Home > Ring around the Moon Summary & Study Guide

Ring around the Moon | Introduction

Jean Anouilh’s Ring Around the Moon first appeared in France in 1947 as L’Invitation au Chateau. Especially important in Anouilh’s career, the play is the earliest of his pièces brillantes, a rather mixed group of four works moving from two lighter to two darker pieces. Brilliantes has been employed to describe the polished and sophisticated gemlike quality of this group, most prominently displayed in Ring Around the Moon’s complex plotting, ceaseless obstacles, and still—after all—the reconciliation of almost all of its characters to both love and wealth.

Perhaps because of its parody of upper-class vanity Ring Around the Moon is Anouilh’s most produced play in the United States, where there is a tradition of holding the aristocracy in contempt. The play’s numerous characters—engaged in ceaseless exiting and entrancing—enhance the quick-paced wit and tangy satire of upper-class pretension and lower-class ambition. Yet Ring Around the Moon is unexpectedly coupled to a fairy tale ending where nearly everything comes out better. For this reason, Ring Around the Moon, like some of Shakespeare’s comedies, succeeds on the level of both entertainment and art—just one reason Anouilh is Europe’s most popular post-World War II playwright.

Ring around the Moon Summary

Act I
Ring Around the Moon opens with the aristocratic bon vivant, Hugo, talking with Joshua, his butler, both discussing Hugo’s brother, Frederic. Frederic has been sleeping outside his fiancée’s bedroom window while she is a guest at the family’s estate. Frederic and Hugo are identical twins, but Hugo is good with women and Frederic inept. Hugo and Joshua are unhappy with Frederic’s fawning over Diana Messerschmann, his fiancée. Hugo hints he will do something about it. Hugo leaves and Frederic enters (they are played by the same actor). Frederic and Joshua now discuss Frederic’s sleeping habits. Frederic assures Joshua that slumbering amidst rhododendrons is nothing serious. As one might expect from Frederic’s behavior, Frederic’s love for Diana is indeed insecure. Enter Patrice Bombelles (Messerschmann’s male secretary) and Lady India (Messerschmann’s mistress and Hugo and Frederic’s cousin), who reveal their affair behind the back of the industrialist, Messerschmann. Patrice is especially worried because wealthy Messerschmann pays Patrice’s salary and ‘‘keeps’’ Lady India. Lady India is less concerned with getting caught, is in fact fascinated by it. These two are replaced by Madame Desmermortes and her nephew, Hugo, he notifying her of Lady India’s (her niece and his cousin) affair with Messerschmann. Hugo also informs Madame of Frederic’s impending marriage to Diana. Madame is unhappy with Messerschmann’s and Lady India’s affair because Messerschmann is a mere businessman, not an aristocrat. Madame is displeased with the Diana- Frederic match because Madame believes the rich and confident Diana will overpower the subservient Frederic. Hugo again hints that marriage bells may not ring. Madame is now replaced by Romainville. Hugo informs Romainville he has seen Romainville doting on a young girl (Isabelle) and further, knows Romainville has brought her to the country to be with him. Hugo threatens to expose the meeting to Madame as a lecherous affair unless Romainville acquiesces to inviting Isabelle to the Desmermortes estate and pose as Romainville’s niece. Isabelle and her mother soon arrive, the latter dazzled by the estate and the increased prospect of marrying Isabelle to a rich man. Isabelle thinks she has come just to dance. When Hugo greets them, Isabelle is preoccupied by his handsomeness. All exit and Madame and Joshua enter, planning the ball to be held that evening. In the next set of frequent entrances and exits, action is focused on an extended conversation between Hugo and Isabelle. Romainville’s infatuation with Isabelle is revealed, as is Hugo’s plan to parade the beautiful Isabelle at the evening ball so Frederic will fall in love with her, and out of love with Diana. Romainville rushes in to alert Hugo about a rumple in the plan: Isabelle’s mother has recognized Madame’s companion, Capulat, as her long lost friend. Romainville is worried Isabelle’s mother will betray... » Complete Ring around the Moon Summary