| Honesty,
January 27, 2001 Reviewer: Miguel
B. Llora from Bay Point, California
France in politically powerful and economically
wealthy. King Louis XIV saw himself as ruling over an enlightened society.
He was passionate about the arts and obsessive about theatre. Moliere
wrote comedy. He contrasts what people are to what they think of
themselves. Moliere's audience was spoiled, well educated, bourgeois,
aristocratic and royal. The audience wanted to be entertained, to laugh
and to be cheerful. The Misanthrope was controversial but a box office
success. The play takes place in Celimene's house where she entertains a
variety of visitors. Her visitors are relatives, friends and suitors who
spend their time much as the upper society of the day. They dressed,
penned and received letters wrote poems and libelous prose. They visited
each other, hoped to be noticed by royalty and the litigious pursed
lawsuits to uphold their reputations. Several suitors vie for Celimene's
favour. Her malicious wit and her reluctance to pick one partner over the
others cause her to end up alone. The play begins with Alceste and
Philinte arguing about one of the social conventions of the day. Alceste
declares that it is morally wrong to falsely flatter and Philinte says we
must be tolerant of peoples behaviour. These two alternatives a-re
frequently presented to the audience. There are two ways to approach the
world and one is as good as the other. Throughout the play the characters
axe thrown up against this dilemma with a variety of responses and
outcomes. Each player presents as a contradiction with a hidden core. So
that, depending on how one chooses to read the play, the characters can be
interpreted in a variety of ways. This is were the fun begins, Alceste has
been interpreted by many audiences as a noble, heroic idealist, a champion
of honesty. He also can be seen as a rigid extremist, an absolutist whose
maniacal criticism is quickly tiresome. He criticizes societies
corruptions and acts like a conceited prig. Celimen is a chilly shrew or
bewitchingly shrewd. She employs the conventions of the times in that she
is a gossip, she has a malicious wit etc. but she is an admirable
character. Philinte and Eliante are studiously tolerant of everyone and
are consummate bores. Alceste's passionate assertion on the ideal of truth
and honesty verses falsity comes across as absurdity. His absolutist
stance is difficult to examine. He is a rigid extremist obsessed with his
vision of right. He is in love with a person who embodies everything he
abhors i.e. a coquette who falsely flatters, who is a witty gossip and
although he professes to he wants to change her and at the end of the play
Celimene is abandoned to society and Alceste leaves her stranded even
though he first wished she was helpless so that he could rescue her. His
passion is out of proportion to events. i.e. Alceste advises Philante that
hanging would be an appropriate response to falsely flattering. He is
unable to apply anything he says to himself so that he thinks that he is
reasonable and he is mostly unreasonable, bad tempered and brusque i.e.
instead of an apology regarding his lawsuit he hopes he is guilty so that
he can show the stupidity of society. The play is derisive of bourgeois
behaviour but with Alceste as the messenger one wonders if Moliere is
serious. Philinte and Eliante who are perhaps the Epicureans in the play
stand for reasonable tolerance but they seem iust tedious i.e. Eliante's
prescription for how love works. Celimene is the character who generates
the most empathy. Even so, she ruthlessly rips everyone apart. She is
quick and intelligent with the small talk. She is beautiful, rich,
independent and her salon is the gathering place of the moment. She is the
one who displays the most false behavior but perhaps she is the most
honest. Truth and honesty, usually traits to strive for, in Alceste's
character, seem somehow less than desirable. His passion and contradictory
behaviour smack of insincerity, the very trait he claims to despise. This
culture is obsessed with wealth and power and societal recognition. The
currency is wit, youth, beauty. Celimene is aware that she has a very
short time to establish herself before she will have the status of
Arsinone, an older prude who is relegated to the ranks of visitor rather
than someone who people want to visit. Even though Celimene plays by the
rules she fails. Alceste and Celimene are totally unsuited to each other
but perhaps they share obsession: he to distaste, she to taste. Alceste
claims the more one loves the less one should forgive. Alceste courts
isolation but at the end of the play Philinte and Eliante stick with him.
Such a small book with such a rich context. --This text refers to the Paperback
edition.
|
