Wyl.p6.t7

Elaine Hong

In the Misanthrope by Moliere, Moliere uses the scene where Oronte is reading his poem to Alceste to describe and satirize the French aristocracy and its shallowness and narrow-minded behavior. This in turn evokes a thoughtful laughter for it comically criticizes the arrogance and ignorance of the pinnacle of french aristocracy, Oronte.
Moliere portrays Oronte, a wealthy frenchman as pompous and full of himself. He attempts to formalize simple human interactions simply because he believes he is better than everyone else. Oronte is the pinnacle of the narrow minded aristocrats. Alceste, although an aristocrat, sees himself superior for other reasons. His strict code of ethics, which involves tota; honesty and elimination of hypocrisy, isolate him from the rest of society because is is proven to be a criticizer. Other french aristocrats such as Oronte, have the inability to take complaints and therefore shun Alceste. They refuse to hear their flaws that Alceste uncovers. During Oronte's poem reading, Alceste says that Oronte should take up another hobby but Oronte gets furious because Alceste implied his poem was terrible. Oronte stubbornly refutes and argues with Alceste, indicating his arrogance and ignorance. These two traits highlight Moliere's point which is that french aristocrats are so full of themselves, they do not see how stupid and stubborn they have grown to be. Through Oronte and Alceste's opposing opinions on the poem, Moleier pokes fun at French aristocracy especially focusing on the character traits of Oronte.

The thoughtful laughter is evoked through the interaction between Oronte and Alceste. The bickering over a simple written piece is extremely comical because there are two male adultes arguing over who is right or wrong about the poem. The evident pigheadedness over such a menial matter emphasizes how the revered aristocrats have been reduced to agitating each other because they have nothing else better to do with their lives. The inner laughter is caused by the fact that the aristocrats are so bored that they resolve to argue with themselves and display their acts of ignorance, arrogance, shallowness, and narrow-mindedness. As these two grown aristocratic men clash, evidence of a disdainful side of aristocracy is seen.

Moliere satirizes the wealthy french class through Oronte and Alceste's interaction. He highlights their argument and uses it to symbolize what the rich French have become, a bunch of fools who have nothing better to do than argue about menial useless things.