Molière, The Hypocrite

Great comedies often harbor the spiritual core of tragedy, and this kernel is the most righteous heart of a comedy writer, as the Roman poet Horace said, "What can prevent me from laughing and talking about the truth?" ”

01

Molière, a French playwright and creator of classical drama, was born in Paris to a family of court interior furnishing merchants with the status of "royal attendants", a pure rich second generation, most of his works are needlework, mocking the nobility, criticizing the church, exposing the hypocrisy and ignorance of high society, which has caused great social repercussions, and some of his plays have been repeatedly banned. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once commented that "he was a solitary man, his comedy was close to tragedy, and the play was so clever that no one had the courage to imitate him".

02

Anyone who has read "The Hypocrite" can feel the sharpness of the play, and the irony is directed at the Catholic Church, which in 17th-century France had to say was a very brave challenge. At that time, France was still a feudal society, although due to the germination and development of capitalist production relations since the 15th century, the strength of the bourgeoisie has been greatly enhanced, to the extent of equal opposition with the aristocratic class, but the bourgeoisie has not yet had the strength to overthrow the feudal system, the bourgeoisie in order to protect its own interests, often adopt the strategy of supporting the royal power to weaken the feudal aristocracy, at the same time, the French monarch in order to subdue those unruly feudal lords, strengthen their rule, but also willing to get support from the bourgeoisie, therefore, France gradually established a monarchy. The era of Molière's life and creation was the peak of the French autocratic dynasty in the middle of the 17th century, and Catholicism had always been the ideological pillar of European feudalism, and in 17th-century France, especially the concentrated representation of reactionary forces.

03

The drama revolves around the father's autocratic arranged marriage, telling the story of the fallen nobleman Tattifu disguised as a devout Catholic and mixed into the home of the wealthy merchant Orgon, in an attempt to seduce his wife and seize his family property, Olgun wanted to marry his daughter to Tattiov, so that he became his own family, the daughter did not want to break the original engagement with Valère, so she turned to the sharp-eyed, clear-headed maid Yao Lina, the maid came up with a plan to let him find his brother and stepmother to help, and the stepmother asked the widow to interview and persuade him not to obstruct the marriage of a young couple. Unexpectedly, the deceiver Repliddew fu expressed his love to her, and was heard by the son who was hiding in the suite, and immediately went to report it to his father, who thought that his son was making rumors, and in a fit of anger, he threw him out of the house and cancelled the right to inherit the property, gave all his family property to Him, and announced that he would let his daughter marry him that night, and his stepmother designed to make Him ugly, so that his husband woke up, and the disguise was torn, and the original form of The Widow was exposed, and he reported to the court that Orgon had secretly hidden state affairs, and finally thanks to the king's "detection of the micro-knowledge", he was extra-courteous to Orgon. Duff was imprisoned.

The play "Hypocrites", by portraying the evil man Tadayov disguised as a Catholic, "gluttony, greed for money, greed" how to deceive people's trust, in order to achieve the despicable purpose of the image, exposing the hypocritical face of the Members of the French Catholic Church and the court nobility, revealing the common deceptive means of the liars, mastering the desires of the human heart, to a certain extent breaking through the strict boundaries of classical comedy, with a strong tragic color, the plot development has always been manifested as evil does not pressure the right, and the plot is completely in line with the French classicism "Trinity" According to the rules of creation, "The Hypocrite" is not only the pinnacle of the history of theater, but also opens the heyday of Molière's criticism of social reality with the pen in his hand, which is the heyday of anti-feudalism and anti-religion.