Quote: "Que ne fait-on pas pour etre grand'dame?"
Synopsis: Dorimene and Dorante come to the Jourdain home to be entertained in principle without Madame Jourdain knowing. However, she has already suspected her husband of mischief and calls him and his guests on the carpet. Doriante and Dorimene prove to be well-suited for each other. Meanwhile Cleonte and Covielle conspire to fool M. Jourdain into accepting Cleonte's marrying Jourdain's daughter. The ruse involves the staging of a play of sorts -- a grand prince from Turkey has fallen for Lucille and wishes to marry her, yet M. Jourdain must be "made worthy" to give his daughter in marriage to this mysterious turkish prince. For this to happen he must pass through a ridiculous invention of a ceremony called "Mamamouchi." In the course of events everyone, except M. Jourdain, realizes the true identity of the characters and the ultimate objective of this farce, and hence they all conspire to bring about this marriage . . . and two others to boot (since the notary will be there).
Reader's response: Moliere's genius rises from integrating his keen observations of human character into a comedic setting. He's always astutely aware of people blinded by their obsessions. In the case for Monsieur Jourdain, his obsession -- that of rising to a higher social rung -- is pressed to its limits as we see him subjected to an absurd rite to make him worthy of offering his daughter in marriage to a complete stranger. Of course the play ends well with the combined marriages of three couples (interestingly all from different social ranking), but what a dangerous vice to have -- to desire to be someone you're not and to go to such foolish extremes in order to achieve it.
In the end, what could Moliere be recommending? I propose that he is suggesting that obsession finds its roots in unhappiness (which we all experience at some time or another), but to protect ourselves from the vices that come with obsession, we must turn to the examples of other characters in the play, namely Madame Jourdain and even Cleonte. They clearly recognized their lot in life and accepted and embraced it, even in the face of upsets and oppositions to their personal interests.
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6 comments:
I loved this play form beginning to end. The story line was easy to follow. i think that he did a great job of showing us just how foolish people can be and how blinded they can become foolish wants and wishes. I kind of likened it to people now and how they will do anything to be celebrities. I especially loved the interactions between M. Jourdain and when he was trying to explain to Mme Jourdain that he became like turkish royalty. Hilarious.
I agree with Natalie. Moliere wrote an amazing play. I really liked the development of all the characters, and how they acted with each other. I loved how they all come together towards the end, in almost an agreement, to confuse M. Jourdain.
I really liked the comedy and irony of this play along with Natalie and Reese. I thought Mr. Jourdain was so blind and so dense that he lost track of what went on around him. I think it is relevant to our day with the celebrity world.
I laughed at all the made-up Turk language and ceremony, especially the line, "Il dit que vous donne la force des lions et la prudence des serpents," and if that wasn't funny enough on its own, M. Jourdain tried to repeat it later on but mixed them up, saying "la force des serpents et la prudence des lions." That was probably my favorite line of this section.
Loved this play! Everything about it was so funny. The characters were perfect and Moliere was a genius.
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