The premiere of the play, written by the famous French playwright Jean-Baptiste Moliere, "Misanthrope" (full name - "Misanthrope or Inhuman") took place in the Paris Palais Royal Theater in June 1666. The role of Alcest at the premiere was performed by Moliere himself.
The comedy "Misanthrope" is written in verse and consists of five acts.
In Russia, the first performance took place only in 1857.
The play was very popular with the public of that time, moreover, with the light hand of Moliere, “misanthrope” as a designation of a certain kind of personality entered the vocabulary of the French, and later the rest of the audience and readers. Meanwhile, the word is quite old, its appearance is associated with Ancient Greece.
In addition to a brief summary of Moliere's "Misanthrope", we will tell in an article about the meaning of this token and the history of the writing of the play.
Meaning of the word
A misanthrope is a person who distrusts people, is unsociable, a hater (that is how a literal translation of a word from ancient Greek sounds). Such individuals are often not eager to communicate with other people, avoid human society as a whole, and are characterized by gloom and alienation of character.
However, misanthropy can manifest itself in various forms - from the ostentatious neglect of the opinions of others and even the desire to harm them to the alienation or careful selection by misanthropes of those with whom, in their opinion, they should communicate.
How the play was written
In a brief summary of Moliere's “Misanthrope”, we clarify that the comedy was written by an author impressed by the play of the ancient Greek playwright Menander (IY century BC), “Bruise”. It is known that the play also had a second name - "The Hater".
Its main character is a peasant named Knemon, who lives near Athens. Having a bad, unsociable disposition (why his wife left him many years ago), he cultivated his fields and did not want to establish friendly relations with anyone. But his beautiful daughter once fell in love with a rich young rich neighbor Sostratus, who could not succeed in gaining a friendly disposition at Knemon. Then the stepson of the peasant Gorgii came to the aid of the lover. A wealthy and noble young man had to pretend to be a simple poor man who earns his bread by any work. He is hired to work on a field near Knemon. Later, again thanks to the help of the stepson of the unsociable peasant, he had the opportunity to save Knemon by pulling him out of the well. Putting himself in the eyes of the old man in a favorable light, Sostratus manages to obtain Knemon's favor and consent to marriage.
Characters of the play
The main characters of Moliere’s comedy "Misanthrope" are rushing about in a love triangle in which two young men - Alcest and Orontes - are in love with the windy beauty Selimen. One of the main characters is an Alceste friend named Filint.
Other characters include cousin Selimena Eliantha and girlfriend Arsinoe, the Marquise Acast and Clythander, the servants of Basque and Dubois, and the gendarme.
The central character in Moliere's comedy is Alcest, a young man in love with young Selimen. The peculiarity of Alcest’s nature is that, not wanting to notice his shortcomings, he is inclined to blame many of the vices of the people around him.
In this work of Moliere, many dialogues of the main and secondary characters and few events. This led to a small plot content and to a subtle psychologism of comedy. In essence, the series of events is reduced to the proclamations of axioms learned by Alcest, and to the emotional throwings of a hero trying to deal with his passion for the seductive anemone Selimene. At the same time, Alcest does not challenge anyone to a duel, does not take any other decisive steps to resolve the contradictions that tormented him. Basically, all his actions come down to angry tirades. Such may be a small analysis of The Misanthrope by Jean-Baptiste Moliere.
As confirmation, we give a brief summary of "Misanthrope" by Jean-Baptiste Moliere and quotes from this work.
First action
At the beginning of the comedy, the straightforward Alcest condemns his friend Filint for being too friendly when he met a person he hardly knew, because, in his opinion, it was necessary
... to be truthful, and to know the direct honor,
And say only what is in your heart.
In response to reproaches, he is trying to convince Alcest that you can’t tell the truth to everyone, because society requires decency from its members. But the protagonist disagrees with him, he declares that from the morals prevailing around, he falls into gloom and is ready to challenge “the whole human race” for his hypocrisy and hypocrisy. At the same time, Alceste still very much hopes that his love for the vicious Selimena will re-educate the girl and cleanse her soul.
Another young man in love with Selimen, Oront, offers his friendship to Alceste and asks for his advice on the sonnet he composed. To the delight of Filint, who, as always, seeks to be amiable, the protagonist declares that the sonnet is worthless, and rejects the friendly disposition of Oront, noting:
... I have too much honor.
A brief summary of Moliere's “Misanthrope” in the first act ends with Filint's warning that Alceste may have made himself an enemy.
Second action
Alceste rebukes Selimena for her frivolity, coquetry and many admirers, to which the girl replies that she cannot forbid anyone to get carried away with her. And about the tart questions of the lover about the rival, the Marquis of Clythandra, the girl innocently answers:
he promised to help me win the process,
He has connections, and he has weight.
But these words are not able to calm Alzest’s jealousy. It is difficult for her to understand the forced hypocrisy of Selimena.
The Marquises and Eliant, who came to visit Selimen one after another, gossip about common acquaintances, the girl supports frivolous chatter. Adcest, who made the decision to find out the relationship with Selimena to the end, accuses Acastus and Clythander of hypocrisy.
With the intention of arresting the protagonist and taking him into control, the gendarme is. With the promise of returning soon to “get the truth” from the unfaithful lover, Alceste leaves.
Third action
Left alone Clythander and Acast in bewilderment - which of them is more to the heart of beautiful Selimene? They conspire that the one who presents evidence of the girl’s favor will come out of the dispute as the winner, and the opponent will leave.
Suddenly, her friend Arsinoe is visiting Selimena. Having called her friend alone with the marquises a “daring hypocrite” who had lost all her fans, the hostess nevertheless accepts her with ostentatious joy. However, their conversation is not pleasant: Arsinoe informs Selimena, who in society does not approve of her windiness and coquetry. She, in turn, claims to have heard talk about the hypocrisy and pretense of Arsinoe. They are arguing. Selimena instructs the returning Alceste to the company of her friend and leaves.
Arsinoe admires the young man and offers him help so that he can serve the court and thereby make his career. However, Alcest rejects the offer, saying:
I was not made destiny for life at court,
I’m not inclined towards a diplomatic game,
I was born with a rebellious, rebellious soul,
And I cannot succeed in the midst of the servants of the court.
Then the restless Arsinoe tries to "open the eyes" of the hero in love on the subject of her passion, claiming that Selimena does not love him and deceives him. He does not believe, preferring to verify everything personally. Arsinoe invites him to his home to present "evidence of faithful betrayal."
Fourth action
Filint tells Eliante how Alcest and Oronta were reconciled in court. Somehow the judges managed to persuade the debaters to compromise.
An angry Alceste appears and brings a letter with Selimena's declarations of love for the Orontes.
Selimena came with an innocent look, wondering what caused the despondency of Alceste. To the letter shown to her lover, she replies that it was written by a woman, and not by Oront. Alceste wants to know the truth to the end, but Selimena no longer wants to explain anything.
A servant arrives and says that Alcest should leave immediately to avoid being arrested.
Fifth action
A brief summary of Mizanthropus by Moliere continues with the following events: Alceste learns that Oront won the lawsuit, and informs Filint that he is not going to file a complaint - he decided to leave the company.
Orontus arrived asks Selimen to finally make a choice between him and Alcest, but the beauty evades the answer. The marquises Clythander and Acast present a letter in which Selimena slurs about all the heroes of the events. Sorry, but still hoping Alcest offers Selimene to leave with him in the wilderness and leave the world, to which the beauty refuses. Alceste realizes that he has recovered from his love and is now free.
We have provided a summary of the chapters of the "Misanthrope" Moliere.