The 17th century of France is considered as the age of reason. This is the period of enlightenment and also the time when people become rational than traditional. During this period, the transition from Renaissance to Classicism happened. This was also the period of the Golden Age of French Literature mainly because literature and arts was given priority by the ruling king. The movie Moliere depicted the culture of France during the 17th century. But, I would like to focus this discussion on the comparison and contrast of the 17th century trend and the film Moliere. The 17th century trend rejects enthusiasm, individualism, skepticism and emotionalism. At the same time, it is leaning towards orthodoxy, rationalism, conformity, order, refinement and etiquette. The said characteristics and behavior are the main issues that will be tackled in this discussion. The 17th century French rejects enthusiasm or too much enthusiasm. According to the oxford dictionary, enthusiasm is the intense and eager enjoyment, interest and approval. In the film Moliere, several characters had portrayed or shown great enthusiasm, often leading to a misfortune event. But, some characters had rejected the feeling and became rational with their decisions. Monsieur Jourdain helps Moliere get out of the prison. He is the best example of a person showing great enthusiasm that lead to misfortune events. Although married, Monsieur Jourdain wanted to get the attention of the widower Celimene. By this great affection, Jourdain becomes irrational and started believing his friend, Dorante, helping him to win Celimene’s affection. Monsieur Jourdain often lend Dorante plentiful of money. He even let Dorante deliver expensive gifts to Celimene, which she received not k... ... middle of paper ... ... matters. He has private tutor for dancing and painting. He has a dancing tutor because he wanted to appear striking in social balls. He also has a painting tutor because this is classified as a high-end art before and until now. And since he longs to acquire the attention of Celimene, he hired Moliere to teach him the proper ways of acting. One cannot simply condemn a man who wanted perfection in life. To have a social life is so important during that time. It is not a simple social convention where one replies in another’s statement or question. It is a way for a person to gain enough connections to be able to survive. Etiquette is rules governing the socially accepted behaviors. This are what the society expects a person to do and behave. This is similar to social norms. Depending on the social status, the society expects different etiquette from individuals.
Moliere’s Tartuffe assumed set of social conventions were shaped by all the characters within the play, however the authoritative figure was established depicted by the father, Oregon. Oregon’s character assumed the role of king or lord of his household. He believed that as the head of household, he had the right to rule over his kingdom as he saw fit. His kingdom had to run smoothly in order for it to be effective. No matter how harsh, unfair and painful it was for his, wife daughter or servants.
In Tartuffe, Moliere creates a play that is interesting in so many ways. His comedy reflects a lot on the role of men and women within a family. During this time, it was common for the man to be the head of the household and women to be submissive to the men. Men held the power in the family and made all the decisions. In this play, a man's point of view is the only view that matters. All else do not serve an importance. His lack of trust and awareness for other people's feelings and needs has caused great conflict in his family. The actions taken by Orgon and his family members express how this play views marriage and relations between men and women. It is a extremely different view (in some cases) of marriage today in average American family.
In Molière’s play, Tartuffe, there is a sense of honor that the king receives although he is not in the actual play. Often times in the 17th century, when this play was published, the king of the country had to sponsor the plays in order for them to be performed. Tartuffe conforms to this because Molière nearly writes the entire last scene to honor King Louis XIV. This shows that he wanted to flatter the king and therefore achieve his approval. By flattering the king, Molière even achieved overriding Cardinal Chigi, who hated the play. He does this by providing examples of King Louis XIV’s strength, experience and attentiveness. Overall, the king was Molière’s strongest supporter. Molière shows how the play is monetary dependent on the King
Unlike previous centuries, the eighteenth century was the dawn of a new age in Western Europe where intellectuals thrived, science was honored, and curiosity was encouraged; and the framework of how civil society was changed as a whole. From the dawn of the Enlightenment Western European culture was changing due to the revolutionary new ideas that were changing. With the social change going on, political change was as ever evident as time went on. With these changes rooted in social change went out, the effects of the Enlightenment can be seen over 18th century Western Europe and beyond.
general idea of each situation in the story, and yet Moliere used prosody technique to control the
The Flawed Characters of Tartuffe To be perfect is to be inhuman. Human nature is complete with many flaws and imperfections, one of which is represented in the play "Tartuffe", by Moliere. “Tartuffe” was written specifically to show the reader a basic flaw in human nature. This flaw is shown through two characters, Madame Pernelle and Orgon.
Life changed greatly since the early 1700’s. People no longer stayed in the villages where they were born, people moved and traveled, discoveries were made about our world and the people living in it, the monarchy fell apart and changed the lives of the French forever. The sixteenth century in France was a time of change and development for all that lived there.
It is said that simplicity and complexity need each other. This saying corresponds with Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, in which Cyrano de Bergerac, a swashbuckling poet, and Baron Christian de Neuvillette, a dumbfounded romantic, in loving the same fair maiden, display contrasting characteristics. This foiling of characters highlights distinctive attributes of both men. The astounding wit and courage yet grotesque appearance Cyrano possesses oppose the exquisite physique yet floundering tongue and inept actions Christian offers; however, despite their differences, both figures ultimately find love with their beloved, Roxane.
The short story might have a double meaning due to the fact that only one side of the story is told. And can also be proving that most times we are blind to what is really going on in our daily lives. Some may say that it clearly has an antagonist – Mrs. Lantin – while others may strongly disagree with such an idea. The thing is that the author – Guy De Maupassant – did not provide the audience with the answer to the main questions of the story – whether Mrs. Lantin cheated on her husband and if she did, what were her reasons. Making us wonder if she was being selfish or only trying to help his husband with his financial stability. Maupassant only gave us Mr. Lantin’s point of view excluding Mrs. Lantin, leaving us in doubt as to what really happened. That is the central point of the possible disagreement between the critics of this literary work.
In his book Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais uses satire to address the dislocation felt by Renaissance Humanists. By providing an exaggerated fable, comical in nature, Rabelais poses a serious introspection into the extremes of both the Medieval and the Renaissance man. More importantly, however, he brings into question his own ideals of Humanism. Through an analysis of Rabelais’ satirical technique and by examining his social parody of the Medieval and the Renaissance man, we are able to better understand Rabelais’ introspection into the ideals of his own generation and to accept his argument that learning is transitory and often a necessary, yet futile, attempt to understand our world.
It is in the duality of Orgon, the believing subject, and Tartuffe, the manipulating hypocrite (or impostor), that Moliere takes his digs at the extremes of enthusiastic belief. Tartuffe plays the role of a man whose greedy actions are cloaked by a mask of overwhelming piety, modesty and religious fervor. Orgon is the head of a household who has taken Tartuffe in. We laugh at Orgon because everyone else (except his mother) knows that Tartuffe is a fake. All of Orgon's relatives warn him of Tartuffe's gluttony and of the false nature of his pious proclamations.
In Moliére’s Tartuffe (Moiré 1664), the reader is able to see a great contrast of Extreme and Moderate characters. Extreme characters being those who are seen as over the top, or very passionate people, and the moderate characters having a more calm and subtle approach to ideas. The extreme characters in this case would be Madam Pernelle, Orgon, Tartuffe, and Dorine. The moderate characters are seen as Cleante and Elmire.
During the sixteenth century, everyone was required to have the proper court etiquette. The nobles developed elaborated social customs and decided to name these rules, etiquette. After the nobles' establishment, the "'secret code of behavior' was discovered, [and] the trend spread throughout Europe" as well as the rest of the world (Royal Etiquette: What is Etiquette and how it Started 2011). It may not have been very easy to have proper decorum, but the people still followed these rules. Most of our modern customs are based off of this sixteenth century court etiquette.
It is evident from such a diversity of sentiments that the work before us is complex enough to provoke a variety of reactions. On the one hand, Molière made The Misanthrope a comedy, not a tragedy. Alceste, despite his bold railings against the hypocrisy of society, often finds it impossible to set a heroic example in front of his all-too-"civilized" circle. He is no lone upholder of a noble creed forced to martyrdom for his beliefs; in fact, his announcement, at the end of the play, of the martyrdom he is imposing upon himself--exile to "some solitary place on earth/Where one is free to be a man of worth"{6}--makes him look less heroic than ridiculous.
The epoch known as the Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, was a secular intellectual movement that looked to reason as an explanation of the world. The Enlightenment began in 1687 with the publishing of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia and ended in 1789 with the French Revolution (Fiero 134). The epoch of Romanticism was a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. The movement of Romanticism began in 1760 and ended in 1871. Romanticism as a movement was a reaction to the Enlightenment as a cultural movement, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind (210).