Amber Austin's Misanthrope Essay

This Misantrope In-Class Essay
In The Misanthrope by Moliere many different elements and characteristics of society and relationships are explored. This not-so-modern French play unveils many issues in today’s society. The work as a whole touches on universal issues of many relationships or societies; like jealousy, lack of communication or double standards.
In this instance, the relationship between Celimene and Alceste contributes to the thoughtful laughter of this play. As individual characters, Celimene is a woman of independence and she often in portrayed and reminded as the woman with many suitors. Alceste on the other hand, doesn’t appreciate all of her suitors and tries to make them go away. This creates a gridlock in their relationship. In modern day relationships this happens often, one not knowing the extent or just not wanting to go further in the relationship. This can also happen in parental relationships when a child doesn’t agree with the parent. In this case, there’s a gridlock. Alceste’s jealousy of her many suitors created a gridlock in their relationship.
Just like today, that could have been avoided if it ha not been for their lack of communication. In the beginning it wasn’t mentioned much that Celimene had many suitors, but throughout the play it was mentioned more and more. So it must be an important characteristic. Today, like in many relationships in Misanthrope there are relationships due to lack of communication; like Celimene and her other suitors or Alceste and the people involved in his court case. The irony in this situation is the problems in Moliere’s fictional creation many years ago are still persistent in today’s society.
Lastly, Misanthrope’s thoughtful laughter evokes a realization of a double standard within this play. Starting with Celimene’s problem with many suitors – it is thought as a disgraceful characteristic in many societies to have multiple suitors. However in many societies men have multiple wives and even multiple children from many different women; that wouldn’t be accepted in certain societies. Women could be killed, but not even in most, multiple love interests are societal looked down upon.
Like in many societies, Misanthrope touches on and mentions double standards, lack of communication, and jealousy. There are thoughtful laughter points that Moliere creates. Many of these are ironically issues of today’s societies, from an not-so-modern point of view.