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The School for Wives the Articles in This Study Guide Are Not Meant to Mirror Or Interpret Any Productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

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The School for Wives the Articles in This Study Guide Are Not Meant to Mirror Or Interpret Any Productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival Insights A Study Guide to the Utah Shakespeare Festival The School for Wives The articles in this study guide are not meant to mirror or interpret any productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. They are meant, instead, to be an educational jumping-off point to understanding and enjoying the plays (in any production at any theatre) a bit more thoroughly. Therefore the stories of the plays and the interpretative articles (and even characters, at times) may differ dramatically from what is ultimately produced on the Festival’s stages. The Study Guide is published by the Utah Shakespeare Festival, 351 West Center Street; Cedar City, UT 84720. Bruce C. Lee, communications director and editor; Phil Hermansen, art director. Copyright © 2008, Utah Shakespeare Festival. Please feel free to download and print The Study Guide, as long as you do not remove any identifying mark of the Utah Shakespeare Festival. For more information about Festival education programs: Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street Cedar City, Utah 84720 435-586-7880 www.bard.org. Cover illustration by Philip W. Hermansen, art director Contents TheInformation School on Molière The Greatest Comicfor Dramatist Wives of France 4 Information on the Play Synopsis 6 Characters 7 Scholarly Articles on the Play Molière’s Obsession 8 Utah Shakespeare Festival 3 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 The Greatest Comic Dramatist of France Molière is generally considered to have been the greatest comic dramatist of France and the author of some of the most brilliant comedies in all of theatrical history. His real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, and he was born in Paris in l622, the son of an upholsterer who prospered by rendering his services to the French court. Educated at a Jesuit school where he was graded as an excellent scholar, the young Jean-Baptiste declined to take up his father’s vocation, flirted with a study of law, and fell in with a troupe of players with whom he acted for thirteen years through the provincial towns of France, often in skits of his own authorship derived from old Italian comedies and stock farces which later, in Paris, he quickly polished and expanded into the plays that have come down to us. It was during this early career as an actor that he adopted the name Molière. In l658 his troupe came to Paris and had a chance to appear before King Louis XIV and his court. They began their performance with a short poetic tragedy of Corneille. The troupe was so much more suited to comedy than to the bombastic tragic style of the time that the reception was disastrous—until Molière modestly introduced a farce of his own, The Doctor in Love, and theatrical history was made. Molière and his company (of which he was the leading actor, director, manager, and playwright) immediately were “taken up” by the court and subsequently quickly became a popular success throughout the country. During the next fifteen years, until his death form overwork, Molière poured out his great stream of twenty-seven plays, acted in them, directed them, and choreographed them—for he combined many of the plays with music and ballet to achieve a unification of all theatrical arts in a form that did not continue after his death but flowered again in opera l25 years later, and in American musical comedies 300 years later. Molière enjoyed such royal support from King Louis XIV that on several occasions when his plays were premiering at court the king participated in them, acting small roles and in some cases dancing in the ballets. The king was a great ally (he even stood as godfather to Molière’s second child), and protected Molière and his troupe from the wrath evoked by their scathing portraits of French society. In the nineteenth century, the English historian Lord Morley commented that the best claim to lasting fame of Louis XIV was “the protection he extended to Molière.” Molière saw to it that comedy came to rival tragedy in importance in French theatre. The best known of his plays today are The Affected Young Ladies (l658), which was the first modern social satire, holding up to ridicule the affectations of the overly-elegant women of courtly society of the time; The School for Wives (l662), a sequel to The School for Husbands that was even even more successful than the predecessor; Tartuffe (l664), the masterpiece that so vividly painted a hypocrite that the character’s name has become a synonym for hypocrisy in all languages; The Misanthrope (l666), a truly original play, an illustrious portrait of a man of integrity; The Doctor in Spite of Himself (l666); The Miser (l668); The Would-Be Gentleman (l67l); The Learned Ladies (l672); and The Imaginary Invalid (l673), which was presented by the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 1989, the inaugural season of the Randall L. Jones Theatre. These plays are still presented with great frequency in the United States and other English-speaking countries, and they are standard fare in France today, especially at the Comédie Francaise, the greatest national theatre of modern France, which was founded soon after Molière’s death by the joining of his own company with two others. In honor of the towering dramatist, the Comédie Francaise is often called “the House of Molière.” 4 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 The Imaginary Invalid was not only Molière’s last play, but a turning of his slapstick upon himself as a man who felt himself to be really ill, and probably dying, but who could not be sure that he was not hypochondriacally deluding himself about his health. In 1673, during his fourth performance in the comedy’s title role, Molière proved he wasn’t imagining himself to be sick by falling into a convulsion and dying later that night. Other Molière plays include The Deaf One (1658), Lover’s Spite (1658), The Tiresome Ones (1661), Don Garcia of Navarre (1661), On Criticism of the School for Wives (1662), The Impromptu of Versailles (1663), The Forced Marriage (1664), The Princess of Elide (1664), Don Juan (1665), Love Is the Doctor (1665), The Sicilian (1667), George Dandin (1668), Amphitryon (1668), Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (1669), Psyche (1671), and The Rascalities of Scapin (1671). Utah Shakespeare Festival 5 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Synopsis Arnolphe, a wealthy fifty-two year old man, returns home after a ten-day absence. He recently renamed himself “Monsieur de la Souche” (after a tree stump on his estate). His friend Chrysalde has a few opposing opinions to share with him, his thoughts on his new name being only one of them. He also warns him about the faultiness of his longtime plan of confining his ward, Agnès, to a convent to “be raised in ignorance of life” that someday she may be his innocent and dutiful wife. Arnolphe pays him no heed. Now that Agnès is of marrying age, he moves her into his house and plans to soon wed her. Horace, the son of Arnolphe’s dear friend, Oronte, arrives at Arnolphe’s house and confesses he has fallen in love with a beautiful girl. She has told him of how her master, Monsieur de la Souche, keeps her hidden away from the world. Not knowing about Arnolphe’s new name, Horace confides to him his plan to steal away Agnès. Thus begins the game of scheming by each man to hold onto Agnès despite unexpected challenges. Arnolphe anxiously confronts Agnès about her contact with Horace. A misunderstand- ing arises where Angès believes Arnolphe has given her permission to marry Horace, while Arnolphe believes she has agreed to marry him. When he realizes what has happened, he forbids her from seeing Horace again and quickly sends for a notary to prepare the marriage contract. Horace returns and again tries to see Agnès, who rebuffs him (at her master’s command) and even throws a stone at him. She has, however, tied a note to it in which she confesses her love for him. Horace unwittingly confides his distress to Arnolphe about his attempts to “rescue” her. Arnolphe realizes that his innocent Agnès is more quick-witted and imaginative that he has given her credit for, and, despite her seeming betrayals, he loves her all the more. He, however, decides to call off the wedding for now and sends the notary away. Horace once again confides in Arnolphe about a plan to be with Agnès. After Horace leaves, Arnolphe orders his servants at whatever the cost to deter the young man when he returns that very night to steal away his love. Nothing seems to stop Arnolphe or Horace from trying to hold onto sweet Agnès. Who will win her hand? Will marriage plans come to fruition? This classic farce reveals that perhaps youth and innocence are no assurance of plans for marital bliss, no matter how much effort is involved. 6 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Characters Arnolphe: A wealthy man and guardian of Agnès, Arnolphe is also known as Monsieur de la Souche. He thinks himself clever and protected from any future unfaithfulness when he has his ward, at age four, confined to a convent until she comes of age, when he plans to marry her. However, his misguided plan leads to some unexpected complications. Agnès: The ward of Arnolphe and an innocent young girl, Agnès falls in love with Horace, instead of her guardian, Arnolphe. Horace: A handsome, young man who falls in love with Agnès, Horace brings Arnolphe in on his plans to steal Agnès away, completely ignorant of Arnolphe’s relationship with and plans for her.
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