Guide Note:
Alceste, the protagonist of Molière's (1622-1673) play The Misanthrope, values honesty and sincerity. "No, it is general; I hate all men", he says, denouncing the hypocrisy of the society around him. Even though he has such high standards, Alceste is in love with a woman who represents everything he abhors. Celimene is frivolous and flirtatious; she is fond of flattery and loves to gossip.
This contradiction makes Alceste at times ridiculous, but, even so, one can not help but recognize the truth of many of his statements about the society that has abandoned basic human values in favor of the conventions and the pretence.
In this play Molière focuses more on character development than on plot. Alceste comes across as a rounded human being, with his faults and his merits. Among the best scenes are the ones in which Alceste criticises the poetry of a fellow gentleman, Oronte, who has come to Alceste for an "honest opinion". Alceste is well aware that Oronte is really fishing for a compliment. But, true to himself, he advises Oronte to give up writing poetry.
Alceste, the valiant critic, remains faithful to his opinion even when the influential Oronte sets him up and the court sentences him to pay a hefty sum for a non-existent offence. He is, however, so disgusted with his fellow humans that he decides to retire from the society and live in solitude - alas, without his fickle Celimene, who, though her gossipy ways threaten to blow up in her face, is still not able to renounce society.
The play, though not a commercial success in its time, survives as one of Molière's best known works today.
Fast Facts:
- First performed in Paris in the theater Palais-Royal on June 4, 1666
- Written in verse
- Setting: mid-17th century, Parisian high society
- Molière played Alceste to his wife Armande's Celimene
- Many speculated that the play aired Molière's own marital woes
- Often "modernized" - in language and in the epoch - when performed today
- Quotation: "...gentlemen should rigorously control / That itch to write which often afflicts the soul."
- Quotation: "There's no excuse for printing tedious rot / Unless one writes for bread, as you do not."
