MILAN – Moliere , pseudonym of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Paris, January 15, 1622 – Paris, February 17, 1673), was a French playwright and theatrical actor. Moliere has personified with his work and his life the very essence of the theater, knowing how to react vigorously to the torments and criticisms received, analyzing and examining deeply human society. 1. The imaginary patient
(Le Malade imaginaire), is one of the most famous comedies of the Parisian artist. In 17th-century France, the term “imaginary” meant crazy. At the center of the events is an old man who desperately seeks a cure for his “illness”. In an attempt to cure himself he gets the enema doctor to do him and prescribes antibiotics which, instead of helping him, only worsen the situation. Meanwhile, her daughter falls in love with a man while he intends to marry her to another person. She believes that this person is her loved one but instead it turns out that the one she has to marry is a “poor loser” with a medical degree. Meanwhile, the girl’s suitor pretends to be her music teacher by deceiving her father. She confesses her love for her boy (who is the family doctor’s son) to her father but he drives him out. The imaginary patient then simulates his death to prove the affection of his wife and daughter. His wife, interested only in her money, celebrates her husband’s death. Her daughter, on the other hand, is desperate and bursts into tears. The man then reveals her deception and allows her to marry whoever she wants of her.2. The miser
(L’Avare ou l’Ecole du mensonge) is a comedy set in Paris in the house of Arpagone, in the space of one day. The piece was performed for the first time in Paris, at the Palais-Royal Theater in 1668. The character of the old miser, who is the protagonist, is one of the typical characters of classical theater. Arpagone, is a man devoted exclusively to the activity of accumulating wealth with any type of activity, lawful or illegal, usury, loan sharking and shady deals. Moreover, he is famous everywhere for his unbearable avarice and for the austere regime to which he subjects all his family, in particular his two children, Elisa and Cleante, but also his servants. Alongside the protagonist’s avarice motif there is a complicated love affair: Arpagone, a widower for some time, takes it into his head to marry the young and poor Mariana, who, however, is already secretly engaged to Cleante. Furthermore, Valerio, the steward of Harpagon and his trusted man, weaves a deception behind him to marry Elisa, with the complicity of the servants and of Cleante himself. When it comes to intrigue, the figure of the intriguer cannot be missing, and Frosina arrives on the scene, a shrewd woman skilled in deceiving and arranging marriages, to whom Arpagone relies to conquer Mariana.3. Il misantropo
(Le Misanthrope ou l’Atrabilaire amoureux), and a five-act comedy by the French playwright Moliere. It was performed for the first time at Palais-Royal on June 4, 1666, with the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. The misanthrope is a work that contains biographical data, Moliere suffered because his wife had left him and because Don Giovanni and Il Tartuffo had been censored or not performed. The work ridicules from the beginning the conventions and hypocrisy of the French aristocrats of the time, but takes on a more serious tone when it dwells on the flaws and imperfections that all human beings possess. Alcestis is an uncompromising idealist, who pretends to behave without hypocrisy and without bending to compromise, unable to reconcile his own ethical principles with social habits.
In love with Celimene, a young woman a little flirtatious and a lover of worldliness, he tries to convince her to give up the world she is used to for her sake.
In the end, the difference of the two characters and ways of life will lead to the end of the relationship and the disappointed Alceste, who in the meantime has lost a trial filed against him, decides to leave the country. Another main character of this work is Filinte. Filinte is dialogically opposed to Alceste, insensitive to the imaginative having to be claimed at every pious pushed by his moralist friend, he insists on remaining anchored to reality, stating that the world with its defects cannot be changed and therefore the only way to live well in this society pervaded by immorality and dissimulation and adaptation to this fictitious world. Alcestis then follows an impossible pattern, which leads to a near defeat. The comedy ends with Alceste who, repudiated by everyone, abandons the worldly society in which he found himself and retires for a solitary life.4. Don Giovanni or The stone guest
(Dom Juan ou le festin de pierre), and a tragic comedy in five acts, by the French playwright Moliere. Don Giovanni, inveterate seducer, forced Donna Elvira to flee the convent where she was, but only to seduce and abandon her. Donna Elvira, determined to return to the cloister for the rest of her life, announces the curse of Heaven to Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni, aristocrat, young, handsome, sensual, but also a liar, arrogant and incurable seducer, is one of the most disturbing characters in literature of all time. The story of him is that of a man who challenges God by breaking his laws. He enjoys disguising himself, in substituting for another in order to be able, by deception, to enjoy women whom he abandoned shortly after having consumed a playful rite of love with them. The plot of the work is precisely given by the succession of these seductions and by the inevitable subsequent escapes until the moment in which, during a night raid Don Giovanni kills the father of Donna Anna, one of his victims. From this moment on, it is the relationship between the protagonist and the talking statue of the dead that animates the scene. In fact, the statue, challenged by Don Giovanni who is not afraid of death, invites him to dinner and he bravely accepts. On the evening of the supper, the statue, in greeting Don Giovanni, extends his hand to him, thus dragging him with him to hell. From this moment on, it is the relationship between the protagonist and the talking statue of the dead that animates the scene. In fact, the statue, challenged by Don Giovanni who is not afraid of death, invites him to dinner and he bravely accepts. On the evening of the supper, the statue, in greeting Don Giovanni, extends his hand to him, thus dragging him with him to hell. From this moment on, it is the relationship between the protagonist and the talking statue of the dead that animates the scene. In fact, the statue, challenged by Don Giovanni who is not afraid of death, invites him to dinner and he bravely accepts. On the evening of the supper, the statue, in greeting Don Giovanni, extends his hand to him, thus dragging him with him to hell.READ ALSO THE APHORISMS
