The philosopher and the aristocratic woman
One of the things that I like about reading plays is that they tend to be short and are easy to get through in a short amount of time. However the problem I have is that since they tend to be written so as to be performed on stage (in the same way that poetry is generally written to be read aloud) it makes it difficult to actually follow what is happening. With regards to many of Shakespeare's plays this is not a problem because you can find most of them on You Tube, however a quick search through Youtube has not provided me with any joy in regards to this particular play.
The Misanthrope was the only play of Moliere's that I had heard of until a friend of mine bought me a collection of his plays for Christmas. The reason that I knew of it was because I would see the Dover Thrift edition sitting on bookshop shelves and I did want to get around to reading it some day (particularly since it was short). I guess I have done that now.
The Misanthrope is about a poet who is disgusted with the fake attitudes of the French nobility, however is in love with a woman who is the epitome of this attitude. I guess I can relate to this because I have been infatuated with women like this myself, and there is that part of me that believes that I might be able to change her. Mind you, this love is not unrequited simply because she also has feelings for Alceste (the misanthrope of the title) but is torn between her love for him, and for living the high life at court – that is being a flirt.
As mentioned, I can relate to Alceste a lot, particularly since I can be very critical of the shallowness of the western lifestyle, but have also been in love with women that have epitomised this lifestyle. Once again the love was not necessarily unrequited, however the difference was that these women, while appreciating being wined and dined, in the end only really wanted one thing (a free meal), where as I preferred good conversation and a companion. I guess I am just a bit conservative in that fashion.
It is interesting to see how things have not necessarily changed since the days of Moliere, though I would suggest that more people are able to live this lifestyle now than they were in those days. In fact on my recent visit to China (okay, it was only across the border to Shenzhen, and it was only for a day, but it did give me a bit of a taste) I could see how many of the people there were dressed like Westerners and wondered around the streets of Shenzhen with their faces glued to their smartphones (and I suspect that they were generally playing games). Personally I cannot comment on the Chinese culture, particularly on the Mainland, but there does appear to be little different from our culture.
This is the key I suspect because what Alceste is criticising is the shallowness of the culture. He is a poet, and obviously a thinker as well, so he (like me) likes to analyse things and to try to understand why things are the way they are, while the people around him care only for the pleasure and luxury of the high life. However Alceste is still human, he is attracted to a beautiful woman, and she is nothing like the person who he is: she is shallow and only interested in flirting and living the high life. I guess that is why Alceste walks out on her and on his society at the end, simply because he knows that he is not going to change her, and that if he hates this society so much, he might as well leave.
