Moliere's high comedy theme and problem. Features of the high comedy genre

Comedy creativity of Moliere

Jean Baptiste Poquelin (Molière) (1622–1673) was the first to make us look at comedy as a genre equal to tragedy. He synthesized the best achievements of comedy from Aristophanes to the contemporary comedy of classicism, including the experience of Cyrano de Bergerac, whom scholars often mention among the direct creators of the first examples of national French comedy.

Moliere's life and career have been sufficiently studied. It is known that the future comedian was born into the family of a court upholsterer. However, he did not want to inherit his father’s business, renouncing the corresponding privileges in 1643.

Thanks to his grandfather, the boy became acquainted with the theater early. Jean Baptiste was seriously interested in him and dreamed of becoming an actor. After graduating from the Jesuit school in Clermont (1639) and receiving a lawyer's diploma in 1641 in Orleans, he organized the "Brilliant Theater" troupe in 1643, which included his friends and like-minded people for many years - Mademoiselle Madeleine Bejart, Mademoiselle Dupari, Mademoiselle Debry and others. Dreaming of a career as a tragic actor, young Poquelin takes the name Moliere as a stage name. However, Moliere did not succeed as a tragic actor. After a series of failures, the “Brilliant Theater” was closed in the fall of 1645.

The years 1645–1658 were the years of Molière’s troupe’s wanderings throughout the French provinces, which enriched the playwright with unforgettable impressions and observations of life. During the journey, the first comedies were born, the writing of which immediately revealed Moliere's talent as a future great comedian. Among his first successful experiments are “Naughty, or Everything Is Out of Place” (1655) and “Love’s Annoyance” (1656).

1658 - Moliere and his troupe return to Paris and play for the king. Louis XVI allows them to stay in Paris and appoints his brother as patron of the troupe. The troupe is given the building of the Petit Bourbon Palace.

In 1659, with the production of “Funny Primroses,” the glory of the playwright Moliere actually began.

In the life of Moliere the comedian there were ups and downs. Despite all the controversy surrounding his personal life and relationship with the court, interest in his creations still does not fade, which for subsequent generations has become a kind of criterion for high creativity, such as “The School of Husbands” (1661), “The School of Wives” (1662), “Tartuffe” (1664), “Don Juan, or the Stone Guest” (1665), “The Misanthrope” (1666), “The Reluctant Doctor” (1666), “The Tradesman in the Nobility” (1670) and others.

Studying the Molierean traditions in the works of writers of other centuries, such scientists as, for example, S. Mokulsky, G. Boyadzhiev, J. Bordonov, R. Bray, tried to unravel the phenomenon of Moliere, the nature and content of the funny in his works. E. Faguet argued: “Moliere is the apostle of “common sense,” that is, those generally accepted views of the public that he had before his eyes and which he wanted to please.” Interest in Moliere continues unabated in modern literary criticism. In recent years, works have appeared devoted not only to the above issues, but also to the issues of romanticization of the classicist conflict (A. Karelsky), assessment of Moliere's theater in the concept of M. Bulgakov (A. Grubin).

In Molière's work, comedy was further developed as a genre. Such forms as “high” comedy, “school” comedy (N. Erofeeva’s term), comedy-ballet and others were formed. G. Boyadzhiev in the book “Molière: Historical ways of forming the genre of high comedy” pointed out that the norms of the new genre emerged as comedy moved closer to reality and, as a result, acquired problems determined by social problems that objectively exist in reality itself. Based on the experience of ancient masters, commedia dell'arte and farce, classicist comedy, as the scientist notes, received its highest development from Moliere.

Moliere outlined his views on theater and comedy in the polemical plays “Criticism of the School of Wives” (1663), “Impromptu at Versailles” (1663), in the Preface to “Tartuffe” (1664) and others. The main principle of the writer’s aesthetics is “to teach while entertaining.” Advocating for a truthful reflection of reality in art, Moliere insisted on a meaningful perception of theatrical action, the subject of which he most often chose the most typical situations, phenomena, and characters. At the same time, the playwright addressed critics and spectators: “Let us not take to ourselves what is inherent in everyone, and let us extract as much benefit as possible from the lesson, without giving the appearance that it is about us.”

Even in his early work, Moliere, as G. Boyadzhiev noted, “understood the need to transfer romantic heroes into the world of ordinary people.” Hence the plots of “Funny Primitive Women”, “School for Wives”, “School for Husbands” and including “Tartuffe”.

In parallel with the development of the genre of “high” comedy, a “school” comedy was formed in Moliere’s work. This is already evidenced by “Funny Primroses” (1659). In the play, the playwright turned to the analysis of the norms of aristocratic taste using a specific example, in assessing these norms, focusing on the natural, healthy taste of the people, therefore, most often he turned to their life experience and addressed his sharpest observations and comments to the parterre.

In general, the concept of “virtue” occupies an important place in Moliere’s aesthetics. Ahead of the Enlightenment, the playwright raised the question of the role of morality and morality in the organization of a person’s private and public life. Most often, Moliere combined both concepts, demanding that morals be depicted without touching on personalities. However, this did not contradict his requirement to depict people correctly, to paint “from life.” Virtue has always been a reflection of morality, and morality has been a generalized concept of the moral paradigm of society. At the same time, virtue as a synonym for morality became a criterion, if not beautiful, then good, positive, exemplary, and therefore moral. And Moliere’s funny was also largely determined by the level of development of virtue and its components: honor, dignity, modesty, caution, obedience and so on, that is, those qualities that characterize a positive and ideal hero.

The playwright drew examples of positive or negative from life, showing on stage more typical situations, social trends and characters than his fellow writers. Moliere’s innovation was noted by G. Lanson, who wrote: “No truth devoid of comedy, and almost no comedy devoid of truth: this is Moliere’s formula. In Molière, comedy and truth are extracted from the same source, that is, from observations of human types.”

Like Aristotle, Moliere considered theater a “mirror” of society. In his “school” comedies, he consolidated Aristophanes’ “alienation effect” through the “learning effect” (N. Erofeeva’s term), which was further developed in the playwright’s work.

The performance - a form of spectacle - was presented as a didactic aid for the viewer. He had to awaken consciousness, the need to argue, and in argument, as we know, truth is born. The playwright consistently (but indirectly) offered each viewer a “mirror situation” in which the ordinary, familiar and everyday were perceived as if from the outside. Several options for this situation were assumed: everyday perception; an unexpected turn of action, when the familiar and understandable became unfamiliar; the emergence of a line of action that duplicates the situation, highlighting the possible consequences of the presented situation, and, finally, the ending, which the viewer must choose. Moreover, the ending of the comedy was one of the possible, although desirable for the author. How the real everyday situation played out on stage will be assessed is unknown. Moliere respected the choice of each viewer, his personal opinion. The characters went through a series of moral, philosophical and psychological lessons, which gave the plot the utmost meaningfulness, and the plot itself, as a carrier of information, became the reason for a substantive conversation and analysis of a specific situation or phenomenon in people's lives. Both in “high” comedy and in “school” comedy the didactic principle of classicism was fully realized. However, Moliere went further. Addressing the audience at the end of the play implied an invitation to discussion, and we see this, for example, in “The School for Husbands,” when Lisette, addressing the stalls, says verbatim the following:

If you know werewolf husbands, at least send them to our school.

The invitation “to our school” removes didacticism as the line between the author-teacher and the viewer-student. The playwright does not separate himself from the audience. He focuses on the phrase “to us.” In comedy, Moliere often used the semantic possibilities of pronouns. Thus, Sganarelle, while he is convinced that he is right, proudly tells his brother “my lessons,” but as soon as he feels alarmed, he immediately informs Arista about the “consequence” of “our lessons.”

In creating “The School for Husbands,” Moliere followed Gessendi, who affirmed the primacy of experience over abstract logic, and Terence, in whose comedy “Brothers” the problem of true education was solved. In Moliere, like Terence, two brothers argue about the content of education. A dispute flares up between Arist and Sganarelle over how and by what means to achieve a good upbringing of Leonora and Isabella in order to marry them in the future and be happy.

Let us remember that the concept of “l”?ducation” - “upbringing, education” - appeared in the secular dictionary of Europeans since the 15th century. It comes from the Latin educatio and denotes the process of influencing a person in the course of education, upbringing. We see both concepts in the comedy " School for Husbands." The starting points that determined the essence of the dispute between the brothers were two scenes - the second in the first act and the fifth in the second.

Moliere was the first to allow Arist to speak out about the subject of the dispute. He is older than Sganarelle, but more capable of taking risks, adheres to progressive views on education, and allows Leonora some liberties, for example, such as attending the theater and balls. He is convinced that his pupil should go through a “secular school.” The “secular school” is more valuable than edification, since the knowledge gained in it is tested by experience. Trust built on reasonableness should yield positive results. Thus, Moliere destroyed the traditional idea of ​​an elderly conservative guardian. Arista's younger brother Sganarelle turned out to be such a conservative. In his opinion, education is, first of all, strictness and control. Virtue and freedom cannot be compatible. Sganarelle lectures Isabella and thereby instills in her a desire to deceive him, although this desire is not openly expressed by the girl. The appearance of Valera is the straw that Isabella grabs and eludes her guardian. The whole paradox lies in the fact that the young guardian is not able to understand the needs of the young pupil. It is no coincidence that in the finale the comic gives way to the dramatic. The “lesson” presented by Isabella to the guardian is quite logical: a person must be trusted, his will must be respected, otherwise protest will arise, taking various forms.

The spirit of libertinism determines not only the actions of Isabella, but also the behavior of Arist and Leonora. Like Terence, Moliere uses “liberalitas” not as in the Golden Age - “liberalis” - “generous”, but in the sense of “artes liberales, homo liberalis” - one whose behavior is worthy of the title of a free person, noble (Z. Korsch).

Sganarelle's ideal idea of ​​education is destroyed. As a result, Leonora turns out to be virtuous, since her behavior is guided by a feeling of gratitude. She defines the main thing for herself as obedience to her guardian, whose honor and dignity she sincerely respects. However, Moliere does not condemn Isabella’s act. It shows her natural need for happiness and freedom. The only way for a girl to achieve happiness and freedom is deception.

For the playwright, virtue as the end result of the education process was an integral part of the chain of concepts “school” - “lesson” - “education (upbringing)” - “school”. There is a direct connection between the title and the ending. The “school” that Lisette speaks of at the end of the play is life itself. It is necessary to master certain norms and rules of behavior, communication skills in order to always remain a respected person. This is helped by practice-tested “lessons from the secular school.” They are based on universal human concepts of good and evil. Education and virtue depend not on age, but on a person’s outlook on life. Reasonable and selfish turn out to be incompatible. Selfishness leads to negative effects. This was fully proven by Sganarelle’s behavior. The lesson appears not only as the basis for the structure of the play, but also as the result of the characters’ training in the “school of human communication.”

Already in the first “school” comedy, Moliere discovered a new look at the ethics of his contemporary society. In assessing reality, the playwright was guided by a rationalistic analysis of life, examining specific examples of the most typical situations and characters.

In The School for Wives, the playwright's main focus was on the "lesson." The word "lesson" is used seven times in all key scenes of the comedy. And this is no coincidence. Moliere more clearly defines the subject of analysis - guardianship. The purpose of the comedy is to give advice to all guardians who have forgotten about age, about trust, about true virtue, which is the basis of guardianship in general.

As the action develops, we observe how the concept of “lesson” expands and deepens, as well as the situation itself, which is well known to the audience from everyday life. Guardianship takes on the characteristics of a socially dangerous phenomenon. This is confirmed by Arnolf’s selfish plans, to achieve which, under the guise of a virtuous man, he is ready to give Agnes a narrowly focused education, limiting her rights as an individual. For his pupil, Arnolf chooses the position of a recluse. This made her life completely dependent on the will of her guardian. Virtue, which Arnolf talks so much about, actually becomes a means of enslaving another person. From the very concept of “virtue”, the guardian is only interested in such components as obedience, repentance, humility, and justice and mercy are simply ignored by Arnolf. He is sure that he has already benefited Agnes, which he does not hesitate to remind her of from time to time. He considers himself entitled to decide the girl’s fate. In the foreground is the ethical dissonance in the relationships of the characters, which objectively explains the ending of the comedy.

As the action develops, the viewer comprehends the meaning of the word “lesson” as an ethical concept. First of all, a “lesson instruction” is developed. So, Georgette, currying favor with the owner, assures him that she will remember all his lessons. Arnolf also demands strict adherence to lessons, that is, instructions, rules, from Agnes. He insists that she learn the rules of virtue: “You must comprehend these lessons with your heart.” A lesson-instruction, a task, an example to follow - naturally, is little understood by a young lady who does not know how it could be otherwise. And even when Agnes opposes her guardian’s lessons, she is not fully aware of her protest.

The climax of the action occurs in the fifth act. Surprises define the last scenes, the main one of which is Agnes’s reproach addressed to the guardian: “And you are the man who says that he wants to marry me. I followed your lessons, and you taught me that I need to get married to wash away my sin.” At the same time, “your lessons” cease to be just instructional lessons. In Agnes’s words there is a challenge to the guardian who deprived her of a normal upbringing and secular society. However, Agnes's statement comes as a surprise only to Arnolf. Spectators watch how this protest gradually grows. Agnes’s words lead to an understanding of the moral lesson the girl received in life.

Arnolf also receives a moral lesson, which is closely related to the “lesson-warning”. This lesson in the first act is taught by Arnolf's friend Crisald. In a conversation with Arnolf, he, teasing his friend, paints the image of a cuckolded husband. Arnolf is afraid of becoming just such a husband. He, no longer a young man, a confirmed bachelor who decided to get married, hopes that he will be able to avoid the fate of many husbands, that his life experience has given many good examples and he will be able to avoid mistakes. However, the fear of tarnishing one's honor turns into passion. She also motivates Arnolf’s desire to isolate Agnes from social life, which, in his opinion, is full of dangerous temptations. Arnolf repeats Sganarelle's mistake, and a “warning lesson” sounds for all forgotten guardians.

Finally, the name of the comedy is clarified, which acts both as a subject (guardianship) and as a teaching method, reminiscent of the laws of Nature, that they cannot be rejected, and also sounds like advice, a warning to husbands who, like Arnolf, dare violate the natural human right to freedom and free choice. “School” again appeared as a system of life techniques, the correct mastery of which protects a person from ridiculous situations and dramas.

Summing up the first results, we can say that already in Moliere’s work, the “school” comedy as a genre form received active development. Its task is to educate society. However, this education, unlike moralizing dramaturgy, is devoid of open didacticism; it is based on a rationalistic analysis aimed at changing the traditional ideas of the viewer. Education was not only a process during which the viewer’s worldview changed, but also a means of influencing his consciousness and the consciousness of society as a whole.

The heroes of the “school” comedy represented the most characteristic example of passion, character or phenomenon in social life. They went through a series of moral, ideological and even psychological lessons, learned certain communication skills, which gradually formed a system of new ethical concepts that forced them to perceive the everyday world differently. At the same time, the “lesson” in the comedy “school” was revealed in almost all historically established lexical meanings - from “task” to “conclusion”. The moral appropriateness of a person’s actions begins to determine his usefulness in the life of an individual family and even the whole society.

The main concept of the comedy “school” is “virtue”. Moliere associates it primarily with morality. The playwright introduces concepts such as “reasonableness,” “trust,” “honor,” and “free choice” into the content of “virtue.” “Virtue” also acts as a criterion for “beautiful” and “ugly” in people’s actions, largely determining the dependence of their behavior on the social environment. In this, Moliere was ahead of the Enlightenment.

The “mirror” situation helped to overcome the dogmatism of everyday worldview and through the technique of “alienation” to achieve the desired “learning effect.” The actual stage action only depicted a model of behavior as a clear example for the viewer’s rationalistic analysis of reality.

Moliere's comedy was closely connected with life. Therefore, there is often a dramatic element in it. Its carriers are characters who, as a rule, embody in their characters certain personal qualities that conflict with generally accepted norms. Serious social conflicts are often heard on stage. In their solution, a special place is given to characters of simple origin - servants. They also act as bearers of healthy principles of social life. A. S. Pushkin wrote: “Let us note that high comedy is not based solely on laughter, but on the development of characters, and that it often comes close to tragedy.” This remark can also be applied to the “school” comedy that develops in Moliere’s work in parallel with “high” comedy.

The classicist Moliere spoke out against the pomposity and unnaturalness of the classicist theater. His characters spoke in ordinary language. Throughout his creative life, the playwright followed his requirement to truthfully reflect life. The bearers of common sense, as a rule, were young characters. The truth of life was revealed through the collision of such heroes with the main satirical character, as well as through the entire set of clashes and relationships between characters in comedy.

In many ways, moving away from strict classicist norms, Moliere still remained within the framework of this artistic system. His works are rationalistic in spirit; all the characters are one-line, devoid of specific historical details and details. And yet, it was his comic images that became a vivid reflection of the processes associated with the main trends in the development of French society in the second half of the 17th century.

The features of “high” comedy were most clearly manifested in the famous play “Tartuffe”. A. S. Pushkin, comparing the works of Shakespeare and Moliere, noted: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not, like Moliere’s, types of such and such passion, such and such vice; but living beings, filled with many passions, many vices; circumstances develop before the viewer their diverse and multifaceted characters. In Moliere, the stingy one is stingy - and only in Shakespeare, Shylock is stingy, quick-witted, vindictive, child-loving, and witty. In Moliere, the hypocrite drags after the wife of his benefactor, the hypocrite, accepts the estate for safekeeping, the hypocrite; asks for a glass of water, a hypocrite.” Pushkin’s words became textbook because they very accurately conveyed the essence of the character of the central character of the play, which defined a new stage in the development of French national comedy.

The play was first presented at a festival in Versailles on May 12, 1664. “The comedy about Tartuffe began with general enthusiastic and supportive attention, which immediately gave way to the greatest amazement. By the end of the third act, the audience no longer knew what to think, and the thought flashed across some that perhaps Monsieur de Moliere was not entirely in his right mind.” This is how M. A. Bulgakov describes the audience’s reaction to the performance. According to the memoirs of contemporaries and in studies of literature of the 17th century, including the history of the theater, it is noted that the play immediately caused a scandal. It was directed against the Jesuit “Society of the Holy Sacrament,” which meant that Moliere was invading an area of ​​​​relationships that was forbidden to everyone, including the king himself. At the insistence of Cardinal Hardouin de Beaumont de Perefix and under pressure from the indignant courtiers, Tartuffe was banned from production. For several years, the playwright reworked the comedy: he removed quotes from the Gospel from the text, changed the ending, removed Tartuffe’s church clothes and presented him as simply a pious man, and also softened certain moments and forced Cleanthe to deliver a monologue about truly pious people. After a single production in a revised form in 1667, the play finally returned to the stage only in 1669, that is, after the death of the king’s mother, a fanatical Catholic.

So, the play was written in connection with specific events in the social life of France. They are clothed by Moliere in the form of neo-Attic comedy. It is no coincidence that the characters bear ancient names - Orgon, Tartuffe. The playwright wanted first of all to ridicule the members of the Society of the Holy Gifts, who profit from the trust of their fellow citizens. Among the main inspirers of the Society was the king's mother. The Inquisition did not hesitate to enrich itself by denunciations of the gullible French. However, the comedy turned into an denunciation of Christian piety as such, and the central character Tartuffe became a household name for a bigot and a hypocrite.

The image of Tartuffe is built on the contradiction between words and actions, between appearance and essence. In words, he “scourges everything sinful publicly” and wants only “what heaven pleases.” But in reality he commits all sorts of baseness and meanness. He constantly lies and encourages Orgon to do bad things. So, Orgon expels his son from home because Damis speaks out against Tartuffe’s marriage to Mariana. Tartuffe gives in to gluttony and commits treason by fraudulently taking possession of a deed of gift for the property of his benefactor. The maid Dorina characterizes this “holy saint” as follows:

...Tartuffe is a hero, an idol. The world should marvel at his merits; His deeds are wonderful, and whatever he says is a heavenly sentence. But, having seen such a simpleton, He fools Him endlessly with his game; He has made hypocrisy a source of profit and is preparing to teach us while we are alive.

If we carefully analyze Tartuffe’s actions, we will find all seven deadly sins present. At the same time, the method that Moliere uses when constructing the image of the central character is unique.

The image of Tartuffe is built only on hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is proclaimed through every word, deed, and gesture. There are no other traits in Tartuffe's character. Moliere himself wrote that in this image, from beginning to end, Tartuffe does not utter a single word that would not describe to the audience a bad person. In depicting this character, the playwright also resorts to satirical hyperbolization: Tartuffe is so pious that when he crushed a flea during prayer, he apologizes to God for killing a living creature.

To highlight the sanctimonious beginning in Tartuffe, Moliere builds two scenes in succession. In the first, the “holy saint” Tartuffe, embarrassed, asks the maid Dorina to cover her neckline, but after some time he seeks to seduce Orgon’s wife Elmira. Moliere's strength lies in the fact that he showed that Christian morality and piety not only do not prevent one from sinning, but even help to cover up these sins. Thus, in the third scene of the third act, using the technique of “tearing off masks,” Moliere draws the viewer’s attention to how cleverly Tartuffe uses the “word of God” to justify his passion for adultery. In this way he exposes himself.

Tartuffe's passionate monologue ends with a confession that finally deprives his pious nature of the aura of holiness. Moliere, through the mouth of Tartuffe, debunks both the morals of high society and the morals of the clergy, which differ little from each other.

Tartuffe's sermons are as dangerous as his passions. They change a person, his world to such an extent that, like Orgone, he ceases to be himself. Orgon himself admits to an argument with Cleanthes:

...Whoever follows him tastes the blessed world, and all creatures in the universe are an abomination to him. I became completely different from these conversations with him: From now on I have no attachments, And I no longer value anything in the world; Even if my brother, mother, wife and children die, I will be so upset about this, by the way!

The reasoner of the comedy Cleante acts not only as an observer of the events taking place in Orgon’s house, but also tries to change the situation. He openly throws accusations at Tartuffe and similar saints. His famous monologue is a verdict on hypocrisy and hypocrisy. To people like Tartuffe, Cleante contrasts people with a pure heart and lofty ideals.

The maid Dorina also opposes Tartuffe, defending the interests of her masters. Dorina is the wittiest character in the comedy. She literally showers Tartuffe with ridicule. Her irony also falls on the owner, because Orgon is a dependent person, too trusting, which is why Tartuffe deceives him so easily.

Dorina personifies a healthy people's beginning. The fact that the most active fighter against Tartuffe is the bearer of popular common sense is deeply symbolic. It is no coincidence that Cleanthe, personifying the enlightened mind, becomes Dorina’s ally. This reflected Moliere's utopianism. The playwright believed that evil in society could be countered by a union of popular common sense and enlightened reason.

Dorina also helps Mariana in the struggle for happiness. She openly expresses her opinion to the owner about his plans to marry his daughter to Tartuffe, although this was not accepted among the servants. The squabble between Orgon and Dorina focuses attention on the problem of family education and the role of the father in it. Orgon considers himself to have the right to control children and their destinies, so he makes a decision without a shadow of a doubt. The unlimited power of the father is condemned by almost all the characters in the play, but only Dorina, in her characteristic sarcastic manner, sharply castigates Orgon, so the remark accurately captures the master’s attitude towards the maid’s statements: “Orgon is always ready to slap Dorina in the face with every word he says to his daughter , turns around to look at Dorina..."

Events develop in such a way that the utopian nature of the comedy's ending becomes obvious. It was, of course, more truthful in the first version. Mister Loyal came to fulfill the court order - to vacate the house from the entire family, since now Mister Tartuffe is the owner of this building. Moliere includes a dramatic element in the final scenes, revealing to the utmost the grief in which the family finds itself at the whim of Orgon. The seventh phenomenon of the fifth act finally allows us to understand the essence of the nature of Tartuffe, who is now revealed as a terrible and cruel person. Tartuffe arrogantly declares to Orgon, who has sheltered this bigot in his house:

Be quiet, my sir! Where are you going so fast? You have a short way to a new lodging for the night, And, by the will of the king, I will arrest you.

Moliere boldly enough made public what was prohibited - the members of the Society of the Holy Gifts were guided in their activities by the will of the king. I. Glikman notes the presence of a political motive in the action, connected with the past fate of the heroes of the play. In particular, in the fifth act there is mention of a certain casket with documents of national importance, which Orgon’s relatives did not know about. These are the documents of the emigrant Argas, who fled from government repression. As it turns out, Tartuffe fraudulently took possession of a casket with papers and presented them to the king, seeking the arrest of Orgon. That’s why he behaves so unceremoniously when an officer and a bailiff come to Orgon’s house. According to Tartuffe, he was sent to Orgon's house by the king. This means that all the evil in the state comes from the monarch! Such an ending could not but cause a scandal. However, already in the revised version, the text of the play contains an element of miracle. At that moment when Tartuffe, confident in his success, demands that the royal order be given effect, the officer unexpectedly asks Tartuffe to follow him to prison. Moliere curtsies towards the king. The officer, pointing to Tartuffe, notices to Orgon how merciful and fair the monarch is, how wisely he rules his subjects.

So, in accordance with the requirements of the aesthetics of classicism, good ultimately wins, and vice is punished. The finale is the weakest point of the play, but it did not reduce the overall social sound of the comedy, which has not lost its relevance to this day.

Among the comedies that testify to Moliere’s oppositional views, one can name the play “Don Juan, or the Stone Guest.” This is the only prose play in which the aristocrat Don Juan and the peasants, servants, even the beggar and the bandit are equal characters. And each of them has its own characteristic speech. Here Moliere, more than in all his plays, moved away from classicism. This is also one of the playwright's most revealing comedies.

The play is written on a borrowed plot. It was first introduced into literature by the Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina in the comedy “The Mischief of Seville.” Moliere became acquainted with this play through Italian actors who staged it on tour during the 1664 season. Moliere creates an original work, which has an overt anti-noble orientation. Every French viewer recognized in Don Juan a familiar type of aristocrat - cynical, dissolute, flaunting his impunity. The morals of which Don Juan was the exponent reigned at court, especially among the “golden youth” from the entourage of King Louis XIV. Moliere's contemporaries named the names of courtiers famous for debauchery, “courage” and blasphemy, but attempts to guess who the playwright brought out under the name Don Juan were in vain, because the main character of the comedy was strikingly reminiscent of many people and no one in particular. And the king himself often set an example of such morals. Numerous frivolous adventures and victories over women's hearts were considered mischief at court. Moliere looked at Don Juan's antics from a different perspective - from the perspective of humanism and citizenship. He deliberately refuses to title the play “The Mischief of Seville” because he does not consider Don Juan’s behavior to be mischief and innocent pranks.

The playwright boldly breaks the canons of classicism and violates the unity of time and place in order to paint the image of his hero as clearly as possible. The general location of the action is indicated in Sicily, but each action is accompanied by stage directions: the first - “the scene represents the palace”, the second - “the scene represents the area on the seashore”, the third - “the scene represents the forest”, the fourth - “the scene represents Don Juan’s apartments” and fifth - “the stage represents an open area.” This made it possible to show Don Juan in relationships with different people, including representatives of different classes. The aristocrat meets on his way not only Don Carlos and Don Alonso, but also peasants, a beggar, and the merchant Dimanche. As a result, the playwright manages to display in the character of Don Juan the most essential features of the “golden youth” from the king’s entourage.

Sganarelle gives a full description of his master right away, in the first scene of the first act, when he declares to the stableman Guzman:

“...my master Don Juan is the greatest of all the villains that the earth has ever bore, a monster, a dog, a devil, a Turk, a heretic, who believes neither in heaven, nor in saints, nor in God, nor in the devil who lives like vile cattle, like an Epicurean pig, like a real Sardanapalus, who does not want to listen to Christian teachings and considers everything that we believe in to be nonsense” (translated by A. Fedorov). Further action only confirms all of the above.

Moliere's Don Juan is a cynical, cruel man who mercilessly destroys the women who trust him. Moreover, the playwright explains the character’s cynicism and cruelty by the fact that he is an aristocrat. Already in the first act of the first phenomenon this is indicated three times. Sganarelle confesses to Guzman: “When a noble gentleman is also a bad person, it is terrible: I must remain faithful to him, although I cannot bear it. Only fear forces me to be diligent; it restrains my feelings and forces me to approve of what is disgusting to my soul.” Thus, it becomes clear why Sganarelle appears to the viewer as stupid and funny. Fear drives his actions. He pretends to be a fool, hiding his natural wisdom and moral purity behind clownish quirks. The image of Sganarelle is intended to highlight the entire baseness of Don Juan’s nature, confident of impunity, because his father is a court aristocrat.

The type of libertine provided the playwright with fertile ground for exposing moral irresponsibility from the standpoint of rationalist ethics. But at the same time, Moliere exposes Don Juan primarily from a social perspective, which takes the image of the main character beyond the abstract-logical nature of the classicists. Moliere presents Don Juan as a typical bearer of the vices of his time. On the pages of the comedy, various characters constantly mention that all gentlemen are hypocrites, libertines and deceivers. So, Sganarelle declares to his master: “Or maybe you think that if you are of a noble family, that if you have a blond, skillfully curled wig, a hat with feathers, a dress embroidered with gold, and ribbons of fiery color... maybe you think that this makes you smarter, that everything is allowed to you and no one dares to tell you the truth? The peasant Pierrot has the same opinion when he drives Don Juan away from Charlotte: “Damn it! Since you are a master, it means you can pester our women under our noses? No, go and pester your people.”

It should be noted that Moliere also shows examples of high honor from an aristocratic environment. One of them is Don Juan's father, Don Luis. The nobleman remains faithful to the glory of his ancestors and opposes the indecent behavior of his son. He is ready, without waiting for heavenly punishment, to punish his son himself and put an end to his debauchery. There is no traditional reasoner in the comedy, but it is Don Luis who is called upon to play his role. A speech addressed to a son is an appeal to the audience: “How low you have fallen! Don't you blush because you are so little worthy of your origin? Do you have the right, tell me, to be at least somewhat proud of him? What have you done to justify the title of nobleman? Or do you think that a name and a coat of arms are enough and that noble blood in itself already elevates us, even if we act basely? No, no, noble birth without virtue is nothing. We participate in the glory of our ancestors only to the extent that we ourselves strive to be like them... Finally, understand that a nobleman who leads a bad life is a monster of nature, that virtue is the first sign of nobility, that I attach much less importance to names, than actions, and that I value the son of some housekeeper, if he is an honest man, higher than the son of a king, if he lives like you.” The words of Don Luis reflected both the views of the playwright himself and the sentiments of that part of the nobility that was ready to oppose the permissiveness of representatives of this class and casteism in public life.

The anti-noble orientation of the comedy is enhanced by the way the image of the main character is constructed. When depicting Don Juan, Moliere deviates from the aesthetics of classicism and endows the negative character with a number of positive qualities that contrast with the characteristics given by Sganarelle.

Don Juan cannot be denied wit, courage, and generosity. He descends to courting peasant women, unlike, for example, the commander in the drama of Lope de Vega. But then Moliere very accurately, and this is his skill as an artist, debunks every positive quality of his hero. Don Juan is brave when he fights two against three. However, when Don Juan learns that he will have to fight the twelve, he gives the right to die in his place to a servant. At the same time, the lowest level of moral character of the nobleman is revealed, declaring: “Happy is the servant who is given the opportunity to die a glorious death for his master.”

Don Juan generously throws gold to the beggar. But the scene with the moneylender Dimanche, in which he is forced to humiliate himself before the creditor, indicates that Don Juan’s generosity is extravagance, because he throws away other people’s money.

At the beginning of the action, the viewer is attracted by Don Juan's directness. He does not want to be a hypocrite, honestly declaring to Elvira that he does not love her, that he left her deliberately, his conscience told him to do so. But, deviating from the aesthetics of classicism, Moliere, as the play develops, deprives Don Juan of this positive quality. His cynicism towards the woman who loves him is striking. Sincere feeling does not evoke a response in his soul. Having left Dona Elvira, Don Juan reveals all the callousness of his nature:

Don Juan. And you know, I again felt something in her, in this unusual appearance of her I found a special charm: carelessness in her attire, a languid look, tears - all this awakened the remnants of the extinguished fire in me.

Sganarelle. In other words, her speeches had no effect on you at all.

Don Juan. Supper, live!

Moliere pays special attention to hypocrisy. It is used not only to achieve a career by courtiers, but in relationships between close people. This is evidenced by Don Juan's dialogue with his father. Hypocrisy is a means to achieve one’s selfish goals. Don Juan comes to the conclusion that being a hypocrite is convenient and even profitable. And he confesses this to his servant. Moliere puts a hymn to hypocrisy into the mouth of Don Juan: “Nowadays they are no longer ashamed of it: hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtues. The role of a man of good rules is the best of all roles that can be played. In our time, hypocrisy has enormous advantages. Thanks to this art, deception is always held in high esteem, even if it is discovered, no one will dare to say a single word against it. All other human vices are subject to criticism, everyone is free to openly attack them, but hypocrisy is a vice that enjoys special privileges, it silences everyone with its own hand and calmly enjoys complete impunity ... "

Don Juan is an image with which the anti-religious theme of comedy is also connected. Moliere makes his negative hero a freethinker. Don Juan declares that he does not believe in either God or the black monk, but believes that two and two are four.

At first glance, it may seem that Moliere, making the negative hero a freethinker, himself rejected freethinking. However, in order to understand the image of Don Juan, it should be remembered that in France in the 17th century there were two types of freethinking - aristocratic and genuine. For the aristocracy, religion was a bridle that prevented them from leading a dissolute lifestyle. But the freethinking of the aristocracy was imaginary, since it used religion for its own interests. Genuine freethinking found expression in the works of Descartes, Gassendi and other philosophers. It is precisely this kind of freethinking that permeates Moliere’s entire comedy.

In the image of Don Juan, Moliere ridicules supporters of aristocratic freethinking. In the mouth of a comic character, Sganarelle's servant, he puts the speech of a defender of religion. But the way Sganarelle pronounces it indicates the playwright's intentions. Sganarelle wants to prove that God exists, he directs human affairs, but all his arguments prove the opposite: “Faith is good and dogmas are good! It turns out that your religion is arithmetic? Such nonsense thoughts appear, to tell the truth, in people’s heads... I, sir, thank God, did not study like you, and no one can boast that they taught me anything, but I, with my little mind, with my tiny common sense I understand the meaning better than any scribes, and I understand perfectly well that this world that we see could not grow like a mushroom overnight. Who, let me ask you, created these trees, these rocks, this earth and this sky that is above us? Take you, for example: weren’t you born of your own accord, wasn’t it necessary for this to happen for your mother to become pregnant from your father? Can you look at all the ingenious things that make up the machine of the human body and not admire how it all fits together? Nerves, bones, veins, arteries, these same... lungs, heart, liver and other parts that are here and..."

The scene with the beggar is also filled with deep anti-religious meaning. The beggar is pious, he is hungry, he offers prayers to God, but nevertheless he is poor, and the good deed descends from the blasphemer Don Juan, who throws him gold out of supposed love for mankind. At the same time, he is not averse to mocking the godly beggar, from whom he demands blasphemy for gold. As D. D. Oblomievsky writes, Don Juan is “a seducer of women, a convinced blasphemer and a hypocrite, imitating religious conversion. Depravity is, of course, Don Juan’s main characteristic, but it does not suppress his other characteristics.”

The ending of the play also acquires a broad anti-religious tone. The atheist Don Juan offers his hand to the statue and dies. The statue plays the role of the highest retribution, embodied in this image. Moliere preserves exactly the ending that was in Tirso de Molina's play. But if, after the comedy of the Spanish playwright, the audience left the theater shocked by horror, then the end of Moliere’s comedy was accompanied by laughter. The fact is that behind the scene of punishing the sinner, Sganarelle immediately appeared, who caused laughter with his antics and comic remarks. Laughter removed all fear of God's punishment. In this, Moliere inherited the traditions of both ancient comedy and Renaissance comedy and literature in general.

The play caused a huge scandal. After the fifteenth performance it was banned. Comedy returned to the French stage only after 176 years. Moliere was reproached for the fact that his views completely coincided with the views of Don Juan. The theater expert Rochemont declared the comedy a “devilish play”, devoting many derogatory lines to its analysis in “Remarks on Moliere’s comedy, entitled “The Stone Guest” (1665).

Tasks for independent work

1. Get acquainted with the methodological literature for teachers: in which class is the study of Moliere’s works offered?

2. Make an outline on the topic “Studying Moliere’s works at school.”

Creative work on the topic

1. Develop a lesson plan on the topic “Mr. Jourdain and his world.”

2. Write an essay on the topic: “The Misanthrope” by Moliere and “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov (the similarities and differences of the characters).

Colloquium Question

Comedy creativity of Moliere.

Shlyakova Oksana Vasilievna
Job title: teacher of Russian language and literature
Educational institution: MBOU Secondary School No. 1
Locality: village Orlovsky, Rostov region
Name of material: methodological development
Subject: Literature lesson in 9th grade "J.B. Moliere "Tartuffe". The skill and innovation of Moliere. The topicality and relevance of comedy."
Publication date: 20.02.2016
Chapter: secondary education

Literature lesson notes (9th grade)

Lesson topic
:
J.B. Moliere "Tartuffe". Molière's mastery and innovation. Topicality and

relevance of comedy.

The purpose of the lesson
: creation of a figurative-emotional pedagogical situation in a literature lesson to achieve the following goals: educational - to introduce the content of the comedy J-B. Moliere's “Tartuffe”, to determine what constitutes the skill of Moliere the comedian, what traditions of classicism the author adheres to, and also what his innovation consists of. educational - to create conditions for self-development and self-realization of students in the process of cooperation in groups, to instill a desire to join world culture, to bring to consciousness the idea that culture does not exist without traditions. developmental – to develop the ability to analyze literary works, independently formulate and cogently present one’s point of view.
Lesson type
: lesson in learning new material
Equipment
: texts of J.B. Molière’s comedy “Tartuffe”, multimedia installation for demonstrating slides on the topic of the lesson and student presentations, illustrations for the work.
Lesson content
I.
Organizational, motivational stages
:
1.Greeting.

2.Creation of a figurative-emotional pedagogical situation
(during the entire lesson). The board shows slides depicting scenes from theatrical productions, accompanied by classical music.
3.Teacher's word
France...Mid 17th century...The plays of Jean Baptiste Moliere are performed on the theater stage with stunning success. His comedies are so popular that the King of France himself, Louis XIV, invites the Moliere Theater to show his art at court and becomes a devoted admirer of the work of this talented playwright. Moliere is a unique genius in the history of world culture. He was a man of the theater in the full sense of the word. Moliere was the creator and director of the best acting troupe of his era, its leading actor and one of the best comic actors in the entire history of the theater, director, innovator and reformer of the theater. However, today he is perceived primarily as a talented playwright.
4. Goal setting
Today in the lesson we will try to find out what is the skill and innovation of Moliere the playwright using the example of his famous comedy “Tartuffe” and think about whether his comedy can be considered relevant and topical today. Write down in your notebooks the topic of the lesson “J.B. Moliere "Tartuffe". Molière's mastery and innovation. Topicality and relevance of comedy."
II.Work on new material.

1. Presentation of an individual student project “Creativity of J.B. Molière”
I think you will be interested, first of all, to learn some facts from the biography and work of Jean Baptiste Moliere. Tanya Zvonareva will tell us about this, who, having received an individual task, prepared a presentation. Slide demonstration accompanied by a student's story. Students record in notebooks the main stages of the playwright’s work.
- Thank you Tatiana. Your work deserves an “excellent” rating. I would just like to add something:
2. Teacher's word
. Moliere is the stage name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin, the son of a wealthy Parisian bourgeois who received an excellent classical education. He was seized by a passion for theater early on, and he organized his first troupe at the age of 21. It was the 4th theater in Paris, but soon went bankrupt. Moliere leaves Paris for 12 long years for the life of a traveling actor. To replenish the repertoire of his troupe, Moliere begins to write plays. Moliere is a born comedian; all the plays that came from his pen belong to the genre of comedy: entertaining comedies, sitcoms, comedies of manners, comedies-ballets, “high” - classic comedies. An example of “high” comedy can be “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver,” which you read for today’s lesson. This comedy was the hardest for Moliere and at the same time brought him the greatest success during his lifetime.
3.Work on the work

A)
- Let's remember
comedy content
. Briefly convey
plot…
- Of course, while reading a comedy you. Each in their own way imagined its characters, scenes from the play.
b)
Try now to pick from the text
words that fit these scenes.

Vocabulary work
- Which
vices
is the author making fun of it? (hypocrisy and hypocrisy)
Hypocrisy
- behavior that covers up insincerity and maliciousness with feigned sincerity and virtue.
Hypocrisy
- behavior typical of hypocrites. A prude is a hypocrite hiding behind virtue and piety.
G) -
How about this comedy?
great people responded
: A.S. Pushkin: “The immortal “Tartuffe” is the fruit of the strongest tension of comic genius... High comedy is not based solely on laughter, but on the development of characters - and, quite often, it comes close to tragedy.” V.G. Belinsky: “...The creator of Tartuffe cannot be forgotten! Add to this the poetic richness of the spoken language..., remember that many expressions and poems from comedy have turned into proverbs, - and you will understand the grateful enthusiasm of the French for Moliere!..” - Do you agree with these statements? - Let's try to prove their validity by working in groups. Now we will discuss what issues each group will consider, and then you will choose the group in which you think the work will be interesting for you. Please note that A.S. Pushkin calls comedy “high” and even compares it with tragedy. Is there a contradiction in this statement?
e) Preparatory stage: updating the knowledge necessary for answers.
Let's speculate. So, the comedy was written in the mid-17th century. What literary movement was dominant in Europe at this time? (classicism) Remember the main features of this artistic method...
Classicism
– a literary movement, the main property of which is adherence to a certain system of rules, mandatory for each author; turning to antiquity as a classic and ideal model. Main features of classicism 1. Cult of reason; the work is intended to instruct the viewer or reader. 2. Strict hierarchy of genres. High Low tragedy Social life and historical events are depicted; act heroes, generals, monarchs comedy Depicts the everyday life of ordinary people ode fable epic satire 3. Human characters are depicted straightforwardly, only one character trait is emphasized, positive and negative heroes are contrasted. 4. The work contains a hero-reasoner, a character who pronounces a moral lesson for the viewer; the author himself speaks through the mouth of the reasoner.. 5. The classicist rule of three unities: the unity of time, place and action. A play usually has 5 acts. - So,
task to the first group: “Consider the comedy “Tartuffe” from the point of view of compliance

or non-compliance with these rules of classicism"
(questions are displayed on the board)
- A.S. Pushkin, using words
"high comedy" most likely meant innovation

Moliere in the comedy genre.

-What is innovation in literature?
? (continuation of tradition, going beyond its scope). - The task is not easy
, to the second group: “Why A.S. Pushkin calls the play “Tartuffe”

"high comedy"? What was Moliere’s innovation as a comedian?”
You can look for the answer to this question in the preface that Moliere wrote to his comedy. - And finally,
task to the third group: “Find expressions in the text of the comedy “Tartuffe”,

which can be considered aphorisms"
-What is an “aphorism”? (short expressive saying)
f) Work in groups. 3rd group – at the computer
. Answers to questions and tasks...
1 group. “Consider the comedy “Tartuffe” from the point of view of conformity or inconsistency

these rules of classicism"
The comedy “Tartuffe” corresponds to the rules of classicism, because: Comedy is a low genre that contains colloquial speech. For example, in this comedy, common vocabulary is often found: “Fool”, “not a family, but a madhouse.” “Tartuffe” consists of five acts, all actions take place in one day in one place, in Orgon’s house - all this is a characteristic feature of classicism. The theme of the comedy is the life of ordinary people, not heroes and kings. The hero of Tartuffe is the bourgeois Orgon and his family. The purpose of comedy is to make fun of the shortcomings that prevent a person from being perfect. This comedy ridicules such vices as hypocrisy and hypocrisy. The characters are not complex; one feature is emphasized in Tartuffe - hypocrisy. Cleante calls Tartuffe a “slippery snake”; he comes out of any situation “scary”, taking on the appearance of a saint and ranting about the will of God. His hypocrisy is the source of his profit. Thanks to false sermons, he subjugated the good-natured and trusting Orgon to his will. Whatever position Tartuffe finds himself in, he behaves only like a hypocrite. Confessing his love to Elmira, he is not averse to marrying Marianne; He prays to God in church, attracting everyone's attention: Sometimes lamentations suddenly flew out of his mouth, Then he raised his hands to heaven in tears, And then he lay down for a long time, kissing the ashes. And is this true humility if “he later brought repentance to heaven for giving it away without a feeling of compassion.” Only one quality is emphasized in the hero - this is also a feature of classicism. Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe" is a typical classic work.
2nd group. “Why does A.S. Pushkin call the play “Tartuffe” “high comedy”? What

was the innovation of Molière the comedian?”
A.S. Pushkin calls Molière’s comedy “high,” because by exposing the deceiver Tartuffe, it is clear that the author is exposing the hypocrisy and hypocrisy of not just one person, but social vices, vices that have afflicted society. It is not for nothing that Tartuffe is not alone in the comedy: his servant Laurent, the bailiff Loyal, and the old woman - Orgon's mother, Madame Pernelle - are hypocritical. They all cover up their actions with pious speeches and vigilantly monitor the behavior of others. And it even becomes a little sad when you realize how many such people there can be around. Teacher's addition to the answer of the 2nd group: - Indeed, Moliere complies with the laws of classicism, as the 1st group proved, but, as you know, the schemes are not applicable to great works. The playwright, observing the traditions of classicism, takes comedy (low genre) to another level. The guys very subtly noticed that comedy causes not only laughter, but also sad feelings. This is where Moliere's innovation lies - in his work, comedy ceased to be a genre designed to make the audience laugh; he introduced ideological content and social relevance to comedy.
Moliere himself, reflecting on his innovation in the comedy genre, wrote: (highlight on the board): “I find that it is much easier to talk about high feelings, to fight fortune in poetry, to blame fate, to curse the gods, than to take a closer look at the funny features in a person and show the vices of society on stage in a way that is entertaining... When you portray ordinary people, you have to write from life. Portraits should be similar, and if people of your time are not recognized in them, then you have not achieved your goal... Making decent people laugh is not an easy task...” Moliere, thus raising comedy to the level of tragedy, says that the task of a comedian is more difficult than the task of the author tragedies.
Group 3 “Find expressions in the text of the comedy “Tartuffe” that can be considered

aphorisms"

G) Heuristic questions
- You already know that Moliere was a wonderful actor, in each of his plays there was a role that he played himself, and the character of this character is always the most ambiguous in the play. This is also Moliere's innovation.
- Who do you think he played in the comedy “Tartuffe”?
(In Tartuffe he played Orgon)
-Why?
(This particular image is not so much comical as tragic. After all, Tartuffe was able to completely subjugate the will of the owner of the house, Orgon, an adult, successful in business, a man, the father of a family, who is ready to break with everyone who dares to tell him the truth about Tartuffe, even expels from his son's house.)
- Why did Orgon allow himself to be deceived like that?
(He believed in the piety and “holiness” of Tartuffe, sees in him his spiritual mentor, because Tartuffe is a subtle psychologist, he prevents the attempts of Orgon’s relatives to expose him. The reason is the inertia of Orgon’s consciousness, brought up in submission to authorities. Orgon in the spiritual sense, lack of self-sufficiency. He lacks his own inner content, which he tries to compensate for with faith in the goodness and infallibility of Tartuffe. Without gullible orgones, there are no deceiving Tartuffes.)
- Do you think the comedy “Tartuffe” can be considered relevant and topical?

of interest today? Why?
- Indeed, many of you liked the comedy and some guys expressed a desire to try their hand at acting. (Students show a skit).
III. Assessment.Result
(For the presentation of “Moliere TV”, for the poster, for work in groups - the most active students, giving reasoned, complete answers). Lesson summary: - What did you like about the lesson? -What is Moliere’s skill as a comedian? His innovation?
Homework:
write a petition to the king asking for permission to stage a comedy (on behalf of a nobleman of the 17th century)

Composition

In the mid-1660s, Moliere created his best comedies, in which he criticized the vices of the clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie. The first of them was “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver” (edition 1664, 1667 and 1669). The play was to be shown during the grandiose court festival “The Amusements of the Enchanted Island”, which took place in May 1664 in Versailles. However, the play upset the holiday. A real conspiracy arose against Moliere, led by Queen Mother Anne of Austria. Moliere was accused of insulting religion and the church, demanding punishment for this. Performances of the play were stopped.

Moliere made an attempt to stage the play in a new edition. In the first edition of 1664, Tartuffe was a clergyman. The wealthy Parisian bourgeois Orgon, into whose house this rogue plays the saint, enters, does not yet have a daughter - the priest Tartuffe could not marry her. Tartuffe deftly gets out of a difficult situation, despite the accusations of his son Orgon, who caught him courting his stepmother Elmira. The triumph of Tartuffe unequivocally testified to the danger of hypocrisy.

In the second edition (1667; like the first, it has not reached us) Moliere expanded the play, added two more acts to the existing three, where he depicted the connections of the hypocrite Tartuffe with the court, the court and the police. Tartuffe was named Panjulf ​​and turned into a socialite, intending to marry Orgon's daughter Marianne. The comedy, called “The Deceiver,” ended with the exposure of Panyulf and the glorification of the king. In the latest edition that has come down to us (1669), the hypocrite was again called Tartuffe, and the entire play was called “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver.”

The king knew about Moliere's play and approved his plan. Fighting for “Tartuffe,” Moliere, in his first “Petition” to the king, defended comedy, defended himself from accusations of godlessness, and spoke about the social role of the satirical writer. The king did not lift the ban on the play, but did not listen to the advice of rabid saints “to burn not only the book, but also its author, a demon, an atheist and a libertine, who wrote a devilish play full of abomination, in which he mocks the church and religion, the sacred functions” (“The Greatest King of the World,” pamphlet by Sorbonne doctor Pierre Roullet, 1664).

Permission to stage the play in its second edition was given by the king orally, in a hurry, upon leaving for the army. Immediately after the premiere, the comedy was again banned by the President of Parliament (the highest judicial institution), Lamoignon, and the Parisian Archbishop Perefix issued a message in which he forbade all parishioners and clergy from “presenting, reading or listening to a dangerous play” under pain of excommunication. Moliere sent the second “Petition” to the king’s headquarters, in which he stated that he would stop writing completely if the king did not come to his defense. The king promised to sort it out. Meanwhile, the comedy is read in private homes, distributed in manuscript, and performed in private home performances (for example, in the palace of the Prince of Condé in Chantilly). In 1666, the Queen Mother died and this gave Louis XIV the opportunity to promise Moliere quick permission to stage it. The year 1668 arrived, the year of the so-called “ecclesiastical peace” between orthodox Catholicism and Jansenism, which promoted a certain tolerance in religious matters. It was then that the production of Tartuffe was allowed. On February 9, 1669, the performance of the play was a huge success.

What caused such violent attacks on Tartuffe? Moliere had long been attracted to the theme of hypocrisy, which he observed everywhere in public life. In this comedy, Moliere turned to the most common type of hypocrisy at that time - religious - and wrote it based on his observations of the activities of a secret religious society - the “Society of the Holy Sacrament”, which was patronized by Anne of Austria and of which both Lamoignon and Perefix were members. and the princes of the church, and the nobles, and the bourgeoisie. The king did not give sanction to the open activities of this ramified organization, which had existed for more than 30 years; the activities of the society were surrounded by the greatest mystery. Acting under the motto “Suppress all evil, promote all good,” members of the society set their main task to fight freethinking and godlessness. Having access to private homes, they essentially performed the functions of a secret police, conducting covert surveillance of those they suspected, collecting facts supposedly proving their guilt, and on this basis handing over alleged criminals to the authorities. Members of the society preached severity and asceticism in morals, had a negative attitude towards all kinds of secular entertainment and theater, and pursued a passion for fashion. Moliere observed how members of the “Society of the Holy Sacrament” insinuatingly and skillfully infiltrated other people’s families, how they subjugated people, completely taking possession of their conscience and their will. This suggested the plot of the play, and Tartuffe’s character was formed from typical traits inherent in members of the “Society of the Holy Gifts.”

Like them, Tartuffe is associated with the court, with the police, and is patronized at court. He hides his true appearance, posing as an impoverished nobleman looking for food on the church porch. He penetrates into Orgon’s family because in this house, after the owner’s marriage to young Elmira, instead of the former piety, free morals, fun reign, and critical speeches are heard. In addition, Orgon's friend Argas, a political exile, participant in the Parliamentary Fronde (1649), left him incriminating documents, which are stored in a box. Such a family could well seem suspicious to the “Society”, and surveillance was established on such families.

Tartuffe is not the embodiment of hypocrisy as a universal human vice, it is a socially generalized type. It is not for nothing that he is not alone in the comedy: his servant Laurent, the bailiff Loyal, and the old woman - Orgon's mother Madame Pernel - are hypocritical. They all cover up their unsightly actions with pious speeches and vigilantly monitor the behavior of others. Tartuffe’s characteristic appearance is created by his imaginary holiness and humility: “He prayed near me in church every day, // Kneeling in an outburst of piety. // He attracted everyone's attention" (I, 6). Tartuffe is not without external attractiveness; he has courteous, insinuating manners, which hide prudence, energy, an ambitious thirst for power, and the ability to take revenge. He settled well in Orgon's house, where the owner not only satisfies his slightest whims, but is also ready to give him his daughter Marianne, a rich heiress, as his wife. Orgon confides all secrets to him, including entrusting him with the storage of the treasured box with incriminating documents. Tartuffe succeeds because he is a subtle psychologist; playing on the fear of the gullible Orgon, he forces the latter to reveal any secrets to him. Tartuffe covers up his insidious plans with religious arguments. He is well aware of his strength, and therefore does not restrain his vicious desires. He does not love Marianne, she is only an advantageous bride for him, he is carried away by the beautiful Elmira, whom Tartuffe is trying to seduce. His casuistic reasoning that betrayal is not a sin if no one knows about it outrages Elmira. Damis, Orgon's son, a witness to the secret meeting, wants to expose the scoundrel, but he, having taken a pose of self-flagellation and repentance for supposedly imperfect sins, again makes Orgon his defender. When, after the second date, Tartuffe falls into a trap and Orgon kicks him out of the house, he begins to take revenge, fully revealing his vicious, corrupt and selfish nature.

But Molière not only exposes hypocrisy. In Tartuffe, he poses an important question: why did Orgon allow himself to be so deceived? This already middle-aged man, clearly not stupid, with a strong disposition and strong will, succumbed to the widespread fashion for piety. Orgon believes in Tartuffe’s piety and “holiness” and sees him as his spiritual mentor. However, he becomes a pawn in the hands of Tartuffe, who shamelessly declares that Orgon would rather believe him “than his own eyes” (IV, 5). The reason for this is the inertia of Orgon’s consciousness, brought up in submission to authority. This inertia does not give him the opportunity to critically comprehend the phenomena of life and evaluate the people around him. If Orgon nevertheless gains a sensible view of the world after Tartuffe is exposed, then his mother, the old woman Pernelle, a stupidly pious supporter of inert patriarchal views, never saw Tartuffe’s true face.

The younger generation, represented in the comedy, which immediately discerned Tartuffe’s true face, is united by the maid Dorina, who has long and faithfully served in Orgon’s house and enjoys love and respect here. Her wisdom, common sense, and insight help to find the most suitable means to combat the cunning rogue.

The comedy Tartuffe had great social significance. In it, Moliere depicted not private family relationships, but the most harmful social vice - hypocrisy. In the Preface to Tartuffe, an important theoretical document, Moliere explains the meaning of his play. He affirms the social purpose of comedy, states that “the task of comedy is to castigate vices, and there should be no exceptions here. From a state point of view, the vice of hypocrisy is one of the most dangerous in its consequences. The theater has the ability to counteract vice.” It was hypocrisy, according to Moliere’s definition, the main state vice of France of his time, that became the object of his satire. In a comedy that evokes laughter and fear, Moliere painted a profound picture of what was happening in France. Hypocrites like Tartuffe, despots, informers and avengers, dominate the country with impunity and commit genuine atrocities; lawlessness and violence are the results of their activities. Moliere painted a picture that should have alerted those who ruled the country. And although the ideal king at the end of the play acts justly (which was explained by Moliere’s naive faith in a just and reasonable monarch), the social situation outlined by Moliere seems threatening.
Moliere the artist, when creating Tartuffe, used a wide variety of means: here you can find elements of farce (Orgon hides under the table), comedy of intrigue (the story of the box with documents), comedy of manners (scenes in the house of a rich bourgeois), comedy of characters (dependence of development actions from the character of the hero). At the same time, Moliere's work is a typically classicist comedy. All the “rules” are strictly observed in it: it is designed not only to entertain, but also to instruct the viewer. In the “Preface” to “Tartuffe” it is said: “You can’t catch people’s attention better than by depicting their shortcomings. They listen to reproaches indifferently, but cannot bear ridicule. Comedy reproaches people for their shortcomings in pleasant teachings.”

During the years of struggle for Tartuffe, Moliere created his most significant satirical and oppositional comedies.

The theme of “philistinism among the nobility” in the works of Moliere. Reasons for its relevance.

The satirical nature of Moliere's comedy "Tartuffe". The role of comedy in the fight against feudal-Catholic reaction.

The originality of the interpretation of the image of Don Juan in Moliere’s comedy “Don Juan”.

Lectures: Moliere brought serious problems to comedy, but talks about them comically (“to make you laugh and teach”). Expansion of characters: commoners + nobles. Types of Moliere's comedies: 1. One-act - sitcoms; 2. Purely High comedies (usually five-act) - partially written in verse (Tartuffe, Don Juan, The Miser).

Libertines: 1. Demand for freedom of thought. 2. Everyday Libertenism - violation of prohibitions at the everyday level. Don Juan is libertine.

Already in the first half of the 17th century. Theorists of classicism defined the comedy genre as a lower genre, the sphere of depiction of which was private life, everyday life and morals. Despite the fact that in France by the mid-17th century. comedies by Corneille, Scarron, and Cyrano de Bergerac were written; the true creator of classical comedy was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (stage name - Moliere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin, Molière, 1622-1673), son of a court upholsterer and decorator. Nevertheless, Moliere received an excellent education for that time. At the Jesuit Clermont College, he thoroughly studied ancient languages ​​and the literature of antiquity. Moliere gave preference to history, philosophy, and natural sciences. He was especially interested in the atomistic teachings of the materialist philosophers Epicurus and Lucretius. He translated Lucretius's poem "On the Nature of Things" into French. This translation has not survived, but he later included several verses from Lucretius in Elianta’s monologue (“Misanthrope,” II, 3). At college, Moliere also became acquainted with the philosophy of P. Gassendi and became its convinced supporter. Following Gassendi, Moliere believed in the legality and rationality of human natural instincts, in the need for freedom of development of human nature. After graduating from the College of Clermont (1639), a course of legal sciences followed at the University of Orleans, ending with the successful passing of the exam for the title of licentiate of rights. Upon completion of his education, Moliere could become a Latinist, a philosopher, a lawyer, and a craftsman, which his father so desired.

Farce attracted Moliere with its content taken from everyday life, its variety of themes, the diversity and vitality of its images, and the variety of comic situations. Throughout his life, Moliere maintained this passion for farce and even in his highest comedies (for example, in Tartuffe) he often introduced farcical elements. The Italian comedy of masks (commedia dell’arte), which was very popular in France, also played a significant role in Moliere’s work. The improvisation of actors during a performance, intricate intrigue, characters taken from life, and the principles of acting characteristic of a comedy of masks were used by Molière in his early work.

Moliere, the author who once said: “I take my goods where I find them,” builds comedies not only on original intrigue, but also often on the use of already developed plots. In those days this was quite acceptable. Being well read, Moliere turns to Roman comedians, Italians of the Renaissance, Spanish short story writers and playwrights, and his older French contemporaries; famous authors (Scarron, Rotr).

In 1658, Moliere and his troupe returned to Paris. In the Louvre, in front of the king, they played Corneille's tragedy "Nycomedes" and Moliere's farce "The Doctor in Love", where he played the main role. Moliere's success was brought by his own play. At the request of Louis XIV, Molière's troupe was allowed to stage performances at the Petit-Bourbon court theater alternately with the Italian troupe.

Satisfying the king's demands to create entertaining shows, Moliere turned to a new genre - comedy-ballets. In Paris, Moliere wrote 13 plays, which included music as a necessary and often the main component. Moliere's comedies and ballets are stylistically divided into two groups. The first includes lyrical plays of a sublime nature with deep psychological characteristics of the main characters. Such are, for example, “The Princess of Elis” (1664, presented in Versailles at the festival “The Amusements of the Enchanted Island”), “Melicert” and “Cosmic Pastoral” (1666, presented at the festival “Ballet of the Muses” in Saint-Germain), “Brilliant Lovers” "(1670, at the "Royal Entertainment" festival, in the same place), "Psyche" (1671, in the Tuileries). The second group is mainly domestic comedies of a satirical nature with farcical elements, for example: “The Sicilian” (1667, in Saint-Germain), “Georges Dandin” (1668, in Versailles), “Monsieur de Poursonnac” (1669, in Chambord) , “The Bourgeois in the Nobility” (1670, in the same place), “The Imaginary Invalid” (1673, in the Palais Royal). Moliere skillfully used a wide variety of ways to achieve a harmonious combination of singing, music and dance with dramatic action. Many comedy-ballets, in addition to high artistic merit, had great social significance. In addition, these innovative plays by Moliere (in combination with the music of Lully) contributed to the birth of new musical genres in France: tragedy in music, i.e. opera (comedies-ballets of the first group) and comic opera (comedies-ballets of the second group) - purely French democratic genre, which flourished in the 18th century.

Assessing comedy as a genre, Moliere states that it is not only equal to tragedy, but even superior to it, because it “makes honest people laugh” and thereby “contributes to the eradication of vices.” The task of comedy is to be a mirror of society, to depict the shortcomings of people of their time. The criterion for the artistry of comedy is the truth of reality. This truth can only be achieved when the artist draws material from life itself, choosing the most natural phenomena and creating generalized characters based on specific observations. The playwright should paint not portraits, “but morals, without touching people.” Since “the task of comedy is to represent all the shortcomings of people in general and modern people in particular,” it is “impossible to create a character that would not resemble anyone around him” (“Impromptu at Versailles,” I, 3). A writer will never exhaust all the material; “life supplies it in abundance” (ibid.). Unlike tragedy, which depicts “heroes,” comedy must depict “people,” and it is necessary to “follow nature,” that is, endow them with traits characteristic of contemporaries, and paint them as living faces capable of experiencing suffering. “I, at least, believe,” writes Moliere, “that playing on high feelings, mocking misfortunes in poetry, smashing fate and cursing the gods is much easier than penetrating the funny sides of people and turning their shortcomings into a pleasant spectacle. When you draw a hero, you do whatever you want... But when drawing people, you need to draw them from life. These portraits are required to be similar, and if they cannot be recognized as contemporaries, you have worked in vain” (“Criticism of the “School of Wives”,” I, 7). Following “the greatest of rules - to please” (ibid.), Moliere calls for listening “to the sound judgments of the partner” (“Criticism of “The School for Wives”,” I, 6), i.e., to the opinion of the most democratic viewer.

Moliere's comedies can be divided into two types, different in artistic structure, the nature of the comic, in intrigue and content in general. The first group includes domestic comedies, with a farcical plot, one-act or three-act, written in prose. Their comedy is a comedy of situations (“Funny primps,” 1659; “Sganarelle, or the Imaginary Cuckold,” 1660; “Reluctant Marriage,” 1664; “The Reluctant Doctor,” 1666; “The Tricksters of Scalena,” 1671). Another group is “high comedies”. They should be written mostly in verse and consist of five acts. The comedy of “high comedy” is a comedy of character, an intellectual comedy (“Tartuffe”, “Don Juan”, “The Misanthrope”, “Learned Women”, etc.).

In the mid-1660s, Moliere created his best comedies, in which he criticized the vices of the clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie. The first of them was “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver” (edition 1664, 1667 and 1669). The play was to be shown during the grandiose court festival “The Amusements of the Enchanted Island”, which took place in May 1664 in Versailles. However, the play upset the holiday. A real conspiracy arose against Moliere, led by Queen Mother Anne of Austria. Moliere was accused of insulting religion and the church, demanding punishment for this. Performances of the play were stopped.

Moliere made an attempt to stage the play in a new edition. In the first edition of 1664, Tartuffe was a clergyman. The wealthy Parisian bourgeois Orgon, into whose house this rogue plays the saint, enters, does not yet have a daughter - the priest Tartuffe could not marry her. Tartuffe deftly gets out of a difficult situation, despite the accusations of his son Orgon, who caught him courting his stepmother Elmira. The triumph of Tartuffe unequivocally testified to the danger of hypocrisy.

In the second edition (1667; like the first, it has not reached us) Moliere expanded the play, added two more acts to the existing three, where he depicted the connections of the hypocrite Tartuffe with the court, the court and the police. Tartuffe was named Panjulf ​​and turned into a socialite, intending to marry Orgon's daughter Marianne. The comedy, called “The Deceiver,” ended with the exposure of Panyulf and the glorification of the king. In the latest edition that has come down to us (1669), the hypocrite was again called Tartuffe, and the entire play was called “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver.”

The king knew about Moliere's play and approved his plan. Fighting for “Tartuffe,” Moliere, in his first “Petition” to the king, defended comedy, defended himself from accusations of godlessness, and spoke about the social role of the satirical writer. The king did not lift the ban on the play, but did not listen to the advice of rabid saints “to burn not only the book, but also its author, a demon, an atheist and a libertine, who wrote a devilish play full of abomination, in which he mocks the church and religion, the sacred functions” (“The Greatest King of the World,” pamphlet by Sorbonne doctor Pierre Roullet, 1664).

Permission to stage the play in its second edition was given by the king orally, in a hurry, upon leaving for the army. Immediately after the premiere, the comedy was again banned by the President of Parliament (the highest judicial institution), Lamoignon, and the Parisian Archbishop Perefix issued a message in which he forbade all parishioners and clergy from “presenting, reading or listening to a dangerous play” under pain of excommunication. Moliere sent the second “Petition” to the king’s headquarters, in which he stated that he would stop writing completely if the king did not come to his defense. The king promised to sort it out. Meanwhile, the comedy is read in private homes, distributed in manuscript, and performed in private home performances (for example, in the palace of the Prince of Condé in Chantilly). In 1666, the Queen Mother died and this gave Louis XIV the opportunity to promise Moliere quick permission to stage it. The year 1668 arrived, the year of the so-called “ecclesiastical peace” between orthodox Catholicism and Jansenism, which promoted a certain tolerance in religious matters. It was then that the production of Tartuffe was allowed. On February 9, 1669, the performance of the play was a huge success.

What caused such violent attacks on Tartuffe? Moliere had long been attracted to the theme of hypocrisy, which he observed everywhere in public life. In this comedy, Moliere turned to the most common type of hypocrisy at that time - religious - and wrote it based on his observations of the activities of a secret religious society - the “Society of the Holy Sacrament”, which was patronized by Anne of Austria and of which both Lamoignon and Perefix were members. and the princes of the church, and the nobles, and the bourgeoisie. The king did not give sanction to the open activities of this ramified organization, which had existed for more than 30 years; the activities of the society were surrounded by the greatest mystery. Acting under the motto “Suppress all evil, promote all good,” members of the society set their main task to fight freethinking and godlessness. Having access to private homes, they essentially performed the functions of a secret police, conducting covert surveillance of those they suspected, collecting facts supposedly proving their guilt, and on this basis handing over alleged criminals to the authorities. Members of the society preached severity and asceticism in morals, had a negative attitude towards all kinds of secular entertainment and theater, and pursued a passion for fashion. Moliere observed how members of the “Society of the Holy Sacrament” insinuatingly and skillfully infiltrated other people’s families, how they subjugated people, completely taking possession of their conscience and their will. This suggested the plot of the play, and Tartuffe’s character was formed from typical traits inherent in members of the “Society of the Holy Gifts.”

Like them, Tartuffe is associated with the court, with the police, and is patronized at court. He hides his true appearance, posing as an impoverished nobleman looking for food on the church porch. He penetrates into Orgon’s family because in this house, after the owner’s marriage to young Elmira, instead of the former piety, free morals, fun reign, and critical speeches are heard. In addition, Orgon's friend Argas, a political exile, participant in the Parliamentary Fronde (1649), left him incriminating documents, which are stored in a box. Such a family could well seem suspicious to the “Society”, and surveillance was established on such families.

Tartuffe is not the embodiment of hypocrisy as a universal human vice, it is a socially generalized type. It is not for nothing that he is not alone in the comedy: his servant Laurent, the bailiff Loyal, and the old woman - Orgon's mother Madame Pernel - are hypocritical. They all cover up their unsightly actions with pious speeches and vigilantly monitor the behavior of others. Tartuffe’s characteristic appearance is created by his imaginary holiness and humility: “He prayed near me in church every day, // Kneeling in an outburst of piety. // He attracted everyone's attention" (I, 6). Tartuffe is not without external attractiveness; he has courteous, insinuating manners, which hide prudence, energy, an ambitious thirst for power, and the ability to take revenge. He settled well in Orgon's house, where the owner not only satisfies his slightest whims, but is also ready to give him his daughter Marianne, a rich heiress, as his wife. Orgon confides all secrets to him, including entrusting him with the storage of the treasured box with incriminating documents. Tartuffe succeeds because he is a subtle psychologist; playing on the fear of the gullible Orgon, he forces the latter to reveal any secrets to him. Tartuffe covers up his insidious plans with religious arguments. He is well aware of his strength, and therefore does not restrain his vicious desires. He does not love Marianne, she is only an advantageous bride for him, he is carried away by the beautiful Elmira, whom Tartuffe is trying to seduce. His casuistic reasoning that betrayal is not a sin if no one knows about it outrages Elmira. Damis, Orgon's son, a witness to the secret meeting, wants to expose the scoundrel, but he, having taken a pose of self-flagellation and repentance for supposedly imperfect sins, again makes Orgon his defender. When, after the second date, Tartuffe falls into a trap and Orgon kicks him out of the house, he begins to take revenge, fully revealing his vicious, corrupt and selfish nature.

But Molière not only exposes hypocrisy. In Tartuffe, he poses an important question: why did Orgon allow himself to be so deceived? This already middle-aged man, clearly not stupid, with a strong disposition and strong will, succumbed to the widespread fashion for piety. Orgon believes in Tartuffe’s piety and “holiness” and sees him as his spiritual mentor. However, he becomes a pawn in the hands of Tartuffe, who shamelessly declares that Orgon would rather believe him “than his own eyes” (IV, 5). The reason for this is the inertia of Orgon’s consciousness, brought up in submission to authority. This inertia does not give him the opportunity to critically comprehend the phenomena of life and evaluate the people around him. If Orgon nevertheless gains a sensible view of the world after Tartuffe is exposed, then his mother, the old woman Pernelle, a stupidly pious supporter of inert patriarchal views, never saw Tartuffe’s true face.

The younger generation, represented in the comedy, which immediately discerned Tartuffe’s true face, is united by the maid Dorina, who has long and faithfully served in Orgon’s house and enjoys love and respect here. Her wisdom, common sense, and insight help to find the most suitable means to combat the cunning rogue.

The comedy Tartuffe had great social significance. In it, Moliere depicted not private family relationships, but the most harmful social vice - hypocrisy. In the Preface to Tartuffe, an important theoretical document, Moliere explains the meaning of his play. He affirms the social purpose of comedy, states that “the task of comedy is to castigate vices, and there should be no exceptions here. From a state point of view, the vice of hypocrisy is one of the most dangerous in its consequences. The theater has the ability to counteract vice.” It was hypocrisy, according to Moliere’s definition, the main state vice of France of his time, that became the object of his satire. In a comedy that evokes laughter and fear, Moliere painted a profound picture of what was happening in France. Hypocrites like Tartuffe, despots, informers and avengers, dominate the country with impunity and commit genuine atrocities; lawlessness and violence are the results of their activities. Moliere painted a picture that should have alerted those who ruled the country. And although the ideal king at the end of the play acts justly (which was explained by Moliere’s naive faith in a just and reasonable monarch), the social situation outlined by Moliere seems threatening.

Moliere the artist, when creating Tartuffe, used a wide variety of means: here you can find elements of farce (Orgon hides under the table), comedy of intrigue (the story of the box with documents), comedy of manners (scenes in the house of a rich bourgeois), comedy of characters (dependence of development actions from the character of the hero). At the same time, Moliere's work is a typically classicist comedy. All the “rules” are strictly observed in it: it is designed not only to entertain, but also to instruct the viewer. In the “Preface” to “Tartuffe” it is said: “You can’t catch people’s attention better than by depicting their shortcomings. They listen to reproaches indifferently, but cannot bear ridicule. Comedy reproaches people for their shortcomings in pleasant teachings.”

Don Juan, or the Stone Guest" (1665) was written extremely quickly to improve the affairs of the theater after the banning of "Tartuffe". Moliere turned to an unusually popular theme, first developed in Spain, about the libertine who knows no barriers in his pursuit of pleasure. For the first time, Tirso de Molina wrote about Don Juan, using folk sources, the Seville chronicles about Don Juan Tenorio, a libertine who kidnapped the daughter of Commander Gonzalo de Ulloa, killed him and desecrated his tombstone. Later, this theme attracted the attention of playwrights in Italy and France, who developed it as a legend about an unrepentant sinner, devoid of national and everyday characteristics. Moliere treated this well-known theme in a completely original way, abandoning the religious and moral interpretation of the image of the main character. His Don Juan is an ordinary socialite, and the events that happen to him are determined by the properties of his nature, everyday traditions, and social relationships. Moliere's Don Juan, whom his servant Sganarelle defines from the very beginning of the play as “the greatest of all villains that the earth has ever bore, a monster, a dog, a devil, a Turk, a heretic” (I, 1), is a young daredevil, a rake, who does not see any barriers to the manifestation of his vicious personality: he lives by the principle “everything is allowed.” Creating his Don Juan, Moliere denounced not debauchery in general, but the immorality inherent in the French aristocrat of the 17th century; Moliere knew this breed of people well and therefore depicted his hero very reliably.

Like all the secular dandies of his time, Don Juan lives in debt, borrowing money from the “black bone” he despises - the bourgeois Dimanche, whom he manages to charm with his courtesy, and then send him out the door without paying the debt. Don Juan freed himself from all moral responsibility. He seduces women, destroys other people's families, cynically strives to corrupt everyone with whom he deals: simple-minded peasant girls, each of whom he promises to marry, a beggar to whom he offers gold for blasphemy, Sganarelle, to whom he sets a clear example of how to treat the creditor Dimanche. The “philistine” virtues - marital fidelity and filial respect - only make him smile. Don Juan's father, Don Luis, tries to reason with his son, convincing him that “the title of nobleman must be justified” by personal “merits and good deeds,” for “noble birth without virtue is nothing,” and “virtue is the first sign of nobility.” Outraged by his son’s immorality, Don Luis admits that “the son of some housekeeper, if he is an honest man,” he places “higher than the son of a king” if the latter lives like Don Juan (IV, 6). Don Juan interrupts his father only once: “If you sat down, it would be more convenient for you to speak,” but he expresses his cynical attitude towards him with the words: “Oh, you should die quickly, it infuriates me that fathers live as long as sons" (IV, 7). Don Juan beats the peasant Pierrot, to whom he owes his life, in response to his indignation: “Do you think that if you are a master, then you can molest our girls under our noses?” (II, 3). He laughs at Sganarelle’s objection: “If you are of noble birth, if you have a blond wig... a hat with feathers... then that makes you smarter... everything is allowed to you, and no one dares to tell you the truth?” (I, 1). Don Juan knows that everything is exactly like this: he is placed in special privileged conditions. And he proves in practice Sganarelle’s sad observation: “When a noble gentleman is also a bad person, it is terrible” (I, 1). However, Moliere objectively notes in his hero the intellectual culture characteristic of the nobility. Grace, wit, courage, beauty - these are also traits of Don Juan, who knows how to charm not only women. Sganarelle, a multi-valued figure (he is both simple-minded and insightfully intelligent), condemns his master, although he often admires him. Don Juan is smart, he thinks broadly; he is a universal skeptic who laughs at everything - love, medicine, and religion. Don Juan is a philosopher, a freethinker. However, Don Juan's attractive features, combined with his conviction of his right to trample on the dignity of others, only emphasize the vitality of this image.

The main thing for Don Juan, a convinced woman lover, is the desire for pleasure. Not wanting to think about the misadventures that await him, he admits: “I cannot love once, every new object fascinates me... Nothing can stop my desires. My heart is capable of loving the whole world.” He thinks just as little about the moral meaning of his actions and their consequences for others. Moliere portrayed in Don Juan one of those secular freethinkers of the 17th century who justified their immoral behavior with a certain philosophy: they understood pleasure as the constant satisfaction of sensual desires. At the same time, they openly despised the church and religion. For Don Juan there is no afterlife, hell, heaven. He only believes that two and two are four. Sganarelle accurately noticed the superficiality of this bravado: “There are such scoundrels in the world who dissipate for unknown reasons and pretend to be freethinkers because they believe that it suits them.” However, the superficial secular libertineism, so widespread in France in the 1660s, in Molière’s Don Juan does not exclude genuine philosophical free-thinking: a convinced atheist, he came to such views through a developed intellect freed from dogmas and prohibitions. And his ironically colored logic in a dispute with Sganarelle on philosophical topics convinces the reader and is in his favor. One of Don Juan's attractive traits throughout most of the play remains his sincerity. He is not a prude, he does not try to portray himself as better than he is, and in general he does not value other people’s opinions. In the scene with the beggar (III, 2), having mocked him to his heart’s content, he still gives him a gold “not for Christ’s sake, but out of love for mankind.” However, in the fifth act, a dramatic change occurs to him: Don Juan becomes a hypocrite. The seasoned Sganarelle exclaims in horror: “What a man, what a man!” The pretense, the mask of piety that Don Juan puts on, is nothing more than a profitable tactic; she allows him to get out of seemingly hopeless situations; make peace with his father, on whom he financially depends, and safely avoid a duel with the brother of Elvira, whom he abandoned. Like many in his social circle, he only assumed the appearance of a decent person. In his own words, hypocrisy has become a “fashionable, privileged vice” that covers up any sins, and fashionable vices are regarded as virtues. Continuing the theme raised in Tartuffe, Moliere shows the universal nature of hypocrisy, widespread in different classes and officially encouraged. The French aristocracy was also involved in it.

In creating Don Juan, Moliere followed not only the ancient Spanish plot, but also the methods of constructing Spanish comedy with its alternation of tragic and comic scenes, rejection of the unity of time and place, and violation of the unity of linguistic style (the speech of the characters here is individualized more than in any other or another play by Moliere). The character structure of the main character also turns out to be more complex. And yet, despite these partial deviations from the strict canons of the poetics of classicism, Don Juan remains on the whole a classicist comedy, the main purpose of which is the fight against human vices, the formulation of moral and social problems, and the depiction of generalized, typified characters.

The Bourgeois among the Nobility" (1670) was written directly by order of Louis XIV. When in 1669, as a result of Colbert’s policy of establishing diplomatic and economic relations with the countries of the East, the Turkish embassy arrived in Paris, the king received it with fabulous luxury. However, the Turks, with their Muslim reserve, expressed no admiration for this magnificence. The offended king wanted to see a spectacle on the stage in which he could laugh at Turkish ceremonies. This is the external impetus for the creation of the play. Initially, Moliere came up with the scene of initiation into the rank of “mamamushi”, approved by the king, from which the entire plot of the comedy later grew. At its center he placed a narrow-minded and vain tradesman, who at all costs wanted to become a nobleman. This makes him easily believe that the son of the Turkish Sultan allegedly wants to marry his daughter.

During the era of absolutism, society was divided into “court” and “city”. Throughout the 17th century. We observe in the “city” a constant attraction to the “court”: buying positions, land holdings (which was encouraged by the king, as it replenished the eternally empty treasury), currying favor, adopting noble manners, language and morals, the bourgeois tried to get closer to those from whom they separated by bourgeois origin. The nobility, experiencing economic and moral decline, nevertheless retained its privileged position. His authority, which had developed over the centuries, his arrogance and, albeit often, external culture, subjugated the bourgeoisie, which in France had not yet reached maturity and had not developed class consciousness. Observing the relationship between these two classes, Moliere wanted to show the power of the nobility over the minds of the bourgeoisie, which was based on the superiority of the noble culture and the low level of development of the bourgeoisie; at the same time, he wanted to free the bourgeoisie from this power, to sober them up. Depicting people of the third estate, the bourgeois, Moliere divides them into three groups: those who were characterized by patriarchy, inertia, and conservatism; people of a new type, with a sense of self-esteem and, finally, those who imitate the nobility, which has a detrimental effect on their psyche. Among these latter is the main character of “The Bourgeois in the Nobility,” Mr. Jourdain.

This is a man completely captured by one dream - to become a nobleman. The opportunity to get closer to noble people is happiness for him, all his ambition lies in achieving similarities with them, his whole life is the desire to imitate them. The thought of nobility takes possession of him completely; in this mental blindness he loses all correct understanding of the world. He acts without reasoning, to his own detriment. He reaches the point of spiritual depravity and begins to be ashamed of his parents. He is fooled by everyone who wants to; he is robbed by teachers of music, dancing, fencing, philosophy, tailors and various apprentices. The rudeness, bad manners, ignorance, vulgarity of language and manners of Mr. Jourdain comically contrast with his claims to noble grace and gloss. But Jourdain evokes laughter, not disgust, because, unlike other similar upstarts, he worships the nobility disinterestedly, out of ignorance, as a kind of dream of beauty.

Mr. Jourdain is opposed by his wife, a true representative of the philistinism. She is a sensible, practical woman with self-esteem. She tries with all her might to resist her husband’s mania, his inappropriate claims, and most importantly, to clear the house of uninvited guests who live at the expense of Jourdain and exploit his gullibility and vanity. Unlike her husband, she does not have any respect for the title of nobility and prefers to marry her daughter to a man who would be her equal and would not look down on her bourgeois relatives. The younger generation - Jourdain's daughter Lucille and her fiancé Cleont - are people of a new type. Lucille received a good upbringing; she loves Cleontes for his virtues. Cleont is noble, but not by origin, but by character and moral qualities: honest, truthful, loving, he can be useful to society and the state.

Who are those whom Jourdain wants to imitate? Count Dorant and Marquise Dorimena are people of noble birth, they have refined manners and captivating politeness. But the count is a poor adventurer, a swindler, ready for any meanness, even pimping, for the sake of money. Dorimena, together with Dorant, robs Jourdain. The conclusion to which Moliere leads the viewer is obvious: even though Jourdain is ignorant and simple-minded, even though he is ridiculous and selfish, he is an honest man, and there is nothing to despise him for. Morally, trusting and naive in his dreams, Jourdain is higher than the aristocrats. So the comedy-ballet, the original purpose of which was to entertain the king in his Chambord castle, where he went hunting, became, under the pen of Molière, a satirical, social work.

In Moliere's work, several themes can be distinguished, which he repeatedly addressed, developing and deepening them. These include the theme of hypocrisy (“Tartuffe”, “Don Juan”, “The Misanthrope”, “The Imaginary Invalid”, etc.), the theme of the bourgeois among the nobility (“The School of Wives”, “Georges Dandin”, “The Bourgeois among the Nobility” ), the topic of family, marriage, education, education. The first comedy on this topic, as we remember, was “Funny Primroses”, it was continued in “The School for Husbands” and “The School for Wives”, and was completed in the comedy “Learned Women” (1672), which ridicules the external passion for science and philosophy in Parisian salons of the second half of the 17th century. Moliere shows how a secular literary salon turns into a “scientific academy”, where vanity and pedantry are valued, where claims for the correctness and elegance of language try to cover up the vulgarity and sterility of the mind (II, 6, 7; III, 2). A superficial interest in the philosophy of Plato or the mechanics of Descartes prevents women from fulfilling their immediate basic duties as a wife, mother, and housewife. Moliere saw this as a social danger. He laughs at the behavior of his pseudoscientific heroines - Filaminta, Belize, Armanda. But he admires Henrietta, a woman of a clear, sober mind and by no means an ignoramus. Of course, Moliere is not ridiculing science and philosophy here, but the fruitless game in them, which is harmful to a practical, common-sense outlook on life.

No wonder Boileau, who highly valued Moliere’s work, accused his friend of being “too popular.” The nationality of Moliere's comedies, which manifested itself both in their content and in their form, was based primarily on the folk traditions of farce. Moliere followed these traditions in his literary and acting work, maintaining a passion for democratic theater all his life. His folk characters also testify to the nationality of Moliere's work. These are, first of all, servants: Mascarille, Sganarelle, Soziy, Scapin, Dorina, Nicole, Toinette. It was in their images that Moliere expressed the characteristic features of the national French character: cheerfulness, sociability, friendliness, wit, dexterity, daring, common sense.

In addition, in his comedies, Moliere depicted peasants and peasant life with genuine sympathy (remember the scenes in the village in “The Reluctant Doctor” or in “Don Juan”). The language of Moliere's comedies also testifies to their true nationality: it often contains folklore material - proverbs, sayings, beliefs, folk songs that attracted Moliere with their spontaneity, simplicity, and sincerity (“The Misanthrope,” “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”). Moliere boldly used dialectisms, folk patois (dialect), various vernaculars, and phrases that were incorrect from the point of view of strict grammar. Witticisms and folk humor give Moliere's comedies a unique charm.

Describing Moliere's work, researchers often claim that in his works he “went beyond the boundaries of classicism.” In this case, they usually refer to deviations from the formal rules of classicist poetics (for example, in “Don Juan” or some farcical comedies). We cannot agree with this. The rules for constructing comedy were not interpreted as strictly as the rules for tragedy, and allowed for wider variation. Moliere is the most significant and most characteristic comedy writer of classicism. Sharing the principles of classicism as an artistic system, Moliere made genuine discoveries in the field of comedy. He demanded a truthful representation of reality, preferring to move from direct observation of life phenomena to the creation of typical characters. These characters, under the playwright's pen, acquire social definition; Many of his observations therefore turned out to be prophetic: such, for example, is the depiction of the peculiarities of bourgeois psychology.

Satire in Moliere's comedies always contained a social meaning. The comedian did not paint portraits or record secondary phenomena of reality. He created comedies that depicted the life and customs of modern society, but for Moliere it was essentially a form of expression of social protest, a demand for social justice.

His worldview was based on experimental knowledge, concrete observations of life, which he preferred to abstract speculation. In his views on morality, Moliere was convinced that only following natural laws is the key to rational and moral human behavior. But he wrote comedies, which means his attention was drawn to violations of the norms of human nature, deviations from natural instincts in the name of far-fetched values. In his comedies, two types of “fools” are depicted: those who do not know their nature and its laws (Moliere tries to teach and sober up such people), and those who deliberately cripple their own or someone else’s nature (he considers such people dangerous and requiring isolation) . According to the playwright, if a person's nature is perverted, he becomes a moral monster; False, false ideals underlie false, perverted morality. Moliere demanded genuine moral rigor, reasonable restrictions on the individual; Personal freedom for him is not blind adherence to the call of nature, but the ability to subordinate one’s nature to the demands of reason. Therefore, his positive heroes are reasonable and sensible.

III Development of student sports, physical culture and formation of healthy lifestyle values ​​among students

Level III. Formation of word formation of nouns

III. From the proposed words, choose the one that most closely conveys the meaning of the underlined

He considered himself an actor, not a playwright.

He wrote the play “The Misanthrope” and the French Academy, which could not stand him, was so delighted that they offered him to become an academician and receive the title of immortal. But this is conditional. That he will stop going on stage as an actor. Moliere refused. After his death, the academicians erected a monument to him and wrote in Latin: his glory is boundless for the fullness of our glory we lack him.

Moliere highly valued Corneille's plays. I thought that tragedy should be staged in the theater. And he considered himself a tragic actor. he was a very educated man. Graduated from Clermont College. He translated Lucretius from Latin. He was not a buffoon. By outward appearances, he was not a comic actor. he really had all the qualities of a tragic actor - a hero. Only his breathing was weak. It wasn't enough for a full stanza. He took theater seriously.

Moliere borrowed all the plots and they were not the main ones for him. It is impossible to base the plot on its dramaturgy. The main thing there is the interaction of characters, not the plot.

He wrote “Don Juan” at the request of the actors in 3 months. That's why it is written in prose. There was no time to rhyme it. When you read Moliere, you need to understand what role Moliere himself played. Because he played the main role. He wrote all the roles for the actors, taking into account their individual characteristics. When he joined the troupe Lagrange , who kept the famous register. He began to write heroic roles for him and a Don Juan role for him. It is difficult to stage Molière, because when writing the play he took into account the psychophysiological capabilities of the actors in his troupe. This is tough material. His actors were golden. He quarreled with Racine over an actress (Marquise Teresa Duparc), whom Racine lured to him with the promise of writing the role of Andromache for her.

Moliere is the creator of high comedy.

High comedy - comedy without a positive hero(School for Wives, Tartuffe, Don Juan, The Miser, The Misanthrope). There is no need to look for positive heroes from him there.

A tradesman among the nobility is not a high comedy.

But he also has farces.

High comedy addresses the mechanisms that give rise to vices in humans.

Main character - Orgone (played by Molière)

Tartuffe appears in act 3.

Everyone argues about it and the viewer must take some point of view.

Orgon is not an idiot, but why did he bring Tartuffe into the house and trust him so much? Orgon is not young (about 50), and his second wife Elmira is almost the same age as his children. He must solve the problem of the soul for himself. How to combine spiritual and social life with a young wife. For the 17th century, this was the main reason why the play was closed. But the king did not close this play. All of Moliere's appeals to the king were due to the fact that he did not know the true reason why the play was closed. And they closed it because of Anna, the Austrian mother of the king. And the king could not influence the mother’s decision.

She died in 69, and in 70 the play was immediately performed. What was the problem? In the question of what is grace and what is a secular person. Argon meets Tartuffe in the church in a noble dress, who brings him holy water. Orgon had a great desire to find a person who would combine these two qualities and it seemed to him that Tartuffe such a person. He takes him into the house and seems to go crazy. Everything in the house went upside down. Moliere turns to a precise psychological mechanism. When a person wants to be ideal, he tries to bring the ideal closer to himself physically. He begins not to break himself, but to bring the ideal closer to himself.

Tartuffe doesn't deceive anyone anywhere. He behaves simply arrogantly. Everyone understands. What is he an idiot except Madame Pernelle and Orgon . Dorina - housemaid Mariana is not a positive hero in this play. He behaves impudently. Mocking Argon. Cleant - Brother Elmira , brother-in-law of Orgon

Orgon gives Tartuffe everything. He wants to get as close to his idol as possible. Do not make yourself an idol. This is about psychological unfreedom. Super Christian play.

If a person lives by some idea, then no force can convince him. Orgon gives his daughter in marriage. He curses his son and throws him out of the house. Gives away his property. He gave someone else's box to a friend. Elmira was the only one who could dissuade him. And not in word, but in deed.

In order to perform this play at the Molière Theater they used a fringed tablecloth and a royal decree. the actor's existence there redeemed everything. How accurate is the theater?

The scene of revelation when Orgon is under the table. Lasts a long time. And when he gets out, he experiences a catastrophe. This is a sign of high comedy. The hero of high comedy experiences a real tragedy. He's here now. Like Othello, who realized that he had strangled Desdemona in vain. And when the main character suffers, the viewer laughs furiously. This is a paradoxical move. In every play Moliere has such a scene.

The more you suffer Harpagon in The Miser (the role of Molière) whose box is stolen, the funnier it is for the viewer. He shouts - police! Arrest me! Cut off my hand! Why are you laughing? He says to the viewer. Maybe you stole my wallet? He asks the nobles sitting on the stage. The gallery laughs. Or maybe there is a thief among you? He turns to the gallery. And the audience laughs more and more. And when they’ve already laughed it off. After some time they should understand. That Harpagon is them.

Textbooks write nonsense about Tartuffe regarding the ending. When a guard comes with the king’s decree, they write that Moliere couldn’t stand it and made concessions to the king in order to get the play through... it’s not true!

In France, the king is the pinnacle of the spiritual world. This is the embodiment of reason and ideas. Orgon, through his efforts, plunged nightmare and destruction into the life of his family. And if you end up with Orgon being kicked out of the house, then what is that play about? About the fact that he's just a fool and that's all. But this is not a subject for conversation. There is no ending. A guard with a decree appears as a certain function (a god on a machine), a certain force that is able to restore order in Orgon’s house. He is forgiven, his house and box are returned to him, and the tartuffe goes to prison. You can put your house in order, but you can’t put your head in order. Maybe he will bring a new Tartuffe into the house?.. and we understand that the play reveals the psychological mechanism of inventing an ideal, getting closer to this ideal, in the absence of the opportunity for this person to really change. The man is funny. As soon as a person begins to look for support in some idea, he turns into Orgone. This play is not going well for us.

In France, since the 17th century, there was a secret conspiratorial society (the society of secret communion or the society of the holy gifts), headed by Anna of Austria, which served as the morality police. it was the third political force in the state. Cardinal Richelieu knew and fought against this society and this was the basis of their conflict with the queen.

At this time, the Jesuit order began to actively operate. Who know how to combine secular and spiritual life. Salon abbots appear (Aramis is like that). They made religion attractive to the secular population. And the same Jesuits infiltrated homes and took possession of property. Because an order for something had to exist. And the play Tartuffe was written at the personal request of the king. In Molière's troupe there was a farceur actor who played farces by Grovenet du Parc (?). and the first edition was a farce. It ended with Tartuffe taking everything away and driving Orgon out. Tartuffe was played for the opening of Versailles. And in the middle of Act 1, the queen stood up and left, as soon as it became clear who Tartuffe was. the play was closed. Although she walked freely in manuscripts and was played in private houses. But Molière’s troupe could not do this. Nucius arrived from Rome and Moliere asked him why he was forbidden to play it? He said, I don’t understand. Normal play. Here in Italy they write worse. Then the performer of the role of Tartuffe dies and Moliere rewrites the play. Tartuffe becomes a nobleman with a more complex character. The play is changing before our eyes. Then the war with the Netherlands began, the king leaves there and Moliere writes an appeal to the chairman of the Parisian parliament, not knowing that this is the right hand of Anne of Austria in this order. and the play is of course banned again

The Jansenists and the Jesuits started a dispute about grace. As a result, the king reconciled them all and played the play Tartuffe. The Jansenists thought that Tartuffe was a Jesuit. And the Jesuits say that he is a Jansenist.