"The Philistine in the Nobility" is a comedy-ballet created by the great Molière in 1670. This is a classic work, supplemented with elements of folk farce, features of ancient comedy and satirical compositions of the Renaissance.

History of creation

In the autumn of 1669, the ambassadors of the Ottoman Sultan visited Paris. The Turks were greeted especially pompously. But decorations, a spectacular meeting and luxurious apartments did not surprise the guests. Moreover, the Delegation stated that the reception was poor. It soon turned out that it was not ambassadors who visited the palace, but impostors.

However, the offended King Louis nevertheless demanded that Moliere create a work that would ridicule the pompous Turkish customs and the specific mores of Eastern culture. It took only 10 rehearsals and the play "Turkish Ceremony" was shown to the king. A month later, in 1670, at the end of November, the performance was presented at the Palais Royal.

However, a talented playwright after some time radically transformed the original play. In addition to satire on Turkish customs, he supplemented the work with reflections on the theme of the modern customs of the nobles.

Analysis of the work

Plot

Mr. Jourdain has money, a family and a good house, but he wants to become a true aristocrat. He pays barbers, tailors, and teachers to make him a respectable nobleman. The more his servants praised him, the more he paid them. Any whims of the master were embodied in reality, while those around him generously praised the naive Jourdain.

The dance teacher taught the minuet and the art of bowing correctly. This was important for Jourdain, who was in love with a marquise. The fencing teacher told me how to strike correctly. He was taught spelling, philosophy, learned the subtleties of prose and poetry.

Dressed in a new suit, Jourdain decided to take a walk around the city. Madame Jourdain and the maid Nicole told the man that he looked like a jester and everyone rushed about him only because of his generosity and wealth. There is a skirmish. Count Dorant appears and asks Jourdain to lend him some more money, despite the fact that the amount of debt is already quite substantial.

A young man named Cleon loves Lucille, who loves him back. Madame Jourdain agrees to the marriage of her daughter with her lover. Mr. Jourdain, having learned that Cleont is not of noble origin, sharply refuses. At this moment, Count Dorant and Dorimena appear. An enterprising adventurer courts the marchioness, passing on gifts from the naive Jourdain in his own name.

The owner of the house invites everyone to the table. The marquise is enjoying delicious treats, when suddenly Jourdain's wife appears, who was sent to her sister. She understands what is happening and makes a scandal. The Count and Marquise leave the house.

Koviel appears immediately. He introduces himself as a friend of Jourdain's father and a real nobleman. He tells that the Turkish heir to the throne arrived in the city, madly in love with the daughter of Mr. Jourdain.

To intermarry, Jourdain needs to go through the rite of initiation into mammamushi. Then the Sultan himself appears - Cleont in disguise. He speaks in a fictitious language and Coviel translates. This is followed by a mixed initiation ceremony, complete with ridiculous rituals.

Characteristics of the main characters

Jourdain is the protagonist of the comedy, a bourgeois who wants to become a nobleman. He is naive and direct, generous and reckless. Goes ahead to his dream. Happy to lend money. If he is angered, he instantly flares up, starts screaming and making a fuss.

He believes in the omnipotence of money, so he uses the services of the most expensive tailors, hoping that it is their clothes that will “do the job”. Everyone fools him: from servants to close relatives and false friends. Rudeness and bad manners, ignorance and vulgarity contrast very markedly with claims to noble gloss and grace.

Jourdain's wife

The wife of a petty tyrant and a false nobleman is opposed to her husband in the work. She is educated and full of common sense. A practical and sophisticated lady always behaves with dignity. The wife tries to guide her husband on the "path of truth" by explaining to him that everyone is using him.

She is not interested in titles of nobility, not obsessed with status. Even her beloved daughter, Madame Jourdain, wants to marry a person of equal status and intelligence, so that she feels comfortable and well.

Dorant

Count Dorant represents the nobility. He is aristocratic and vain. He makes friends with Jourdain solely out of selfish motives.

The man's enterprise is manifested in the way he deftly appropriates the gifts of the enamored Jourdain, presented to the marquise, as his own. Even the presented diamond he gives out as his gift.

Knowing about Covel's prank, he is in no hurry to warn his friend about the insidious plans of scoffers. Rather, on the contrary, the count himself has plenty of fun with the stupid Jourdain.

marquise

Marquise Dorimena - a widow, represents a noble noble family. For her sake, Jourdain is studying all the sciences, spending incredible money on expensive gifts and organizing social events.

It is full of hypocrisy and vanity. In the eyes of the owner of the house, she says that he spent so much for nothing on the reception, but at the same time enjoys delicacies with pleasure. The marquise is not averse to accepting expensive gifts, but at the sight of her boyfriend's wife, she pretends to be embarrassed and even offended.

Beloved

Lucille and Cleont are people of a new generation. They are distinguished by a good upbringing, smart and resourceful. Lucille loves Cleont, so when she learns that she will be married to another, she sincerely opposes it.

The young man really has something to love. He is intelligent, noble in manner, honest, kind and loving. He is not ashamed of his relatives, does not pursue ghostly statuses, openly declares his feelings and desires.

Comedy is distinguished by a particularly thoughtful and clear structure: 5 acts, as required by the canons of classicism. One action is not interrupted by secondary lines. Molière introduces ballet into the dramatic work. This violates the requirements of classicism.

The theme is Mr. Jourdain's crazyness in noble titles and nobility. The author criticizes in his work the aristocratic mode, the humiliation of the bourgeoisie in front of the class that allegedly dominates.

The writing

The comedy "The Philistine in the Nobility" was written by Molière commissioned by Louis XIV. The prehistory of its creation is as follows. When the Turkish embassy arrived in Paris in 1699, the king received it with fabulous luxury. However, the Turks, with their Muslim restraint, did not express any admiration for what they saw | magnificence. Moreover, the Turkish ambassador declared that there were more precious stones on his master's horse than on the king of France.

The offended king wanted to see a spectacle on the stage in which Turkish ceremonies would be ridiculed. Such was the external point to the creation of the play. Initially, Moliere came up with the scene of initiation approved by the king into the dignity of "mamamushi", from which the whole plot of the comedy later grew. However, later, the talented playwright changed the original idea and the comedy, ceasing to be a satire on Turkish customs, became a satire on the modern customs of the nobility and the ignorance of the petty bourgeois. In the center of the comedy is the limited and conceited tradesman Jourdain, who at all costs wants to become a nobleman. He, like thousands of bourgeois like him, is trying to learn noble manners, language and customs, to get closer to those from whom his noble origin separated him.

The nobility, which at that time was experiencing an economic and moral decline, still retained the authority that had developed over many centuries. The nobles remained the masters of the position in the state, having neither the moral right nor the material possibilities. They could boast of their glorious ancestors, secular manners, closeness to the reigning person, but nothing more: in reality, representatives of the bourgeoisie should have taken their place over time.

In the comedy, the nobility is represented by two characters: Count Dorant and Marquis Dorimena. Count Dorant is of noble birth, refined manners, captivating appearance. But at the same time, he is a poor adventurer, a swindler, ready for any meanness for the sake of money, even pandering. He calls M. Jourdain a kind friend. He is ready to praise his manners, his appearance: “Your appearance in this suit is impeccable. We do not have a single young man at court who would be as complex as you. Dorant "confesses" that he had an unusually strong desire to see Jourdain, moreover, put in a word about him in the royal bedchamber. Then, having bribed with rude flattery, the count kindly inquires about the amount of his debt, and then shamelessly asks for more loans. Acting like a subtle psychologist, Dorant says that a lot of people would gladly lend him, "... but you are my best friend," he tells Jourdain, "and I was afraid that I would offend you if I asked anyone else" . This conversation takes place in front of Jourdain's wife, so the true reasons that gave rise to the friendship of a nobleman and a tradesman are not disclosed here. Alone with Jourdain, Dorant reports that the Marquise reacted favorably to his gift, and then it turns out that Jourdain not only strives to be like a nobleman in his manners and manners, in addition to everything, he is inflamed with " unearthly passion"For the most charming marquise and, following the advice of the count-pimp tried to get her attention with gifts. However, the count himself is in love with Dorimena, and, being short of money, uses the means and opportunities of Jourdain, as well as his stupidity and gullibility, with only one goal - to achieve the favor of the marquise himself.

Depicting the bourgeois, Moliere divides them into three groups: those who were characterized by patriarchy, inertia, conservatism; people of a new type, possessing a sense of their own dignity, and, finally, those who imitate the nobility.

The first group in the comedy is Jourdain's wife, a true representative of the nobility. She is a sensible, practical woman with self-respect. She is trying with all her might to resist the mania of her husband, his inappropriate claims: “You are crazy about all these quirks, hubby. And it started with you from the time you took it into your head to hang out with important gentlemen. All the efforts of Madame Jourdain are aimed at clearing the house of uninvited guests who live off her husband and use his credulity and vanity for their own purposes: “Here you are, drive your teachers in the neck with all their gibberish.” Although Madame Jourdain has not taken fencing lessons, she boldly retorts Count Dorant's refined remarks and questions. “Where is your dear daughter? Something she is not visible, ”the count pleases. Madame Jourdain, not inclined to succumb to captivating flattery, replies: "My esteemed daughter is exactly where she is now."

Unlike her husband, she does not have any respect for the title of nobility and prefers to marry her daughter to a man who would be her equal and would not look down on her bourgeois relatives:

* “Don't expect anything good from an unequal marriage. I don’t want my son-in-law to reproach my daughter with her parents and that their children be ashamed to call me grandmother.” In this human desire for a wife, Mr. Jourdain sees the pettiness of the soul. “You would have to vegetate in insignificance for a century,” he reproaches her.

The opportunity to approach noble people is happiness for him, all his ambition pushes him to achieve similarity with them, his whole life is a desire to imitate them. The thought of the nobility takes possession of him completely, and in his mental blindness he even loses the correct idea of ​​the world, reaches mental baseness and begins to be ashamed of his parents. At the same time, Monsieur Jourdain acts and argues to his own detriment. He is fooled by everyone who wants to: teachers, tailors and apprentices, Count Dorant, Cleont and his servant Coviel. The rudeness, bad manners, ignorance, vulgarity of the language and manners of Mr. Jourdain contrast with his claims to noble elegance and gloss. So, for example, after a philosophy lesson, without waiting for a suit from a tailor, Jourdain desperately yells:

* “May he be tormented by a fever, this robber tailor! Damn him, this tailor! Plague take him, this tailor!”

Although just a few minutes before that, Monsieur Jourdain wrote a letter full of love to the Marquise: “Beautiful Marquise! Your beautiful eyes promise me death from love. Despite all this, Jourdain causes sincere laughter, not disgust. Unlike other upstart bourgeois, he bows to the nobility disinterestedly, out of ignorance, as a kind of dream of beauty.

Jourdain's daughter Lucille and her fiancé Cleont are people of a new type. Lucille has received a good upbringing, she loves Cleont for his virtues. Therefore, not knowing about the idea of ​​​​her lover and his servant, she is sincerely indignant and resists her father’s attempt to marry her to the son of the Turkish Sultan: “No, father, I already told you that there is no such force that would force me to marry someone | anything but Cleont. Cleont is noble not by origin, but by character, he is honest, truthful, loving. He claims that being ashamed of your parents, impersonating something other than who you really are, is a sign of spiritual baseness. Cleon is sure that only the spiritual nobility of a person and his reasonable behavior in society are true. In his opinion, every deceit casts a shadow on a person.

The ideal of classicism was embodied in the image of Cleont: only one who in his behavior was guided by the requirements of reason could be a truly noble person, proceeding from what was considered to be good. The fact that in the finale of the comedy Jourdain fell for the trick of the intelligent Cleont and his resourceful servant Covel should have testified to the superiority of reason: Jourdain agreed to the marriage of his daughter. Justice has prevailed.

Other writings on this work

Analysis of the play "The tradesman in the nobility" The theory of roles in the novels "The tradesman in the nobility" and "Undergrowth" The relevance of the image of the protagonist of Moliere's comedy "The tradesman in the nobility" What is Molière laughing at in the comedy "The Tradesman in the Nobility" What does Molière make fun of? Mister Jourdain's teacher. How do I see them

1. Molière and the traditions of classicism.
2. The background to the creation of the comedy "The tradesman in the nobility."
3. The image of the main character of the comedy.
4. Other comedy characters.

I know this kind of pompous asses:
Empty like a drum, but how many loud words!
They are slaves of names. Make up a name for yourself
And any of them is ready to crawl before you.
O. Khayyam

Molière is a 17th century writer. In art and literature at that time, the principles of classicism dominated, among which the most important were: the observance of the "three unities" - time, place and action - as well as the strict division of literary genres into "high" and "low". In accordance with this, the speech of the heroes of works of "high" genres, such as tragedy, differs greatly from the speech of heroes from comedy, which was considered a "low" genre. The characters of the literary works of the era of classicism are not yet multifaceted characters, but the embodiment of some pronounced quality, positive or negative. According to the ideas of the classicists, the depiction of human vices was aimed at exposing and correcting them.

Moliere, of course, was the son of his age and organically accepted some of the ideas of classicism; however, many of his works can be regarded as a step towards realism. Why? The fact is that in the comedies of Molière there is often a mixture of genres. Another innovation introduced by the playwright was the comedy-ballet - this genre also includes "The Tradesman in the Nobility".

It is interesting to note that this comedy was created by Molière on the order of the French king Louis XIV, who was enraged by the careless remark of the Turkish ambassador. He dared to declare that the horse of his master, the Turkish Sultan, was richer and more elegantly decorated than that of the King of France. The Sun King, as they called Louis XIV, first sent the impudent Turk under arrest, and then completely sent him out of his possessions. Wanting to expose the Turks to ridicule, the king ordered a play with this plot from Molière.

The playwright carried out the order of his king; however, Molière went much further. The amusing dance of the mummers, representing the Turks, and Jourdain's absurd initiation into mammamushi is a funny scene, which, of course, should have caused laughter from the king and his entourage. But Moliere chose human vanity as the main object for irony. In addition, the playwright shows in his comedy the ever-increasing power of capital, which over time will push the nobility of the family into the background. But this is still somewhere far away, but for now, the wealthy bourgeois Jourdain desperately dreams of being considered a nobleman. And whatever he did, just to be noble! “I would allow myself to cut off two fingers on my hand, if only I would be born a count or a marquis,” sighs Jourdain. However, such a reincarnation, of course, is unlikely to take place. But Jourdain, with the persistence of a successful businessman, rushes towards his goal - to enter the society of nobles. For this, he does not feel sorry for any money. He constantly supplies money to Count Dorant, who, out of self-interest, indulges Jourdain's eccentricities. The cunning count praises him, and he, already in seventh heaven, does not notice that he actually looks ridiculous. But the family vied with each other to tell him about it! In fact: Jourdain is far from being a young man, since he has an adult daughter, and yet this respectable father of the family hires people who would teach him all the subtleties of court manners. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the desire for knowledge, however, wanting to be elegant and irresistible, Jourdain looks funnier and funnier. Bowing to the Marquise Dorimene, Jourdain tries at all costs to do it the way his dance teacher taught him, so he asks the astonished lady to take a step back - otherwise he will not be able to make the third bow.

Vanity drowns out the voice of common sense in Jourdain; moreover, he does not want to listen to those who are trying to bring him back to reality. He feels uncomfortable in tight stockings and tight shoes, and his new suit is ridiculed by his family. But since the tailor and the count say that it is so fashionable at court, Jourdain willingly endures inconvenience and brushes off the ridicule of his wife and maid.

But Jourdain's grotesque vanity reaches its highest point after the buffoon's initiation into mammamushi. He seriously imagines that he has been given a noble rank and is now a Turkish nobleman. But it is obvious that Jourdain was not always so divorced from reality and gullible in relation to everyone who flatters him. If this person did not have such qualities as prudence, ingenuity, practicality, he would hardly have managed to get rich by trading. But vanity has so blinded the clever merchant that he becomes a laughing stock for those around him and an easy prey for flatterers who use him for their own selfish purposes.

However, the satire of Molière's comedy is directed not only against the arrogant bourgeois, who are ready to acquire the title of nobility for money. The nobleman Dorant also does not look very attractive. Taking advantage of the eccentricity of his fellow tradesman, the count not only constantly borrows money from him, all the time promising to repay the debt very soon. Noticing the far-fetched passion of Jourdain for the Marquise Dorimene (for a respectable tradesman, her main charm lies in the fact that she is a noble lady), the count offers his friend his help. Not a very honest move, given the fact that Dorant himself wants to earn the favor of Dorimena and marry her; moreover, the count, in his own name, presents the Marquise with a diamond, which Jourdain asked to give her as a gift from him. Likewise, the dinner and the ballet given in honor of the Marquise Jourdain. Through the efforts of the Count, the Marquis believes that he arranged all this himself. Of course, she likes Dorant, and she worries that he spends so much on her, so she agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, the count not only spent nothing out of his own pocket, but also constantly borrows money from Jourdain. It must be admitted that the count knows how to gain the trust of people and deftly use it for his own purposes, but that's just nobility, which was once customary to attribute to the nobles, does not smell here.

Jourdain's teachers are also satirically depicted. Everyone seeks to assure others that exactly what he is doing is the most necessary thing, and everything else is nonsense. In glorifying their craft, teachers reach the point of absurdity: “Without dancing, a person would not be able to do anything”; "All strife, all wars on earth come solely from ignorance of music." And it ends with the learned men - the dance teacher, the music teacher and the fencing teacher - starting a rough squabble. When a teacher of philosophy intervenes in their argument and declares that only philosophy brings the light of wisdom, and their occupations “are not worthy of the honor of being called ... arts,” the indignant debaters unite and attack him with their fists. It is interesting to note that teachers, like Jourdain, are also driven by vanity. As Jourdain wants to rise above the people of his class and look down on them, so each of the teachers wants to be considered the best by his colleagues at work.

Before describing the summary of "The Tradesman in the Nobility", let's recall the history of the creation of the work. In November 1669, a delegation of Turks solemnly arrived in Paris. Louis XIV, not sparing a face in the dirt, gave them a magnificent reception. However, neither the sparkle of diamonds, nor the iridescent sheen of expensive fabrics, nor the abundance of gold and silver made the slightest impression on the ambassadors. The king, naturally, was annoyed by this, but his anger increased a hundredfold when it turned out that the head of the delegation was not an ambassador at all, but the most common swindler. The indignant monarch ordered Molière, who was in good standing with him, a ballet in which the fictitious delegation would be ridiculed. "It will be done, Your Highness," replies Molière respectfully. “The tradesman in the nobility”, however, did not appear immediately - in ten days the “Turkish ceremony” was created, demonstrated to the royal court. Convinced of the success of the performance, the composer transferred it to the stage of the Palais Royal theater a month later. In total, 42 performances were performed during Molière's lifetime.

"The tradesman in the nobility": a summary

The plot of the comedy is quite simple: a naive and narrow-minded tradesman - Mr. Jourdain - is passionately in love with the refined aristocrat Marquise Dorimena. In an effort to achieve the love of a noble lady, Mr. Jourdain tries to be like a representative of the nobility, but due to natural stupidity, he does not succeed. Wanting to become a nobleman, the hero refuses Cleont, a contender for the hand of his daughter Lucille, and tries to pass the girl off as the son of the Turkish Sultan. The intrigue lies in the fact that the role of a noble husband is played by the same disguised Clemont. Describing the brief content of "The Philistine in the Nobility", it should be noted that the plot of the play is simplified, which is generally not characteristic of the works of Molière. This is explained by the fact that the comedy was written to order, with a strictly defined goal - to shower mockery on the Turks.

Analysis

Most researchers emphasize that "The Tradesman" is not the first play by Moliere in which he allows himself to be ironic about the nobility. Already in his early works, the writer relies on folklore, brings elements of folk humor into play. In addition, do not forget about the excellent education received at Clermont College. All this allows Moliere to create a truly sharp and talented satire. Outlining the summary of “The Philistine in the Nobility”, I would like to emphasize that in this work the author’s merciless mockery is directed in two directions at once: Jourdain himself is not so bad at all - he is naive, trusting, generally benevolent. However, his obsessive desire to penetrate into an alien class, according to Moliere, is worthy of severe condemnation. No better than a newly minted nobleman of his teacher: hired to teach the master music, dance and manners, they are the embodiment of rudeness, baseness and vulgarity.

Character system

The summary of "The tradesman in the nobility" includes a description of the central characters of the play. In addition to Jourdain and his family, representatives of the common people take part in the action: cunning tailors who extract money from the owner, the cheerful and witty maid Nicole. In addition, the adventurer Dorant plays an important role, pretending to help Jourdain and mending relations with the Marquise behind his back.

This is not a comedy at all, this is a very

serious.

molière

The desire of every person to excel in life - to become better, smarter, richer, is quite understandable. Worthy of respect is his desire to climb a step higher. The main thing here is not to look ridiculous, imitating only some external signs and remaining internally at the same level. So the hero of Molière's comedy "The Bourgeoisie in the Nobility" Mr. Jourdain set himself the goal of "moving" from the petty-bourgeois estate to the nobility - to become a nobleman. He wants everything at once: nobility, and education, and delicate manners, and a common culture, and following fashion, and brilliant acquaintances.

It would seem that his desire to "gather his mind" is more than commendable. It is wonderful that he is not ashamed to admit his ignorance and hire teachers in all subjects - from philosophy to fencing: “Let them pull me out even now, in front of everyone, if only to know everything that is taught at school!”

But how ridiculous he is, wanting to reach the heights of science and culture in a few days! How comical is his "discovery" that he, it turns out, speaks in prose! How annoying that he allows himself to be deceived by a whole regiment of charlatans - the so-called teachers! And yet, in his desire to learn, he is higher than Madame Jourdain, Cleont, Nicole's maid - the bearers of common sense. This is the genius of Moliere, that, going beyond the framework of classicism, he creates his characters not unambiguously positive or negative, but shows them as living people, with advantages and disadvantages. Another thing is when, in pursuit of the outward signs of high society, Mr. Jourdain puts on the most ridiculous suit, because “All gentlemen wear it like that,” when he shouts importantly: “Hey, my two lackeys!” The tailor and his assistants easily swindle him out of money, simply raising his title - from "Your Grace" to "Your Grace". Jourdain is just as easily fooled by Dorant, who, not intending to repay his previous debts, borrows from him again, telling that in the morning he spoke about Mr. Jourdain in the “royal bedchamber”. “Many would gladly lend me, but you are my best friend, and I was afraid to offend you if I ask someone else,” says the count, doing his business in the house of Mr. Jourdain, courting the Marquise Dorimena at the owner’s expense and even using the services of a notary paid by Jourdain to formalize his marriage to her.

The crown of everything is the unsurpassed comic scene of Jourdain's initiation into "mamamushi", so that the future father-in-law is worthy of the son of the Turkish sultan, in whom Cleont dressed up - a scene with dancing, masquerade, gibberish translation "from Turkish" and even beating with sticks on the back.

Of course, striving to become a nobleman at all costs, Jourdain pursues a noble goal: he thinks about the future of his daughter and wants her to live better than he: “I have enough good things for my daughter, I just lack honor, so I want to be a marquise." In addition, Mr. Jourdain sincerely identifies nobility with honor, dignity, intelligence, and high culture. material from the site

Having not yet learned to distinguish the ostentatious from the real, “to remove the husk”, he takes the adventurer Count Dorant for an honest man who, in addition to his title and good manners, has undoubted advantages, and repels Cleont, beloved by his daughter: “You are not a nobleman; You won't get my daughter." But it is precisely in the mouth of Cleonte that Molière puts the idea of ​​his immortal comedy: “To be ashamed of those from whom heaven was destined to be born into the world, to shine in society with a fictitious title, to impersonate something other than what it really is - this, in my opinion , a sign of mental baseness.

Reading this work by Moliere, you are once again convinced that it is not the place that beautifies the person, but the person the place. These wise words are especially relevant now, when people who are nothing are striving to get a high position, title, power. The main thing is not in the title, not in the position, not in the suit - the main thing is in the person himself. Honor and dignity, intelligence and high morality are inherent in the individual and are not the privilege of any one class.

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