Misanthrope Timed Essay

Christine Yi

Period 6-Wylie

Everyone is a hypocrite, to a certain extent. People tend to delight in other’s misfortunes until one that is laughing falls into that misfortune, and they suffer. In Moliere’s play, Le Misanthrope, Moliere uses humor to reveal the human folly to provoke thoughtful laughter in the audience. Moliere portrays the character, Alceste, in a funny, satirical way to remind the audience that they’ve also been in the ridiculous scorch of love; some devices he utilizes are hyperbolic irony and satiric cliche.

Firstly, Alceste, often in Act I Scene I, spits harsh words in a funny and cynical manner; what he says is true in that, many can identify with what he says. For instance, Alceste says Alceste remarks, “I hate the whole degrade lot”. The ‘lot’ he refers to is women. This is verbally ironic and hyperbolic because Alceste doesn’t hate all women; also, Alceste thinks he dead serious when he retorts this phrase, but Moliere’s tone through Alceste’s words are dripping with verbal irony because he knows Alceste, and most other men don’t actually mean what they say, especially Alceste, since he is in actuality heartbroken over his coquettish girlfriend. The manner in which Alceste says these words are darkly blunt but very humorous because the audience knows that he isn’t actually serious.Through Moliere and through thoughtful laughter, Moliere reveals to the audience that many of them have been through a similar occurrence with a relationship with the opposite sex; although they may be laughing now at Alceste, the audience will realize that they have acted in a churlish and whiny manner that Alceste demonstrated over his sweetheart.

Secondly, Alceste again uses cynical words on the nature of women that is transmitted as a satirical cliche. Alceste converses heatedly with his companion Philinte, “I choose to be rude sir and to be hard of hearing.” To today’s audiences, this phrase can be translated to , ‘La-La-La. I can’t hear you’. In the heat of the debate, Alceste is losing the argument and his patience. Thus one can imagine him immaturely plugging his fingers into his ears and chanting the aforementioned phrase. Alceste’s blunt, grumpy attitude comes off as humorous. However, this is a satire of the fact that many people do that too when losing an argument or getting in a tough predicament. Seeing this familiar action and hearing Alceste’s familiar words will first provoke laughter, and then cause the audience to think about the way they may have handled a situation immaturely like Alceste has done.

Overall, Moliere, through Alceste’s hilarious actions, mockingly portrays common human follies. Although the audience may laugh at first, they will think about certain aspects of the play and realize their own follies in return. Everyone is a hypocrite to a certain extent, and sometimes it takes a bit of thoughtful laughter to realize they are indeed a hypocrite because they, themselves have committed those follies.