The satirical type of Dorant is an expression of the class position of J. B.

About Moliere: 1622-1673, France. Born into the family of a court upholsterer and decorator, he received an excellent education. He knew ancient languages, ancient literature, history, philosophy, etc. From there I gained convictions about the freedom of the human person. He could have been a scientist, a lawyer, or followed in his father’s footsteps, but he became an actor (and that was a shame). He played at the Brilliant Theater, despite his talent for comic roles, almost the entire troupe staged tragedies. Two years later the theater disbanded and they became traveling theater. Moliere looked at people, at life, at characters, realized that they were better comedians than tragedians, and began to write comedies. In Paris they were received with delight, Louis 14 left the court theater to them to be torn to pieces, and then they got their own - the Palais Royal. There he staged faxes and comedies on topical topics, ridiculed the vices of society, sometimes individuals, and, naturally, made enemies for himself. However, he was favored by the king and became his favorite. Louis even became the godson of his first-born son in order to ward off rumors and gossip from his marriage. And still, people liked the plays, and even I liked them)

The playwright died after the fourth performance of The Imaginary Invalid; he felt ill on stage and barely finished the performance. That same night Moliere died. The burial of Moliere, who died without church repentance and did not renounce the “shameful” profession of an actor, turned into a public scandal. The Archbishop of Paris, who did not forgive Moliere for Tartuffe, did not allow the great writer to be buried according to the accepted church rite. It took the king's intervention. The funeral took place late in the evening, without observing proper ceremonies, outside the fence of the cemetery, where unknown vagabonds and suicides were usually buried. However, behind Moliere’s coffin, along with his family, friends, and colleagues, was a large crowd of ordinary people, to whose opinion Moliere listened so subtly.

In classicism, the rules for constructing comedy were not interpreted as strictly as the rules of tragedy, and allowed for wider variation. Sharing the principles of classicism as 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.

Moliere wrote comedies two types; they differed in content, intrigue, comic nature, and structure. Domestic comedies , short, written in prose, the plot is reminiscent of headlights. And, in fact, « high comedy» .

1. Dedicated to important social issues (not just to ridicule manners as in “Funny Primroses,” but to expose the vices of society).

2. In five acts.

3. In verse.

4. Full compliance with the classic trinity (place, time, action)

5. Comic: comic character, intellectual comic.

6. No conventions.

7. The character of the heroes is revealed by external and internal factors. External factors- events, situations, actions. Internal - spiritual experiences.

8. Standard roles. Young heroes are usually lovers ; their servants (usually cunning, accomplices of their masters); eccentric hero (a clown, a character full of comic contradictions); hero-sage , or reasoner .

For example: Tartuffe, Misanthrope, Tradesman among the Nobility, Don Juan, in general, everything that needed to be read. These comedies contain elements of farce and comedy of intrigue and comedy of manners, but in fact these are comedies of classicism. Moliere himself described the meaning of their social content as follows: “You can’t penetrate people better than by depicting their shortcomings. People listen to reproaches indifferently, but cannot bear ridicule... Comedy saves people from their vices.” Don Juan Before him, everything was made into a Christian edifying play, but he went a different route. The play is full of social and everyday concreteness (see the point “no conventions”). The main character is not an abstract rake or the embodiment of universal debauchery, but a representative of a certain type of French nobles. He is a typical, concrete person, not a symbol. Creating your own Don Juan, Moliere denounced not debauchery in general, but the immorality inherent in the French aristocrat of the 17th century. There are a lot of details from real life, but I think you will find this in the corresponding ticket. 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 at all 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.

Misanthrope was even recognized by the strict Boileau as a truly “high comedy.” In it, Moliere showed the injustice of the social system, moral decline, the rebellion of a strong, noble personality against social evil. It contrasts two philosophies, two worldviews (Alceste and Flint are opposites). It is devoid of any theatrical effects, dialogue here completely replaces action, and the comedy of characters is the comedy of situations. “The Misanthrope” was created during the serious trials that befell Moliere. This, perhaps, explains its content - deep and sad. The comedy of this essentially tragic play is connected precisely with the character of the main character, who is endowed with weaknesses. Alceste is hot-tempered, lacks a sense of proportion and tact, he reads moral lectures insignificant people, idealizes the unworthy woman Celimene, loves her, forgives her everything, suffers, but hopes that she can revive the good qualities she has lost. But he is mistaken, he does not see that she already belongs to the environment that he rejects. Alceste is an expression of Moliere’s ideal, in some ways a reasoner, conveying the author’s opinion to the public.

About Tradesman in the nobility(it’s not on the tickets, but it’s on the list):

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. These latter include main character“The Bourgeois among 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.

22. "Misanthrope"

Brief recap:

1 ACTION. In the capital city of Paris live two friends, Alceste and Philinte. From the very beginning of the play, Alceste burns with indignation because Philinte warmly greeted and sang praises to the man he had just seen, even whose name he remembers with difficulty. Filint assures that all relationships are built on politeness, because it’s like an advance - he said kindness - you get kindness in return, it’s nice. Alceste claims that such “friendship” is worthless, that he despises the human race for its deceit, hypocrisy, and depravity; Alceste does not want to tell a lie if he does not like a person - he is ready to say so, but he will not lie and servile for the sake of his career or money. He is even ready to lose a trial in which he, the right one, is suing a man who achieved his fortune in the most disgusting ways, but to whom, however, everyone is welcome and no one will say a bad word. Alceste rejects Philinte’s advice to bribe the judges - and he considers his possible loss an occasion to tell the world about the corruption of people and the depravity of the world. However, Philinte notices that Alceste, despising the entire human race and wanting to escape from the city, does not attribute his hatred to Celimene, a flirtatious and hypocritical beauty - although Elianta, Celimene’s cousin, would be a much more suitable wife for his sincere and direct nature. But Alceste believes that Celimene is beautiful and pure, although covered with a touch of vice, but with his pure love he hopes to cleanse his beloved from the dirt of the world.

The friends are joined by Oroante, who expresses an ardent desire to become Alceste’s friend, to which he tries to politely refuse, saying that he is unworthy of such an honor. Oroant demands Alceste to say his opinion regarding the sonnet that came to his mind, after which he reads the verses. Oroante's poems are trashy, pompous, cliched, and Alceste, after much asking Oroante to be sincere, replies that he supposedly said to one of my poet acquaintances that graphomania must be restrained within oneself, that modern poetry is an order of magnitude worse than ancient French songs (and sings such a song twice), that the nonsense of professional authors can still be tolerated, but when an amateur not only writes, but also rushes to read out his rhymes to everyone - this is no longer which gate? Oroant, however, takes everything personally and leaves offended. Philint hints to Alceste that with his sincerity he has made himself another enemy.

2 ACTION. Alceste tells his beloved, Celimene, about his feelings, but he is dissatisfied with the fact that Celimene shows her favor to all her fans. He wants to be alone in her heart and not share it with anyone. Selimene reports that she is surprised by this new way of giving compliments to her beloved - grumbling and swearing. Alceste speaks of his fiery love and wants to talk seriously with Celimene. But Celimene’s servant, Basque, speaks of people who have come to visit, and to refuse them means making dangerous enemies. Alceste does not want to listen to the lying chatter of the world and slander, but remains. The guests take turns asking Celimena’s opinion about their mutual acquaintances, and in each of the absent ones, Celimena notes some features worthy of an evil laugh. Alceste is indignant at how the guests, with flattery and approval, force his beloved to slander. Everyone notices that this is not so, and it’s really somehow wrong to reproach your loved one. The guests gradually leave, and Alceste is taken to court by a gendarme.

3 ACTION. Clitander and Acast, two of the guests, contenders for Celimene’s hand, agree that the one of them who will continue the harassment will receive confirmation of her affection from the girl. With Selimene appearing, they start talking about Arsinoe, a mutual friend who does not have as many fans as Selimene, and therefore sanctimoniously preaches abstinence from vices; Moreover, Arsinoe is in love with Alceste, who does not share her feelings, having given his heart to Celimene, and for this Arsinoe hates her.

Arsinoe, who has arrived on a visit, is greeted joyfully by everyone, and the two marquises leave, leaving the ladies alone. They exchange pleasantries, after which Arsinoe talks about gossip that allegedly casts doubt on Celimene’s chastity. She responds by talking about other gossip - about Arsinoe’s hypocrisy. Alceste appears and interrupts the conversation, Selimene leaves to write an important letter, and Arsinoe remains with her lover. She takes him to her home in order to show him a letter allegedly compromising Celimene’s devotion to Alceste.

4 ACTION. Philinte tells Eliante about how Alceste refused to recognize Oroante's poems as worthy, criticizing the sonnet in accordance with his usual sincerity. He was reconciled with difficulty with the poet, and Elianta notes that she likes Alceste’s character and would be glad to become his wife. Philinte admits that Elianta can count on him as a groom if Celimene marries Alceste. Alceste appears with a letter, raging with jealousy. After trying to cool his anger, Philinte and Eliante leave him with Celimene. She swears that she loves Alceste, and the letter was simply misinterpreted by him, and, most likely, this letter is not to the gentleman at all, but to the lady - which removes its outrageousness. Alceste, refusing to listen to Celimene, finally admits that love makes him forget about the letter and he himself wants to justify his beloved. Dubois, Alceste’s servant, insists that his master is in big trouble, that he is facing the conclusion that his good friend told Alceste to hide and wrote him a letter, which Dubois forgot in the hall, but will bring. Selimene hurries Alceste to find out what’s the matter.

5 ACTION. Alceste was sentenced to pay a huge sum in a case that was lost after all, about which Alceste spoke with Philint at the beginning of the play. But Alcest does not want to appeal the decision - he is now firmly convinced of the depravity and wrongness of people, he wants to leave what happened as a reason to declare to the world his hatred of the human race. In addition, the same scoundrel who won the case against him attributes to Alceste the “vile little book” he published - and the “poet” Orontes, offended by Alceste, takes part in this. Alceste hides in the depths of the stage, and Orontes, who appears, begins to demand recognition from Celimene of her love for him. Alceste comes out and begins, together with Orontes, to demand a final decision from the girl - so that she admits her preference for one of them. Selimene is embarrassed and does not want to talk openly about her feelings, but the men insist. The marquises who came, Elianta, Philinte, Arsinoe, read aloud Celimene’s letter to one of the marquises, in which she hints at reciprocity, slandering all the other acquaintances present on the stage, except for Elianta and Philint. Everyone, having heard the “witness” about themselves, is offended and leaves the stage, and only the remaining Alceste says that he is not angry with his beloved, and is ready to forgive her everything if she agrees to leave the city with him and live married in a quiet corner. Celimene speaks with hostility about escaping from the world at such a young age, and after she twice repeated her judgment about this idea, Alceste exclaims that he no longer wants to remain in this society and promises to forget about Celimene’s love.

“The Misanthrope” belongs to the “high comedies” of Moliere, who moved from a sitcom with elements of folk theater (farce, low vocabulary, etc.), although not completely (in “Tartuffe,” for example, elements of farce are preserved - for example, Orgon hides under table to see the meeting of his wife and Tartuffe, who is harassing her), to intellectual comedy. Moliere's high comedies are character comedies, and in them the course of action and dramatic conflict arise and develop due to the characteristics of the characters of the main characters - and the characters of the main characters of “high comedies” are hypertrophied features that cause conflict among themselves among the characters between them and society.

So, following “Don Juan” in 1666, Moliere wrote and staged “The Misanthrope”, and this comedy is the highest reflection of “high comedy” - it is completely devoid of theatrical effects, and action and drama are created only by dialogues and clashes of characters. In “The Misanthrope” all three unities are observed, and in general, this is one of Moliere’s “most classicist” comedies (in comparison with the same “Don Juan”, in which the rules of classicism are freely violated).

The main character is Alceste (misanthrope - “not loving people"), sincere and direct (this is his characteristic feature), despising society for lies and hypocrisy, desperate to fight it (he does not want to win a court case with a bribe), dreaming of escaping into solitude - which is what happens at the end of the work. The second main character is Philinte, a friend of Alceste, who, like Alceste, is aware of the essence of deceit, selfishness, and greed in human society, but adapts to it in order to survive in human society. He also tries to explain to Alceste that the “irregularities” he sees are reflections of small mistakes in human nature, which should be treated with condescension. However, Alceste does not want to hide his attitude towards people, does not want to go against his nature, he serves at the court, where in order to rise, it is not feats before the fatherland that are needed, but immoral activity, which, nevertheless, does not cause any censure by society.

This is how the opposition between the eccentric hero (Alceste) and the sage hero (Philint) arises. Philinte, based on his understanding of the situation, makes a compromise, while Alcestus does not want to forgive the “weakness of human nature.” Although Philinte tries as much as possible to restrain Alcest’s impulses that escape the boundaries of social custom and make them less dangerous for himself, Alcest, the rebel hero, openly expresses his protest against the social ugliness that he encounters everywhere. However, his behavior is perceived either as “noble heroism” or as eccentricity.

Alceste, in connection with the rules of classicism, is not completely ideal - and comic effect The “sad comedy,” as they call “The Misanthrope,” is born because of Alceste’s weaknesses - his strong and jealous love, which forgives Celimene’s shortcomings, his ardor and intemperance in his tongue at the sight of vices. However, this also makes him more sympathetic and lively - in accordance with the basic poetics of classicism.

23. "Tartuffe"

Brief retelling from briefley.ru:

Madame Pernelle protects Tartuffe from the household. At the invitation of the owner, a certain Mr. Tartuffe settled in the house of the venerable Orgon. Orgon doted on him, considering him an incomparable example of righteousness and wisdom: Tartuffe’s speeches were extremely sublime, his teachings - thanks to which Orgon learned that the world is a big cesspool, and now he would not blink an eye, burying his wife, children and other loved ones - extremely useful, piety aroused admiration; and how selflessly Tartuffe cherished the morality of Orgon’s family... Of all the household members, Orgon’s admiration for the newly-minted righteous man was shared, however, only by his mother, Madame Pernelle. At the beginning, Madame Pernelle said that the only one in this house good man- Tartuffe. Dorina, Mariana's maid, in her opinion, is a loud rude person, Elmira, Orgon's wife, is wasteful, her brother Cleanthes is a freethinker, Orgon's children Damis is a fool and Mariana is a modest girl, but in a quiet pool! But they all see in Tartuffe who he really was - a hypocritical saint, cleverly taking advantage of Orgon’s delusion in his simple earthly interests: eating well and sleeping softly, having a reliable roof over his head and some other benefits.

Orgon's family was completely disgusted with Tartuffe's moral teachings; with his worries about decency, he drove almost all his friends away from home. But as soon as someone spoke badly about this zealot of piety, Madame Pernelle created stormy scenes, and Orgon simply remained deaf to any speeches that were not imbued with admiration for Tartuffe. When Orgon returned from a short absence and demanded from the maid Dorina a report on the news at home, the news of his wife’s illness left him completely indifferent, while the story of how Tartuffe happened to overeat at dinner, then sleep until noon, and drink too much wine at breakfast, filled Orgon with compassion for the poor fellow; “Oh, poor thing!” - he says about Tartuffe, while Dorina is talking about how bad his wife was.

Orgon's daughter, Mariana, is in love with a noble young man named Valer, and her brother Damis is in love with Valer's sister. Orgon seems to have already given his consent to the marriage of Mariana and Valera, but for some reason he keeps postponing the wedding. Damis, concerned about his own fate - his marriage to Valera's sister was supposed to follow Mariana's wedding - asked Cleanthe to find out from Orgon the reason for the delay. Orgon answered questions so evasively and incomprehensibly that Cleanthes suspected that he had decided to somehow dispose of his daughter’s future.

Exactly how Orgon sees Mariana’s future became clear when he told his daughter that Tartuffe’s perfections needed reward, and that reward would be his marriage to her, Mariana. The girl was stunned, but did not dare contradict her father. Dorina had to stand up for her: the maid tried to explain to Orgon that marrying Mariana to Tartuffe - a beggar, a low-spirited freak - would mean becoming the subject of ridicule of the whole city, and besides, would push her daughter onto the path of sin, for no matter how virtuous the girl was, she would not It's simply impossible to cuckold a hubby like Tartuffe. Dorina spoke very passionately and convincingly, but despite this, Orgon remained adamant in his determination to become related to Tartuffe.

Mariana was ready to submit to her father's will - this is what her daughter's duty told her to do. Dorina tried to overcome her obedience, dictated by natural timidity and respect for her father, and she almost succeeded in doing so, unfolding before Mariana vivid pictures of the marital happiness prepared for him and Tartuffe.

But when Valer asked Mariana if she was going to submit to Orgon’s will, the girl replied that she didn’t know. But this is only to “flirt”; she sincerely loves Valera. In a fit of despair, Valer advised her to do as her father ordered, while he himself would find himself a bride who would not cheat this word; Mariana replied that she would only be happy about this, and as a result, the lovers almost parted forever, but then Dorina arrived in time, who had already been swayed by these lovers with their “concessions” and “omissions.” She convinced young people of the need to fight for their happiness. But they just need to act not directly, but in a roundabout way, to stall for time - the bride is either sick, or sees bad signs, and then something will certainly work out, because everyone - Elmira, and Cleanthes, and Damis - is against Orgon’s absurd plan,

Damis, even too determined, was going to properly rein in Tartuffe so that he would forget about marrying Mariana. Dorina tried to cool his ardor, to convince him that more could be achieved with cunning than with threats, but she was not able to completely convince him of this.

Suspecting that Tartuffe was not indifferent to Orgon's wife, Dorina asked Elmira to talk to him and find out what he himself thought about marriage with Mariana. When Dorina told Tartuffe that the lady wanted to talk with him face to face, the saintly man perked up. At first, scattering heavy compliments in front of Elmira, he did not let her open her mouth, but when she finally asked a question about Mariana, Tartuffe began to assure her that his heart was captivated by another. To Elmira’s bewilderment - how is it that a man of holy life is suddenly seized by carnal passion? - her admirer answered with fervor that yes, he is pious, but at the same time he is also a man, saying that the heart is not flint... Immediately, without mincing words, Tartuffe invited Elmira to indulge in the delights of love. In response, Elmira asked how, in Tartuffe’s opinion, her husband would behave when he heard about his vile harassment. But Tartuffe says that sin is not a sin as long as no one knows about it. Elmira offers a deal: Orgon will not find out anything, Tartuffe, for his part, will try to get Mariana to marry Valere as soon as possible.

Damis ruined everything. He overheard the conversation and, indignant, rushed to his father. But, as one might expect, Orgon believed not his son, but Tartuffe, who this time outdid himself in hypocritical self-abasement. T. accuses himself of all mortal sins and says that he won’t even make excuses. In anger, he ordered Damis to get out of sight and announced that today Tartuffe would marry Mariana. As a dowry, Orgon gave his entire fortune to his future son-in-law.

Cleante tried for the last time to talk humanly with Tartuffe and convince him to reconcile with Damis, give up his unjustly acquired property and Mariana - after all, it is not appropriate for a Christian to use a quarrel between father and son for his own enrichment, much less condemn a girl to lifelong torment. But Tartuffe, a noble rhetorician, had an excuse for everything.

Mariana begged her father not to give her to Tartuffe - let him take the dowry, and she it'll go better to the monastery. But Orgon, who had learned something from his favorite, without blinking an eye, convinced the poor thing of the soul-saving life with a husband who only causes disgust - after all, mortification of the flesh is only useful. Finally, Elmira could not stand it - since her husband does not believe the words of his loved ones, he should see with his own eyes the baseness of Tartuffe. Convinced that he had to make sure of just the opposite - of the high morality of the righteous man - Orgon agreed to crawl under the table and from there eavesdrop on the conversation that Elmira and Tartuffe would have in private.

Tartuffe immediately fell for Elmira’s feigned speeches about what she allegedly feels for him strong feeling, but at the same time showed a certain prudence: before refusing to marry Mariana, he wanted to receive from her stepmother, so to speak, a tangible guarantee of tender feelings. As for the violation of the commandment, which will be associated with the delivery of this pledge, then, as Tartuffe assured Elmira, he has his own ways of dealing with heaven.

What Orgon heard from under the table was enough for his blind faith in the holiness of Tartuffe to finally collapse. He ordered the scoundrel to get away immediately, he tried to make excuses, but now it was useless. Then Tartuffe changed his tone and, before proudly leaving, promised to brutally get even with Orgon.

Tartuffe’s threat was not unfounded: firstly, Orgon had already managed to issue a deed of gift for his house, which from today belonged to Tartuffe; secondly, he entrusted the vile villain with a casket with papers incriminating Argas, his friend, who was forced to leave the country for political reasons.

It was necessary to urgently look for some way out. Damis volunteered to beat Tartuffe and discourage him from harming him, but Cleanthe stopped the young man - he argued that more could be achieved with the mind than with fists. Orgon's family had not yet come up with anything when the bailiff, Mr. Loyal, showed up on the doorstep of the house. He brought an order to vacate M. Tartuffe's house by tomorrow morning. At this point, not only Damis’s hands began to itch, but also Dorina’s and even Orgon himself.

As it turned out, Tartuffe did not fail to use the second opportunity he had to ruin the life of his recent benefactor: Valère, trying to save Mariana’s family, warns them with the news that the scoundrel has handed over a chest of papers to the king, and now Orgon faces arrest for aiding the rebel. Orgon decided to escape before it was too late, but the guards got ahead of him: the officer who entered announced that he was under arrest.

Tartuffe also came to Orgon's house with the royal officer. The family, including Madame Pernel, who had finally seen the light, began to unanimously shame the hypocritical villain, listing all his sins. Tom soon got tired of this, and he turned to the officer with a request to protect his person from vile attacks, but in response, to his great - and everyone's - amazement, he heard that he was arrested.

As the officer explained, in fact he did not come for Orgon, but in order to see how Tartuffe reaches the end in his shamelessness. The wise king, an enemy of lies and a stronghold of justice, from the very beginning had suspicions about the identity of the informer and turned out to be right, as always - under the name of Tartuffe was hiding a scoundrel and a swindler, on whose account a great many dark deeds were hiding. With his authority, the sovereign canceled the deed of gift for the house and forgave Orgon for indirectly aiding his rebellious brother.

Tartuffe was carried to prison in disgrace, but Orgon had no choice but to praise the wisdom and generosity of the monarch, and then bless the union of Valera and Mariana: “there is no better example,

How true love and devotion Valera"

2 groups of Moliere comedies:

1) domestic comedies, their comedy is a comedy of situations (“Funny primps”, “Reluctant Doctor”, etc.).

2) "high comedies" They must be written for the most part verses, consist of five acts. Comicism is comedy of character, intellectual comedy (“Tartuffe, or the Deceiver”,“Don Juan”, “Misanthrope”, etc.).

History of creation :

1st edition 1664(did not reach us) Only three acts. Tartuffe is a spiritual figure. Mariana is completely absent. Tartuffe deftly gets out of it when Orgon's son catches him with Elmira (stepmother). The triumph of Tartuffe unequivocally testified to the danger of hypocrisy.

The play was to be shown during the court festival “The Amusements of the Enchanted Island,” which took place in May 1664 at Versailles. However, she 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.

2nd edition 1667. (didn't arrive either)

He added two more acts (there were 5), 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 was called "Deceiver" ended with the exposure of Panyulf and the glorification of the king.

3rd edition 1669. (has reached us) the hypocrite was again called Tartuffe, and the whole play was “Tartuffe, or the Deceiver.”

“Tartuffe” caused a furious showdown between the church, the king and Moliere:

1. The idea of ​​a comedy king * By the way, Louis XIV generally loved Moliere*approved. After the performance of the play, M. sent the 1st “Petition” to the king, defended himself from accusations of godlessness and spoke about public role satirical writer. The king did not lift the ban, 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, at sacred functions.” .

2. The king gave permission to stage the play in its 2nd edition orally, in a hurry, upon leaving for the army. Immediately after the premiere, the comedy was again banned by the President of Parliament. Archbishop of Paris Refix prohibited all parishioners and clergymen ania "present, read or listen to a dangerous play" under penalty of excommunication . Moliere sent the king a second “Petition”, 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.

3. It’s clear that, despite all the prohibitions, everyone reads the book: in private homes, distributes it in manuscript, and performs it in closed home performances. The Queen Mother died in 1666* the one who was all indignant*, and Louis XIV quickly promised Moliere quick permission to stage it.

1668 year - the year of “church peace” between orthodox Catholicism and Jansenism => tolerance in religious matters. Tartuffe is permitted. February 9, 1669 the performance took place with huge success.

Moliere

Moliere (real name Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, 1622 - 1673) was a great comedian, director and actor. He was both the founder of classicist comedy and the legitimate heir to the traditions of folk farce. His work, more than all his predecessors and contemporaries, reflected the aspirations and aspirations of the French people.

Moliere's ancestors were artisans and upholsterers. His grandfather combined the craft of an upholsterer with trade, and his father bought the position of “court upholsterer.” Moliere received a good education at the College of Clermont, where he studied Latin, fluently reading Plautus and Terence in the original. WITH youth Moliere showed a penchant for philosophy, especially materialism. In particular, he studied the works of the French materialist Gassendi, who waged a fierce polemic with Descartes.

After graduating from the college (1639), Moliere passed the examination for the title of licentiate of rights at the University of Orleans, which opened up a career as a lawyer for him. But he rejected her and became an actor. Together with his friends the Bejarts, he organized the "Brilliant Theater", which existed for about two years (1643 - 1645). The theater was doing poorly due to the lack of good plays and experienced actors. In the fall of 1645, the business fell apart, the actors scattered, and Moliere, along with the Bejarts, went to seek their fortune in the provinces, joining one of the troupes of traveling comedians traveling around France.

Moliere worked in the provinces for thirteen years (1645 - 1658), experiencing all the hardships of provincial acting. These difficulties were aggravated by difficult conditions civil war- Fronts, competition from other traveling troupes, as well as general atmosphere hostile attitude of local authorities towards the theater. In such an environment, Moliere's acting talent strengthened. He found his true calling as a comic actor in the provinces. Here he became a playwright, having accumulated a large life experience, having widely known French reality, seeing the disasters of the people.

Since 1650, Moliere led the troupe and began to think about creating an original repertoire that would help it stand out among other provincial theaters. He began to write farcical scripts designed for actor improvisation. In these scenarios, Moliere, following the example of the actors of the Burgundian Hotel, combined the tradition of French farce with the tradition of Italian comedy of masks.

It was in the provinces that Moliere composed his first literary comedies- “Madcap” (1655) and “Love Quarrel” (1656), the plots of which he borrowed from Italian authors. In both comedies, the main character is the cunning servant Mascarille, witty, agile, enterprising, significantly superior in mental terms to his hapless master. This is the first sketch of the image of a talented and energetic man from the people, which will later be repeated in many of Moliere’s works.

The enormous success of the comedies brought Molière's troupe to first place in the province and attracted the attention of the court to it. In Paris at that time there was no theater specializing in comedy repertoire. Therefore, in the fall of 1658, Moliere's troupe received an invitation to perform at court. For her debut performance, she took Corneille's tragedy "Nicomed" and Moliere's one-act farce "The Doctor in Love", which has not reached us. The tragedy was not a success, but the farce made the king laugh very much, who decided to leave the troupe in Paris, giving it the premises of the Petit-Bourbon court theater. Here the Moliere Theater began to play, staging performances in line with Italian comedians who had settled in Paris.

During the first year of their stay in Paris, the troupe showed only old performances prepared in the provinces. Moliere, studying the theatrical life of Paris, replenished the troupe with new actors. He invited such later important members of his troupe as Lagrange, who performed the roles of hero-lovers in all of Moliere's plays, and Ducroisy, the first performer of the role of Tartuffe. He also invited the elderly farceur Jodelet, who had finished his long career. acting career playing the role of the second servant in Molière's comedy "The Ridiculous Primroses" (1659). Having performed in this comedy under his own name, paired with Molière, who played the role of Mascarille, Jodelet, as it were, recognized Molière as the successor to the ancient farcical tradition, giving him the role of the first servant.

"Ridiculous Primroses" is a cheerful, perky farce about servants who pose as aristocrats and court girls who have rejected their masters. At the same time, this play is Moliere's first satirical comedy, ridiculing aristocratic "precision" - refined mannerism in the speech and behavior of society ladies obsessed with class arrogance. However, for censorship reasons, when denouncing aristocrats, Moliere brought into the comedy not noble ladies, but provincial bourgeois women imitating them. In the preface to the publication of the play, Moliere wrote that in it he attacked false, and not genuine, preciosites. Nobody believed this, and it was the true precisionists who got the comedy banned who were offended by Moliere. The latter, however, was soon lifted by order of the king. From that time on, the top of the feudal nobility hated Moliere.

But ridiculing precision is not the only theme of "Ridiculous Primroses." In his comedy, Moliere raised the problem of love and marriage in a bourgeois environment. He showed that, no matter how funny the imitation of the bourgeois Madelon and Cato by society ladies is, they are right in their own way when they object to turning marriage into a transaction, defend their right to love, and demand from life that poetry that they read about in novels. Moliere in this play is against Madelon and Cateau, but he is also against the rude, prosaic bourgeois Gorgibus, a loudmouth and a tyrant. My own point Moliere has not yet expressed his view here.

Moliere's enemies did not sleep. In the fall of 1660 they tried to deprive him of his theater premises. The building of the Petit-Bourbon theater began to be demolished under the pretext of rebuilding the palace premises, and the troupe found itself on the street at the height of the season. Moliere complained to the king, and he ordered that the premises of the Palais Royal theater, once built by Richelieu (then this theater was also called the Palais Cardinal), be provided to him. Moliere rebuilt this building: he removed a huge amphitheater, built three tiers of boxes and a stall for standing, as in other Parisian public theaters. The troupe played in this beautiful building until Moliere's death.

The new theater opened with the play “Don Garcia of Navarre, or the Jealous Prince” (1661), Moliere’s only experience in the genre of “heroic comedy” created by Corneille (“Don Sancho of Aragon”). The comedy failed, and Moliere had to take revenge for its failure with the comedy of manners "The School for Husbands" (or in another translation - "A Lesson for Husbands", 1661), which marked his turn to the everyday genre. Issues of love, marriage and family life, touched upon in passing in “Ridiculous Primroses,” are brought to the fore here, and receive not only critical, but also positive coverage.

“The School for Husbands” shows the clash of two worldviews - medieval and humanistic. The bearer of the first is Sganarelle, the bearer of the second is his brother Arist. Both of them are raising adopted daughters and are planning to marry them. But Sganarelle - a hater of innovation, a supporter of antiquity, a supporter of Domostroevsky morality based on severity, violence, coercion - forbids his pupil Isabella to wear fashionable dresses and make acquaintance with young people, because he “does not want to make horns for himself.” Arist, a reasonable and virtuous man, a defender of freedom of feeling, behaves differently. He gives his pupil Leonora complete freedom, as he believes in the primordial kindness and purity of human instincts.

The “School of Husbands” discusses the main problem of bullshit that worried the progressive people of that time: whether to consider a person by nature virtuous, free from bad inclinations, or to consider him disposed towards evil due to the gravitational pull over humanity original sin? The first point of view was secular, humanistic, the second point of view was ecclesiastical, patriarchal-domostroevsky, feudal. Moliere defends the first point of view.

The play shows the advantage of the morality of freedom over the morality of violence and coercion: Leonora respects Ariste and willingly marries him, Isabella deceives Sganarelle and runs away from him with Valere. At the same time, Moliere laughs at Arist’s “sweetness” and at Leonora’s “selflessness,” who, having married Arist, will receive four thousand ducats of annual income. Moliere's sympathy is given to the marriage of Isabella and Valera, based on natural attraction and devoid of any monetary calculation.

Moliere adheres to the same point of view in the comedy “The School for Wives” (“A Lesson for Wives”, 1662), which had the greatest stage success and caused lively controversy. But here this topic is revealed more deeply and acutely. Moliere refuses the schematic opposition of two couples, but gives only one couple - Arnolf and Agnes, whose relationship is somewhat reminiscent of the relationship between Sganarelle and Isabella. Concerning

Arista, then in “The School of Wives” he corresponds to Krizald, transformed into a pure reasoner.

The images of Arnolf and Agnes are shown in development, they are distinguished by their brightness and full-bloodedness. Moliere emphasizes the social and property side of their relationship. Arnolf is a very rich bourgeois who buys up noble estates and changes his bourgeois name to an aristocratic one (“Mr. de La Souche”). He takes in a poor peasant girl, Agnes, whom he wants to forcefully make as his wife. Agnes is raised in the fear of God. Anolf forces her to memorize the commandments of married life specially composed for her, developing Domostroevsky morality and instilling in her,

That in hell they are destined to boil in cauldrons For those wives who, while living, do not want to reconcile *.

* (Translation by V. Gipius.)

Agnes appears in the first act as a naive “child of nature,” a dark and uncultured girl. But Arnolf prematurely rejoices that he has found a wife who meets his ideal. No matter how much he guards Agnes, protecting her from the influence of life, nature turns out to be the best mentor. Naive Agnes is truly brought up by life itself and matures under the influence of a “natural” feeling for Horace, whom she managed to meet, despite all the obstacles erected by Arnolf. At the end of the comedy, Agnes runs away from Arnolf's house with her lover. Love triumphs, uniting young people. The victory of youth again means the triumph of an advanced, humanistic ideal over a possessive, egoistic one.

In form, the comedies “School for Husbands” and “School for Wives” approached the canon of classicism. Moliere's attraction to classicism was explained by his desire to create a meaningful, ideologically rich comedy genre; such a genre could be created, in his opinion, only within the framework of the classicist doctrine, which determined the development of great literature. It is not for nothing that Boileau warmly welcomed Molière after he wrote “The School for Wives” with famous stanzas that contained the lines:

You managed to teach usefully and tell the truth cheerfully. Your morals are ready for everyone, Everything is beautiful, everything is reasonable in it, And often the clownish word of a learned lecture is more valuable *.

* (Translation by L. Pantyukhova.)

Boileau finds in Moliere “a mixture of the pleasant with the useful - a quality that was praised by Horace and which became the slogan of all classicists; he emphasizes the philosophical depth of Moliere’s comedies, which was not at all contradicted by their cheerful, clownish shell. At this stage, the famous critic still accepted Moliere entirely, without any reservations.

Boileau's support was especially valuable to Moliere because after the production of The School for Wives, many attacks fell on him. The instigators of the campaign against Moliere were reactionary aristocrats who did not forgive Moliere for his “Ridiculous simpering girls”; their echoes were playwrights (Vise, Boursault, Montfleury) associated with the Burgundy Hotel, which was the main nest of intrigues against Moliere. Molière was accused of immorality, bad taste, violation of rules, plagiarism and even blasphemy (Arnolf's marriage commandments were interpreted as a parody of the biblical commandments of Moses).

Moliere responded to his enemies with the polemical comedy "Critique of the School of Wives" (1663). In it he ridiculed various categories of his ill-wishers - exaggeratedly bashful preciosites, empty-headed and arrogant marquises, envious pedantic poets. He showed the pettiness of the objections to his play and decisively rejected reproaches of its obscenity, speaking for the first time about hypocrisy as a fashionable vice. He stated that he valued the approval of the democratic spectator standing in the stalls of the theater much higher than the approval of the visitors of the boxes, that is, the aristocrats, and that the ability to please the spectator was for him the highest of the “rules”. Moliere contrasted this criterion with the dogmatic school “rules” extracted from the works of Aristotle and Horace.

Moliere just as decisively dealt with the principle of class gradation of genres, according to which tragedy was considered a “higher” and more difficult genre than comedy. Challenging this position, Moliere argued that comedy is higher than tragedy, since it depicts not heroes, but people, and, “when depicting people, you paint from life; their portraits should be similar, and you have achieved nothing if they are not recognized as people of our century.” Meanwhile, when creating a tragedy, the author surrenders to his “imagination, which often forgets about the truth, preferring the miraculous,” and, creating images of the heroes of the tragedy, writes “arbitrary portraits in which no one looks for similarities.”

Thus, for Moliere the criterion artistic value is the correspondence of a work of art to reality. Moliere's statement about the ability to please the viewer as the highest of rules speaks of his democracy, and the above thesis about comedy is realistic character. In both cases, Moliere, based on folk-humanistic positions, criticizes class limitations and the idealistic essence of classicism, outlining a new aesthetic program, the full implementation of which was impossible in the era of absolutism.

Scene from Moliere's comedy "The School for Husbands"

"Criticism of the School of Wives" irritated Moliere's enemies, and they began to fight him with the same weapons, ridiculing him in polemical plays. In one of these plays - "Portrait of a Painter" by Boursault (1663) - Moliere was brought to the stage in a caricature. Moliere responded to this lampoon with the comedy "Impromptu Versailles" (1663), which takes place on the stage of his theater and depicts a rehearsal of the play. Moliere himself and the actors of his troupe perform under their own names, maintaining their everyday and stage characteristics. The play has documentary interest, as it introduces us to Moliere's troupe and his methods of working with actors. But even more important is the polemic that Moliere wages here with the actors of the Burgundy Hotel, ridiculing their artificial acting and pompous declamation (especially the tragedian Montfleury). Moliere insists on liberating tragic actors from the influence of salons and bringing their acting closer to everyday life. Along with theatrical polemics, Moliere continues his polemics on social issues, once again shooting arrows at the aristocratic youth - the marquises, whom he compares to jesters.

Unable to defeat Moliere with the weapon of polemics, his enemies resorted to dirty gossip and denunciations about his family life. But the king did not pay any attention to them, and this finally silenced all evil tongues. The patronage that the king provided to Moliere was due to the fact that Louis XIV sought to use Moliere's talent to add more brilliance and wit to his court amusements.

Beginning in 1664, Moliere, in parallel with his main work at the Palais Royal theater, increasingly performed at the court of Louis XIV with plays he specially composed for court festivities.

Scene from Moliere's comedy "The School for Wives"

These plays belonged to the new genre of comedy-ballet created by Moliere, characteristic feature which was a fusion of comedy with ballet - a favorite form of court entertainment. In Molière's comedies and ballets, comedy scenes were performed by actors from his troupe, and ballet scenes by court amateurs, with whom the king and princes often performed.

We resorted to a new method, Jodleux is no longer in fashion. Now we do not dare to retreat even an inch from nature *.

* (Translation by T. Shchepkina-Kupernik.)

The main group of comedy-ballets was composed for production at Versailles. They are divided according to their topics into two groups. The first includes comedies that develop farcical and everyday plots. These are “Reluctant Marriage” (1664), “Love the Healer” (1665), “The Sicilian, or Love the Painter” (1666), “Monsieur de Poursonnac” (1669), “Countess d’Escarbagnas” (1671). The same applies to such masterpieces of Moliere as “Georges Dandin”, “The Bourgeois in the Nobility” and “The Imaginary Invalid”, in which there were brilliant examples of comic ballet scenes (the Turkish ceremony in “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”, the initiation into a doctor in “The Imaginary Invalid” However, in these plays the leading role was retained by everyday satirical comedy, which completely subjugated the conventional genre of court ballet.

The second group includes comedies-ballets of pastoral-mythological content, developing themes that have been inherent in the courtly opera and ballet theater. These are “The Princess of Elis” (1664), “Melicert” (1666), “Comic Pastoral” (1666), “Brilliant Lovers” (1670), and the tragedy-ballet “Psyche” (1671), written in collaboration with Corneille. The action of these plays took place in a certain conventional antique or pastoral setting, where gallant princes and princesses held courtly conversations on love topics. These plays are alien to the legacy of the realist Moliere. Those grains of realism that are found in them drown in a sea of ​​convention. Moliere was forced to write such plays due to the need to secure the patronage of the king in an atmosphere of intensifying struggle around his work every year.

Moliere's satirical comedy reached its highest point during the years 1664 - 1669. During this five-year period, Moliere wrote his most poignant plays - "Tartuffe", "Don Juan", "The Misanthrope", "The Miser". In them, all the main social forces on which the absolute monarchy relied: the church, the nobility, the bourgeoisie were ridiculed and criticized from a folk-humanistic standpoint.

Performance of "The Imaginary Invalid" at Versailles. 1674

In Tartuffe, Moliere takes the Catholic clergy under fire with its inherent religious bigotry and hypocrisy. Denouncing the churchmen, he, in particular, directs the arrows of his criticism at the reactionary clerical organization - the “Society of the Holy Gifts”, which persecuted all “heretics”, atheists and freethinkers. Queen Mother Anne of Austria belonged to this society. In the person of the rogue Tartuffe, who deals with various dark affairs, Moliere portrayed an ordinary agent of this society. In the first edition of the comedy (1664), he was still a clergyman and therefore did not woo Orgon’s daughter, but only courted his wife; the play had only three acts and ended with the triumph of Tartuffe. After the first edition of the comedy was banned, Moliere wrote a second, in which he made Tartuffe a socialite, renamed him Panyulf and forced him to marry Marianne. The comedy ended with Panyulf's exposure. This second edition was banned immediately after its premiere (1667). Moliere closed his theater for seven weeks, feeling unable to fight the clerical reaction. But after the death of Anne of Austria, a time of relative liberalism began, and “Tartuffe” was finally resolved in the third, current edition (1669), in which Moliere returned Tartuffe to his name, which had become a household name.

In its objective content, the comedy is directed against religion and its corrupting influence on people. It denounces Christian ethics, reveals the falsity and criminality of church ideology, which claims to provide spiritual guidance to people, allowing church members not to be responsible for their actions. Moliere shows the subordination of the bourgeoisie (in the person of Orgon and his mother Madame Pernel) to the influence of Tartuffe and makes the maid Dorina, the bearer of popular common sense, Tartuffe’s most courageous opponent. But neither Dorin nor the enlightened Cleante, Orgon's brother, can cope with Tartuffe. This rogue is exposed by the wise and fair king, from whom the third estate could only expect protection from the Tartuffes triumphant in France. By introducing this tense, artificial ending into his comedy, Moliere seems to want to say that only by miracle can one deal with the Tartuffes, who still dominate France.

Don Juan (1665) was written after the first ban on Tartuffe, which created a severe repertoire crisis in the theater. Looking for a way out of it, Moliere wrote a play on a popular theme, repeatedly developed in the Spanish, Italian and French theater. At the same time, he turned the depraved Seville nobleman into the French “evil nobleman” - autocratic, depraved, arrogant, cynical, devoid of any moral principles, either flaunting his godlessness, or pretending to be a saint and, as it were, competing with Tartuffe. The depraved Don Juan is exposed by his father, Don Luis, and the servant Sganarelle, who, with his peasant mind, recognizes all the frivolity of his master’s noble freethinking.

Don Juan, the central character of the comedy, is very complex; Along with negative traits, he also has positive ones: he is handsome, brilliant, smart, educated, brave; his freethinking and skepticism sometimes even resemble the views of Moliere himself. However, this external attractiveness of Don Juan only covers his moral baseness; Don Juan uses his mind, often daring and courageous, his abilities and education for predatory purposes. By exposing Don Juan's predation, Moliere simultaneously exposes through his lips the vicious world to which this hero belongs. This Shakespearean method of constructing a play and its central image is an exception for Moliere.

In a less vivid form, a similar method of character building is found in the image of Sganarelle, who is endowed with the traditional traits of a simple-minded, cowardly and foolish servant and at the same time condemns the noble immorality and godlessness of Don Juan. Moliere did not sin against historical reality by portraying the master as an atheist and the servant as a believer and superstitious, because at this stage atheism and materialism are developing in aristocratic circles, and the masses still in the thrall of religion. This is very clearly expressed in the scene with the beggar, whom Don Juan cannot force to blaspheme even for a piece of gold. Convinced of the tenacity of the beggar’s faith, Don Juan gives him a coin “out of love for humanity” in order to have the last word.

In terms of form, Don Juan is close to the structure of Spanish comedy, deviates from the canon of classicism: it does not observe the rule of three unities, mixes the tragic with the comic, etc. This is due to Moliere’s realism, which does not fit into the narrow framework of the classicist canon.

The third great satirical comedy, “The Misanthrope” (1666), is a typical example of classicist high comedy, in which there is no comedy of situations and purely intellectual, philosophical comedy prevails. The hero of the play Alceste is an honest, noble man, a passionate seeker of truth, who is in conflict with the vulgar and deceitful high society. He exposes the selfishness that reigns in this society, all members of which are concerned only with enrichment and career. In his indignant monologues, Alceste wants to impose such moral principles, the acceptance of which would be tantamount to its destruction. This gives Alceste a somewhat quixotic character. Alceste's quixoticism lies in his impracticality, in his lack of a sense of reality, in the abstractness of his ideals. At the same time, Alceste is far from a misanthrope, because his hatred is directed not at the essence of man, but at the perversions that a bad social system brings. Anticipating the Enlightenment, Moliere depicts in “The Misanthrope” the clash of “natural” man with “artificial” people corrupted by society.

The only thing that connects Alceste with this society is his love for Celimene, a typical society woman, empty and heartless, who takes pleasure in slandering her many fans. At the end of the comedy, Celimene is exposed, the fans leave her; Now she is ready to marry Alceste, with whom she had only flirted before. But when Alceste invites her to leave people, Selimene abandons him in horror. Alceste is left alone with a firm decision to leave society. It is characteristic that, while hating secular people, Alceste loves the people (he raises his voice, for example, in defense of a simple-minded folk song); but he does not yet know the paths leading to the people, and therefore remains a lone Protestant.

Moliere contrasted the irreconcilable Alceste with the moderate and flexible Philinte, a supporter of the bourgeois theory of the “golden mean.” The sympathetic portrayal of Philinte and the partial condemnation of Alceste brought upon Moliere a hundred years later the indignant criticism of the ideologists of the revolutionary bourgeoisie - Rousseau, Mercier and Fabre d'Eglantine; the latter wrote the comedy "Moliere's Philinte, or the Continuation of the Misanthrope" (1790), in which he portrayed Alceste as a friend of the people, and Philinta is a compromiser, an egoist, indifferent to people.

The breadth of Moliere's humanistic views, the deep and sincere connection of his work with the people helped him to see the vices in his own class - the bourgeoisie - to which he himself belonged by birth.

In The Miser (1668), Moliere exposed the thirst for enrichment and acquisitive greed typical of the bourgeoisie, which played an increasingly important role in absolutist France. Harpagon is a typical representative of this class, a typical capitalist of the 17th century. The passion for accumulation distorts Harpagon's paternal feelings, disintegrates his family, and turns his children against him.

Thus, in its destructive power, the fanaticism of accumulation approaches the religious fanaticism that in Tartuffe destroyed Orgon’s family and made him an enemy of his own children.

Moliere, with the instinct of a great artist, noticed a contradiction in the psychology of the acquisitive, which K. Marx later spoke about in Capital: “... in the noble breast of embodied capital, a Faustian conflict unfolds between the passion for accumulation and the thirst for pleasure.” Harpagon experiences an uncontrollable thirst for the pleasures that the possession of gold can give him. But the senile passion for Marianne, leading Harpagon to conflict with his son, who is in love with the same Marianne, at the same time collides with Harpagon’s stinginess, with his fear of expenses. Moliere comically plays out all these clashes that occur on the basis of Harpagon's stinginess, including one of them when the father unexpectedly finds himself in the role of a moneylender, and the son in the role of his client. Harpagon lends his son money as if as security for his own imminent death. Moliere revealed in The Miser the terrible destructive power of capitalist accumulation at the dawn of its history, and showed that the acquisitive becomes a slave of gold, angry, greedy, lonely and unhappy. The image of Harpagon is an ominous warning that the humanist Moliere gives to his own class.

* (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. XVII, p. 653.)

In the comedy "Georges Dandin, or. The Fooled Husband" (1668), developing a wandering plot about an evil wife deceiving her husband and making him guilty, Moliere ridiculed the bourgeoisie's craving for the nobility, its desire to buy noble wives and noble estates. The comedy depicts the village bourgeois Georges Dandin, who, out of stupid arrogance, married the daughter of a bankrupt baron. Angelique deceives Danden with the nobleman Clitander, managing to get out of all difficult situations and leaving him in the cold jealous husband. Deceived, humiliated, ridiculed, Danden repents of his unreasonable marriage, repeating the phrase: “You yourself wanted this, Georges Dandin.” Molière's ridicule falls on Danden not only because he became related to the vile family of barons, the Sotanvilles, who were chasing his money, but also because he overestimated the strength of his wallet and bought his wife with money, thereby depriving himself of all moral rights to her. loyalty. In this sense, Angelique is right to protest against the deal that Danden made with her parents. Like other Molière's possessive husbands, Danden deserves the horns that Angelique instructs him.

Particularly famous in the comedy are the scenes of Jourdain teaching the sciences and arts, revealing the stupidity of this new master of life entering the historical arena. Jourdain's teachers, despising him, still bend their backs to him because he is rich. “Understanding things is in his wallet, and this man’s praise is money,” the music teacher says about him.

Jourdain is contrasted with his wife - a rude, straightforward and outspoken bourgeois, devoted to her family, outraged by the stupidity of Jourdain and the aristocrats courting him. But Madame Jourdain, like Jourdain standing behind the counter, is not Moliere’s positive ideal. He embodied the positive ideal in this comedy in representatives of the younger generation - Lucile and Cleonte. These are educated young people, standing significantly above their class. Cleont is one of the enlightened reasoners whom Moliere portrays in a number of his comedies. Without being a nobleman, he acquired the true nobility of his honest life and useful activities (it serves as a public service). As a true humanist, Moliere in this image asserts the primacy of a person’s personal merits over nobility and wealth.

In the last years of his life, having behind him a number of major achievements in the field of satirical comedy, Moliere again turned with great satisfaction to farce, with which he had once begun his career as a playwright. One of Molière's last comedies is the farce "The Tricks of Scapin" (1671), which is one of his most frequently performed plays. Although the plot scheme of the comedy was borrowed from Terence (Formion), it was developed using the techniques of French farce and Italian comedy of masks. The play faithfully reproduces the ensemble of the commedia dell'arte with its two pairs of lovers, a pair of old men and a pair of servants, all of whom are positioned in contrasting relation to each other. In addition, the comedy contains a number of classic farcical tricks and scenes, such as the famous bag scene, which Moliere borrowed from Tabarin. Boileau did not like this combination of “Terence with Tabarin”, and he made his own Poetic art" a reservation about Moliere, who is said to be "too much a friend of the people" and tries too hard to please their tastes. Guarding the laws of the aristocratic theater, Boileau wrote:

And through the bag into which Scapin shamelessly climbed, I cannot see the one by whom the “Misanthrope” was created... *.

* (Translation by S. Nesterova.)

Considering that Moliere was degrading his talent by descending after composing a high comedy to a folk farce, the famous critic could not understand that it was from the folk farce that Moliere's comedies inherited their explosive power and that Moliere is famous primarily for the fact that he was and remained until the end of his days great national comedian.

Moliere really wanted to create the image of a folk hero, full of cheerful activity. He was forced to clothe such a democratic hero in a lackey's livery, because this folk hero at that time on stage, in the guise of a dexterous and intelligent servant, could find use for his strengths and abilities. In Moliere's youthful comedies, this democratic hero bore the name Mascarille; in the comedies of recent years he appears primarily in the image of Scapin. Scapin's strength is seething and overflowing. “I love getting involved in risky ventures,” he says about himself, “dangers have never scared me. I despise cowardly little souls who foresee too much and therefore do not dare to take on anything.” Scapin is devoid of servility, so common among people of his profession. He helps both young men (Leander and Octave) not for selfish reasons, but out of “philanthropy.” He is head and shoulders above these young people who cannot take a step without his help.

* ("The Tricks of Scapin", act III, scene 1.)

Moliere's last comedy, “The Imaginary Invalid” (1673), is also dedicated to exposing bourgeois egoism and tyranny. The materialist Moliere waged a fierce struggle all his life against scholastic pseudoscience, especially often writing about the deepest flaws of contemporary medicine. In a number of his comedies, he depicted images of ignorant doctors and charlatans. Thus, in the farce “The Reluctant Doctor” (1666) he showed the peasant Sgan-rel, who pretended to be a doctor and had great success with patients only thanks to his arrogance, although his medical ignorance is striking to all people who encounter him. In “The Imaginary Invalid,” Moliere even more sharply ridicules charlatan doctors, at the same time paying great attention to the doctors’ “victim” - the suspicious bourgeois Argan. Suspiciousness is Argan’s unique means by which he oppresses the people around him, expresses his narcissism and selfishness, and exaggerated concern for his health. Argan's selfishness and tyranny are complemented by the hypocrisy and greed of Belina, who married Argan only because of his wealth and is now looking forward to her husband's death, which will bring her an inheritance. Thus, in the narrow world of the bourgeois family, Moliere unfolds the struggle of selfish interests, which constitutes the true essence of bourgeois society. It is interesting to note that the exposure of the predator Belina is carried out by the clever servant Tuaneta, who is the living embodiment of popular common sense. The same Toinette also finds a way out for Argan, who is obsessed with his illnesses: she recommends that he become a doctor himself in order to frighten all diseases with his doctorate. The comedy ends with a brilliant ballet buffoonery - a comic ceremony for the initiation of Argan into a doctor, which develops into a satire on the quackery of doctors.

The comedy "The Imaginary Sick" provides clear confirmation of the maturity of Moliere's realistic skill and testifies to his ability to show typical phenomena French life. For the first time, he brings on stage a little girl - Louison, Argan's youngest daughter, who, despite her childhood age, deftly cunning and pretends, answering her father's questions about the young man caring for her sister. This scene of Argan with Louison delighted Goethe with its realism, who considered it “a symbol of perfect knowledge of the stage.”

Summing up the review of Moliere's dramaturgy, it should be emphasized that in his worldview Moliere was a materialist, the heir best traditions humanistic thought, a follower of Rabelais, Montaigne, Charron, Gassendi, a passionate champion of the truth of life, who always sought to apply the golden rule of Renaissance philosophy - “follow nature.” With all the power of his comic genius, he attacked the distorters of “nature”, wherever they appeared, wherever they acted. Priests, scholastics, false philosophers, false scientists, charlatans, teachers and doctors, precios, ignoramuses, marquises, pedants, bigots and tyrants - this is not a complete list of the distorters of “nature” brought out by Moliere in his comedies. He mocked class prejudices, metaphysical nonsense, natural perversions, human relations. He denounced and ridiculed fools and moral monsters, no matter what class they belonged to. At the same time, he did not spare the bourgeoisie, did not idealize it, sharply criticizing it, like other classes. He saw funny sides in all phenomena and layers of contemporary life. “The purpose of comedy is to depict human shortcomings and, in particular, the shortcomings of modern people,” said Moliere, looking at these shortcomings with the open gaze of a person not infected with class prejudices, devoid of bourgeois self-interest and therefore especially close to the people. Moliere was the only playwright of the era of absolutism, whose works expressed popular aspirations, popular assessments of social relations, people's point views on various phenomena of French life.

Moliere knew and loved the people well, knew their way of life, songs, games, customs, beliefs, and proverbs. He mastered it perfectly vernacular, various dialects, dialects and introduced them for the first time into his comedies. He showed in his plays ordinary people - servants, maids, artisans, peasants, whom the tradition of the classicist theater forbade to bring to the stage. His folk characters are always endowed with deep folk wisdom, common sense and are contrasted with comic monsters and rapists from the propertied classes.

However, despite the tireless search for the truth of life, Moliere still remained a classicist, subordinating his work to the norms of rationalist aesthetics. He discarded everything superfluous, incidental, episodic, which could overshadow the main theme of the comedy. He portrayed his characters as possessed by one passion or oddity, which was thereby made absolute.

It was precisely this one-sidedness of Moliere’s images, which so sharply distinguishes them from the images of Shakespeare, that Pushkin noted in his famous comparison of both great playwrights: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not, like Moliere’s, types of such and such a passion, such and such a vice, but beings alive, full of many passions, many vices... In Moliere, the stingy is stingy and nothing more... In Moliere, the hypocrite drags after the wife of his benefactor, a hypocrite; accepts the estate for safekeeping, a hypocrite; asks for a glass of water, a hypocrite..." Pushkin opposed one-sidedly The images of Harpagon and Tartuffe outlined by Moliere are much more broadly conceived by Shakespeare of the images of Shylock and Angelo. Pushkin polemicized against Moliere's method of character construction, according to which only certain traits were selected to create a given character. Negative side This rationalistic method was that it impoverished Moliere's heroes, especially in comparison with the heroes of Shakespeare, who did not limit himself and portrayed his characters in all the variety and richness of their individual characteristics. This criticism by Pushkin of Moliere's method of character construction in no way destroys his general, extremely high assessment of Moliere's work. Pushkin considered the image of Tartuffe “immortal”, “the fruit of the strongest tension of comic genius”, and found in this comedy “the highest courage, the courage of invention, creation, where a vast plan is embraced by creative thought.”

Moliere played a huge role in the history of European comedy. He created a comedy tradition that has become widespread. We can safely say that all comedians of the 18th century - French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Russian, Polish, etc. - were, to a greater or lesser extent, students and followers of Moliere. Among his admirers we find not only the playwright’s colleagues in the comedy genre. Goethe was an ardent admirer of Moliere, who wrote: “I have known and loved Moliere from a young age. And throughout my life I studied with him... I admire not only his perfection artistic techniques, but above all the artist’s nature, full of charm, and a high internal culture." Passionate admirers of Moliere were such various French writers of the 19th century as Hugo, Balzac and Zola. The same can be said about the great Russian writers of the 19th century, from Pushkin, Griboyedov and Gogol to Ostrovsky and L. Tolstoy It is known that Ostrovsky, before his death, dreamed of translating all of Moliere.

J.B. Moliere as a creator of high comedy. Traditions of commedia dell'arte in the works of Moliere. Tartuffe: problematics, system of images.

High comedy – meeting classic rules: five-act structure, poetic form, unity of time, place and action, intrigue based on a clash of views, intellectual characters.

The essential feature of high comedy was the tragic element. Moliere's comedies touch on a wide range of problems of modern life: relations between fathers and children, education, marriage and family, the moral state of society (hypocrisy, greed, vanity, etc.), class, religion, culture, science (medicine, philosophy), etc. . The main feature of Moliere's characters is independence, activity, the ability to arrange their own happiness and their destiny in the fight against the old and outdated. Each of them has his own beliefs, his own belief system, which he defends before his opponent; The opponent's piece is required for classic comedy, because the action in it develops in the context of disputes and discussions.

Another feature of Moliere's characters is their ambiguity. As the action progresses, their characters become more complex or change. But all the negative characters have one thing in common - violation of the measure. Measure - main principle classic aesthetics. In Moliere's comedies it is identical to common sense and naturalness (and therefore morality). Their carriers are often representatives of the people. By showing the imperfection of people, Moliere implements the main principle of the comedy genre - to harmonize the world and human relationships through laughter.

Moliere brings to the fore not entertaining, but educational and satirical goals. His comedies are characterized by sharp, flagellating satire, irreconcilability with social evil and, at the same time, sparkling healthy humor and cheerfulness. "Tartuffe" is Moliere's first comedy in which certain features of realism are revealed. In general, it, like his early plays, is subject to key rules and compositional techniques classic work; however, Moliere often departs from them (for example, in Tartuffe the rule of unity of time is not fully observed - the plot includes a backstory about the acquaintance of Orgon and the saint). In the comedy, there is an organic interweaving of various artistic and comedic means: it combines elements of farce (for example, in those scenes where Orgon hides under the table, kneels with Tartuffe, or is about to slap Dorina in the face), comedy of intrigue (the story of the casket with important papers), comedy of manners, comedy of characters (Orgon, Tartuffe). In this interweaving lies the genre innovation of the play; this is also a sign that. This is precisely where the genre innovation of the work lies.

In creating the play, Moliere first of all sought to show hypocrisy, dressed in religious garb and masking its base and vile activities with the principles of Christian morality. According to the playwright, this is one of the most tenacious and dangerous vices of his time, and since “the theater has enormous potential for correcting morals,” Moliere decided to use sharp satire and ridicule the vice, thereby dealing a crushing blow to it. He highly valued truthfulness in relationships between people and hated hypocrisy. “He considered it his artistic and civic duty to crush the vermin of hypocrisy and hypocrisy. This idea inspired him when he created Tartuffe and when he courageously defended it.” Moliere based the plot on his observations of the above-described sect of religious people, nicknamed the “cabal of saints” (“Society of the Holy Gifts”), and the image of the central character was composed of typical features inherent in sectarians.

Farce attracted Moliere with its content, taken from Everyday life, a variety of themes, diversity and vitality of images, a 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. Played a significant role in the work of Moliere and Italian comedy masks (commedia dell'arte), which was very popular in France. 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. Unfortunately, much of what Molière wrote in the provinces has not reached us. Some of these farces, lively, rough, deliberately unfinished (under the influence of the comedy of masks) anticipated later works, where the same plots were presented with greater art (for example, “The Binder Binder” - “The Reluctant Doctor”; “Gorgibus in the Bag” - "The Tricks of Scapin") In addition, four of Molière's early plays have survived: "The Jealousy of Barboulier", "The Flying Doctor", "The Folly" and "The Vexation of Love". In the last two significant role played by the servant Mascarille, a resourceful, intelligent rogue who faithfully serves his stupid master.

Moliere 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). Moliere especially admired Montaigne and Rabelais. Moliere admitted himself to be a direct follower of Rabelais: following Rabelais, Moliere ridiculed the “distorters of nature,” he drew plots from Rabelais, and introduced the names of heroes and situations from “Gargantua and Pantagruel” into his comedies. However, familiar plots under the pen of Molière acquired a new meaning: the great comic power of his first works, the ability to highlight character traits various social groups and professions and, later, the social and satirical content of his comedies were both weightier and more significant than the original meaning of some of the sources that Moliere used. From the very beginning, Moliere was aware of the high social and moral purpose comedies.

And yet, the artistic strength of comedy lies not At the same time, it respects the basic rules and compositional techniques of the classical work, from which, however, Moliere sometimes departs (for example, in “Tartuffe” the rule of unity of time is not fully observed - the plot includes a backstory about Orgon’s acquaintance and saints) so much in the life-like authenticity of the plot; What is much more important is that Moliere was able to raise the image of Tartuffe to the level of such broad and voluminous typicality that the latter went beyond the boundaries of its historical time and acquired an enduring global household name.

Tartuffe is a hypocrite. And here it doesn’t matter to Moliere whether he is a nobleman or a bourgeois. We do not know the environment in which he acquired this trait. His passion itself is significant - hypocrisy, a psychological trait, and not a social background. This is a crystal clear image, taken from the historical environment. Moliere strives to create pure abstract stage space and time. This desire for abstraction is characteristic of classicists, and this desire is reflected even more strongly in the characters. Moliere, typifying the image, cannot help but give the hero individual traits. Tartuffe's individual peculiarity is that he is a bearer of hypocrisy. He is arrogant and stubborn. It's like a person. And as a type, he embodies what Moliere wants to express in him - condensed hypocrisy. One of the ways to depict such an image is the hero’s surroundings. It emerges from this environment. Tartuffe is generally outlined by those around him. Orgon admires him. Dorina talks about him. This environment of Tartuffe is artificial. With the hand of Moliere, all obstacles were removed from the path of the protagonist. The reverse side of Tartuffe’s boundless arrogance and hypocrisy is Orgon’s boundless gullibility, his devotion to Tartuffe. Moliere's second way of achieving abstraction is hyperbole. He introduces this hyperbole with strokes. It is necessary that the exaggerated trait be truthful, real, fixed in gestures, intonation, phraseology, and behavior that are truly characteristic of a person obsessed with this passion. Tartuffe is absolute in his imaginary piety: he covers Dorina's neckline with a scarf. Moliere brings the classicist principle of characterization to the last degree of completeness, surpassing in this sense the most orthodox classicists. In general, the principles of classicism are very important to him. For example, what is important to him is his attraction to symmetry, to the balance of all parts. Moliere always has two heroes who complement each other using the method of contrast. In “Tartuffe” it is the arrogant Tartuffe and the gullible Orgon.

In Tartuffe, Moliere castigates deception, personified by the main character, as well as stupidity and moral ignorance, represented by Orgon and Madame Pernelle. By deception, Tartuffe cheats Orgon, and the latter falls for the bait due to his stupidity and naive nature. It is the contradiction between the obvious and the apparent, between the mask and the face, precisely this opposition, which Moliere so insisted on, that is the main source of comedy in the play, since thanks to it the deceiver and the simpleton make the viewer laugh heartily. The first - because he made unsuccessful attempts to pass himself off as a completely different, diametrically opposed person, and even chose a completely specific, alien quality - which may be more difficult for a zhuir and a libertine to play the role of an ascetic, a zealous and chaste pilgrim. The second is ridiculous because he absolutely does not see those things that would catch the eye of any normal person; he is delighted and brought into extreme delight by what should cause, if not Homeric laughter, then, in any case, indignation.

In Orgon, Moliere highlighted, before other aspects of character, the poverty, narrow-mindedness, and limitations of a person seduced by the brilliance of rigoristic mysticism, intoxicated by extremist morality and philosophy, the main idea of ​​which is complete detachment from the world and contempt for all earthly pleasures.

Wearing a mask is a property of Tartuffe's soul. Hypocrisy is not his only vice, but it is brought to the fore, and other negative traits strengthen and emphasize this property. Moliere managed to synthesize a real concentrate of hypocrisy, highly condensed almost to the absolute. In reality this would be impossible.

"Tartuffe" exposes not only, or rather, not just stupidity and deceit - for all of Moliere's main comedies expose these moral categories as a whole. But in each play they take different forms, vary in detail and appear in different areas of public life. Tartuffe's lies, which took the form of feigned righteousness, and the stupidity of Orgon, unable to unravel the rough game of the rogue, manifested themselves in the religious field, which was especially vulnerable in the 17th century.

life, since they contain a magical power that gives old age
the advantages of youth, turns viciousness into virtue, stupidity into intelligence, and
ugliness into beauty. Owning money, Harpagon can safely marry
his son's bride Mariana. When he finds out that his son is his
rival, he expels him from the house, and then disinherits and curses him.
Harpagon is just as cruel with his daughter: when his box disappears
with gold, he angrily shouts to Eliza that he would be very glad if not
the box, and she herself.
For Harpagon, the loss of gold is almost fatal - the miser falls into
deep despair, then into terrible anger. He hates and suspects everyone
people, he wants to arrest and hang everyone. Gold poisoned the soul
Harpagon; this is no longer a person, but an evil, greedy and in its own way unhappy
animal. He loves no one, and no one loves him; he is lonely and pathetic.
The comic figure of Harpagon acquires a dramatic sheen, she becomes
an ominous symbol of the complete decay of the human personality, an example
moral insanity resulting from the corrupting influence
property.
But the thirst for enrichment gives rise to such terrible moral phenomena as
Harpagon, not only among the wealthy class; she can pervert the most
nature of human relations and creates an unnatural social
morality. In the union of Harpagon and Mariana, not only the greedy old man is criminal,
a criminal and virtuous girl: she consciously agrees to become a wife
Harpagon in the hope of his quick death.
If gold in the owner’s mind turns into the meaning of his life
and, as it were, obscures life itself, it is natural that those around them see in life
the owner only has his gold and replaces personal relationships with a person
selfish calculation. Moliere reveals this theme in his latest comedy
"The Imaginary Invalid" (1673).
The big man Argan convinced himself that he was sick. It happened because
reason that the prudent people around him in every possible way indulged the whims and
Argan's pretense, hoping in this way to gain his trust. And them
the hope was fully justified. Argan made his illness a kind of criterion
people's assessments. It now became clear to him that those around him who did not
they recognize his illnesses and do not value his life; therefore they are not worthy of trust.
Those who hurt their souls with every breath they take show true
friendly disposition.
Imaginary illnesses became a passion for Argan, with which he could truly
enjoy: hearing constant sighs around you, seeing universal
concern and secretly wiping away tears, Argan was blissful in his soul - so
better than in any other way, he felt the significance of his
personality. All he had to do was groan, and everyone around him stopped living, everyone
froze and turned anxious glances at him. Argan with satisfaction
noticed that the lives of the people around him were completely dissolved in his own
life. Argan's passion for diseases was the result of hypertrophied
narcissism. The man wanted to see that he was alone, his fate, his
being constitute the meaning of the existence of all others. But in his egocentric
In his blindness, Argan did not notice that his health and life were not judged by themselves.
himself, but only due to the fact that under the bed of an imaginary patient stands
an impressive size chest of gold. Argan could not distinguish the true
motives from false ones and took pretense for virtue, and truthful ones
feelings - for manifestations of hostility. A false ideal gave rise to false morality and
characters - nature was perverted, and man turned into a freak.

VII

There is no shame for the higher ones,
We have been given the ability to do everything worthy.
After all, from the one who accomplishes them,
Things change names.

Servant Lafleche was the only person in the comedy "The Miser" who
expressed her contempt for Harpagon, the maid Nicole laughed loudly at
the nonsense of Mr. Jourdain, trying to reason with him and cure him of passion
to become noble, just as the maid Guanetta tried to knock Mr.
Argan is his nonsense.
The closeness to the people, the feeling of the free folk element affected
Moliere not only in the gallery of images of maids and servants he created. This
the popular origin also determined the very nature of his satire. Moliere looked at
his vicious heroes with the same eyes as his popular types saw them.
Dorina's look at Tartuffe was Moliere's; Nicole's ridicule of Jourdain
and Toinettes over Argan were the ridicule of Moliere himself. From here, from the folk
views on all these carriers of social evil, and integrity was generated,
the strength and certainty of Moliere's satirical characteristics.
The great comedian’s pronounced bias in his portrayal
carriers of social vices was a manifestation of direct and decisive
judgments of the people, enriched by Moliere with ideas of humanistic
ideology. The monolithic nature of Moliere's satirical images, covered by a single
an all-consuming passion, was akin to the principles of folk satire. Principle
hyperbolization, characteristic of farcical images, Italian folk masks
comedy and so clearly manifested in the monumental types of Rabelais, this
the principle was firmly adopted by Moliere, but underwent significant changes.
By excluding elements of farcical excesses, overcoming the schematism of Italian masks
and abandoning the fantastic exaggerations of Rabelais, Moliere created
popularly hyperbolic, but quite realistic in life,
satirically purposeful characters. At the same time, he followed the principles
rationalistic aesthetics, the laws of typification developed by classicism.
In this combination of folk-Renaissance and classicist aesthetics there was no
nothing violent or contradictory, because classicism, being a style
certain historical era, was not a socially homogeneous direction.
It, just like later realism or romanticism, had a large capacity, contained
contains both a reactionary-noble direction and tendencies
progressive, democratic character.
Moliere was the most vivid and consistent exponent of this latter
directions. Fighting the class limitations of classicism, cruelly
criticizing the deathly stylization of the “high” genres, Moliere with his
creatively developed the most progressive aspirations of the classicist
style. The result of this was that in Moliere's work classicism came out
beyond its stylistic limits and, having acquired its own artistic features, became
the link between the art of realism of the Renaissance and realism
new time.
Moliere's style had undeniable advantages over the style of tragic
writers of classicism, even such as Corneille and Racine. These advantages
were reflected in a more organic connection with reality, with folk
traditions and thereby with the principles of Renaissance art. Art
Renaissance, largely killed by the pedantry of the classicists
rules, in Molière’s work preserved organic nationality. to his
trust in human nature Moliere. expressed his loyalty to ideas
Renaissance, he defended human rights to happiness, but it was already clear to him
that not only living, but also dead water flows from the source of nature, -
the most natural impulses of man, devoid of restraining social
beginnings, become unnatural, selfish and selfish.
The harmony between the natural and the reasonable, which artists sought in life
Renaissance, has already lost its progressive historical meaning. Poeticized
the image of reality in new social conditions became false
idealization; the struggle for humanistic ideals required direct and sober
outlook on life, and Moliere fulfilled this historical mission of art. At
For all the liveliness and emotionality of Moliere's work, intellectuality was
the most important feature of his genius: the rationalistic method determined the deep and
conscious analysis of typical characters and life conflicts,
contributed to the ideological clarity of comedies, their social purposefulness,
compositional clarity and completeness. Exploring the vast layers of life,
Moliere, as an artist of the classicist movement, selected only those features
which he needed to depict certain types, and not
strived for completeness of life depiction and versatile depiction
characters. Pushkin pointed out this feature of Moliere’s typification when
said: “In Moliere, the Miser is stingy - and that’s all; in Shakespeare, Shylock is stingy, shrewd,
vengeful, child-loving, witty." In Moliere's comedies, life types received
their deep revelation not in the complex diversity of character, but in their
prevailing, dominant passion; they were not given in their immediate
everyday appearance, and after a preliminary logical selection of typical features,
and therefore the satirical colors here were extremely condensed, the ideological tendency,
contained in the image, received the clearest expression. Exactly at
as a result of such a conscious sharpening of characters, Tartuffe,
Don Juan, Harpagon and other types of the broadest social generalization and
enormous satirical power.
It is known that classicism, having adopted from the art of the Renaissance, the principle
images of passions as the main dynamic essence of character, deprived them
specificity. In the work of Moliere this is a property of classicist poetics
had the least impact. And if Moliere obeys the norms
rationalistic aesthetics, then this is not manifested in the leveling of everyday
concreteness of his characters, and in the traditional cutting off of everything that
may disrupt the strict certainty of the plot or cloud the main one,
the only theme of the image-type.
Passions in Moliere's depiction never appeared on stage only
How psychological traits, individual properties of a given character; They
concentrated in themselves the very essence of nature and expressed it in a negative form
the artist’s view of the way of life around him.
Criticism, noting the solidity and one-sidedness of Moliere's
characters, rightly speaks of the playwright’s belonging to
classicist direction. But this overlooks the most important
the fact that the rationalistic method in constructing an image and in
the composition of the comedy itself was only a form in which they found their expression
popular ideas about social evil, ideas that have a bright
expressed ideological bias, certainty and ruthlessness
folk criticism, the brightness and expressiveness of the colors of the square theater. This
the national principle received its most direct expression in the cheerful,
optimistic tone, covering the entire course of Moliere's comedies, permeating
all her images, including satirical ones, through which she shone
the author's deadly irony and his angry sarcasm.
But Moliere's satire never acquired an external character, not
violated the realistic vitality of the behavior of the characters who were carriers
certain social vices. These heroes are sincerely confident in justice
your ideas and actions; they are obsessed with their passions and fight selflessly
for their implementation. And the more obsessed they are in this struggle, the funnier it is, since
laughter is born from the discrepancy between their behavior and the baseness of their goals.
Ordinary motives are elevated to an ideal, and this makes self-confidence
Moliere's characters are imaginary, as if from within the image itself, satirically
exposing vulgar passions. When, towards the end of the action, satirical
characters fail, then, while maintaining the drama of their experiences,
they do not evoke any sympathy from the audience, because the punishment they suffered
is perceived as retribution, which they fully deserve.
Moliere's nationality was also evident in the general style of his comedies - all of them
(with the exception of those written for court festivities on
mythological and pastoral subjects (“Princess of Elis. (1664),
"Melicert" (1666), "Psyche" (1671).)) are imbued with the spirit of popular optimism,
openly expressed democratic bias, rapid
dynamics in the development of action, energetic, vivid depiction of characters and,
which is especially indicative of the folk theater, the atmosphere of cheerfulness and
life-giving gaiety.
The free spirit of the folk theater did not leave Moliere during all his years
creativity. He triumphed in his first comedy "Naughty", and he
permeated one of Moliere's most recent creations - a masterpiece of his comic
genius "The Tricks of Scapin" (1671).
The plebeian Scapin, in addition to the usual advantages of a folk hero - a sharp mind,
energy, knowledge of life, optimism - was also endowed by Moliere with new features:
self-esteem and, most importantly, the ability to see
vices of the social structure. Scapin, insulted by his young master
Leander, agrees to help him only after he becomes
kneel before him, and wanting to repay his elder master for slander,
Geronto, Scapin puts him in a sack and, repeating the traditional theatrical
trick, personally beating the venerable bourgeois. According to new times, offend
the plebeian turns out not to do so with impunity. Upholding your dignity
Scapin evoked complete sympathy from the audience, for he really was
h_e_l_o_v_e_k_o_m next to the fools and simpletons of the older generation of gentlemen
and their helpless and frivolous offspring.
Scapin's advantage was determined not only by his natural intelligence and
energy, but also his knowledge of people and life. And if the traditional skill was
Scapin uses knowledge of characters to carry out his cunning
plans, then the wide range of observations of life,
which was first demonstrated in a comedy and indicated a peculiar growth
worldview of a plebeian hero. Warning old man Argant against conversion
to court, Scapin paints a very accurate and completely truthful picture of modern
him legal proceedings. He says: “How many appeals there are, different authorities and
all sorts of red tape, which kind of predatory animals you will not have to visit
claws: bailiffs, attorneys, lawyers, secretaries, their assistants, rapporteurs,
judges with their scribes! And no one will think about turning the law in their own way,
even for a small bribe. The bailiff will slip a fake protocol, and here you are
sued, but you don’t even know anything. The attorney will face off against the opposite
party and will sell you for nothing. The lawyer will also be bribed, he won’t even go to court
will appear when they are examining your case, or will begin to weave all sorts of nonsense, and
it never gets to the point. The secretary will read you the indictment in absentia
sentence. The speaker's scribe will hide the documents, otherwise the speaker himself will say
as if he had not seen them. And if with great difficulty you succeed in all this
avoid, then it will turn out, to your surprise, that the judges have already been tuned
their mistresses or some hypocrites are against you. No, sir, if you can,
stay away from this hell. Going to court is like going to hell
burn. Yes, I think I would have run away from the trial to the ends of the earth."
And following these words of angry denunciation of judicial arbitrariness and
red tape followed Scapin's second monologue, branding vile corruption
royal judges.
If one truly senses the daring spirit of the speeches of the last plebeian hero
Moliere, one can clearly imagine that the next stage in the development
the worldview of the plebeian hero will be the transformation of his knowledge of social
vices of noble-bourgeois society into a direct need to enter into
a decisive fight against these vices. Proof of the correctness of such
assumptions may be the image of Figaro from the comedy of Beaumarchais, the forerunner
which are not the selfish and cynical servants from the plays of Regnard and Lesage, but
active, brave, in his own way noble and freedom-loving Scapin, over a hundred
for more than a year, who said about the French court those words of harsh truth that
Figaro will talk about the social system noble France generally.
If in the image of Skaien Moliere foresaw the future hero, the exponent
plebeian forces of the “third estate”, then in the sketched figure of the tax farmer
He saw Harpen from the comedy "Countess d'Escarbanhas" (1671) in modern
in his society is that type of predatory bourgeois financier who, after a few
decades in Lesage's comedy "Turkare" will receive its precise and merciless
satirical depiction. Moliere's work, addressed to modern times,
reflected everything that was ripening in modern times for the future. Features of this
future topics were felt in latest works Moliere, intently
who followed all the new phenomena of life. It’s not for nothing that Moliere
worked carefully on his penultimate comedy" Scientists women" (1672),
the topic of which was in itself, perhaps not so significant, but the type
comedy based on direct observations and accurate satirical
descriptions of modern morals, pointed to Moliere’s persistent desire to
bring theater and reality closer together.
Carried away by new creative quests, Moliere
raised the prestige of his theater. Therefore, when the relationship between the playwright and the king
cooled (the reason was that Louis provided the composer Lully with preferential
rights to show performances with music), Moliere, without any embarrassment, gave
premiere of his new comedy not at court, as was originally planned, but
in his city theater. At the same time, the playwright pointedly replaced
a specially written prologue praising the king, a new prologue in which
there was not even a mention of His Majesty's person. This comedy was "Imaginary
patient", which was a huge success. Moliere was loudly applauded and how
playwright and as a leading actor. But on the fourth day
performance of "The Imaginary Invalid" by Moliere, who had long suffered from illness
lungs, felt especially ill.
At some point he even hesitated to go up on stage. But in the theater
There were the Prince of Condé and many noble foreigners. It is also possible that the head
troupe considered it his duty to make an effort to ensure that his fellow actors
and the theater employees did not lose their earnings. During the show
comedy, when Argan shouted his famous “Juro!”, Moliere for a short
I felt weak for a moment - the audience noticed it. The performance was completed. Moliere
wrapped himself in a robe and went to rest in the restroom of his favorite student
Barona. He felt cold. My hands were frozen. The porters were called, and Moliere
They took him to his home, on Richelieu Street. The Baron accompanied him. Houses Molière
flatly refused warm broth and asked for a piece of Parmesan and a little
of bread. Then he lay down. He was overcome by mortal weakness. The Baron ran
to look for Moliere's wife Armande, and the patient was left alone with two
nun nurses who accidentally wandered into their house. Suddenly
blood gushed out of my throat. Moliere's servants ran to two priests who lived in
the parish of St. Eustachia. These merciful confessors refused to appear to the author
"Tartuffe". Genevieve Bejart's husband, Jean Aubry, went after the third abbot, who
decided to come to the bedside of the dying man. But he walked for more than an hour. During this time
Moliere died.
The Parisian clergy, continuing to burn with hatred for the deceased,
remembered an old church decree against actors and decided to apply it with
with all severity. The priests of the parish of St. They refused to bury Eustachius
Moliere. Armande sent a request to the Archbishop of Paris. Then she
hurried to Saint-Germain and requested an audience with the king. Louis XIV
ordered to tell the archbishop that he should not allow noise and scandals.
The archbishop complied, but clearly against his wishes. He gave the order
bury Moliere at night.
Thus, on the night of February 21-22, 1673 at 9 p.m.
Moliere's body was taken from Richelieu Street to the cemetery of St. Joseph. Ahead
the cortege was illuminated by torches. Four clergymen carried the coffin. Six
children from the choir accompanied him with candles. The overnight funeral drew a crowd
seven hundred - eight hundred people. There was not a single noble person among them.
Armande distributed 1000 livres to the poor.
The hatred of the saints pursued Moliere further. Monstrous epitaph in
verses walked from hand to hand. It expressed joy over the death of the atheist
and wishing him hellfire.
But the man who aroused such fierce hatred of the saints acquired for himself
the enormous and unquenchable love of the French people.
Death found Moliere on the verge of new great achievements, and if the pen
fell out of the hands of the brilliant creator of "Tartuffe", then the work he started to be interrupted
it was no longer possible. The realism of French drama and theater, which scored
a powerful key in the work of Moliere, continued his movement in the next
century. The names of Regnard, Lesage and Beaumarchais were the largest in that legion
French playwrights who followed in the footsteps of Moliere.
Through the work of Molière, French theater brought to many
national theaters of Europe progressive realistic trends that
helped shape the national dramaturgy of these countries. Fielding,
Goldsmith, Sheridan in England, Goldoni and all his predecessors in Italy,
young Lessing and Goethe in Germany, Moratin and Ramon de la Cruz in Spain,
Holberg in Denmark - each of these playwrights created their own comedies, learning from
Moliere in his modeling of characters and plotting and, most importantly, remembering the testament
great playwright that "the purpose of comedy is to depict human
shortcomings and especially the shortcomings of modern people."
Moliere's authority was very high among the great creators of Russian
national comedy - Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol and Ostrovsky.
Moliere's satirical genius grew out of ideological clarity and
the artist's determination. Moliere not only truthfully portrayed his
time, but also sharply pointed out the glaring discrepancy between life and those ideal
the norms that humanism has developed and will develop through enlightenment.
Such an ideological range could only exist in a person who lived
with the people and created for the people. The breadth and fearlessness of Moliere's views, his
constant desire to expose in his comedies the main vices of the time, his
optimism and poetic animation and, finally, his passionate faith in his
writer's duty, turning creativity into a civic feat - all this
made the creator of Tartuffe a great national poet, the true head
French theater, a genius who laid the foundations of a new realistic
dramaturgy.

MOLIÈRE'S CREATIVE PRINCIPLES

Moliere devoted his entire work to revealing the unnaturalness of the social order, which rests on the power of class power and private property. In each of his comedies, he showed one or another deformity that occurs for one of these reasons. Moliere, analyzing modern life and morals, critically assessed them from the standpoint of nature, which he represented, like all great humanists, as a harmonious combination of personal passions and public morality.

This general attitude determined the ideological militancy and social depth of Moliere's comedies. Farcical liveliness did not prevent the poet from remaining a thinker: in the most cheerful farces of Molière, like Monsieur de Poursonnac, there is a significant thought, just as in the most serious comedy, for example, in Tartuffe, one can find a buffoonery trick. Although classicist poetics condemned burlesque through the mouth of Boileau, they nevertheless put up with it if the buffoonery did not destroy the ideological meaning of the work.

Moliere inherited from the folk farce its everyday concreteness. Therefore, the texture of his comedies acquired such a bright, colorful flavor, and the characteristics had everyday weight and density. Moliere’s passion for commedia dell’arte was not in vain. The rapidly developing plot, the compositional scheme of the acting characters, the organic unity of intrigue and buffoonery, the internal interweaving of lyrical and comic scenes, developing according to the principle of parodic parallelism, the improvisational ease of dialogue with its sharp and rhythmically clear replicas - all this came from Moliere’s deep assimilation of the art of commedia dell"arte, which revealed to him the secret of stage dynamism. But farce and commedia dell"arte, which largely determined the originality Moliere's comedies did not deprive them of their deep cognitive meaning and did not take them away from the bosom of classicism.

Intellectual in their general character, Moliere's comedies were built on the principle of rationalist aesthetics. But Moliere's style has undeniable advantages over the style of tragic writers. This advantage manifests itself in a more organic connection with Renaissance art. The art of the Renaissance, largely killed by the pedantry of classicist rules, preserved organic nationality in Moliere's work. Classicism, having adopted from the revivalists the principle of depicting passions as the main dynamic essence of character, deprived passions of their concreteness. But this property of classicist poetics had the least impact on Moliere’s work. Passions and everyday life exist here in unity, and if Moliere submits to the norms of rationalist aesthetics, then this is manifested not in the leveling of the everyday certainty of his characters, but in the traditional cutting off of everything that can distract the plot or cloud the main, only theme of the image. Therefore, Moliere’s heroes find themselves seized by a single impulse; they are integral natures, and their feelings are always exaggerated. Passions in Moliere's depictions never appear on stage as psychological details of human character; they concentrate the very essence of nature and express, most often in a negative form, the artist's views on the way of life around him

Pushkin, comparing the heroes of Shakespeare and Moliere, wrote: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not, like Moliere’s, types of such and such a passion, such and such a vice, but living beings, filled with many passions, many vices; circumstances develop before the viewer their diverse and multifaceted characters. Moliere is stingy and only..."

Exploring wide layers of life, Moliere, as an artist of the classicist movement, selected only those features that were necessary for him to this case, to create a given character and to establish a given idea. In Moliere's comedies, life was reflected not in its complex diversity, but after preliminary logical comprehension. There was intelligence main feature. Moliere's genius - the rationalistic method determined a deep and conscious analysis of the essential aspects of life, gave rise to the ideological clarity of comedies, their social purposefulness and compositional completeness. But Moliere's intellectuality also had its negative side - it impoverished the psychology of his heroes and limited the philosophical range of his work. By subordinating reality to reason, Moliere found himself captive of a historically limited consciousness, while Shakespeare, who completely trusted life, its complex conflicts and contradictory passions and did not deliberately discipline them with intellect, escaped this and turned out to be a more insightful and true artist.

The harmony between the natural and the rational, which the revivalists asserted, has long since lost all historical meaning. In order to achieve at least relative social balance, it was necessary to achieve the victory of reason over the elements, it was necessary to curb passions with the intellect. And Moliere affirmed the principle of rationalistic comedy, while maintaining connections with Renaissance traditions.

With his trust in human nature, Moliere was a revivalist, he defended man's right to happiness, but it was already clear to him that not only living, but also dead water flows from the source of nature - the most natural impulses of man, devoid of a restraining social idea, become unnatural, selfish and selfish. But this social idea did not exist yet - the mass of the third estate was not yet ripe to go to fight feudalism.

The people acting in Moliere's comedies admire their intelligence and moral health, but they are too frivolous and never think about the need to change the order in which Tartuffe and Harpagon are blissful.

The servants and maids in Moliere's comedies, with their daring, sometimes arrogant, but always reasonable pranks, achieve the victory of the good principle over the evil one, they unravel the most complex conflicts and lead to clean water scoundrels, but they still lack the ability to see a general principle in a private fraud or an individual injustice and take up arms against it the way Figaro will take up arms. Only once does Molière’s servant from Don Juan allow himself a sharp political phrase; in all other cases, all these Mascarilles, Sganarelies and Scapins, from “Naughty” to “The Tricks of Scapin” (1651), although they make fun of their masters and sometimes they even beat them with sticks in a friendly manner, yet they remain faithful servants, not at all protesting against social injustices.

But if Moliere could not yet see the deep social contradictions of reality, he still knew how to reveal the depravity of a social system based on class privileges and private ownership. In this, the great comedian was the forerunner of the Enlightenment. It is not for nothing that Diderot will place so highly the dramaturgy of Moliere and especially his “The Misanthrope”, in which the philosopher will see the first attempt to create social drama, which has as its theme a critique of society from the standpoint of enlightened reason and natural morality.

But Moliere, defending the rights of nature and reason, although he created bearers of these principles in the form of “honnête homme”, lifeless Cleontes and Crisalds, still did not idealize the entire mass of the bourgeoisie and thereby saved himself from vice, which over time would turn out to be the main drawback of educational drama. . Moliere depicted the shortcomings of the new class with the same mercilessness with which he wrote his caricatures of the aristocracy. The bourgeoisie has not yet taken shape as fighting strength, “reason” had not yet turned it into its social subject, and therefore art was not faced with the task of extracting from each bourgeois his organic “natural morality.”

This political immaturity of the bourgeoisie made it possible for Moliere to be deeply truthful in his depiction of its social vices. The artist, free from the need for idealization, painted modern heroes of profit, not caring that he was compromising the progressive class.

Moliere's comedies are completely devoid of idyllic features; they convey true traits reality, understood as a clash of contradictory forces. Moliere's protagonists always come into conflict with the people around them. Despite the outward comic nature of these clashes, they themselves are deeply dramatic: Don Juan dies, Orgon almost loses his family and fortune, Harpagon turns his own children into fierce enemies, Danden brings himself to complete despair, Argon learns the full extent of human meanness, etc. The funny is always on the verge of the dramatic, but this does not diminish, but only enhances the comic essence of Moliere’s works.

For Moliere's heroes, passion is a source of joy and happiness and at the same time the reason for the heroes' defeat.

Moliere's heroes are sincerely confident in the justice of their ideas and actions, they are completely obsessed with their passions and selflessly fight for their implementation, and the more obsessed they are in this struggle, the funnier they are, since laughter is born from the discrepancy between the inspiration of their actions and the baseness of their goals. Ordinary motives are elevated to an ideal, and this makes the self-confidence of Moliere's characters imaginary and turns it, as it were, into the pathos of a satirical denunciation of vulgar passions.

Satirical genius grows only from the ideological clarity and determination of the artist. “The purpose of comedy,” wrote Moliere, “is to depict human shortcomings, and especially the shortcomings of modern people.” Moliere not only truthfully portrayed his time, but also sharply pointed out the blatant discrepancy between life and nature, that is, with those ideal norms that humanism has developed and will develop through the Enlightenment.

Such an ideological range could only exist in a person who was not infected either by class prejudices or bourgeois limitations, by an artist who “dominated the mores of his time” (Goethe) and, while remaining a loyal subject of the king, expressed through his work the hidden discontent of the broad masses of the third estate. The breadth and fearlessness of Moliere's views, his constant desire to expose the most essential content of reality in his comedies, his passionate belief in his duty as a writer, transforming creativity into a civic feat - all this made the royal comedian a great national poet, the true head of the French theater, a genius who pointed out theater arts the path to realism.