Review: Les Femmes Savantes by Molière

Les Femmes savantes is a hilarious play that Molière wrote in the last years of his life.  I really want to review it, but I am all Molièred out, so this will probably be a really short review.  I loved this play, possibly even more than I loved Le Tartuffe.  Henriette, the youngest of two girls, wants to marry Clitandre.  Her older sister Armande, who claims to care only for learning and philosophy, basically shoots her down and says it's not going to happen because Clitandre still loves her.  Clitandre does, in fact, want to marry Henriette, and he goes to her father to ask for permission.  Chrysale immediately says yes, but everyone is concerned.  They want him to speak to his wife, Philaminte.  She wears the pants in the family and Chrysale is afraid to go against her.  She wants Henriette to marry her friend Trissotin, who loves bragging about how smart he is.  Throughout the play, the 2 sides are trying to marry off Henriette to the man of their choice before she can marry the other.

The title indicates that there are some smart ladies in the house.  That is true, but it's more making fun of them than praising them.  Philaminte, Armande, and Bélise (Armande's aunt and Chrysale's sister) are the "smart women".  They are very intelligent, but they don't learn because they enjoy learning.  They learn so that they can brag about how smart they are to everyone.  There is a hilarious scene where the cook runs to Chrysale saying that Philaminte wants to fire her.  When Chysale confronts his wife, her reason for wanting the cook gone is that she doesn't speak with proper grammar (and at that time, the French language was just beginning to be codified and grammar/pronunciation rules put into place, so to say that someone isn't using proper grammar is just funny since the "proper" French wasn't wide spread yet).

One of the morals of the story is that learning for the sake of learning is great, but learning just so you can flaunt your intelligence in front of everyone is stupid.  And believe me, it is.  When "les femmes savantes" think they are talking very intelligently, they sound hilarious.

I'm sure this play has taken a lot of flak over the years from people claiming it's anti-women because of it's subject matter and title, but I honestly don't think that Molière was "trying to put women back in their places".  Just because the people in the wrong in this play are women doesn't mean that Molière doesn't want women learning and wants them to only stick to household chores and having babies.  He was very close to the women in his life, and the co-founder of his theatre troupe was a woman.  If you look at the bigger picture, you'll see that the underlying moral of the story can relate to both women and men.

Have you read or seen this play?  If so, what are your opinions of it?

Title: Les Femmes savantes
Author: Molière
Date of Publication: original in 1672, my copy is from the 1990s
Number of Pages: 185 (5 acts)
Genre: play, comedy
Source: Personal Copy

Review: Le Tartuffe by Molière

Over the next week or so, I'll be posting short reviews of some of what I've been reading for school.  They are mainly novellas, and plus I'm sick of discussing them in class (though I loved them all), so that's why they are "quick" reviews.  Today's review isn't really all that short, but it's much shorter than it could be.

The first play I got to read in my Molière class is Le Tartuffe, sometimes called L'Imposteur (or The Imposter in English).  I have a whole long post planned just on Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Molière, so I'm not going to get in depth into his life right now.  I will say that after Le Tartuffe was first played in 1664 at Louis XIV's "fête des plaisirs de l'île enchantée", it was banned from being played publicly.  This first version contained just 3 acts.  Molière later revised it to the 5 acts we know today.  Why was it banned?  Because of it's subject matter.  Le Tartuffe is about a "faux dévot", or someone who pretends to be very religious and charitable when really she is just greedy and only cares about herself.  The faux dévot in this play is named Tartuffe, and I could do a whole blog post just on the different reasons why Molière may have chosen that as his name, but I won't, because it's really not important.  Tartuffe uses his disguise as a pious man of the Church to get ahead in life.  Molière basically based Tartuffe's character off of many prestigious men who were members of a secret religious society.  Long story short, the vast majority of these people acted charitably and religiously, but only so that they could benefit and get ahead.  Le Tartuffe was finally unbanned in 1669 after Louis XIV finally was able to dismantle the society, and the play became an instand and huge success.

So that was a lot of background dumbed down.  It's hard to talk about the play without the background info, and I hope you thought it to be as interesting as I did :)

I think I mentioned at the start of this semester how I much I HATE reading plays.  I take that back.  I LOVED Le Tartuffe!  It was hilarious.  It is about a man, Orgon, who is blind to the lies that Tartuffe tells him.  He thinks the world of Tartuffe, and Tartuffe knows it.  In fact, Orgon even takes Tartuffe's word over those of his own family members.  Most of Orgon's family and servants can't stand Tartuffe and know he's a fake, but Orgon doesn't listen to them.  He decides to marry off his daughter to Tartuffe and after banishing his son Damis (because Damis tried telling him the truth about Tartuffe), Orgon decides that Tartuffe will become his inheriter.  Orgon's daughter Mariane is devestated because she loves a man named Valère.  However, Mariane refuses to speak up against her father.  So her servant Dorine (my favorite character-she is SO funny) hatches up a plan to make Orgon rethink the marriage.  Tartuffe hits on Elmire, Orgon's wife, and basically says he wants to sleep with her.  Orgon of course doesn't believe what he hears.  His family and servants keep speaking up about the problem.  Will Orgon listen?  What will happyen to Tartuffe?  And will Mariane get to be with Valère, her lover?  All these questions and more are answered with the surprise ending!  But you'll have to read it or see it yourself because I'm not giving anymore away.

So if you can't tell, I definitely recommend Le Tartuffe.  I read it in French, but it's easy to find in English.  I laughed so much my stomach hurt when I read it.  Molière definitely has a way with words, and I can't wait to read the next play for my class, Le Misanthrope.

Molière definitely gets you thinking both during and after reading this play.  One questino in particular that I'm pondering is this: does Molière say anything about speaking up vs. being quiet in Le Tartuffe?  Do those who speak up and tell the truth get out ahead of those who keep their mouths shut?  Or is it the other way around?  It's something to think about, especially because I have a paper due on the topic in a week. 

If you don't love Le Tartuffe for its humor, you'll probably love it for the way Molière creates strong female characters who aren't afraid to speak their minds (and yes, I'm talking to you Dorine!), something that wasn't super common in plays back in the 17th Century.

A fave passage, though it's in French (sorry in advance!):
Page 54: Dorine: "Le soir, elle eut un grand dégout, et ne peut au souper toucher a rien du tout, tant sa douleur de tête était encore cruelle!"
Orgon: "Et Tartuffe?"
Dorine: "It soupa, lui tout seul, devant elle, et fort dévotement il mangea deux perdrix, avec une moitié de gigot en hachis."
Orgon: "Le pauvre homme!"

The scene goes on like that for a while, with Dorine explaining how Orgon's wife was sick while he was away.  Everytime she says something about Elmire, Orgon asks how Tartuffe was.  Dorine responds with something about how he is doing well and eating and drinking a lot and is happy, and Orgon will just be like, "Oh, the poor man!"  Hilarious.  I need to see this play on the stage!

Title: Le Tartuffe
Author: Molière
Date of Publication: Originally 1669 with 5 acts, but my copy was published in 2008 by Flammarion
Number of Pages: 147
Genre: comedy (a play)
Source: Personal Copy