In the Misanthrope, Moliere shows awakens thoughtful laughter primarily through Alceste.
Alceste creates thoughtful laughter through his separation from society. In this time period of France, the nobility interacted by using excessive complements and flattery. However, Alceste did not abide by this and said how he truly felt about people and their actions. Alceste has an unrealistic expectation for society, along with rigid morals. This is what creates the thoughtful laughter in the play, but it also gets Alceste into a lot of trouble. For example, Alceste is blunt about how bad Oronte’s writing is, which lead to a law which lead to a law suit against Alceste.
However, the thoughtful laughter also comes from Alceste’s hypocrisy. Alceste criticizes everything wrong with others and society, yet when it comes to himself and his own endeavors he becomes soft. Celimene, who Alceste is madly in love with, clearly uses men and seduces them to her advantage, but Alceste over looks that throughout the play because he is so madly in love with her.
Moliere tries to show the flaws of society through thoughtful laughter. Flaws such as the reasons lawsuits were initiated and how people interact are mainly what Moliere tries to pinpoint.
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