Comparing Alceste's The Misanthrope And Hamlet

Both the main characters in The Misanthrope and Hamlet, Alceste and Hamlet respectively, give their two cents on art. Alceste doesn’t like poetry unless it contains “honest, plain desire” instead of “polished platitudes, for people to admire” (Mis. 1.2 14-15). Hamlet feels offended to the soul “to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise,” which is just to say that he prefers a more realistic theater performance (Ham. 3.2 9-12). These two men hold high standards when it comes to the fine arts, and everything else for that matter, but if one was to compare those standards to their place

But even he contradicts himself when Oronte asks what Alceste thinks of his poem specifically: Oronte: Make yourself clear. You say, you think my sonnet’s trite? Alceste: That isn’t what I said. I told him not to write… Oronte: You think I can’t write? Am I like those other men? Alceste: That isn’t what I said. But what I told him, then… (Mis. 1.2 357-8, 361-2)

For someone who wants people to be blunt with him, he can’t seem to be blunt himself, and this occurs in many instances throughout Molière’s work. In Harold Bloom’s essay, he makes it a point to mention that Alceste also holds criteria for his love interest Celimene. He wants her to himself, and she’s not willing to change. Towards the very end of Act 5, he gives her an ultimatum: run away from high society and “live happily ever after,” or stay and end whatever relationship they have. She refuses, and Alceste ends up leaving alone because no one can, or rather, wants to meet his

The only thing that separates Hamlet from Alceste is that as far as “moral beauty,” he’s aware his standards will not be met and still follows the flow of the play. George Detmold backs this up in his essay, and says that this moral beauty is unattainable to begin with. This is what makes Hamlet a tragedy; he knows this moral beauty is unachievable, yet he will will hold everybody including himself to such standards. Hamlet will not offer his sympathy to Gertrude for the ugliness she caused by marrying Claudius (Detmold, 221). He, too, has high standards when it comes to love, and Ophelia never really recieves a chance from Hamlet. His refusal to compromise with Gertrude, Claudius, Ophelia, and everybody else leads to their deaths. Ophelia commits suicide, the Queen, King and Laertes are poisoned by self infliction, and Hamlet himself is poisoned from his fight with Laertes; no Dane gets the