The Misanthrope Essay Justin Park period 1

“The Misanthrope” Prompt

In “The Misanthrope”, Moliere uses characters and scenes to provoke “thoughtful laughter” from the audience. After reading “The Misanthrope”, in addition to be entertaining, a couple of scenes and characters made me thing about the meaning and application of the story. Thus, Moliere uses the character “Alceste” to provoke thoughtful laughter about the society in “The Misanthrope”.

Alceste is the protagonist and title character of “the Misanthrope”. In the story, Alceste is characterized differently from the other characters. He is frustrated by the lack of sincerity and prevalence of corruption in the society. Also, he frequently lectures others about honesty and ills hypocrisy. For example, Alceste is very honest that he admits that he degraded Oronte when Oronte recited his poem. Even though it was a very serious situation, Alceste chooses to be honest and gets in trouble.

Alceste, due to his personality gets isolated from other people. Some respect Alceste but almost nobody listens to him. For example, Alceste is critical about Celimene because she was taking negatively about the court people. Alceste says, she is being a hypocrite but she does not care what Alceste says.

In “The Misanthrope, Moliere uses Alceste as a satirical device. By showing Alceste who is very strict getting isolated, he conveys the message that strict code of ethics cannot survive in the society. Thus, the character Alceste provokes “thoughtful laughter” to me and made me apply Alceste as a satirical device in the society.