Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Moliere
Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Moliere was born in 1622 in Paris. Later in life, Moliere graduated with a law degree but then the twenty-one year old Jean Baptiste got caught up in the theatre. His acting company toured for fifteen years through the provinces where Moliere was exposed, and greatly influenced by, the Italian Commedia. In the course of his fifty-one years, Moliere wrote some thirty-two plays been assimilated into every form of comic drama that we know, be it the simple character sketch, the cartoon, the situation comedy, or the farce. One of the greatest works of Moliere is "The Miser."
The Miser (1668) is considered one of Moliere's great "character" plays. This comedy takes place around Mid-19th century in Paris. The setting of the play is Paris, Harpagon's house. The story revolves around Harpagon and his family. Harpagon is a rich man that has two kids named Elise and Cleante. Elise is in love with Valere that works for her father, and Cleante is in love with a girl named Marianne. Both Elise and Cleante are afraid to tell their dad and others that they are in love. Fearing that everyone, specially their father would disapprove and be outraged. Therefore, they keep everything a secret. However, later in the play Cleante finds out that his father is in love with the same girl he is in love with, and to make matters more interesting, his father wants to marry the same girl. The story goes on and on about how each of them is going to marry the girl first, and on the side there is Elise and her Lover waiting to tell everyone about their secret love.
Moliere has a talent for taking a single trait and placing it at the center of the action, making the entire play revolve around that characteristic. The Miser, Harpagon, confuses love and money through the course of the play, which provides a fun platform for twisting the language of one into the language of the other. Much of the plot centers around a money box that Harpagon has planted out in the garden. When the box is stolen, he accuses Valere of having taking the money, and yet, Valere confuses the issue, thinking that Harpagon has found out that he is having a secret affair with his daughter. They spend the scene arguing about two different things.
Europe saw a time of literature works of great and broadly inclusive significance. The period, commonly known as the Age of Enlightenment, saw intellectual movements incite the rise of the French Revolution through philosophical ideas. These group of intellectuals included Moliere and Voltaire, two professional writers who used satirical approaches in their works to express their idea for challenging the absolute right to rule and promote ideas for the annulment of the social class system. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis into the life and works of the two writers. Moliere and Voltaire were influential thinkers of the Enlightenment.
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
Out of the plays that we could have chosen to produce, I have decided to go with Molière’s, “Tartuffe.” This play is a comedy that comes from 17th century France and is heavily influenced by two large sources of experience for Molière. Those sources are the rules and structure for a play put in place by the French academy and the lessons of improvisation taught by the Commedia dell’Arte. This piece is written in fives acts that are in a unique alexandrine style of verse which have 12 syllables in a line and usually ends with rhyming words. The reason I chose this play is because, in my opinion, things like television, movies, plays, and other forms of media and entertainment are meant to transport you away from all the bad things happening in real life and focus you on something fun and/or interesting. I find this play to have a lot of fun moments that can be mined for even more comedy and I think it has the good chance to keep a large audience entertained for a long period of time. To accomplish my goal I will use elements of situational comedies, France in the 1660’s, and one of Molière’s plays, “A school for girls.”
The play "Tartuffe", by Moliere, is a work that was created to show people a flaw in their human nature. There are two characters who portray the main flaw presented in the play. Both Madame Pernelle and Orgon are blinded to the farces of Tartuffe and must be coaxed into believing the truth. The fact that Orgon and Madame Pernelle are too weak to see the truth is an important theme of the play.
The two interpretations – Natalie Davis’ and Robert Finlay’s - diverge most profoundly when characterizing Martin Guerre’s wife, Bertrande de Rols. While Davis guesses about Betrande’s emotional state and her longings to have a different husband, the author does not cite any passage in Coras’ account or in any other sources to support this claim: “Beyond a marriage in which her husband understood her little, may have feared her, and surely abandoned her, Betrande dreamed of a husband and lover who would come back, and be different.” In her exploration of Betrande’s emotions and feelings, Davis is committing the historian’s fallacy, Finlay argues. He writes that Davis is applying her own twentieth-century understanding and expectations of love,
Moliere rocked the 17th century French world with his comedy "Tartuffe" in 1664. Although, religious factions kept the play banned from theatres from 1664-1669, "Tartuffe" emerged from the controversy as one of the all-time great comedies. Tartuffe is a convincing religious hypocrite. He is a parasite who is sucking Orgon, the rich trusting father, for all he is worth. Orgon does not realize that Tartuffe is a phony, and caters to his every whim. For instance, he reneges on his promise to let his daughter Mariane, marry Valere. Instead he demands that she wed Tartuffe, whom she despises. He also banishes his own son, Damis, from his house for speaking out against Tartuffe and all of his son's inheritance is promised to Tartuffe.
Cyrano de Bergerac was a play written in the 1800’s by a French man named Edmond Rostand. The play is a love story about two characters that are opposites and love the same woman. One of the characters is called Cyrano de Bergerac and is the namesake of the play. He is considered ugly because of his huge nose but is a renaissance man and a truly unique person. The other character is Christian de Neuvillette who is handsome but not nearly as smart as Cyrano. They both love a woman named Roxane who is Cyrano’s cousin. Roxane is searching for a perfect man, a combination of Christian looks and Cyrano’s mind. Cyrano de Bergerac is the humorous and tragic tale of their quest for her love. It is only fitting that this play is set in Rostand’s home
Monteverdi, Claudio Giovanni Antonio (1567-1643), Italian composer, the most important figure in the transition from Renaissance to baroque music.
Jean Baptiste Lully was a prolific composer who is best known for establishing French Opera. (Boynick) Born in Florence on the 28th of November 1632, (Boynick) Giovanni Battista Lulli was a miller’s son. (Sadie 2000 pg 166) Lully first arrived in France in March of 1646 (Jean Baptiste Lully) to work as an attendant for a female courtier. (Sadie 2000 pg. 166) “During his six years in her household, Lully, already an expert at the guitar and violin, polished his skills as a performer and composer.” (Straughan (a)) He made a name for himself as a dancer in the court ballets. (Straughan (a))
Masters. With his small hand camera he unobtrusively photographed people’s lives around the world. He was solely responsible for bridging the gap between photojournalism and art. He has published more than a dozen books of his work. The greatest museums in the world have shown his work.
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.
Tartuffe is a satirical comedic play written by Molière in 1664. It is focused around the family of Orgon and the character of Tartuffe, who has become Orgon’s personal holy man. Before being brought into Orgon’s home, Tartuffe was nothing more than a common beggar who learned how to act pious. Throughout this play, we see Orgon give everything he owns to Tartuffe: his love, his money, his daughter, and even the deed to his house. While everyone else in the household sees Tartuffe for who he really is, Orgon remains blind to it throughout most of the play. Orgon is warned many times by different members of the household, including his own son, yet he only chooses to lash out against those speaking. From early on in the play we as readers are able to recognize that Tartuffe is no more than a hypocrite and Orgon is a blind fool. In the play Tartuffe by Molière there are several different important themes that impact this work,
Commedia Dell’ Arte was a distinctive form of stage art in the 1600’s and the famous playwright Moliere furthered its acceptance and import throughout his life. Originating in Italy, the popular art form spread quickly with the aid of traveling troops. One area that was greatly affected by this form of theater was France. The French people adored this theater and made it fit in with their culture. This can be seen in an essay by Gustave Lanson when he states, “In Paris Italian farce had replaced French farce.” The success of Commedia Dell’ Arte during the reign of Charles IX is well-known” (Lanson, 137). This effect can be seen through one of the country’s most famous playwrights, Moliere. Moliere was a renowned playwright and actor that continues to be well-known today. He was greatly influenced by Commedia Dell’ Arte. “Well-known definitions of the Commedia Dell’ Arte are that it was a semi-literary form of theatrical performance based primarily upon effective gestures and lazzi, and involving a limited number of generally accepted types who in their contrasting relation provide the setting for a light and flimsy action linked somehow by the eternal theme of love”( 704). His showing of the art form can be seen through his three most famous plays Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, and The Imaginary Invalid. As Lanson stated, “From soiling the noble and pure conception of comic genius given to us by The Misanthrope and Tartuffe” (Lanson, 134). With the progression from an earlier play to his final play, we can see where Moliere used aspects of Commedia Dell’ Arte and where he veered away to fit his own personal tastes and that of France’s. Moliere was born Jean-Baptise Poquelin in 1622 to a father who was an upholsterer for th...
Auguste Escoffier Auguste Escoffier was born on October 28, 1846, in the village of Villeneuve-Loubet, France. He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Escoffier and his wife Madeleine Civatte. His father was the village's blacksmith, farrier, locksmith, and maker of agricultural tools. Escoffier's childhood dream was to become a sculptor. Unfortunately, he was forced to give up that dream at the age of thirteen, just after he celebrated his first Holy Communion.