Misanthrope Timed Essay

In The Misanthrope, Moliere, the auther, "awakens thoughtful laughter" through life lessons. Through the character Celimene, Moliere shows you why you should never take anything for granite. In Act 1 Scene 3, Moliere shows how even when you know bad news is coming, you still feel extremly dissapointed. We as the readers may laugh at the irony in these situations, but it also causes us to think of what we can learn from these experiences.

Through out the entire play Celimene is portrayed as an enormous flirt. No matter which character it may be, Celieme always seemed to want their attention in a flirtatious manner. Through all this Alceste loved Celimene with all his heart. Even though Celimene tells Alceste that she is actually in love with him, Alceste begins to have his doubts. In the end when Celimene is forced to make a choice, Alceste chooses to walk away. When Celimene realizes what she has lost, she tries everything to convince Alceste to give her a chance. No matter what Celimene says Alceste does not change his mind. The irony that Alceste loved Celimene all along and in the end he chooses to walk away no matter what Celimene says, creates thoughtful laughter. Its amusing that she took his love for granite all along and when she decides to give him the time of day he decides to walk away. That teaches you to never take what you have for granite.

In Act 1 Scene 3, thoughtful laughter is created when Alceste expresses his disaproval of Oronte's poem. When Oronte created his poem he really wanted Alceste to read it and give him some feed back. Alceste continues to decline, stating he would more likely then not disapprove of the way it was written. But no matter what he said Oronte insisted Alceste read his poem. When Alceste reads it and expresses his disapproval, Oronte becomes infuriated. As the reader this brings upon laughter, do to the fact that even though Alceste told him he would disapprove of Oronte's play, he still becomes infuriated. If he wasn't ready to hear harsh criticism, he shouldn't have had Alceste read his poem.

Moliere's reasoning for creating thoughtful laughter, is to teach the reader life lessons. The irony created by Celimene's character, and the way you should not handle criticism described in Act 1 Scene 3 are for the readers amusement and life long knowledge.

-Zachary Lindecamp