This thesis explores the subject of love and self-love in the Misanthrope of
Moliere. The central issue is whether or not the main character, Alceste, is blinded by his
own self-love. If so, does this blindness lead him to madness? My analysis shows that
true love is not present in this play - and the reason for that is l'amour de I'autre. That is,
both Alceste and Celimene are much too self-absorbed and preoccupied with self-love to
be able to honour and cherish each other. In Alceste's case, the issue of blindness and
illusion are also crucial elements that influence his ability to love. In the first chapter, I
shall introduce these two elements and show how I'amour-propre causes Alceste to lose
sight of reality. Then, in the second chapter, different aspects of love shall be examined,
allowing me to illustrate how I'amour de I'autre is not achieved. Finally, the third chapter
introduces the idea of self-love and l'amour-propre, distinguishes the two and shows how
they lead the two characters of the Misanthrope to reject love.
The theme of Amour-propre, as well as love mistreated or misunderstood, as
subjects of literary works, are widespread during the seventeenth century. The play on
illusion and reality, reason and madness, as well as the element of change and instability,
as they appear in the Misanthrope, are familiar ground in Baroque theatre. Indeed, as
Jean-Marie Apostolides notes in an article, the theatre is a space where new thoughts and
ideologies are presented, where people, places and time are transformed and tested. This
is undeniably what Moliere proposes to do in the Misanthrope and this project illustrates
how this great playwright achieves that goal. In this thesis, I demonstrate how he
brilliantly illustrates the social and philosophical influence of his time on individuals and
its consequences. How does one react to such external forces? In Alceste's and
Celimene's case, they each move in completely opposite directions in reaction to these
external powers. The result of this, as well as of their forced union is what gives this play
its strengths. For Moliere is able to show us the humour in such a marriage between a
misanthrope and a coquette.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11809 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Khachehtoori, Caroline |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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