The Misanthrope

The Misanthrope is one of the best Moliere's plays but also one of the hardest to play. Why ? The problem, actually, is if that sounds like a drama it's a comedy. One (it might be Gide) used to say that "If the Misanthrope is a comedy, and if it is about virtue, then we have to laugh at virtue" - but it isn't. Reading the play again two weeks ago, I was amazed to see that the two main characters, Alceste and Philinte, really looked like House and Wilson (yes, those from the show !). What is funny, both in the show and in the play, is neither the insults nor the "idealism" of both lead characters (that tendancy to think that "truth is everything") but this little embarrassment to see your best friend in trouble because he doesn't know how to move into our socialized world, and seems to have not the right code nor the good manneers ("Please, for Christ's sake !... That's not so important ! Keep cool ! Why don't you try to be just nice and polite, even if you don't really believe what you say ??? You see, that's what we call diplomacy - that sort of thing that avoid wars most of the time") Alceste and House are just fantasies : everybody would like to be just like them, telling the truth all the time, as pure as fire, like Jeremiah - but it is just impossible, not in our world - and that gap is funny.

I haven't read this book. But Lindsey Beisel likes it, so you should probably get it.

You might not think a play in verse written in the 17th century would be accessible and entertaining today, but this one's hilarious. Somehow the formal rhyming couplets make everything funnier. Get the Donald Frame translation - I've seen some others that weren't nearly as good.

Moliere deals with numerous common themes in his short five-act play. The play follows the throes of passion of the main character (Alceste), obsessed with his love for Celimene while being plagued by his need for truth, often at the unsociable expense of bluntness. His friend (Philinte) attempts to dissuade Alceste both in his love for Celimene and his brusque honesty, but fails in both. Aleceste finally ends up retiring to a hermit-esque fate after ironically forgiving Celemine for courting the favor and advances of a number of other admirers, all of whom end up enraged with her flattery and lack of direction. In a brief 52 pages, Moliere pointed debates the virtues of "niceness" and "truth," two seemingly mutually exclusive virtues, leaving the reader with a provoking but conclusionless sense of indecision.

Moliere's "The Misanthrope" is the most humorous play written in any language. It centers around the character Alceste, who has a firm beleif in being brutally honest all the time. The habit of others to speak harshly behind other's backs and hypocritically praise them to their faces drives him to the brink of insanity. It irks him so much that his only wish would be to become a hermit in the mountains. If it weren't for his love of the beautiful Celimene. However, to make things more complicated, she happens to be the queen of duplicitous thought. Alceste hates himself for loving a woman who behaves in the manner that irritates him the most, but cannot bring himself to confront what troubles him. That, paired with the remarkably written exchanges between Alceste, his friend Philinte, the pompous Oronte, and the many social courtiers and French aristocracy make this the ideal story to bring you to tears with laughter. I highly recommend this book to all lovers of theater, humor, and excellent writing. It truly deserves all 5 stars.