Lauren Wakabayashi

per.3 t.1

AP Lit. Wylie

Misanthrope Essay

In The Misanthrope, by Moliere, thoughtful laughter is awakened in the reader through the character Alceste. He loves a girl named Celimene, yet she is the very embodiment of what he stands against as a person. Moliere uses Alceste to awaken thoughtful laughter in the reader through Alceste’s thoughts and actions.

When Alceste’s friend Philinte is not truthfully and bluntly honest about something Alceste gets made at him. He thinks that people need to be truthfully honest to others or else society is all a lie. Oronte, who is an acquaintance of Alceste and Philinte’s, asks them what they think of his poetry and Alceste is truthful while Philinte is more sensitive in telling his opinion. Oronte is not a good poet and Alceste tells him it is some of the worst poetry he has ever heard. Philinte says that his poetry is good and Alceste gets even more angry at him for not telling the honest truth. Moliere’s purpose in having Alceste be a blunt and honest person is to set up the thoughtful laughter for the reader when they learn he is in love with Celimene. She is a back stabbing, gossiping, flirt of the court who is never truthful to anyone’s face. Alceste is madly in love with her and he gets angry at her for flirting with other men.

A friend of Alceste’s, Arsinoe, is also in love with him and tells Alceste to see what is the lie in front of him. She tells him the very thing he loves is a fake, and yet still he does not listen to her. Moliere provokes more thoughtful laughter in the reader because he shows that even though Alceste stands for truth and honesty he will not listen to others being honest to him and see the truth right in front of his eyes. Celimene is flirtatious with both Oronte and Alceste and they force her to chose. She will not pick in front of both men, which shows again she is a flirt and not truthful the way Alceste wants people to be. Moliere used Alceste to make the reader laugh to themselves about the hypocritical ways of people. Alceste finally sees his love Celimene for the liar she is and leaves her.

Moliere’s purpose was to use Alceste as a vessel to awaken thoughtful laughter in the reader. He shows Alceste as one way, a truthful and blunt man, and as another way, a lovesick man to a woman who represents everything he is against. He shows that Moliere used him as a person people could laugh at because he was so hypocritical in his views.