17th Century French Theatre and The Misanthrope

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17th Century French Theatre andThe Misanthrope
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Historical Context

• Religious controversies in the XVI century that
  continued in the XVII century led to Absolutism
• Cardinal Richelieu served as Louis XIII prime
  minister established strong central government
• Set during the rule of Louis XIV The Sun King
• France the cultural center of Europe

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The Neoclassical Ideal of Theater

• Only two legitimate forms of drama
• ? tragedy
• ? comedy
• Tragedy deals with affairs of
• the state
• Comedy deals with love
• The two should never be mixed

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• Neoclassicists the purpose of drama is to teach
  and to please
• Opera came to France in the second half of the
  century

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Theaters and theatrical companies

• In addition to public theaters, plays were
  produced in private residences, before the court
  and in the university
• The public, the humanist theater of the colleges
  and the theater performed at court showed
  extremely divergent tastes
• - tragicomedy was fashionable at
  the court
• - the public was more interested
  in tragedy
• The early theaters in Paris were often placed in
  existing structures like tennis courts
• - stages were extremely narrow
• - facilities for sets and scene
  changes were often non-
• existent
• Eventually, theaters would develop systems of
  elaborate machines and decors

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• Theater performances took place twice a week
• Theatrical representations often encompassed
  several works
• a comic prologue, a tragedy or
  tragicomedy, a farce and finally a song
• Nobles sometimes sat on the side
• of the stage during the
• performance
• The audience was always aware
• of each other
• Spectators were notably vocal
• during performances

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• - The place directly in front of the stage,
  without seats(the "parterre) was reserved for
  men
• - It was usually a mix of social groups
• - Elegant people watched the show from the
  galleries
• - Princes, musketeers and royal pages were
  given free entry
• - Before 1630, a honest woman did not go to
  the theater
• Unlike England, France placed no restrictions on
  women performing on stage
• But the career of actors of either sex was seen
  as morally wrong by the Catholic church and by
  the religious Janseanist movement
• Actors typically had fantastic stage names that
  described typical roles or stereotypical
  characters

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Main requirements of a neoclassical drama

• Five acts
• Unity
• - time ( 24 hours only)
• - place ( same place)
• - action ( only one plot)
• Poetic justice to triumph

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Moliere ( Jean Baptiste Poquelin)

• 1622- 1673
• Went to a Jesuit school
• Studied law
• In 1643 joined the Illustre
• Theatre
• Composed 12 of the most
• durable and penetratingly
• satirical full-length
• comedies of all time

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• As a comic dramatist he ranks with such other
  distinctive masters of the genre as Aristophanes,
  Plautus, and George Bernard Shaw.
• Also the leading French comic actor, stage
  director, and dramatic theoretician of the 17th
  century
• Molière affirmed the potency of comedy as a
  serious, flexible art form
• The king's brother became Molière's patron

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• He is credited with giving the French
• Comedy of manners and
• Comedy of character
• their modern form

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• Molière advanced from being a gifted adapter of
  Italian-derived sketches and a showman who put on
  extravaganzas to a writer whose best plays had
  the lasting impact of tragedies
• He made many enemies - the clergy mistakenly
  believed that certain of his plays were attacks
  on the church. Other playwrights resented his
  continual experiments with comic forms

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• Influenced by the Italian commedia dell'arte
  troupes
• He applied the alexandrine , to a relaxed
  dialogue that imitated conversational speech
• He created a gallery of incisive portraits
  Tartuffe the religious hypocrite, and Orgon, his
  dupe Jourdain the social climber Don Juan the
  rebel and libertine cuckolds such as Arnolphe,
  Dandin, and Amphitryon Alceste the stony
  idealist Harpagon the miser Philaminte the
  pretentiously cultured lady and many more.

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The Death

• He collapsed on Feb. 17, 1673, after the fourth
  performance of The Imaginary Invalid, and died at
  home that evening. On the night of February 21,
  he was interred in Saint Joseph's Cemetery.
• Church leaders refused to officiate or to grant
  his body a formal burial.
• Seven years later the king united Molière's
  company with one of its competitors since that
  time the French national theater, the Comédie
  Francaise, has been known as the House of
  Molière.

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Plays by Moliere

• Short plays ( one or two acts)
• The Jealous Husband
• The Flying Doctor
• Sganarelle
• The Rehearsal at Versailles
• The Forced Marriage
• The longer plays (in three or five acts)
• The School for Husbands
• The School for Wives
• Tartuffe
• Don Juan
• The Misanthrope
• The Doctor in Spite of Himself Amphitryon, The
  Miser, George Dandin, The Bourgeois Gentleman,
  Scapin, The Learned Ladies, and The Imaginary
  Invalid

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The Misanthrope

• A misanthrope is a person with general disgust,
  hatred, or disdain of the human species or of
  human nature
• First performed in 1666 at the Palais-Royal
• Moliere played the role of Alceste and his wife,
  Armande, played Celimene
• Set in 17th century France during the reign of
  the Sun King at the residence of the upper class.
  High fashion, court intrigue, and gossip all play
  a role.

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Mixed Critical Review

• Praised for originality
• Mixed response because it ridiculed so many
• The literary pretentions and moral hypocrisy of
  the French aristocracy
• The self-delusion of those who are hyper-critical
  of the society of the French aristocracy

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Themes

• Hypocrisy flattery and deceit is used to make
  way through upper-class
• Tactless candor Alceste counters hypocrisy with
  candor, but he seems to enjoy criticizing others
• Love Gone Wrong unwillingness to compromise
  ruins romances
• Power power at court was used to manipulate
  others
• Moderation nothing in excess