punish with a merciless hand / All the vileness of secular lies and such emptiness. / We must be people...” Philint’s position: “But there are cases when this truthfulness / Would appear funny or harmful to the world. / Sometimes - may your severity forgive me! - / We must hide what is deep in our hearts.” Alceste’s opinion: “Betrayal, betrayal, deceit, flattery are everywhere, / Vile injustice reigns everywhere; / I’m furious, I don’t have the strength to control myself, / And I’d like to challenge the entire human race to battle!” As an example, Alceste cites a certain hypocrite with whom he has a lawsuit. Philint agrees with the destructive characterization of this man and that is why he invites Alceste to deal not with his criticism, but with the essence of the matter. But Alcest, while waiting for the court’s decision, does not want to do anything; he would gladly lose the case, just to find confirmation of “the baseness and malice of people.” But why, valuing the human race so low, does he tolerate the shortcomings of the frivolous Selimena, does he really not notice them, Philint asks his friend. Alceste replies: “Oh no! My love knows no blindness. / All the shortcomings in her are clear to me without a doubt.<...>The fire of my love - I deeply believe in this - / Will cleanse her soul from the scum of vice.” Alceste came here to Celimene’s house to talk to her. Orontes, a admirer of Celimene, appears. He asks Alceste to become a friend, immoderately extolling his virtues. To this Alceste utters wonderful words about friendship:
“After all, friendship is a sacrament, and mystery is dearer to it; / She shouldn’t play so frivolously. / Union by choice - this is the expression of friendship; First - knowledge, then - rapprochement.” Orontes agrees to wait in friendship and asks Alceste for advice on whether he can present his last sonnet to the public. Alceste warns that he is too sincere as a critic, but this does not stop Orontes: he needs the truth. Philinte listens to his sonnet “Hope”: “I have never heard a more graceful verse anywhere” - and Alceste: “It is only good for throwing it away! /<...>An empty game of words, panache or fashion. / But, my God, is that what nature says?” - and reads poetry twice folk song, where love is spoken about simply, without embellishment. Orontes is offended, the argument almost leads to a duel, and only Philinte’s intervention defuses the situation. The prudent Filint laments: “You have made an enemy! Well, let's go science. / But it would be worthwhile to slightly praise the sonnet...”, Alceste’s answer: “Not a word more.”
Act two, like the first, begins without any preparation with a stormy explanation between Alceste and Celimene: “Do you want me to tell you the whole truth? / Madam, your temper has tormented my soul, / You torment me with such treatment. / We need to separate - I see with grief.” Alceste reproaches his beloved for frivolity. Selimene retorts: you can’t drive away fans with a stick. Alceste: “It’s not a stick that is needed here - completely different means: / Less softness, courtesy, coquetry<...>/ Meanwhile, you like these courtships! - and then Moliere puts into Alceste’s mouth words that a number of researchers consider as the embodiment of his personal experiences addressed to his wife Armande Bejart, who played the role of Celimene: “How you have to love you so as not to part with you! / ABOUT! If I could tear my heart out of your hands, / If I could save it from unbearable torment, / I would thank the heavens for that touchingly.<...>/ I love you for my sins.<...>/ My crazy passion is incomprehensible! / No one, madam, loved as much as I did.”
Selimena receives guests with whom she chats with many acquaintances. Her slander is brilliant. Alceste accuses the guests of encouraging this slander, while when they meet the people they ridicule, they throw themselves into their arms and assure them of friendship. Then Celimene gives a harsh description of Alceste: “Contradiction is his special gift. / Terrible for him public opinion, / And agreeing with him is an outright crime. / He would have considered himself disgraced forever, / If he had not bravely gone against everyone!” The arriving gendarme has an order to escort Alceste to the department: criticism of the sonnet had an effect in such an unexpected form. But Alceste rejects all advice to soften his judgment: “Until the king himself forced me, / So that I praise and glorify such poems, / I will argue that his sonnet is bad / And the poet himself is worthy of the noose for it!”
Act III is devoted to the depiction of secular mores: the marquises Clitander and Akaetes, seeking Celimene’s favor, are ready to give in to each other if she prefers one of them; Selimene, who sarcastically characterizes her friend Arsinoe, portrays stormy joy at the occasion of her arrival, each tells the other all the nasty things that are said about them in the world, adding iodine with this screen of poison from herself. Alceste appears only in the finale. He hears from Arsinoe praise for his intelligence and other qualities that “the court should notice,” which she can contribute through her connections. But Alceste rejects this path: “I was not created by fate for life at court, / I am not inclined to the diplomatic game, - / I was born with a rebellious, rebellious soul, / And I will not succeed among the court servants. / I have one gift: I am sincere and courageous, / And I would never be able to play people”; a person who does not know how to hide his thoughts and feelings must abandon the intention of taking some place in the world, “But, having lost the hope of elevation, / We do not need to endure refusals and humiliation. / We never need to play fools, / We don’t need to praise mediocre rhymes, / We don’t need to endure whims from lovely ladies, / And we don’t need to endure empty marquises with wit!” Then Arsinoe goes over to Celimene and assures that she has precise evidence of her infidelity to Alceste. He, having condemned Arsino for slandering his friend, nevertheless wants to get acquainted with this evidence: “I would like one thing: let the light be shed. / To find out the whole truth - there are no other desires.”
In Act IV from Philinte's story, the scene in the office is restored, where the judges tried to force Alceste to change his mind about Orontes' sonnet. He stubbornly stood his ground: “He is an honest nobleman, there is no doubt about it, / He is brave, worthy, kind, but he is a bad poet;<...>/ I could only forgive him his poems, believe me, / If he wrote them under pain of cruel death.” Reconciliation was achieved only when Alceste agreed to utter a phrase in a presumptive manner: “I, sir, am very sorry that I judge so strictly, / Out of friendship for you, I would like from the bottom of my heart / To tell you that the poems are undeniably good!” Celimene's cousin Elianta, to whom Philinte tells this story, gives Alceste high praise for his sincerity and admits to his interlocutor that she is not indifferent to Alceste. Filint, in turn, confesses his love for Eliante. Moliere, thus, a year before the premiere of Racine's Andromache, builds a love chain similar to Racine's, where the heroes are endowed with unrequited love, each loves the one who loves the other. In The Misanthrope, Philinte loves Eliante, who loves Alceste, who loves Celimene, who loves no one. In Racine, such love leads to tragedy.
Elianta is ready to encourage Alcest's love for Celimene, hoping that Alcest himself will notice her feelings; Philinte is just as ready to wait for Eliante’s favor when she is free of feelings for Alceste; Selimena is not bothered by the lack of love. They will not worry for long, having not achieved what they wanted, Arsinoe, who fell in love with Alceste and Akaet, Clitander, who fell in love with Selimene, Orontes, whose shallow feelings complicate the love chain in “The Misanthrope,” does not react in any way to the vicissitudes of Eliant’s love. And only the intensity of Alceste’s feelings makes his situation close to tragic. He is not inclined to trust rumors. But Arsinoe gives him a letter from Celimene to Orontes, full of tender feelings. Convinced of Celimene's infidelity, Alceste rushes to Eliante with a marriage proposal, not hiding the fact that he is driven by jealousy and a desire to take revenge on Celimene. Selimena's appearance changes everything: she claims that she wrote this letter to a friend. Alceste’s critical mind tells him that this is just a trick, but he is inclined to believe because he is in love: “I am yours, and I want to follow to the end, / How you deceive a blind man in love.” This bifurcation of the hero, when one being in him critically observes the other, is one of the examples that allows us to come to the conclusion: in “The Misanthrope” Moliere is ahead of Racine in establishing the principle of psychologism in French literature.
In Act V, the intensity of Alceste's conflict with society reaches its highest development. Alceste lost the case in court, although his opponent was wrong and used the lowest methods to achieve his goal - and everyone knew it. Alceste wants to leave society and is only waiting for what Celimene will tell him: “I must, I must know whether I am loved or not, / And her answer will decide the future of my life.” But by chance Alceste hears exactly the same question asked to Celimene by Orontes. She is at a loss, she does not want to lose any of the young people who are passionate about her. The appearance of Acastus and Clitander with letters from Celimene, in which she slanderes all her fans, including Alceste, leads to a scandal. Everyone leaves Celimene, except Alceste: he does not find the strength in himself to hate his beloved and explains this to Eliante and Philinte in verses that are so similar to the future tirades of Racine’s tragic heroes: “You see, I am a slave to my unhappy passion: / I am in the power of my criminal weakness ! / But this is not the end - and, to my shame, / In love, you see, I will go to the end. / We are called wise... What does this wisdom mean? / No, every heart hides human weakness...” He is ready to forgive Celimene everything, to justify infidelity with someone else’s influence, her youth, but he invites his beloved to share life with him outside of society, in the wilderness, in the desert: “Oh, if we love, Why do we need the whole world? Selimene is ready to become Alceste’s wife, but she would not like to leave society; such a future does not attract her. She doesn't have time to finish her sentence. Alceste understood everything before, now he is ripe for the decision: “Enough! I was cured at once: / You did it now with your refusal. / Since you cannot in the depths of your heart - / Just as I found everything in you, so you can find everything in me, / Farewell forever; like a heavy burden, / Freely, finally, I will throw off your chains!” Alceste decides to leave society: “Everyone has betrayed me and everyone is cruel to me; / I will leave the pool, where vices reign; / Perhaps there is such a corner in the world, / Where a person is free to cherish his honor” (translated by M. E. Levberg).
The image of Alceste is psychologically complex, which makes it difficult to interpret. Judging by the fact that The Misanthrope is written in verse, it was intended for great purposes, and not to solve the problems of the current repertoire of the Palais Royal. The playwright removed the original subtitle - “The Hypochondriac in Love”, which allows us to guess in what direction the idea developed at first and what the author abandoned in the end. Moliere did not explain his understanding of the image of Alceste. In the first edition of the comedy, he included “Letter on the Misanthrope” by his former enemy Donno de Wiese. From this review it emerged that the audience approved of Filint as a person who avoids extremes. “As for the Misanthrope, he must arouse in his fellows the desire to be spoiled.” It is believed that Moliere, by placing this review in the publication of the comedy, thereby identifies himself with him.
In the next century the situation changes. J.-J. Rousseau condemned Moliere for ridiculing Alceste: “Wherever the Misanthrope is ridiculous, he only fulfills the duty of a decent person” (“Letter to D’Alembert”).
Is Alceste really funny? This is how he is characterized by the characters of the comedy (the first is Philint: Act I, scene 1), but not by the situations created by the playwright. Thus, in the scene with Orontes’ sonnet, Orontes looks funny, not Alcestes (Orontes seeks Alcestes’ friendship, asks him to speak about the sonnet, he himself belittles the importance of the poem, citing the fact that he wrote it “in a few minutes,” etc.). The poems are frankly weak, so Philint’s praises turn out to be inappropriate and do him no credit. Criticism of the sonnet is not a trifle, judging by the consequences: the gendarme takes Alceste to the department, where the judges decide the issue of reconciliation of Orontes and Alceste. And in other cases, representatives show inadequacy secular society. Moliere, playing Alceste, emphasized the causticity and causticity rather than the comic nature of the character.
Is Alceste really a misanthrope? His statements about people are no more sharp than the attacks of Selimena, Arsinoe, other participants in the “school of slander”, Philinte, who says: “I agree that lies and debauchery are everywhere, / That malice and selfishness reign everywhere around, / That only cunning leads now to luck, / That people should have been created differently.” The title of the comedy “The Misanthrope” is misleading: Alceste, capable of passionate love, is less of a misanthrope than Celimene, who loves no one. Alceste’s misanthropy always manifests itself in specific situations, i.e. has motives, and does not constitute his character, distinguishing this hero from other characters. It is characteristic that if the names of Tartuffe or Harpagon became French proper names, then the name Alceste is not, on the contrary, the proper name “misanthrope” replaced his personal name, like Rousseau, who wrote it with a capital letter, but it changed the meaning, becoming a symbol not of misanthropy, but of directness, honesty, sincerity.
Moliere develops the system of images and the plot of the comedy in such a way that it is not Alceste who is drawn to society, but society to him. What makes the beautiful and young Celimene, the sensible Eliante, the hypocritical Arsinoe seek his love, and the reasonable Philinte and the precision Orontes - his friendship? Alceste is not young and ugly, he is not rich, he has no connections, he is not known at court, he does not shine in salons, he is not involved in politics, science or any art. Obviously, there is something attractive about him that others don’t have. Elianta calls this trait: “Such sincerity is a special quality; / There is some kind of noble heroism in her. / This is a very rare trait for our days, / I would like to meet her more often.” Sincerity constitutes the character of Alceste (that fundamental quality that lies in all manifestations of his personality). Society wants to depersonalize Alceste, to make him like everyone else, but it also envies the amazing resilience of this man. There is a long tradition that Moliere portrayed himself in the image of Alceste, and his wife Armande Bejart in the image of Celimene. But viewers of the premiere saw completely different prototypes in the characters of the comedy: Alceste - Duke of Montosier, Orontes - Duke of Saint-Aignan, Arsinoe - Duchess of Navay, etc. Moliere, judging by his messages to the king, dedications, and “Versailles Impromptu,” is more similar to Philint. This is confirmed by the surviving description of Moliere’s character, as he was remembered by his contemporaries: “As for his character, Moliere was kind, helpful, and generous.” Alceste is less a portrait of the playwright than his hidden ideal. Therefore, outwardly there is a reason for ridicule of Alceste in connection with his penchant for extremes, but in the structure of the work there is a hidden layer that exalts Alceste as a true tragic hero who chooses his own fate. Therefore, in the finale, not only sad notes are heard, but also Alceste’s recognition of the liberation that came when he, like the heroes of Corneille, chose the proper path. In his work, Moliere brilliantly anticipated the ideas of the Enlightenment. Alceste - a man of the 18th century. In Moliere's time he was still too lonely, he was a rarity, and like any rarity he could evoke surprise, ridicule, sympathy, and admiration.
The plot of “The Misanthrope” is original, although the motif of misanthropy was not new in literature (the story of Timon of Athens, who lived in the 5th century BC, reflected in Lucian’s dialogue “Timon the Misanthrope”, in the biography of Mark Antony, included in “ Comparative biographies"Plutarch, in "Timon of Athens" by W. Shakespeare, etc.). The theme of sincerity is undoubtedly connected with the theme of hypocrisy in Tartuffe, for which Moliere fought to lift the ban during the years of creating The Misanthrope.
For Boileau, Moliere was primarily the author of The Misanthrope. Voltaire also highly appreciated this work. Rousseau and Mercy criticized the playwright for mocking Alceste. At the beginning of the French Revolution, Fabre d'Eglantine created the comedy Moliere's Philint, or the Continuation of the Misanthrope (1790). Alceste in it was portrayed as a real revolutionary, and Philinte as a hypocrite like Tartuffe. The image of Goethe's Alceste and romance was highly valued. There is reason to talk about the closeness of the image of Alceste and the image of Chatsky from Griboedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit”.
The image of the Misanthrope is one of the greatest creations of the human genius, he is on a par with Hamlet, Don Quixote, and Faust. "The Misanthrope" is the most striking example of "high comedy". This work is perfect in form. Moliere worked on it more than on any other play of his. This is his most beloved work; it has lyricism, testifying to the closeness of the image of Alceste to its creator.
Soon after The Misanthrope, Moliere, who continued to fight for Tartuffe, wrote a comedy in prose in a short time "Stingy"(1668). And again a creative victory, associated primarily with the image of the main character. This is Harpagon, the father of Cleanthes and Eliza, who is in love with Mariana. Moliere transfers the story told by the ancient Roman playwright Plautus to contemporary Paris. Harpagon lives in own home, he is rich, but stingy. Stinginess, having reached highest limit, crowds out all other qualities of the character’s personality and becomes his character. Stinginess turns Harpagon into a real predator, which is reflected in his name, formed by Moliere from the Latin harpago- “harpoon” (the name of special anchors used to pull up enemy ships before a boarding battle during naval battles, figurative meaning “grabber”).
The comic in “The Miser” acquires not so much a carnival, but rather a satirical character, which makes the comedy the pinnacle of Molière’s satire (along with “Tartuffe”). In the image of Harpagon, the classicist approach to character, in which diversity gives way to unity, and the individual to the generalized-typical, is reflected with particular clarity. Comparing the heroes of Shakespeare and Moliere, A. S. Pushkin wrote: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not, like Moliere’s, types of such and such a passion, such and such a vice, but living beings, filled with many passions, many vices; circumstances develop their diverse and multifaceted characters before the viewer. Molière is stingy, and that’s all...” (“Table-Talk”). However, Moliere's approach to depicting character gives a very great artistic effect. His characters are so significant that their names become household names. The name Harpagon also became a common noun to denote the passion for hoarding and stinginess (the first known case of such use dates back to 1721).
Moliere's last great comedy - "A tradesman among the nobility"(1670), it was written in the genre of “comedy-ballet”: on the instructions of the king, it was necessary to include dances that would contain a mockery of Turkish ceremonies. It was necessary to cooperate with famous composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), a native of Italy, a wonderful musician, who was connected with Moliere by previous work on comedies and ballets and at the same time by mutual enmity. Moliere skillfully introduced dance scenes into the plot of the comedy, maintaining the unity of its structure.
The general law of this construction is that the comedy of character appears against the background of the comedy of manners. The bearers of morals are all the heroes of the comedy with the exception of the main one actor- Jourdain. The sphere of morals is the customs, traditions, habits of society. Characters can express this sphere only in the aggregate (such as Jourdain’s wife and daughter, his servants, teachers, aristocrats Dorant and Dorimena, who want to profit from the wealth of Jourdain’s bourgeoisie). They are endowed with characteristic features, but not character. These features, even comically sharpened, nevertheless do not violate the verisimilitude.
Jourdain, unlike the characters in the comedy of manners, acts as a comedic character. The peculiarity of Moliere's character is that the tendency that exists in reality is brought to such a degree of concentration that the hero breaks out of the framework of its natural, “reasonable” order. Such are Don Juan, Alceste, Harpagon, Tartuffe, Orgon - the hero of the highest honesty and dishonesty, martyrs of noble passions and fools.
This is Jourdain, a bourgeois who decided to become a nobleman. For forty years he lived in his own world, did not know any contradictions. This world was harmonious because everything in it was in its place. Jourdain was quite smart, bourgeois-sharp. The desire to enter the world of the nobles, which has become the character of the bourgeois Jourdain, destroys the harmonious family order. Jourdain becomes a tyrant, a tyrant who prevents Cleonte from marrying Lucille, Jourdain’s daughter, who loves him, only because he is not a nobleman. And at the same time, he looks more and more like a naive child who is easy to deceive.
Jourdain evokes both cheerful laughter and satirical, condemning laughter (let us recall that this distinction between types of laughter was deeply substantiated by M. M. Bakhtin, including with reference to the works of Moliere).
Through the mouth of Cleont, the idea of the play is stated: “People without a twinge of conscience assign to themselves the title of nobility - this kind of theft, apparently, has become a custom. But I admit, I am more scrupulous about this. I believe that every deception casts a shadow on a decent person. To be ashamed of those from whom heaven destined you to be born, to shine in society with a fictitious title, to pretend to be something other than what you really are - this, in my opinion, is a sign of spiritual baseness.”
But this idea turns out to be in conflict with the further development of the plot of the comedy. The noble Cleont at the end of the play, in order to obtain Jourdain's permission to marry Lucille, pretends to be the son of the Turkish Sultan, and the honest Madame Jourdain and Lucille help him in this deception. The deception is successful, but in the end Jourdain wins because he forced honest people, their relatives and servants, contrary to their honesty and decency, commit deception. Under the influence of the Jourdains, the world is changing. This is a world of bourgeois narrow-mindedness, a world where money rules.
Moliere raised the poetic and prosaic language of comedy to the highest level; he brilliantly mastered comedic techniques and composition. His achievements are especially significant in the creation of comedic characters, in which extreme generality is complemented by life-like authenticity. The names of many of Moliere's characters have become household names.
He is one of the most popular playwrights in the world: on the stage of the Parisian Comedie Française theater alone, over three hundred years, his comedies have been shown more than thirty thousand times. Moliere had a huge influence on the subsequent development of the world artistic culture. Moliere was completely mastered by Russian culture. L. N. Tolstoy said beautifully about him: “Moliere is perhaps the most popular, and therefore a wonderful artist of the new art.”
He considered himself an actor, not a playwright.
He wrote the play “The Misanthrope” and the French Academy, which could not stand him, was so delighted that they offered him to become an academician and receive the title of immortal. But this is conditional. That he will stop going on stage as an actor. Moliere refused. After his death, the academicians erected a monument to him and wrote in Latin: his glory is boundless for the fullness of our glory we lack him.
Moliere highly valued Corneille's plays. I thought that tragedy should be staged in the theater. And he considered himself a tragic actor. he was a very educated man. Graduated from Clermont College. He translated Lucretius from Latin. He was not a buffoon. By outward appearances, he was not a comic actor. he really had all the qualities of a tragic actor - a hero. Only his breathing was weak. It wasn't enough for a full stanza. He took theater seriously.
Moliere borrowed all the plots and they were not the main ones for him. It is impossible to base the plot on its dramaturgy. The main thing there is the interaction of characters, not the plot.
He wrote “Don Juan” at the request of the actors in 3 months. That's why it is written in prose. There was no time to rhyme it. When you read Moliere, you need to understand what role Moliere himself played. Because he played the main role. He wrote all the roles for the actors, taking into account their individual characteristics. When he joined the troupe Lagrange , who kept the famous register. He began to write heroic roles for him and a Don Juan role for him. It is difficult to stage Molière, because when writing the play he took into account the psychophysiological capabilities of the actors in his troupe. This is tough material. His actors were golden. He quarreled with Racine over an actress (Marquise Teresa Duparc), whom Racine lured to him with the promise of writing the role of Andromache for her.
Moliere is the creator of high comedy.
High comedy is a comedy without a positive hero.(School for Wives, Tartuffe, Don Juan, The Miser, The Misanthrope). There is no need to look for positive heroes from him there.
A tradesman among the nobility is not a high comedy.
But he also has farces.
High comedy addresses the mechanisms that give rise to vices in humans.
Main character - Orgone (played by Molière)
Tartuffe appears in act 3.
Everyone argues about it and the viewer must take some point of view.
Orgon is not an idiot, but why did he bring Tartuffe into the house and trust him so much? Orgon is not young (about 50), and his second wife Elmira is almost the same age as his children. He must solve the problem of the soul for himself. How to combine spiritual and social life with his young wife. For the 17th century, this was the main reason why the play was closed. But the king did not close this play. All of Moliere's appeals to the king were due to the fact that he did not know the true reason why the play was closed. And they closed it because of Anna, the Austrian mother of the king. And the king could not influence the mother’s decision.
She died in 69, and in 70 the play was immediately performed. What was the problem? In the question of what is grace and what is socialite. Argon meets Tartuffe in the church in a noble dress, who brings him holy water. Orgon had a great desire to find a person who would combine these two qualities and it seemed to him that Tartuffe such a person. He takes him into the house and seems to go crazy. Everything in the house went upside down. Moliere turns to a precise psychological mechanism. When a person wants to be ideal, he tries to bring the ideal closer to himself physically. He begins not to break himself, but to bring the ideal closer to himself.
Tartuffe doesn't deceive anyone anywhere. He behaves simply arrogantly. Everyone understands. What is he an idiot except Madame Pernelle and Orgon .Dorina - housemaid Mariana is not a positive hero in this play. He behaves impudently. Mocking Argon. Cleant - Brother Elmira , brother-in-law of Orgon
Orgon gives Tartuffe everything. He wants to get as close to his idol as possible. Don't make yourself an idol. This is about psychological unfreedom. Super Christian play.
If a person lives by some idea, then no force can convince him. Orgon gives his daughter in marriage. He curses his son and throws him out of the house. Gives away his property. He gave someone else's box to a friend. Elmira was the only one who could dissuade him. And not in word, but in deed.
In order to perform this play at the Molière Theater they used a fringed tablecloth and a royal decree. the actor's existence there redeemed everything. How accurate is the theater?
The scene of revelation when Orgon is under the table. Lasts a long time. And when he gets out, he experiences a catastrophe. This is a sign of high comedy. The hero of high comedy experiences a real tragedy. He's here now. Like Othello, who realized that he had strangled Desdemona in vain. And when the main character suffers, the viewer laughs furiously. This is a paradoxical move. In every play Moliere has such a scene.
The more you suffer Harpagon in The Miser (the role of Molière) whose box is stolen, the funnier it is for the viewer. He shouts - police! Arrest me! Cut off my hand! Why are you laughing? He says to the viewer. Maybe you stole my wallet? He asks the nobles sitting on the stage. The gallery laughs. Or maybe there is a thief among you? He turns to the gallery. And the audience laughs more and more. And when they’ve already laughed it off. After some time they should understand. That Harpagon is them.
Textbooks write nonsense about Tartuffe regarding the ending. When a guard comes with the king’s decree, they write that Moliere couldn’t stand it and made concessions to the king in order to get the play through... it’s not true!
In France, the king is the pinnacle of the spiritual world. This is the embodiment of reason and ideas. Through his efforts, Orgon plunged nightmare and destruction into the life of his family. And if you end up with Orgon being kicked out of the house, then what is that play about? About the fact that he's just a fool and that's all. But this is not a subject for conversation. There is no ending. A guard with a decree appears as a certain function (a god on a machine), a certain force that is able to restore order in Orgon’s house. He is forgiven, his house and box are returned to him, and the tartuffe goes to prison. You can put your house in order, but you can’t put your head in order. Maybe he will bring a new Tartuffe into the house?.. and we understand that the play reveals the psychological mechanism of inventing an ideal, getting closer to this ideal, in the absence of the opportunity for this person to really change. The man is funny. As soon as a person begins to look for support in some idea, he turns into Orgone. This play is not going well for us.
In France, since the 17th century, there was a secret conspiratorial society (the society of secret communion or the society of the holy gifts), headed by Anna of Austria, which served as the morality police. it was the third political force in the state. Cardinal Richelieu knew and fought against this society and this was the basis of their conflict with the queen.
At this time, the Jesuit order began to actively operate. Who know how to combine secular and spiritual life. Salon abbots appear (Aramis is like that). They made religion attractive to the secular population. And the same Jesuits infiltrated homes and took possession of property. Because an order for something had to exist. And the play Tartuffe was written at the personal request of the king. In Molière's troupe there was a farceur actor who played farces by Grovenet du Parc (?). and the first edition was a farce. It ended with Tartuffe taking everything away and driving Orgon out. Tartuffe was played for the opening of Versailles. And in the middle of Act 1, the queen stood up and left, as soon as it became clear who Tartuffe was. the play was closed. Although she walked freely in manuscripts and was played in private houses. But Molière’s troupe could not do this. Nucius arrived from Rome and Moliere asked him why he was forbidden to play it? He said, I don’t understand. Normal play. Here in Italy they write worse. Then the performer of the role of Tartuffe dies and Moliere rewrites the play. Tartuffe becomes a nobleman with a more complex character. The play is changing before our eyes. Then the war with the Netherlands began, the king leaves there and Moliere writes an appeal to the chairman of the Parisian parliament, not knowing that this is the right hand of Anne of Austria in this order. and the play is of course banned again
The Jansenists and the Jesuits started a dispute about grace. As a result, the king reconciled them all and they played the play Tartuffe. The Jansenists thought that Tartuffe was a Jesuit. And the Jesuits say that he is a Jansenist.
Don Juan
The plot is borrowed.
Moliere very accurately stylized the performance as a commedia dell'arte theater. He has 1 act. which is written in Patois (a dialect of French), like a peasant act. When J talking to peasant women ( Maturina and Charlotte ).
J is a libertine (a freethinker, a nobleman engaged in scientific work). Angelica's husband (marquise of angels) was a libertine. He had a factory that produced gold.
Libertinage is knowledge of the world in all forms.
In Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, the Comte de GICH is Cyrano's main enemy; he is a libertine. These people could eat pork on Good Friday, calling it carp, who despised all Christian norms and were immoral towards women, etc.
IN J both sides of this concept of Libertinage are concentrated.
J is not an atheist. He analyzes everything skeptically and does not take its word for anything. He is obsessed with the ideas of Descartes. analysis, movement of thought. From simple to complex. He says he has the temperament of Alexander the Great. He is not a lover of women at all. In Moliere he is dry and rational. All these women came from the Spanish plot, like a dowry.
J is the embodiment scientific knowledge peace.
Sganarelle (played by Moliere) is the embodiment of an ordinary, traditional view of things, based on religion. The main question for that society is how to connect the scientific and moral worlds. And what is morality?
Sganarelle constantly scolds JJ that he is violating all moral laws, the bastard, the Turk, the dog... JJ does not justify himself in any way. Women throw themselves at him. Maturina and Charlotte they simply board him. He runs away from his wife Elvira and says that as soon as a woman stops being interesting, he moves on. He is obsessed with the thirst for knowledge. There are no barriers for him.
In act 3 they escape from pursuit and Sganarelle begins to philosophize. The stage is led by Sganarelle. He is generally talkative. And J is a man of few words.
J says that he believes that 2x2 = 4, and 2x4 = 8 and Sganarelle says, so your religion is arithmetic. But there is a different translation. He believed that 2+2=4 and 4+4=8 And this is Descartes’ Principle: Separate difficulties and move from simple to complex. He says he believes in a method of understanding the world. Sganarelle does not understand this and says a whole monologue in which he gives a bunch of arguments that are simply the main evidence of the existence of God of Thomas Aquinas. This is the popular understanding of the basic tenets of the Catholic idea. And at the end Sganarelle falls, and J says, here’s proof for you - he broke his nose. There are no rightists in their dialogues.
Then comes the famous scene with the beggars. JJ says blaspheme, I will give you gold. And Sganarelle, who was just talking about virtue. says - blaspheme there is no great guilt in this.
The scene ends with J giving him a gold piece and saying, “Here it is, I’m giving it to you out of philanthropy.” This is a question of morality and scientific knowledge of the world.
What is morality? Today it is a question of questions.
The play is structured in such a way that neither science nor religion gives us an answer to the question.
And the main events take place in the finale. Appears ghost – the image of time with a scythe. Then it appears stone guest , and then they fall into hell.
What do these three transformations mean?
When a ghost appears (in the textbooks they write that Doña Elvira came in a blanket to scare him - this is complete nonsense) this is the time with the scythe. It was a black suit with bones painted on it. The scythe is death. This is a female figure wearing a long veil from head to toe. Death has its own way of speaking and moving on stage.
In the Molière theater the stone guest looked like this: o2.26.08
The actor was wearing Collet is a men's short, fitted, sleeveless jacket (vest), usually made of light leather, worn over a doublet in the 16th and 17th centuries. The word is also applied to a similar sleeveless garment worn by the British army in the 20th century.
He was whitened with flour like a statue and walked like a statue.
When at the end of the play they come to the tomb and look at it. Sganarelle says how handsome he is in the clothes of a Roman emperor. For Moliere, the concept of a Roman emperor was associated with only one person - Louis 14
In 1664, Versailles opened, the procession was opened by the king, who rode in the clothes of the Roman emperor, but it was not a toga, but an ordinary tunic and a hat with a feather. And that’s what everyone thought—the Roman emperor looked like that.
In 1666, by decree of Louis 14, copper statues depicting Louis 14 in the robes of a Roman emperor were erected in the main cities of France. During the great French bourgeois revolution, they were all poured into cannons. But one statue, a stone one, has survived. It stands in the center of the Cornovale Museum in Paris.
In a word, at the end it is not a ghost that appears, but a king, that is higher mind, which should resolve the dispute between science and religion
Kamen.guest extends his hand and J begins to say to Sgonarel - I feel like a terrible cold is eating me up. He talks about his feelings. Fixes them. He experiences the world until his death.
The statue falls through. How to do this on stage? They stood on the hatch. They went down there. And a rocket was launched from there, and then tongues of painted flame burst out. This infuriated the archbishop (they depict hell with a rocket and painted flames). It is known that a fireman was on duty at the performance.
JD did not receive an answer to the question. There remained Sganarelle, who lamented, oh my salary...
Neither religion nor science provided an answer to the question of morality.
This is high comedy and its philosophical meaning is enormous.
The French believe that there are 3 works that express the essence European culture Hamlet, Don Juan and Faust.
The misanthrope is a play of grandiose quality!!! There's practically no plot. Griboyedov appreciated it when he wrote Woe from the Mind, he simply quoted some moments. This is one of the reasons why the play is not working for us.
For Moliere she was important. In order for the public to watch it, he wrote a terrible farce “The Imaginary Cuckold.” And first he played a misanthrope, and then a farce. And he sang a song about a bottle, which made Nicolas Boileau exclaim - how can a great misanthrope author sing this song!
Misanthrope means that any person is a misanthrope (a person who does not like people) because the need to live together develops the most misanthropic traits in a person. And the only way not to kill each other is to treat each other leniently. Dispute about who is a misanthrope or something? Filint, either Alceste (Moliere's role) continues to this day. There was a performance. Where was the misanthrope Selimena . This play is somewhat literary. But that's not true.
The play Stingy is a super play today!!
It was called Voltaire's most tragic work in the 18th century. When reading it, you need to detach yourself from the scheme. The main positive hero here Harpagon . He is the miser who does not allow anyone to live and whose treasure was stolen. In this play, all the characters are hunting for money, under the most plausible pretexts. They only need money to spend it. The son borrows money secretly because his dad will die in 6 months. The bride marries Harpagon, although she does not love him. Etc.
Harpagon is a philosopher. The truth was revealed to him that everyone talks only about morality. In general, the world is built only on money. And as long as you have money, you will be the center and life will revolve around you. He doesn't spend money. He saves himself from loneliness with money. This is a precise psychological move. The world is monstrous. This is a scary play. She horrified his contemporaries. Cook-coachman and coachman-cook Jacques . He changes clothes all the time. And he asks who are you talking to now? This is Harpagon saving on servants.
And at the end he gives a summary: When you tell the truth they beat you, when you lie they want to hang you...
This is what the modern world is.
Composition
In the mid-1660s, Moliere created his best comedies, in which he criticized the vices of the clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie. The first of them was “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver” (edition 1664, G667 and 1669). The play shows the time of the grandiose court holiday “The Amusement of the Enchanted Island,” which took place in May 1664 in Versailles. However, the play upset the holiday. A real conspiracy arose against Moliere, led by Queen Mother Anne of Austria. Moliere was accused of insulting religion and the church, demanding punishment for this. Performances of the play were stopped.
Moliere made an attempt to stage the play in a new edition. In the first edition of 1664, Tartuffe was the clergyman of the Parisian bourgeois Orgon, into whose house this rogue enters, pretending to be a saint; he does not yet have a daughter - the priest Tartuffe could not marry her. Tartuffe deftly gets out of a difficult situation, despite the accusations of his son Orgon, who fell in love with him while courting his stepmother Elmira. The triumph of Tartuffe unequivocally testified to the danger of hypocrisy.
In the second edition (1667; like the first, it has not reached us) Moliere expanded the play, added two more acts to the existing three, where he depicted the connections of the hypocrite Tartuffe with the court, the court and the police, Tartuffe was called Panyulf and turned into a secular a man who intends to marry Orgon's daughter Marianne. The comedy, called “The Deceiver,” ended with the exposure of Pasholf and the glorification of the king. In the latest edition that has come down to us (1669), the hypocrite was again called Tartuffe, and the whole play was called “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver.”
The king knew about Moliere's play and approved his plan. Fighting for “Tartuffe,” Moliere, in his first “Petition” to the king, defended comedy, defended himself from accusations of godlessness, and spoke about the social role of the satirical writer. The king did not lift the ban on the play, but did not listen to the advice of rabid saints “to burn not only the book, but also its author, a demon, an atheist and a libertine, who wrote a devilish play full of abomination, in which he mocks the church and religion, the sacred functions” (“The Greatest King of the World,” pamphlet by Sorbonne doctor Pierre Roullet, 1664).
Permission to stage the play in its second edition was given by the king orally, in a hurry, upon leaving for the army. Immediately after the premiere, the comedy was again banned by the President of Parliament (the highest judicial institution), Lamoignon, and the Parisian Archbishop Perefix issued a message in which he forbade all parishioners and clergy from “presenting, reading or listening to a dangerous play” under pain of excommunication.
Tartuffe is not the embodiment of hypocrisy as a universal human vice, it is a socially generalized type. It is not for nothing that he is not alone in the comedy: his servant Laurent, the bailiff, and the old woman, Orgon’s mother Madame Pernel, are hypocritical. They all cover up their unsightly actions with pious speeches and vigilantly monitor the behavior of others. He settled well in Orgon's house, where the owner not only satisfies his slightest whims, but is also ready to give him his daughter Marianne, a rich heiress, as his wife. Orgon confides all secrets to him, including entrusting him with the storage of the treasured box with incriminating documents. Tartuffe succeeds because he is a subtle psychologist; playing on the fear of the gullible Orgon, he forces the latter to reveal any secrets to him. Tartuffe covers up his insidious plans with religious arguments. He is well aware of his strength, and therefore does not restrain his vicious desires. He does not love Marianne, she is only an advantageous bride for him, he is carried away by the beautiful Elmira, whom Tartuffe is trying to seduce. His casuistic reasoning that betrayal is not a sin if no one knows about it outrages Elmira. Damis, the son of Orgon, a witness to the secret meeting, wants to expose the scoundrel, but he, having adopted a pose of self-flagellation and repentance for supposedly imperfect sins, again makes Orgon his defender. When, after the second date, Tartuffe falls into a trap and Orgon kicks him out of the house, he begins to take revenge, fully revealing his vicious, corrupt and selfish nature.
But Molière not only exposes hypocrisy. In Tartuffe he puts important question: Why did Orgon allow himself to be deceived like that? This already middle-aged man, clearly not stupid, with a strong disposition and strong will, succumbed to the widespread fashion for piety. Orgon believed in Tartuffe’s piety and “holiness” and sees him as his spiritual mentor. However, he becomes a pawn in the hands of Tartuffe, who shamelessly declares that Orgon would rather believe him “than his own eyes.” The reason for this is the inertia of Orgon’s consciousness, brought up in submission to authority. This inertia does not give him the opportunity to critically comprehend the phenomena of life and evaluate the People around him.
Later, this theme attracted the attention of playwrights in Italy and France, who developed it as a legend about an unrepentant sinner, devoid of national and everyday characteristics. Moliere treated this well-known theme in a completely original way, abandoning the religious and moral interpretation of the image of the main character. His Don Juai is an ordinary socialite, and the events that happen to him are determined by the properties of his nature, everyday traditions, and social relationships. Moliere's Don Juan, whom his servant Sganarelle defines from the very beginning of the play as “the greatest of all villains that the earth has ever bore, a monster, a dog, a devil, a Turk, a heretic” (I, /), is a young daredevil, a rake, who does not see any barriers to the manifestation of his vicious personality: he lives by the principle “everything is allowed.” In creating his Don Juan, Moliere denounced not debauchery in general, but the immorality inherent in the French aristocrat of the 17th century. Moliere knew this breed of people well and therefore depicted his hero very reliably.
About Moliere: 1622-1673, France. Born into the family of a court upholsterer and decorator, he received an excellent education. He knew ancient languages, ancient literature, history, philosophy, etc. From there I took away my beliefs about freedom human personality. He could have been a scientist, a lawyer, or followed in his father’s footsteps, but he became an actor (and that was a shame). He played in the "Brilliant Theater", despite his talent for comic roles Almost the entire troupe staged tragedies. Two years later the theater disbanded and they became a traveling theater. Moliere looked at people, at life, at characters, realized that they were better comedians than tragedians, and began to write comedies. In Paris they were received with delight, Louis 14 left the court theater to them to be torn to pieces, and then they got their own - the Palais Royal. There he staged faxes and comedies on topical topics, ridiculed the vices of society, sometimes individuals, and, naturally, made enemies. However, he was favored by the king and became his favorite. Louis even became the godson of his first-born son in order to ward off rumors and gossip from his marriage. And still, people liked the plays, and even I liked them)
The playwright died after the fourth performance of The Imaginary Invalid; he felt unwell on stage and barely finished the performance. That same night Moliere died. The burial of Moliere, who died without church repentance and did not renounce the “shameful” profession of an actor, turned into a public scandal. The Archbishop of Paris, who did not forgive Moliere for Tartuffe, did not allow the great writer to be buried according to the accepted church rite. It took the king's intervention. The funeral took place late in the evening, without observing proper ceremonies, outside the fence of the cemetery, where unknown vagabonds and suicides were usually buried. However, behind Moliere’s coffin, along with his family, friends, and colleagues, was a large crowd of ordinary people, to whose opinion Moliere listened so subtly.
In classicism, the rules for constructing comedy were not interpreted as strictly as the rules of tragedy, and allowed for wider variation. Sharing the principles of classicism as an artistic system, Moliere made genuine discoveries in the field of comedy. He demanded a truthful representation of reality, preferring to move from direct observation of life phenomena to the creation of typical characters. These characters, under the playwright's pen, acquire social definition; Many of his observations therefore turned out to be prophetic: such, for example, is the depiction of the peculiarities of bourgeois psychology. Satire in Moliere's comedies always contained a social meaning. The comedian did not paint portraits or record secondary phenomena of reality. He created comedies that depicted the life and customs of modern society, but for Moliere it was essentially a form of expression of social protest, a demand for social justice. His worldview was based on experimental knowledge, concrete observations of life, which he preferred to abstract speculation. In his views on morality, Moliere was convinced that only following natural laws is the key to rational and moral behavior person. But he wrote comedies, which means his attention was drawn to violations of the norms of human nature, deviations from natural instincts in the name of far-fetched values. In his comedies, two types of “fools” are depicted: those who do not know their nature and its laws (Moliere tries to teach and sober up such people), and those who deliberately cripple their own or someone else’s nature (he considers such people dangerous and requiring isolation) . According to the playwright, if a person's nature is perverted, he becomes a moral monster; False, false ideals underlie false, perverted morality. Moliere demanded genuine moral rigor, reasonable restrictions on the individual; Personal freedom for him is not blind adherence to the call of nature, but the ability to subordinate one’s nature to the demands of reason. Therefore it goodies reasonable and sensible.
Moliere wrote comedies two types; they differed in content, intrigue, comic nature, and structure. Domestic comedies , short, written in prose, the plot is reminiscent of headlights. And, in fact, « high comedy» .
1. Dedicated to important social issues (not just to ridicule manners as in “Funny Primroses,” but to expose the vices of society).
2. In five acts.
3. In verse.
4. Full compliance with the classic trinity (place, time, action)
5. Comic: comic character, intellectual comic.
6. No conventions.
7. The character of the heroes is revealed by external and internal factors. External factors - events, situations, actions. Internal - spiritual experiences.
8. Standard roles. Young heroes are usually lovers ; their servants (usually cunning, accomplices of their masters); eccentric hero (a clown, a character full of comic contradictions); hero-sage , or reasoner .
For example: Tartuffe, Misanthrope, Tradesman among the Nobility, Don Juan, in general, everything that needed to be read. These comedies contain elements of farce and comedy of intrigue and comedy of manners, but in fact these are comedies of classicism. Moliere himself described the meaning of their social content as follows: “You can’t penetrate people better than by depicting their shortcomings. People listen to reproaches indifferently, but cannot bear ridicule... Comedy saves people from their vices.” Don Juan Before him, everything was made into a Christian edifying play, but he went a different route. The play is full of social and everyday concreteness (see the point “no conventions”). The main character is not an abstract rake or the embodiment of universal debauchery, but a representative of a certain type of French nobles. He is a typical, concrete person, not a symbol. Creating your own Don Juan, Moliere denounced not debauchery in general, but the immorality inherent in the French aristocrat of the 17th century. There are a lot of details from real life, but I think you will find this in the corresponding ticket. Tartuffe- is not the embodiment of hypocrisy as a universal human vice, it is a socially generalized type. It is not for nothing that he is not at all alone in the comedy: his servant Laurent, the bailiff Loyal, and the old woman - Orgon's mother Madame Pernel - are hypocritical. They all cover up their unsightly actions with pious speeches and vigilantly monitor the behavior of others.
Misanthrope was even recognized by the strict Boileau as a truly “high comedy.” In it Moliere showed injustice social order, moral decline, rebellion of a strong, noble personality against social evil. It contrasts two philosophies, two worldviews (Alceste and Flint are opposites). It is devoid of any theatrical effects, dialogue here completely replaces action, and the comedy of characters is the comedy of situations. “The Misanthrope” was created during the serious trials that befell Moliere. This, perhaps, explains its content - deep and sad. The comedy of this essentially tragic play is connected precisely with the character of the main character, who is endowed with weaknesses. Alceste is hot-tempered, lacks a sense of proportion and tact, he lectures morals to insignificant people, idealizes the unworthy woman Celimene, loves her, forgives her everything, suffers, but hopes that he can revive the things he has lost. good qualities. But he is mistaken, he does not see that she already belongs to the environment that he rejects. Alceste is an expression of Moliere’s ideal, in some ways a reasoner, conveying the author’s opinion to the public.
About Tradesman in the nobility(it’s not on the tickets, but it’s on the list):
Depicting people of the third estate, the bourgeois, Moliere divides them into three groups: those who were characterized by patriarchy, inertia, and conservatism; people of a new type, with a sense of self-esteem and, finally, those who imitate the nobility, which has a detrimental effect on their psyche. Among these latter is the main character of “The Bourgeois in the Nobility,” Mr. Jourdain.
This is a man completely captured by one dream - to become a nobleman. The opportunity to get closer to noble people is happiness for him, all his ambition lies in achieving similarities with them, his whole life is the desire to imitate them. The thought of nobility takes possession of him completely; in this mental blindness, he loses all correct understanding of the world. He acts without reasoning, to his own detriment. He reaches the point of spiritual depravity and begins to be ashamed of his parents. He is fooled by everyone who wants to; he is robbed by teachers of music, dancing, fencing, philosophy, tailors and various apprentices. The rudeness, bad manners, ignorance, vulgarity of language and manners of Mr. Jourdain comically contrast with his claims to noble grace and gloss. But Jourdain evokes laughter, not disgust, because, unlike other similar upstarts, he worships the nobility disinterestedly, out of ignorance, as a kind of dream of beauty.
Mr. Jourdain is opposed by his wife, a true representative of the philistinism. She is a sensible, practical woman with self-esteem. She is trying with all her might to resist her husband’s mania, his inappropriate claims, and most importantly, to clear the house of uninvited guests who live at the expense of Jourdain and exploit his gullibility and vanity. Unlike her husband, she does not have any respect for the title of nobility and prefers to marry her daughter to a man who would be her equal and would not look down on her bourgeois relatives. The younger generation - Jourdain's daughter Lucille and her fiancé Cleont - are people of a new type. Lucille received a good upbringing; she loves Cleontes for his virtues. Cleont is noble, but not by origin, but by character and moral qualities: honest, truthful, loving, he can be useful to society and the state.
Who are those whom Jourdain wants to imitate? Count Dorant and Marquise Dorimena are people of noble birth, they have refined manners and captivating politeness. But the count is a poor adventurer, a swindler, ready for any meanness, even pimping, for the sake of money. Dorimena, together with Dorant, robs Jourdain. The conclusion to which Moliere leads the viewer is obvious: even though Jourdain is ignorant and simple-minded, even though he is ridiculous and selfish, he is an honest man, and there is nothing to despise him for. IN morally trusting and naive in his dreams, Jourdain is higher than the aristocrats. So the comedy-ballet, the original purpose of which was to entertain the king in his Chambord castle, where he went hunting, became, under the pen of Molière, a satirical, social work.
22. "Misanthrope"
Brief recap:
1 ACTION. In the capital city of Paris live two friends, Alceste and Philinte. From the very beginning of the play, Alceste burns with indignation because Philinte warmly greeted and sang praises to the man he had just seen, even whose name he remembers with difficulty. Filint assures that all relationships are built on politeness, because it’s like an advance - he said kindness - you get kindness in return, it’s nice. Alceste claims that such “friendship” is worthless, that he despises the human race for its deceit, hypocrisy, and depravity; Alceste does not want to tell a lie if he does not like a person - he is ready to say so, but he will not lie and servile for the sake of his career or money. He is even ready to lose a trial in which he, the right one, is suing a man who achieved his fortune in the most disgusting ways, but to whom, however, everyone is welcome and no one will say a bad word. Alceste rejects Philinte’s advice to bribe the judges - and he considers his possible loss an occasion to tell the world about the corruption of people and the depravity of the world. However, Philinte notices that Alceste, despising the entire human race and wanting to escape from the city, does not attribute his hatred to Celimene, a flirtatious and hypocritical beauty - although Elianta, Celimene’s cousin, would be a much more suitable wife for his sincere and direct nature. But Alceste believes that Celimene is beautiful and pure, although covered with a touch of vice, but with his pure love he hopes to cleanse his beloved from the dirt of the world.
The friends are joined by Oroante, who expresses an ardent desire to become Alceste’s friend, to which he tries to politely refuse, saying that he is unworthy of such an honor. Oroant demands Alceste to say his opinion regarding the sonnet that came into his head, after which he reads the verses. Oroantes's poems are trashy, pompous, cliched, and Alceste, after much asking Oroantes to be sincere, replies that he supposedly said to one of my poet acquaintances that graphomania must be restrained within oneself, that modern poetry is an order of magnitude worse than ancient French songs (and sings such a song twice) that the nonsense of professional authors can still be tolerated, but when an amateur not only writes, but also rushes to read out his rhymes to everyone - this is no longer which gate? Oroant, however, takes everything personally and leaves offended. Philint hints to Alceste that with his sincerity he has made himself another enemy.
2 ACTION. Alceste tells his beloved, Celimene, about his feelings, but he is dissatisfied with the fact that Celimene shows her favor to all her fans. He wants to be alone in her heart and not share it with anyone. Selimene reports that she is surprised by this new way of giving compliments to her beloved - grumbling and swearing. Alceste speaks of his fiery love and wants to talk seriously with Celimene. But Celimene’s servant, Basque, speaks of people who have come to visit, and to refuse them means making dangerous enemies. Alceste does not want to listen to the lying chatter of the world and slander, but remains. The guests take turns asking Celimena’s opinion about their mutual acquaintances, and in each of the absent ones, Celimena notes some features worthy of an evil laugh. Alceste is indignant at how the guests, with flattery and approval, force his beloved to slander. Everyone notices that this is not so, and it’s really somehow wrong to reproach your loved one. The guests gradually leave, and Alceste is taken to court by a gendarme.
3 ACTION. Clitander and Acast, two of the guests, contenders for Celimene’s hand, agree that the one of them who will continue the harassment will receive confirmation of her affection from the girl. With Selimene appearing, they start talking about Arsinoe, a mutual friend who does not have as many fans as Selimene, and therefore sanctimoniously preaches abstinence from vices; Moreover, Arsinoe is in love with Alceste, who does not share her feelings, having given his heart to Celimene, and for this Arsinoe hates her.
Arsinoe, who has arrived on a visit, is greeted joyfully by everyone, and the two marquises leave, leaving the ladies alone. They exchange pleasantries, after which Arsinoe talks about gossip that allegedly casts doubt on Celimene’s chastity. She responds by talking about other gossip - about Arsinoe’s hypocrisy. Alceste appears and interrupts the conversation, Selimene leaves to write an important letter, and Arsinoe remains with her lover. She takes him to her home in order to show him a letter allegedly compromising Celimene’s devotion to Alceste.
4 ACTION. Philinte tells Eliante about how Alceste refused to recognize Oroante's poems as worthy, criticizing the sonnet in accordance with his usual sincerity. He was reconciled with difficulty with the poet, and Elianta notes that she likes Alceste’s character and would be glad to become his wife. Philinte admits that Elianta can count on him as a groom if Celimene marries Alceste. Alceste appears with a letter, raging with jealousy. After trying to cool his anger, Philinte and Elianta leave him with Celimene. She swears that she loves Alceste, and the letter was simply misinterpreted by him, and, most likely, this letter is not to the gentleman at all, but to the lady - which removes its outrageousness. Alceste, refusing to listen to Celimene, finally admits that love makes him forget about the letter and he himself wants to justify his beloved. Dubois, Alceste's servant, insists that his master is in big trouble, that he is facing the conclusion that his good friend told Alceste to hide and wrote him a letter, which Dubois forgot in the hall, but will bring. Selimene hurries Alceste to find out what’s the matter.
5 ACTION. Alceste was sentenced to pay a huge sum in a case that was lost, which Alceste talked about with Philint at the beginning of the play. But Alcest does not want to appeal the decision - he is now firmly convinced of the depravity and wrongness of people, he wants to leave what happened as a reason to declare to the world his hatred of the human race. In addition, the same scoundrel who won the trial against him attributes to Alceste the “vile little book” he published - and the “poet” Orontes, offended by Alceste, takes part in this. Alceste hides in the depths of the stage, and Orontes, who appears, begins to demand recognition from Celimene of her love for him. Alceste comes out and begins, together with Orontes, to demand a final decision from the girl - so that she admits her preference for one of them. Selimene is embarrassed and does not want to talk openly about her feelings, but the men insist. The marquises who came, Elianta, Philint, Arsinoe, read aloud Celimene’s letter to one of the marquises, in which she hints at reciprocity, slandering all the other acquaintances present on the stage, except Elianta and Philint. Everyone, having heard the “witness” about themselves, is offended and leaves the stage, and only the remaining Alceste says that he is not angry with his beloved, and is ready to forgive her everything if she agrees to leave the city with him and live married in a quiet corner. Celimene speaks with hostility about escaping from the world at such a young age, and after she twice repeated her judgment about this idea, Alceste exclaims that he no longer wants to remain in this society and promises to forget about Celimene’s love.
“The Misanthrope” belongs to the “high comedies” of Moliere, who moved from a sitcom with elements of folk theater (farce, low vocabulary, etc.), although not completely (in “Tartuffe,” for example, elements of farce are preserved - for example, Orgon hides under table to see the meeting of his wife and Tartuffe, who is harassing her), to intellectual comedy. Moliere's high comedies are character comedies, and in them the course of action and dramatic conflict arise and develop due to the characteristics of the characters of the main characters - and the characters of the main characters of “high comedies” are exaggerated features that cause conflict among themselves among the characters between them and society.
So, following “Don Juan” in 1666, Moliere wrote and staged “The Misanthrope”, and this comedy is the highest reflection of “high comedy” - it is completely devoid of theatrical effects, and action and drama are created only by dialogues and clashes of characters. In “The Misanthrope” all three unities are observed, and in general, this is one of Moliere’s “most classicist” comedies (in comparison with the same “Don Juan”, in which the rules of classicism are freely violated).
The main character is Alceste (misanthrope - “not loving people”), sincere and direct (this is his characteristic feature), despising society for lies and hypocrisy, desperate to fight it (he does not want to win a court case with a bribe), dreaming of escaping into solitude - which is what happens at the end of the work. The second main character is Philinte, a friend of Alceste, who, like Alceste, is aware of the essence of deceit, selfishness, and greed in human society, but adapts to it in order to survive in human society. He also tries to explain to Alceste that the “irregularities” he sees are reflections of small mistakes in human nature, which should be treated with condescension. However, Alceste does not want to hide his attitude towards people, does not want to go against his nature, he serves at the court, where in order to rise, it is not feats before the fatherland that are needed, but immoral activity, which, nevertheless, does not cause any censure by society.
This is how the opposition between the eccentric hero (Alceste) and the sage hero (Philint) arises. Philinte, based on his understanding of the situation, compromises, while Alceste does not want to forgive the “weakness of human nature.” Although Philinte tries as much as possible to restrain Alcest’s impulses that escape the boundaries of social custom and make them less dangerous for himself, Alcest, the rebel hero, openly expresses his protest against the social ugliness that he encounters everywhere. However, his behavior is perceived either as “noble heroism” or as eccentricity.
Alceste, in connection with the rules of classicism, is not completely ideal - and the comic effect of the “sad comedy”, as “The Misanthrope” is called, is born due to Alceste’s weaknesses - his strong and jealous love, forgiving Celimene’s shortcomings, his ardor and intemperance with his tongue when form of vices. However, this also makes him more sympathetic and lively - in accordance with the basic poetics of classicism.
23. "Tartuffe"
Brief retelling from briefley.ru:
Madame Pernelle protects Tartuffe from the household. At the invitation of the owner, a certain Mr. Tartuffe settled in the house of the venerable Orgon. Orgon doted on him, considering him an incomparable example of righteousness and wisdom: Tartuffe’s speeches were extremely sublime, his teachings - thanks to which Orgon learned that the world is a big cesspool, and now he would not blink an eye, burying his wife, children and other loved ones - extremely useful, piety aroused admiration; and how selflessly Tartuffe cherished the morality of Orgon’s family... Of all the household members, Orgon’s admiration for the newly-minted righteous man was shared, however, only by his mother, Madame Pernelle. At the beginning, Madame Pernelle says that the only good person in this house is Tartuffe. Dorina, Mariana's maid, in her opinion, is a loud rude person, Elmira, Orgon's wife, is wasteful, her brother Cleanthes is a freethinker, Orgon's children Damis is a fool and Mariana is a modest girl, but in a quiet pool! But they all see in Tartuffe who he really was - a hypocritical saint, cleverly taking advantage of Orgon’s delusion in his simple earthly interests: eating deliciously and sleeping softly, having a reliable roof over his head and some other benefits.
Orgon's family was completely disgusted with Tartuffe's moral teachings; with his worries about decency, he drove almost all his friends away from home. But as soon as someone spoke badly about this zealot of piety, Madame Pernelle created stormy scenes, and Orgon simply remained deaf to any speeches that were not imbued with admiration for Tartuffe. When Orgon returned from a short absence and demanded from the maid Dorina a report on the news at home, the news of his wife’s illness left him completely indifferent, while the story of how Tartuffe happened to overeat at dinner, then sleep until noon, and drink too much wine at breakfast, filled Orgon with compassion for the poor fellow; “Oh, poor thing!” - he says about Tartuffe, while Dorina is talking about how bad his wife was.
Orgon's daughter, Mariana, is in love with a noble young man named Valer, and her brother Damis is in love with Valer's sister. Orgon seems to have already given his consent to the marriage of Mariana and Valera, but for some reason he keeps postponing the wedding. Damis, concerned about his own fate - his marriage to Valera's sister was supposed to follow Mariana's wedding - asked Cleanthe to find out from Orgon the reason for the delay. Orgon answered questions so evasively and incomprehensibly that Cleanthes suspected that he had decided to somehow dispose of his daughter’s future.
Exactly how Orgon sees Mariana’s future became clear when he told his daughter that Tartuffe’s perfections needed reward, and that reward would be his marriage to her, Mariana. The girl was stunned, but did not dare contradict her father. Dorina had to stand up for her: the maid tried to explain to Orgon that marrying Mariana to Tartuffe - a beggar, a low-spirited freak - would mean becoming the subject of ridicule of the whole city, and in addition, would push her daughter onto the path of sin, for no matter how virtuous the girl was, she would not It's simply impossible to cuckold a hubby like Tartuffe. Dorina spoke very passionately and convincingly, but despite this, Orgon remained adamant in his determination to become related to Tartuffe.
Mariana was ready to submit to her father's will - this is what her daughter's duty told her to do. Dorina tried to overcome her obedience, dictated by natural timidity and respect for her father, and she almost succeeded in doing so, unfolding before Mariana vivid pictures of the marital happiness prepared for him and Tartuffe.
But when Valer asked Mariana if she was going to submit to Orgon’s will, the girl replied that she didn’t know. But this is only to “flirt”; she sincerely loves Valera. In a fit of despair, Valer advised her to do as her father commanded, while he himself would find himself a bride who would not betray his word; Mariana replied that she would be only too happy about this, and as a result, the lovers almost parted forever, but then Dorina arrived in time, who had already been swayed by these lovers with their “concessions” and “omissions.” She convinced young people of the need to fight for their happiness. But they just need to act not directly, but in a roundabout way, to stall for time - the bride is either sick, or sees bad signs, and then something will certainly work out, because everyone - Elmira, and Cleanthes, and Damis - is against Orgon’s absurd plan,
Damis, even too determined, was going to properly rein in Tartuffe so that he would forget about marrying Mariana. Dorina tried to cool his ardor, to convince him that more could be achieved with cunning than with threats, but she was not able to completely convince him of this.
Suspecting that Tartuffe was not indifferent to Orgon's wife, Dorina asked Elmira to talk to him and find out what he himself thought about marriage with Mariana. When Dorina told Tartuffe that the lady wanted to talk with him face to face, the saintly man perked up. At first, scattering heavy compliments in front of Elmira, he did not let her open her mouth, but when she finally asked a question about Mariana, Tartuffe began to assure her that his heart was captivated by another. To Elmira’s bewilderment - how is it that a man of holy life is suddenly seized by carnal passion? - her admirer answered with fervor that yes, he is pious, but at the same time he is also a man, saying that the heart is not flint... Immediately, without mincing words, Tartuffe invited Elmira to indulge in the delights of love. In response, Elmira asked how, in Tartuffe’s opinion, her husband would behave when he heard about his vile harassment. But Tartuffe says that sin is not a sin as long as no one knows about it. Elmira offers a deal: Orgon will not find out anything, Tartuffe, for his part, will try to get Mariana to marry Valere as soon as possible.
Damis ruined everything. He overheard the conversation and, indignant, rushed to his father. But, as one might expect, Orgon believed not his son, but Tartuffe, who this time outdid himself in hypocritical self-abasement. T. accuses himself of all mortal sins and says that he won’t even make excuses. In anger, he ordered Damis to get out of sight and announced that today Tartuffe would marry Mariana. As a dowry, Orgon gave his entire fortune to his future son-in-law.
Cleant in last time tried to talk humanly with Tartuffe and convince him to reconcile with Damis, give up his unjustly acquired property and Mariana - after all, it is not appropriate for a Christian to use a quarrel between father and son for his own enrichment, much less condemn a girl to lifelong torment. But Tartuffe, a noble rhetorician, had an excuse for everything.
Mariana begged her father not to give her to Tartuffe - let him take the dowry, and she would rather go to a monastery. But Orgon, who had learned something from his favorite, without blinking an eye, convinced the poor thing of the soul-saving life with a husband who only causes disgust - after all, mortification of the flesh is only useful. Finally, Elmira could not stand it - since her husband does not believe the words of his loved ones, he should see with his own eyes the baseness of Tartuffe. Convinced that he had to make sure of just the opposite - of the high morality of the righteous man - Orgon agreed to crawl under the table and from there eavesdrop on the conversation that Elmira and Tartuffe would have in private.
Tartuffe immediately fell for Elmira’s feigned speeches that she allegedly had a strong feeling for him, but at the same time showed a certain prudence: before refusing to marry Mariana, he wanted to receive from her stepmother, so to speak, a tangible guarantee of tender feelings. As for the violation of the commandment, which will be associated with the delivery of this pledge, then, as Tartuffe assured Elmira, he has his own ways of dealing with heaven.
What Orgon heard from under the table was enough for his blind faith in the holiness of Tartuffe to finally collapse. He ordered the scoundrel to get away immediately, he tried to make excuses, but now it was useless. Then Tartuffe changed his tone and, before proudly leaving, promised to brutally get even with Orgon.
Tartuffe’s threat was not unfounded: firstly, Orgon had already managed to issue a deed of gift to his house, which today belonged to Tartuffe; secondly, he entrusted the vile villain with a casket with papers incriminating Argas, his friend, according to political reasons forced to leave the country.
It was necessary to urgently look for some way out. Damis volunteered to beat Tartuffe and discourage him from doing harm, but Cleanthe stopped the young man - he argued that more could be achieved with the mind than with fists. Orgon's family had not yet come up with anything when the bailiff, Mr. Loyal, showed up on the doorstep of the house. He brought an order to vacate M. Tartuffe's house by tomorrow morning. At this point, not only Damis’s hands began to itch, but also Dorina’s and even Orgon himself.
As it turned out, Tartuffe did not fail to use the second opportunity he had to ruin the life of his recent benefactor: Valère, trying to save Mariana’s family, warns them with the news that the scoundrel has handed over a chest of papers to the king, and now Orgon faces arrest for aiding the rebel. Orgon decided to escape before it was too late, but the guards got ahead of him: the officer who entered announced that he was under arrest.
Tartuffe also came to Orgon's house with the royal officer. The family, including Madame Pernel, who had finally seen the light, began to unanimously shame the hypocritical villain, listing all his sins. Tom soon got tired of this, and he turned to the officer with a request to protect his person from vile attacks, but in response, to his great - and everyone's - amazement, he heard that he was arrested.
As the officer explained, in fact he did not come for Orgon, but in order to see how Tartuffe reaches the end in his shamelessness. The wise king, an enemy of lies and a stronghold of justice, from the very beginning had suspicions about the identity of the informer and turned out to be right, as always - under the name of Tartuffe was hiding a scoundrel and a swindler, on whose account a great many dark deeds were hiding. With his authority, the sovereign canceled the deed of gift for the house and forgave Orgon for indirectly aiding his rebellious brother.
Tartuffe was escorted to prison in disgrace, but Orgon had no choice but to praise the wisdom and generosity of the monarch, and then bless the union of Valera and Mariana: “there is no better example,
How true love and devotion Valera"
2 groups of Moliere comedies:
1) domestic comedies , their comedy is a comedy of situations (“Funny primps”, “Reluctant Doctor”, etc.).
2) "high comedies" They should be written mostly in verse and consist of five acts. Comicism is comedy of character, intellectual comedy (“Tartuffe, or the Deceiver”,“Don Juan”, “Misanthrope”, etc.).
History of creation :
1st edition 1664(did not reach us) Only three acts. Tartuffe is a spiritual figure. Mariana is completely absent. Tartuffe deftly gets out of it when Orgon's son catches him with Elmira (stepmother). The triumph of Tartuffe unequivocally testified to the danger of hypocrisy.
The play was to be shown during the court festival “The Amusements of the Enchanted Island,” which took place in May 1664 at Versailles. However, she upset the holiday. A real conspiracy arose against Moliere, led by Queen Mother Anne of Austria. Moliere was accused of insulting religion and the church, demanding punishment for this. Performances of the play were stopped.
2nd edition 1667. (didn't arrive either)
He added two more acts (there were 5), where he depicted the connections of the hypocrite Tartuffe with the court, the court and the police. Tartuffe was named Panjulf and turned into a socialite, intending to marry Orgon's daughter Marianne. The comedy was called "Deceiver" ended with the exposure of Panyulf and the glorification of the king.
3rd edition 1669. (has reached us) the hypocrite was again called Tartuffe, and the whole play was “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver.”
“Tartuffe” caused a furious showdown between the church, the king and Moliere:
1. The idea of a comedy king * By the way, Louis XIV generally loved Moliere*approved. After the performance of the play, M. sent the first “Petition” to the king, defended himself from accusations of atheism and spoke about the social role of the satirical writer. The king did not lift the ban, but did not listen to the advice of rabid saints “to burn not only the book, but also its author, a demon, an atheist and a libertine, who wrote a devilish play full of abomination, in which he mocks the church and religion, at sacred functions.” .
2. The king gave permission to stage the play in its 2nd edition orally, in a hurry, upon leaving for the army. Immediately after the premiere, the comedy was again banned by the President of Parliament. Archbishop of Paris Refix prohibited all parishioners and clergymen ania "present, read or listen to a dangerous play" under penalty of excommunication . Moliere sent the king a second “Petition”, in which he stated that he would stop writing completely if the king did not come to his defense. The king promised to sort it out.
3. It’s clear that, despite all the prohibitions, everyone reads the book: in private homes, distributes it in manuscript, and performs it in closed home performances. The Queen Mother died in 1666* the one who was all indignant*, and Louis XIV quickly promised Moliere quick permission to stage it.
1668 year - the year of “church peace” between orthodox Catholicism and Jansenism => tolerance in religious matters. Tartuffe is permitted. February 9, 1669 the performance was a huge success.
Assessing comedy as a genre, Moliere states that it is not only equal to tragedy, but even superior to it, because it “makes honest people laugh” and thereby “contributes to the eradication of vices.” The task of comedy is to be a mirror of society, to depict the shortcomings of people of their time. The criterion for the artistry of comedy is the truth of reality. Moliere's comedies can be divided into two types, different in artistic structure, the nature of the comedy, the intrigue and content in general. The first group includes domestic comedies, with a farcical plot, one-act or three-act, written in prose. Their comedy is a comedy of situations (“Funny primps”, 1659 cuckold”, 1660; “Marriage “The Reluctant Doctor”). Another group is “high comedies”. The comedy of “high comedy” is a comedy of character, an intellectual comedy (“Tartuffe”, “Don Juan”, “The Misanthrope”, “ Scientists women", etc.). High comedy meets classic rules: five-act structure, poetic form, unity of time, place and action. He was the first to successfully combine the traditions of medieval farce and Italian comedy traditions. Smart characters with bright personalities appeared ("School for Wives", "Tartuffe", "Don Juan", "Misanthrope", "The Miser", "Learned Women"). "Learned Women" (or "Scientific Lady") is still considered an example of classicism comedy genre. For the author’s contemporaries it was savagery to openly show the intelligence, cunning and cunning of a woman.
"Don Juan".
“Don Juan, or the Stone Guest” (1665) was written extremely quickly to improve the affairs of the theater after the banning of “Tartuffe”. Moliere turned to an unusually popular theme, first developed in Spain, about the libertine who knows no barriers in his pursuit of pleasure. For the first time, Tirso de Molina wrote about Don Juan, using folk sources, the Seville chronicles about Don Juan Tenorio, a libertine who kidnapped the daughter of Commander Gonzalo de Ulloa, killed him and desecrated his tombstone. Moliere treated this well-known theme in a completely original way, abandoning the religious and moral interpretation of the image of the main character. His Don Juan is an ordinary socialite, and the events that happen to him are determined by the properties of his nature, everyday traditions, and social relationships. Moliere's Don Juan, whom his servant Sganarelle defines from the very beginning of the play as “the greatest of all villains that the earth has ever bore, a monster, a dog, a devil, a Turk, a heretic” (I, 1), is a young daredevil, a rake, who does not see any barriers to the manifestation of his vicious personality: he lives by the principle “everything is allowed.” Creating his Don Juan, Moliere denounced not debauchery in general, but the immorality inherent in the French aristocrat of the 17th century; Moliere knew this breed of people well and therefore depicted his hero very reliably.
Like all the secular dandies of his time, Don Juan lives in debt, borrowing money from the “black bone” he despises - the bourgeois Dimanche, whom he manages to charm with his courtesy, and then send him out the door without paying the debt. Don Juan freed himself from all moral responsibility. He seduces women, destroys other people's families, cynically strives to corrupt everyone with whom he deals: simple-minded peasant girls, each of whom he promises to marry, a beggar to whom he offers gold for blasphemy, Sganarelle, to whom he sets a clear example of how to treat the creditor Dimanche... Father. Don Juan's Don Luis tries to reason with his son.
Grace, wit, courage, beauty - these are also traits of Don Juan, who knows how to charm not only women. Sganarelle, a multi-valued figure (he is both simple-minded and insightfully intelligent), condemns his master, although he often admires him. Don Juan is smart, he thinks broadly; he is a universal skeptic who laughs at everything - love, medicine, and religion. Don Juan is a philosopher, a freethinker.
The main thing for Don Juan, a convinced woman lover, is the desire for pleasure. Not wanting to think about the misadventures that await him, he admits: “I cannot love once, I am fascinated by every new item... One of the attractive features of Don Juan throughout most of the play remains his sincerity. He is not a prude, he does not try to portray himself as better than he is, and in general he values little the opinions of others. In the scene with the beggar (III, 2), having mocked him to his heart’s content, he still gives him a gold “not for Christ’s sake, but out of love for mankind.” However, in the fifth act, a dramatic change occurs to him: Don Juan becomes a hypocrite. The seasoned Sganarelle exclaims in horror: “What a man, what a man!” The pretense, the mask of piety that Don Juan puts on, is nothing more than a profitable tactic; she allows him to get out of seemingly hopeless situations; make peace with his father, on whom he financially depends, and safely avoid a duel with the brother of Elvira, whom he abandoned. Like many in his social circle, he only assumed the appearance of a decent person. In his own words, hypocrisy has become a “fashionable, privileged vice” that covers up any sins, and fashionable vices are regarded as virtues. Continuing the theme raised in Tartuffe, Moliere shows the universal nature of hypocrisy, widespread in different classes and officially encouraged. The French aristocracy was also involved in it.
In creating Don Juan, Moliere followed not only the ancient Spanish plot, but also the methods of constructing Spanish comedy with its alternation of tragic and comic scenes, rejection of the unity of time and place, and violation of the unity of linguistic style (the speech of the characters here is individualized more than in any other or another play by Moliere). The character structure of the main character also turns out to be more complex. And yet, despite these partial deviations from the strict canons of the poetics of classicism, Don Juan remains on the whole a classicist comedy, the main purpose of which is the fight against human vices, the formulation of moral and social problems, and the depiction of generalized, typified characters.