Childhood and Education of Moliere
Molie was born in the year 1622 and was the eldest child of a merchant. He lost his mother at a very early age. After the death of his mother, the father of Moliere married another woman and moved to another house, located in Paris. In order to pursue education, Moliere was sent to the Jesuit College of Clermont. In the year 1641, Moliere became a notary. The family background, education and profession of Moliere allowed him to pursue a promising future.
The information about Moliere’s childhood shows that his childhood was comfortable. He pursued education in one of the finest schools of France. It was expected that after pursuing education, Moliere would continue the business of his father. However, he developed interest in plays and literature. The family of Moliere also influenced him to write. Moliere developed the pseudonym Moliere in order to fulfill the desire of his father to avoid associations with the theater (Guichard pp. 93).
What Inspired Moliere to Write
The writer in Moliere influenced him to write. It is also believed that the friendship of Moliere with Jean-Baptiste influenced him to write. The society was Moliere was demanding a new style of comic drama. Moliere had the fortune to begin writings at the time when the demand for creative and energetic writings was increasing (Guichard pp. 93).
Moliere struggled to develop himself as an actor, director, and a stage director. The pay of Moliere named ‘troupe’ was staged and received huge enthusiasm and response. The overwhelming response of the play earned him the privilege of sharing theater with Scaramouch. Moliere’s plays and life was the victim of controversy. In the year 1662, Moliere married Armande Bejart. Moliere faced several difficulties in his married life (Guichard pp. 93).
Major Works
The plays of Moliere were divided between comedy and one-art farces. The famous one-art farces was L'éecole des femmes while the famous comedy of Moliere was Dom Garcie de Navarre. L'éecole des femmes of Moliere was attacked by critics because of being immoral. The controversies in the life and work of Moliere increased with time and peaked when his most renounced work Tartuffe was published. This piece of work offended the upper class of the French society. This piece of work also received criticism from the Roman Catholic Church and the influential society of that time. Despite the criticisms, the work of Moliere was very popular in the audience. In the year 1669, the Moliere got the permission to perform publically. Moliere also produced Don Juan. This piece of work received further criticism from church officials (Guichard pp. 93).
Critical Reception
Despite the attempts of different traditionalists, religious leaders, and professionals to discredit the work of Moliere, he achieved success with his creative skills. The plays of Moliere were extremely popular in the audience. The popularity of Moliere is evident from the fact that other play writers also started to imitate his ideas. The work of Moliere was widely copied in England. With the passage of time, Moliere developed a positive reputation in England. The public and critical opinion of his work also declined in France with time. In the early 19th century, the comedies of Moliere started to gain acceptance and prominence. The plays and writings of Moliere started to gain popularity in the society. According to Romanticists, Moliere was a revolutionist, traffic, and individualistic artist. In the 20th century, a large number of scholars addressed issues regarding his work (Ha"idar pp. 2).
The writings of Moliere aimed to please contemporaries. It can be assumed that the contemporaries were satisfied with the satirical content o comedies. Moliere did not develop any comic formula for his plays and writings. Instead, his comic register was flexible. The techniques of Moliere were flexible (Guichard pp. 93).
The Miser
The Miser is a comedy play of Moliere, which is based on the story of a greedy man named Harpagon. In this comedy, Moliere has reflected how the extreme love for a young woman caused comic mischief among her lovers. The play took place in France and was widely appreciated by the audience. The Miser is considered one of the most significant plays of Moliere (Ha"idar pp. 2).
With the help of this play, Moliere has attempted to define the characteristics of a miserable man. The man was very poor apparently. However, he had stored a large sum of money with himself. The jokes of Harpagon are the main source of comedy in this play. In the play, the writer has shown how the lives of two men became miserable in the love of a woman. The play starts with a young man who declared his love for the daughter of Harpagon. The play has shown that Valere disguised himself in order to earn the trust of her Elise and her father. In the beginning of the play, the writer has shown how everything was going in the right direction in the beginning. The writer has given a fine start to the play in order to keep the attention of the audience. However, the situation started to change gradually. In the later stages of the play, Harpagon told his children that he was in love with a girl named Mariane. The son of Harpagon was also in love with the same girl. This news was a shock to Cleante, the son of Harpagon. With this scenario, the Moliere has also shown how people of different ages fell in love with the same young girl (Ha"idar pp. 2).
The early stages of the play are, thus, very confusing for the audience. When watching the early stages of play, the audience attempts to find the connection between different pieces of story. It is because the audience finds it difficult to determine who is in love with whom. Therefore, at the beginning, it is important for the audience to keep track of all pieces of the story. This strategy of Moliere resulted in keeping the audience engaged (Ha"idar pp. 2).
Harpagon soon realized that his son is also in love with the same girl. This situation outraged Harpagon. When Harpagon was marrying Mariane and Elise was marrying Anselme, Cleante and his servant stole the fortune of Harpagon. When Harpagon found out that his money was gone, he became very angry. This confusing situation has been presented in a very funny manner to the audience. Moliere has shown how the sudden turn of event startled everyone.
In the next stage, Cleante confessed his crime and told his father that he would return everything if the father allowed him to marry Mariane. At the same time, Valere also confessed that he was the son of an Italian duke. Mariane admitted the she was the daughter of the same duke. Anselme also confessed that he had survived in the shipwreck. He allowed Elise to marry Valere and paid for the marriage of Cleante and Mariane (Munhoz, Jefferson, Simões, and Hélio pp. 305).
Therefore, in the end, the audience gets a nice and coincidental ending. Theme of the play is not very complicated. In the play, Moliere has communicated the message that how a greedy person desires for nothing but money. Harpagon gave up on everything even Mariane because of his desire and love for money. With this play, Moliere has communicated important messages including greediness, love, and coincidence. All of these messages have been communicated in a very manner to the audience (Tarasov and Olga pp. 1204).
Serendipity is also an important theme of this play. In the play, Moliere has used serendipity in order to resolve different conflicts among people. The author has also communicated the message that a lot of money does not necessarily mean that a person is rich. In fact, the greatest treasure of an individual’s life is love, friendship, decency, and family. However, Harpagon does not possess any of these things (Munhoz, Jefferson, Simões, and Hélio pp. 305).
Greed is one of the biggest themes of the play. The greed of Harpagon for money and gold prohibited from getting happiness in his life. All he wanted from his life was money; therefore, he was never satisfied. The Miser has been written in a creative and witty language. The characteristics of the play are sophisticated and their jokes have been written intelligently.
Works Cited
Tarasov, Alexander, and Olga Voskresenskaya. “Moliere Multiple Scattering Theory Revisited.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.3675 (2012): 21.
Munhoz, Renato P., Jefferson C. Simões, and Hélio A. G. Teive. “Charcot’s Son, Commander Jean-Baptiste Charcot: From Neurology to ‘Pourquoi Pas?’” Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2012 : 305–307.
Ha"idar, Riad. “Jean-Baptiste Alfred Perot.” Photoniques 25 (2006): 1–2. Print.
Guichard, Charlotte. “[The Market at the Heart of the Invention of the Museum ? : Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun at the Louvre (1792-1802).].” Revue de synthese / Centre international de synthese 132.1 (2011): 93–117.
