Misanthrope Essay (Ree-Ha, p4, t1, Asher)

“The Misanthrope” by Moliere reflects the French society’s belief and culture of the importance of having a good reputation. Through the characterization of Arsinoé, Moliere shows how crucially valued self-esteem, honor, and pride are.

Arsinoé is a woman of old age who cannot accept the fact that she has gone beyond the point in her life where men are attracted to her. She is jealous of a young, coquettish woman named Celiméne who has the physical beauty and the young age to attract a man named Alceste, whom she takes interest in. Because reputation is so highly important in the society of that time, she tries extremely hard to build her self-esteem by obtaining Alceste all for herself, away from Celiméne. She aspires to crush Celiméne and gain ¨honor from being the victor with the man. She takes extreme measures to achieve this by arrogantly condescending Celiméne and falsely misleading Alceste to think that Celiméne does not love him so that he would turn his eyes on her. Little did she know, this sweet taste of self-esteem she had and the glorious honor she aspired to gain slips away from her very soon.

Arsinoé wanted to prove to herself that her attractiveness did not die out yet. For many women in general, being gorgeous and attractive keeps them alive. Once they grow old, they not only lose their femininity, but their souls die out. Arsinoé simply wanted to keep herself feeling alive. Her primary goal was to make Alceste fall in love with her, or at least have him turn away from Celimene; however, when Alceste directly tells her that he will never fall in love with her regardless of Celiméne loving him or not, her plan fails and quickly shifts to saving her soul in a different way’ by keeping her pride. When she hears Alceste´s crushing remark, she fires back at him saying he would never be able to have a woman of such great standards like her. Though she did not become the victor of the battle for Alceste, she managed to keep her stance as a prideful woman.

Moliere portrays these most highly regarded aspects of the French society through the characterization of Arsinoé. No matter how brutal or immoral an act may be, people of the French society did anything it took to keep their reputation high by maintaining their self-esteem, honor, and pride.