Molires Strategies

Of all the playwrights from the age of Louis XIV, only Molires work is still regularly performed in France and beyond. This book analyses certain elements of the plays that may explain Molires longevity: a plausible chain of events peppered with shocks and surprises; tensions between opposites; intellectual concerns that had not previously been the province of comedy; and plots founded on situations that are anything but comic. These hallmarks added up to an intense type of comic theatre, meaningful in ways that gave the genre a new dimension. The author of this study does not treat Molires plays as variations on a single prototype, but brings a fresh approach to each. The books witty, learned and penetrating readings examine critical issues such as the ambiguous anti-feminism of Les Femmes savantes, Molires revisions of the myth of Don Juan, conversion as the theological starting point of Le Tartuffe, contrariety as the basis of comedies such as George Dandin and Le Misanthrope, and coded satire in the comdie-ballets. Each play is revealed to have a seamless comic design, while at the same time speaking to the wider world. Molires works are shown to be entirely and immediately involved in human society, in the social dimension of the human condition.