SOURCE: "Paradox, Plot, and Outcome," in Molière as Ironic Contemplator, Mouton & Co., N. V., Publishers, 1973, pp. 61-99.

[Eustis is an American critic, translator, and educator. In the following excerpt, he discusses the structure of Molière's plays and suggests that an ironic situation or paradox is at the center of each of the comedies.]

Twentieth-century criticism has contributed to a better comprehension of Molière's theater by minimizing the importance of plot construction in drama. As long as the concept of the well-made play reigned, his dénouements were considered arbitrary, many of his acts padded or short of action, and his plotting defective. The result had been until fairly recent times to attempt to reduce his plays to the linear development of an action, whereas more fundamental structural elements had been ignored. For example, critics have shaken their heads at the Bourgeois Gentilhomme's loose construction, not seeing that it represents a stage of perfection in Molière's ironic comedy, thanks to the greater variety of incident and superb handling of ironic repercussions. Or take Dom Juan's extremely subtle structure, which has not yet been completely adumbrated. The highflown diction in the last scene of Act I, for example, is obviously placed in ironic juxtaposition to the peasants' thick jargon in the first scene of Act II.

W. G. Moore, it is true, feels that it is pointless to inquire into Molière's structure, since the plays were written with too much haste. [Will G. Moore, Molière: A New Criticism] However, Molière spent two or three years writing several of them, and for a dramatist there is no direct ratio between speed of composition and complexity of structure. The best feature of Dr. Moore's book is further-more its pioneer discussion of structural elements, which he seems led to treat in spite of his assertion. Dr. Moore sees at work in Molière's theater not intellectual processes of deduction and motivation, but rather a "principle of suffusion" whereby scenes are grouped around a master concept and serve to illustrate it. On the other hand, it will be shown that Dr. Moore goes too far in maintaining that there is no progression based on cause and effect or on development in time, whether the latter concept is taken to mean the action's span or the tempo of individual and grouped situations. It is precisely the large number of action words, short sentences, and agile gestures that make Molière's scenes seem to move forward with great rapidity. The fact remains, as René Bray, too, has pointed out [in Molière homme de théâtre], that we now conceive of Molière's plays in terms of series or clusters of situations bearing a certain relationship, congruous or incongruous, to one another. In a cluster structure ironic possibilities already abound, but clusters in any given play are also fused together in a fundamental unity of irony.

At the core of most of Molière's comedies therefore lies something quite different from the apparent plot: an ironic paradox, that is, an ironic situation encompassing, permeating, giving form to all the actions and episodes that constitute the play. A young master who is convinced of his own ability is not only constantly obliged to beg his valet's help but through his blundering ruins all the valet's schemes (L'Etourdi). An unfavored suitor is certain that he has married the girl who spurns his advances (Le Dépit amoureux). Two silly girls from the provinces prefer a couple of lackeys to two eligible Parisian gentlemen (Les Précieuses Ridicules). Two couples reproach their respective partners for infidelities that have no basis in fact (Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire). A jealous lover persists in accusing his sweetheart of betraying him in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary (Dom Garcie de Navarre). A younger brother who in ideas, speech, deportment, and costume belongs to a generation older than his own loses his intended bride because of his selfish tyranny; an older brother who at sixty dresses like a coxcomb in the height of fashion and keeps his bride because of his modern permissiveness is destined to wear horns (L'Ecole des Maris). However much we may curse importunates, we ourselves are importunate in other eyes (Les Fâcheux). The holding of every trump card will not prevent young love from finding a way: "Coup sur coup je verrai par leur intelligence [i.e., connivence] / De mes soins vigilants confondre la prudence? / Et je serai la dupe, en ma maturité, / D'une jeune innocente et d'un jeune éventé?" (Amolphe in L'Ecole des Femmes, IV, 7, 1184-87). A group of self-infatuated individuals persist in attacking a play whose excellence has been proven by its success with the public (La Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes). A play can be made out of nothing in no time at all (L'Impromptu de Versailles). A vain and selfish man who considers only the advantages of marriage is gradually forced into wedding a spendthrift who counts on being a widow and marrying her lover within six months (Le Manage forcé). A princess spurns her devoted suitors and falls in love with one whom she thinks is indifferent to her charms (La Princesse d'Elide). A boor from the provinces succeeds in hoodwinking a Parisian and his mother, making love to his wife, and obtaining all his property (Le Tartuffe). A nobleman is convinced that he can retain all the privileges of his caste without assuming any of the responsibilities; a pursuer of innocent women, he himself is in flight during the whole play and fails to accomplish a single seduction (Dom Juan). For love of life men put themselves in the hands of charlatans who kill them (L'Amour médecin). A jealous lover thinks that he can command absolute fidelity in a flirt, who in turn, though profiting by society's advantages, is sure that she can defy its conventions with impunity (Le Misanthrope). With respect to the intimate ironic relationship among Molière's three greatest plays it may be observed that in one a character (Tartuffe) conceals what he thinks, in Dom Juan a character (Sganarelle) is not allowed to say what he thinks, and in the third a character (Alceste) is determined on saying exactly what he thinks. Clothes make the monk (Le Médecin malgré lui). No citadel however well guarded is proof against Love's arrows (Le Sicilien). If fate and the gods have decided that you are to be a cuckold, there is nothing that you can do; but conversely a god must assume man's guise in order to have his way with mortal woman (Amphitryon). A peasant thinks that he has acquired the nobility's perquisites, particularly the right to avenge his honor, in acquiring a noble wife (George Dandin). A bourgeois is determined to retain all the trappings of his rank and the respect of his neighbors even while taking a young wife, pinching pennies, and practicing usury (L'Avare). An impostor meets his defeat at the hands of impostors (Monsieur de Pourceaugnac). A suitor without rank or riches is preferred to those possessing both (Les Amants Magnifiques). A bourgeois is acquiring, he thinks, with money the kind of nobility that only birth can give; but an impoverished aristocrat demeans himself by defrauding the bourgeois (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme). The wisdom of settled elders is no match for a wily servant's inventive genius (Les Fourberies de Scapin). A provincial aristocrat is certain that her manners can impress members of Parisian high society (La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas). In a time when a husband has all the legal rights, a wife succeeds in wearing the trousers; but the husband, plagued by an excessively modern household, would prefer an excessively archaic one (Les Femmes Savantes). A perfectly healthy man enjoys his conviction that he is seriously ill

(Le Malade Imaginaire)

Nearly every situation in the play exists in function of the central paradox, at times driving it home to the audience by illustration, at others introducing implications, corollaries, or consequences. Some plays where plot is slender or traditional farcical elements are preponderant contain many comic situations that are ironic only through their identification with the central paradox. That is to say, plays like Les Précieuses Ridicules, L'Amour médecin, Le Médecin malgré lui, Le Sicilien, or Monsieur de Pourceaugnac are insufficiently developed for their situations to generate their own irony in addition to that of the central paradox. La Princesse d'Elide on the other hand is exceptional in that the only striking secondary ironies are found in situations concerning cowardly Moron, where connection with the basic paradox is tenuous. In the special type of play that Molière conceived for his polemics, La Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes, where plot is practically non-existent, the same tactic is visible throughout a number of barely differentiated episodes: to create for his adversaries a series of false situations from which they cannot extricate themselves and whereby their arguments are reduced to the absurd.

Le Dépit amoureux is also a special type of play; the first act contains three distinct ironic situations (the rivals' certainty that each has Lucile's favor, Mascarille's lying when he believes that he is telling the truth, the lovers' quarrel over a trifle). However, much of the ironic flavor of those situations is lost for the audience since they come too early in the play and the exposition is not complete until the first scene of Act II, when a new, quadruple ironic situation unfolds: Albert has a guilty secret, but does not know that he is a biter bit; Ascagne also has a guilty secret, and she knows a little more about Albert's secret than he, but is still partly in the dark; Valère is certain that he has married Lucile in a secret ceremony; Eraste is just as certain that Lucile is faithful to him. In the rest of the play the relationship between a complicated plot and the central paradox is so clumsily handled that scarcely a single ironic situation impresses itself upon the spectator.

At the beginning of Les Fourberies de Scapin Octave assures his Hyacinthe that he already feels a "terrible aversion" for the girl whom his father wishes him to marry, little realizing that a romantic plot will make the two girls coincide in Hyacinthe (I, 3). However, it is only on reseeing or rereading the play that this dramatic irony becomes apparent.

These exceptions should not conceal the typical pattern, which is for a situation to develop a double irony, that of the central paradox and its own.

An ironic situation may occur only once, as when Mascarille is obliged to refuse a tip because he does not wish Anselme to realize that his purse, whose contents are indispensable to Mascarille's schemes, has dropped to the ground or when he has Pandolfe persuade Anselme to purchase the slave girl who will thwart Anselme's plans to have Lélie marry his own daughter (L'Etourdi, I, 5, 7). Similarly in L'Avare the audience knows that Elise and Valère are secret lovers, whence the irony of the brother's telling her that she cannot know what it is to be in love (I, 2) or of Harpagon's giving absolute power over his daughter to Valère (I, 5), which is a variant of Orgon's having placed his wife under the protection of her wouldbe seducer Tartuffe (III, 7). Clitandre is able to tell Lucinde under her father's nose that he has disguised himself as a doctor in order to pay her court, since the father is convinced that she is mad and that Clitandre is a real doctor come to cure her (L'Amour médecin, III, 6). In III, 4 of Le Misanthrope the two consummate hypocrites, Célimène and Arsinoé, suddenly reveal a blunt frankness to each other that could hardly be surpassed by the protagonist, Alceste. George Dandin by his complaint and his parents-in-law by their bungling bring the future guilty lovers together for the first time; go-betweens without knowing it, they thus further the affair (I, 6). And when the wily pair outwit George Dandin in the same scene, placing him in the wrong, he cries out: "J'enrage de bon cœur d'avoir tort lorsque j'ai raison." At the close of Act II of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, as the ballet begins, M. Jourdain accomplishes the symbolic gesture of buying title after title as the tailor's apprentice throws them to him in ascending order of importance (II, 5).

More important structurally is the recurrent situation, which not only binds the play together but gives the audience a feeling of identity in difference by bringing back several times in new garb the same fundamental situation. Four times Don Garcie appears before Done Elvire and swears that he trusts her; then he allows his suspicions to become inflamed by appearances and forces her to prove her innocence; four times he is finally confounded and expresses his repentance (I, 3; II, 5-6; IV, 8-9; V, 3 and 6). Three times in the second act Sganarelle takes an ambiguous message from Isabelle to Valère and brings back an answer; the last time he brings back Valère as well; in the third and last act the structure shifts slightly and Isabelle becomes her own messenger (L'Ecole des Maris). Four times Arnolphe encounters Horace and learns that his well-laid plans for Agnès have been flouted; the more he tries to hinder the lovers, the more he furthers their affair (I, 4; III, 4; IV, 6; V, 2).

Sganarelle consults his friend Geronimo, the two philosophers Pancrace and Marphurius, and finally two gypsy girls to learn whether his contemplated marriage will make him a cuckold. It is obvious from the very start that the marriage will lead to horns, but at the end of each interview he is furious because he has not received an unequivocal answer. Three times George Dandin complains to his parents-in-law of his wife's conduct, and three times he is outwitted; the first two times they show up by themselves, the third time he sends a messenger to rout them out of bed. In Les Amants Magnifiques the function of arbiter passes from the mother, Aristione, to Eriphile, who is also the prize, and finally to Sostrate who is also the lover.

In several of Molière's plays the technique of the recurrent situation embodies the theme of the contretemps, or sudden interruption that snatches victory away. Ten times Mascarille builds up a scheme in L'Etourdi and ten times L'élie knocks it down by his blundering: "Et trois: / Quand nous serons à dix, nous ferons une croix. / C'était par mon adresse, ô cervelle incurable!" Mascarille announces at the end of the first act (9, 440-443). Eraste plans to see his sweetheart in a public garden; each time that they are about to meet, an incident occurs to prevent it, usually an importunate acquaintance's arrival but also the blunders of Eraste's valet and two misunderstandings of the lovers (Les Fâcheux). H. Gaston Hall has pointed out [in his essay "A Comic Don Juan"] that the amorphous Dom Juan's fourth act is constructed in the same manner: each time that Don Juan is about to sit down to supper, he is interrupted by a visitor. And Molière's masterpiece, Le Misanthrope, is akin to Les Fâcheux: Alceste comes to Célimène's house determined to have out with her the reason why she encourages so many men to pay her suit. Célimène is not at home. While awaiting her return, Alceste has to put up with Oronte's flattery and insolence. At the beginning of the second act a first interview with Célimène is fruitless because it is interrupted by a couple of suitors. Alceste not only is obliged to listen to their vapid conversation but cannot outstay them, since at the end of the act he is haled before the Tribunal des Maréchaux to settle his dispute with Oronte. All of Act III is designed to fill the time elapsed during his absence. Coming back at the end of the act, he ironically creates an obstacle for himself by rushing off with Arsinoé to obtain proof of Célimène's infidelity. Before he can return it is the middle of Act IV and time for the climactic showdown between the lovers; but the scene is interrupted by the arrival of Alceste's valet bringing the news that Alceste must flee. Thus obstacles keep arising to the very end of the play. When in the last scene Alceste is finally able to reach an understanding with Célimène, the other suitors have taken themselves off and his efforts have become pointless.

In order to knit his plays even more closely together Molière frequently combines the recurrent situation with two other devices, ironic links between scenes and ironic buildup and reversal. The ironic link may be the frequent repetition from scene to scene of key words that reinforce the ironic paradox: étourdi and contretemps in L'Etourdi, fâcheux in Les Fâcheux (usually pronounced by one fâcheux concerning another fâcheux), honneur and vengeance in George Dandin; or the link may be synonymous repetitions of an idea, like the constant warnings of divine wrath, invariably scoffed at by the hero, in Dom Juan. III, 2 of Les Femmes Savantes develops the ironic results, when women deny their natural functions, of the extravagant metaphors of a baby and a repast that are applied to Trissotin's poem in III, 1.

The ironic link may also be built into the plot, as in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme where a number of later episodes express the ironic implications of M. Jourdain's various lessons and clothes-fitting in the first two acts: his costume's effect on his servant Nicole (III, 2), the duel in which he is worsted by Nicole (III, 3), or the elaborate bow with which he greets Dorimène in III, 16. In III, 15 Dorante in his private conversation with Dorimène has taken all the credit for M. Jourdain's banquet; when Mme Jourdain surprises the diners in IV, 2, Dorante staves off her attack by stating that he is paying for everything and M. Jourdain, thinking it merely a stratagem, hastens to agree. In I, 4 Mme de Sotenville rebukes George Dandin for addressing her as "ma belle-mère"; in II, 7 he carefully calls her "Madame". This is a refinement of La Jalousie du Barbouillé, where in the second scene the pedant objects to being called "vous", with the result that in scene 6 Barbouillé takes care to say "Monsieur

le Docteur". If in L'Avare Harpagon cornes to greet Mariane wearing his glasses and pointedly refers to them in III, 5, it is because Frosine has told him that the girl prefers older men who have to wear glasses (II, 5). Philaminte's assertion in III, 2 that she is a great admirer of ethics is an ironic link with IV, 4 when over Henriette's protests and out of spite at Vadius's message she decides that her daughter shall marry Trissotin that very evening (Les Femmes Savantes). The rapid pacing of the action in Les Fourberies de Scapin is accompanied by just as rapid an ironic linkage: in II, 1 Argante tells Géronte of his son's misconduct; in II, 2 Géronte upbraids his son; in II, 3 the son beats Scapin for having informed on him; in II, 4 the son is obliged to get on his knees, beg Scapin's pardon, and plead with Scapin to help him out of his predicament; in II, 5-6 Scapin takes his revenge on Argante by cheating him and on Géronte by getting money out of him "for the Turk" in II, 7 and beating him in III, 2. With the same rapidity but on a more verbal plane befitting a contemporary drawing room, Uranie states in scene 1 of La Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes that her door is open to all callers, rebukes her lackey in scene 2 for letting in the précieuse Climène, and in scene 4, the lackey having taken her at her word and attempted to shut out the foppish marquis, she has to scold him for barring her door in order to assuage the marquis's ruffled feelings.

Not only are scenes and acts thus ironically joined but also outcomes are foreshadowed in a parody of tragic irony. In I, 2 Lélie remarks dreamily about his slave girl: "Pour moi, dans ses discours comme dans son visage / Je vois pour sa naissance un noble témoignage / Et je crois que le ciel dedans un rang si bas / Cache son origine et ne l'en tire pas." Mascarille retorts: "Vous êtes romanesque avecque vos chimères" (L'Etourdi, I, 2, 27-31). The irony is that Lélie's musing will be right and Mascarille's common sense wrong. In IV, 1 the ironic joke is intensified when Mascarille expresses disbelief through verbal irony in his own cock-and-bull story:

Si j'ai plutôt qu'aucun un tel moyen trouvé
Pour les ressusciter sur ce qu'i a rêvé,
C'est qu'en fait d'aventure il est très ordinaire
De voir gens pris sur mer par quelque Turc corsaire,
I Puis être à leur famille à point nommé rendus
Après quinze ou vingt ans qu'on les a crus perdus.
Pour moi, j'ai déjà vu cent contes de la sorte.
Sans nous alambiquer, servons-nous-en; qu'importe?
(1332-40)

Here the irony is that the cock-and-bull story will come true at the end of the play. Feeling absolutely certain of his dupe, Tartuffe adjures Orgon to believe Damis's accusation: "Et comme un criminel chassez-moi de chez vous", accurately but unknowingly forecasting his own fate (III, 6, 1084). M. Loyal also adds to the dramatic irony by insisting to Orgon in V, 4: "Le ciel perde qui veut vous nuire / Et vous soit favorable autant que je désire" (1733-34).

Ironic buildup and reversal are even more effective than the ironic link; after the first reinforces the comic character's hubris, the second lets him down with a jolt. Although the two are usually associated in comedy, there are numerous examples in Molière of sudden ironic reversal without buildup that have as point of reference an overweening character that has already been depicted in words and gestures. Functionally this type of ironic reversal is usually a sudden, wry twist of the situation against the schemer and resultant respite for the dupe; it also serves as a means of heightening tension within the scene. Thus triumphant Sganarelle in Le Médecin Volant undergoes three reversals, each increasing his danger of exposure: (1) the meeting with the lawyer (sc. 8), (2) the coming upon Gorgibus when not disguised (sc. 10), (3) the unmasking by Gros-René (sc. 15). Mascarille has just succeeded in unfastening Anselme's purse and dropping it to the ground when suddenly Anselme reaches for it in order to give him a tip (L'Etourdi, I, 5). When pert Marinette leaves Eraste and Gros-René in I, 2, all is sweetness and light; when she rejoins them in I, 5, they both turn on her and upbraid her without in their anger troubling to tell her why (Le Dépit amoureux). Isabelle succeeds so well in her wiles that Sganarelle, delighted with her seeming modesty and professed love for him, tells her that instead of making her wait a week he will marry her tomorrow; as in the previous reversal of Le Dépit amoureux Molière places this scene last in the act (L'Ecole des Maris, II, 10). In a scene of the accuser accused, headstrong Damis, who has failed to convince Orgon of Tartuffe's guilt, is forced to his knees and made to beg Tartuffe's pardon: "Allons, qu'on se rétracte et qu'à l'instant, fripon, / On se jette à ses pieds pour demander pardon" (III, 6, 1131-32). In Amphitryon Jupiter uses all his skill to persuade Alcmène to place the blame for the quarrel on the husband and disculpate the lover; by her adamant refusal she inflicts a serious setback on the master of the gods (II, 6). Toinette receives her just deserts from her master when he abruptly decides to listen to the music lesson, thus unintentionally thwarting her plans for the lovers to steal away together (Le Malade Imaginaire, II, 2). And in the same play clever Angélique is suddenly worsted in a spirited argument with toadish Thomas Diafoirus; that she is definitely worsted Molière underlines by having Toinette intervene immediately with verbal irony and Béline change the situation by baiting Angélique (who has been baiting Thomas—II, 6).

Much more frequent and effective is the combination of ironic buildup and reversal, which allows the dramatist to give internal coherence to larger areas, sometimes within a scene, more often on the scale of several scenes or an entire play. In scene 13 of Le Médecin Volant Valère is just exclaiming delightedly that he had not thought it possible for Sganarelle to do so well when Sganarelle rushes in and confesses that he has bungled the job. In the last scene of Le Tartuffe the protagonist gloats over Orgon's predicament and waxes more and more vindictive until suddenly the king's officer takes him into custody. Lisette rushes in shrieking to inform Sganarelle that a misfortune has befallen his daughter; tension increases as he learns that in despair over the way he has treated her she has gone up to her room, opened the window overlooking the river, and declared that rather than live with her father's anger she prefers to die:

In the prologue to Amphitryon Night protests against the service that Jupiter requires of her, declaring sarcastically that the name applied to one who renders such a service is indeed an honorable one. Mercure scoffingly lords it over her: "Pour une jeune déesse, / Vous êtes bien du bon temps! / Un tel emploi n'est bassesse / Que chez les petites gens. / Lorsque dans un haut rang on a l'heur de paraître, / Tout ce qu'on fait est toujours bel et bon, / Et suivant ce qu'on peut être, / Les choses changent de nom." / But Night's reply puts him in his place: / Sur de pareilles matières / Vous en savez plus que moi, / Et pour accepter l'emploi / J'en veux croire vos lumières." (124-135). Throughout II, 5 of L'Avare Frosine flatters Harpagon outrageously, stressing his youthful appearance and how delighted Mariane will be to marry him; at the end of the scene when she asks for money, Harpagon dashes off without giving her a cent. In II, 3 of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme the philosophy teacher in the name of wisdom rebukes the other teachers for losing their temper and preaches moderation and patience; he ends up quarreling more violently than they. Gérante takes pleasure in disclosing to Argante his son's turpitudes and blames them on his faulty upbringing; Argante then proceeds, according to the motif of the biter bit, to narrate to Gérante the even less edifying deeds of his son (Les Fourberies de Scapin, II, 1). La Flèche's "quelques petites conditions" at the beginning of II, 1 in L'Avare turn out to be the long series of almost intolerable stipulations of the as yet unknown Shylock. In Les Femmes Savantes Philaminte grows increasingly indignant over her servant's heinous crime; it transpires that she has made a mistake in grammar (II, 6). In III, 3 of the same play when Vadius and Trissotin meet, the hyperbolic compliments grow more and more exaggerated until the question arises of whose work will be praised first; then the flattery changes to name calling. At the beginning of III, 3 of Le Malade Imaginaire Argan promises Béralde, rather impatiently it is true, that he will have no trouble keeping his temper; as the scene progresses he grows angrier and angrier.

Contiguous scenes are often joined by the same technique. The just quoted scene of L'Avare is itself an ironic buildup for the next scene, when the usurer is revealed as Cléante's own father (II, 1-2). Once the misunderstandings have been cleared up at the end of Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire, Lélie airily says that now they can be married, since Celie's father has already given his agreement; in the next scene the father refuses to keep his word (sc. 27-28). The first scene of Amphitryon in which Sosie grows jauntier and jauntier as he rehearses his triumphant entry into the town is a skillful buildup for the following one in which he is soundly drubbed and even refused his identity by Mercure. II, 3 in which Sbrigani misinforms Oronte of M. de Pourceaugnac's intentions and II, 4 in which he misinforms M. de Pourceaugnac of Oronte's intentions explode in the brilliant quarrel of II, 5. Orgon's conviction that he alone is right and his extreme vindictiveness towards his family expressed in IV, 3 lead directly to the following scenes in which he is forced to admit that Tartuffe is an impostor. At the end of III, 3 Mme Jourdain tells her husband that Dorante will never repay the money that he has borrowed, and M. Jourdain insists that he will. The buildup continues in the following scene when Dorante asks how much he owes, so that he can settle up. M. Jourdain mentions the various amounts that he has lent him, triumphs over his wife, only to hear Dorante finally say: "Mettez encore deux cents pistoles que vous m'allez donner, cela fera justement dix-huit mille francs que je vous payerai au premier jour." In Les Femmes Savantes, II, 4-5 in which Chrysale suddenly asserts his domination over the household by approving of Henriette's marriage to Clitandre and taking the servant under his protection prepare II, 6-8 in which he collapses like a deflated dummy when faced with his wife's determination. IV, 1 of the same play in which Armande turns her mother against Clitandre in order to spoil her sister's marriage leads to her discomfiture in the next scene when she throws herself at Clitandre's head and is rebuffed. When in IV, 1 Don Juan cries, "Allons, qu'on me fasse souper le plus tôt que l'on pourra", he prepares by his impatience the following series of contretemps that will prevent him from dining at all. Alceste declares in I, 1 of Le Misanthrope that he likes friends who can discern his intrinsic worth. Oronte arrives in the next scene and satisfies that requirement: but Alceste is the opposite of happy, since Oronte is his rival and requests approval of a sonnet that he has prepared for Célimène.

More striking is the reversal separated from the buildup by intervening scenes or acts. In II, 4 of Le Tartuffe Dorine promises Mariane's sweetheart: "Nous allons réveiller les efforts de son frêre" in order to avert a marriage with Tartuffe. Then in III, 1 the brother himself tempestuously promises: "Que la foudre sur l'heure achève mes destins, / Qu'on me traite partout du plus grand des faquins / S'il est aucun respect ni pouvoir qui m'arrête / Et si je ne fais pas quelque coup de ma tête!" The author's ironic pun on "coup de ma tête" (i.e., [1] coup de mon invention, [2] coup de tête) in the last line makes III, 4 appear inevitable, when Damis bursts in on Tartuffe and Elmire, declaring triumphantly that he now has proof that will convince his father of Tartuffe's duplicity; not only does he thus ruin Elmire's carefully laid plan but in the next scenes his father will refuse to be convinced and will disinherit him. The ironic buildup for Orgon's having to admit that Tartuffe is a blackguard (IV, 6) begins as early as III, 7:

Then, in the same scene Orgon insists on throwing Elmire and Tartuffe together: "Et je veux qu'à toute heure avec elle on vous voie" (1174).

In III, 2 Mercure under the guise of Sosie is extremely insolent with Amphitryon; the next time that the real Sosie meets his master, he receives a beating for his insolence (III, 4). II, 5 of L'Avare in which Frosine lies to Harpagon about Mariane's sentiments and III, 4 in which she lies to Mariane about Harpagon's life expectancy culminate in their meeting for the first time in III, 5 with embarrassing results for Frosine. The scene in which Chrysale finally stands up to his wife (V, 3) comes as a comic surprise to the audience; but at the same time the author has been at pains to prepare this ironic reversal at Philaminte's expense since the second act: II, 9; III, 6; IV, 5; and V, 2 all contain episodes that are intended to warn us that the worm will finally turn. To this structure of Les Femmes Savantes may be compared that of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in which both Acts I and II are an ironic buildup for the deflation of M. Jourdain by his wife and servant in Act III. Also, III, 16 in which M. Jourdain makes Dorimène back up, so that he will have room for his third bow, is the ironic reversal of II, 1, where the dancing master has impressed upon him the necessity of making three bows to flatter a lady of quality. And so fundamental is this particular structure to Le Tartuffe that it could be argued that the play is constructed on two major ironic buildups, followed by their reversals: (1) Orgon's infatuation with Tartuffe which culminates in the deeding of his property to the rascal and (2) Tartuffe's overweening arrogance once his rascality is exposed to Orgon. If this hypothesis is correct, then the pivotal scene of the play is IV, 7, containing in one speech by Tartuffe (1557-64) both the reversal for Orgon's situation which has been building up since the opening scene ("C'est à vous d'en sortir, vous qui parlez en maître: / La maison m'appartient, je le ferai connaître") and the beginning of the buildup that will culminate in Tartuffe's downfall at the end of the play: "Et [je] vous montrerai bien qu'en vain on a recours / Pour me chercher querelle à ces lâches détours, / Qu'on n'est pas là où l'on pense en me faisant injure, / Que j'ai de quoi confondre et punir l'imposture, / Venger le ciel qu'on blesse et faire repentir / Ceux qui parlent ici de me faire sortir." The heights of technical virtuosity are reached in those plays where recurrent situations furnish a framework upon which Molière may drape his buildups and reversals. The rudimentary form is contained in Le Tartuffe, where a situation recurs only once, but with an ironic reversal of roles. In IV, 3 Orgon refuses to believe his family and prefers to place his trust in appearances (1317); when in V, 3 he tries in turn to convince his mother of Tartuffe's villainy, she refuses to believe him: "Mon Dieu, le plus souvent l'apparence déçoit" (1679). And Dorine drives the point home with: "Juste retour, Monsieur, des choses d'ici-bas: / Vous ne vouliez point croire, et l'on ne vous croit pas" (1695-96).

The eleventh scene of La Jalousie du Barbouillé gives Molière the idea for the structure of George Dandin, each of whose three acts constitutes an ironic buildup, with the protagonist increasingly sure of his triumph until the ironic reversal at the end of the act. The ten contretemps of L'Etourdi are preceded by ironic buildups of which they are the reversals; each time that Lélie or Mascarille exults the audience knows that a new reversal is in the offing. Scenes 6 through 12 of Les Précieuses Ridicules show the girls compromising themselves increasingly with the pseudo-aristocrats and prepare the spectator for the sudden unmasking in scene 13. Each of the recurrent situations in Dom Garcie de Navarre is constructed on the same principle, with the protagonist more and more convinced each time that his suspicions are finally grounded in fact - and each time they redound to his discredit. The entire last act of L'Ecole des Maris is devoted to Sganarelle's preparation of the trap that is to catch his brother's ward and cover the brother with confusion; he carries out his task with increasing glee and attentiveness up to the moment when the prisoner in the trap turns out to be his own ward.

In L'Ecole des Femmes an identical structure is present throughout: after the first three scenes have revealed Arnolphe's mockery of others' conjugal misfortunes, delight in his foolproof system, and immense self-satisfaction, I, 4 shows him rejoicing over Horace's conquests at the expense of his neighbors until he discovers that the young man's present conquest lives in his own house; in III, 4 he ironically expresses his sympathy for Horace, whose plans seem to have fared badly, until he learns that he himself has been outwitted by Agnès; in IV, 5 he voices his satisfaction with his arrangements only to find in the next scene that he has lost once again; in V, 1 he thinks that he has succeeded too well, since his servants appear to have killed Horace, but in the following scene he realizes that Horace not only is alive but has spirited Agnès out of the house; in V, 6 he agrees ironically to support Horace's refusal to marry the girl of his father's choice, does just the opposite, backs up Horace's father, triumphs in having separated Horace and Agnès, and then is apprised that the father's choice is Agnès. Thus the whole play reposes on a series of ironic buildups and reversals culminating in the protagonist's final discomfiture.

La Princesse d'Elide has a different structure that might explain why it is not among Molière's better plays. The ironic buildup covers the first three acts and part of the fourth: in II, 1 the princess declares that she will never fall in love; in II, 4 she expresses her conviction that in trying to ensnare Euryale, whose indifference has piqued her, she runs no danger of falling in love herself; in III, 1 her servant assures her that upon seeing her sing and dance Euryale is certain to succumb to her charms. Not until III, 4 do the reversals start when Euryale first rebuffs her advances; then, when the princess pretends to love another in order to lead him on, he declares that he is in love with the princess's cousin (IV, 1); and her cup brims over when she is obliged to give herself away in trying to prevent a match between Euryale and the cousin (V, 2). To judge by this example, it would seem that the device must present a regular alternance of buildups and reversals in order to structure properly a play of any length.

In Molière's theater quid pro quo, or deliberately prolonged misunderstanding, is not only a powerful auxiliary of ironic buildup and reversal but also an important structural element in its own right. The ironic implications of situations in which one or several characters are in the dark, but not the audience, have already been made obvious. In Trufaldin's presence Mascarille tells Célie that his master has fallen in love with a young beauty; since he is ostensibly consulting Célie as a fortune teller, Trufaldin thinks that the beauty is someone else, whereas Mascarille and Célie understand each other perfectly (L'Etourdi, I, 4). Anselme, whom Mascarille has convinced of Pandolfe's demise, persists in addressing him as a ghost (L'Etourdi, II, 4). When the two old men, Albert and Polydore, meet, each with a guilty conscience and fearing the other's wrath for a different reason, they are overwhelmed by each other's forbearance, fall to their knees, and remain there until the situation's ambiguity is gradually cleared up (Le Dépit amoureux, III, 4). Agnès and Arnolphe are both delighted that Agnès wishes to be married; each grows more and more enchanted with the idea until it transpires that Agnès expects Arnolphe to give her to Horace (L'Ecole des Femmes, II, 5). The same situation reappears in L'Avare, I, 4 where Harpagon raises his son's hopes concerning Mariane only to tell him that he is planning to marry her himself, and again in Le Malade Imaginaire, I, 5 when Argan announces to his daughter after some ambiguity that she is about to be married not to the young man of her choice, but to a doctor's son. In his two interviews with Elmire Tartuffe thinks each time that she has summoned him to give in to him (her language is ambiguous), whereas the first time it is to ask him to support Mariane's marriage to Valère and the second to betray him to her husband (III, 3 and IV, 5). In one of the most ingenious situations in Molière's theater Don Juan manages to make each of two peasant girls believe that she is his chosen one and the other an impostor:

Que voulez-vous que je dise? Vous soutenez également toutes deux que je vous ai promis de vous prendre pour femmes. Est-ce que chacune de vous ne sait pas ce qui en est sans qu 'il soit nécessaire que je m'explique davantage? Pourquoi m'obliger là-dessus à des redites? Celle à qui j'ai promis effectivement n'a-t-elle pas en elle-même de quoi se moquer des discours de l'autre et doit-elle se mettre en peine, pourvu que j'accomplisse ma promesse? Tous les discours n'avancent point les choses; il faut faire et non pas dire, et les effets décident mieux que les paroles. Aussi n'est-ce rien que par là que je vous veux mettre d'accord, et l'on verra, quand je me marierai, laquelle des deux a mon cœur. (Bas, à Mathurine) Laissez-lui croire ce qu 'elle voudra. (Bas, à Charlotte) Laissez-la se flatter dans son imagination. (Bas, à Mathurine) Je vous adore. (Bas, à Charlotte) Je suis tout à vous. (Bas, à Mathurine) Tous les visages sont laids auprès du vôtre. (Bas, à Charlotte) On ne peut plus souffrir les autres quand on vous a vue (II, 4).

Relying on traditional material, Molière introduces into Le Sicilien a lover disguised as an artist, into Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme a lover disguised as the Grand Turk's son, and into Le Malade Imaginaire a lover disguised as a music master, then a maid disguised as a doctor; on each occasion, thanks to the resultant ambiguities, much fun is had at the expense of a guardian or father. Maître Jacques having falsely accused Valère of the theft of Harpagon's cash box, Valère is haled before the miser; since his conscience is troubling him over his relations with Harpagon's daughter, he admits to one kind of theft and Harpagon takes it for admission of another kind until the ambiguity is resolved:

Harpagon: Hé! dis-moi donc un peu: tu n'y as point touché?
Valère: Moi, y toucher? Ah! vous lui faites tort aussi bien qu'à moi, et c'est d'une ardeur toute pure et respectueuse que j'ai brûlé
pour elle.
Harpagon: Brûlé pour ma cassette!
Valère: J'aimerais mieux mourir que de lui avoir fait paraître aucune pensée offensante: elle est trop sage et trop honnête pour cela.
Harpagon: Ma cassette trop honnête!
Valère: Tous mes désirs se sont bornés à jouir de sa vue, et rien de criminel n'a profané la passion que ses beaux yeux m'ont
inspirée.
Harpagon: Les beaux yeux de ma cassette! Il parle d'elle comme un amant d ' u n e
maîtresse (V, 3).

Harpagon's last remark is meant to be self-applied, and the misunderstanding is extremely important in that Molière thus establishes an identification with the Bible's "treasure in the heart" (Matt. 6: 21) that will reinforce the play's ironic outcome.

When M. de Pourceaugnac meets Oronte and quarrels with him in II, 5, thanks to Sbrigani's machinations he thinks that Oronte wishes to unload on him a daughter who plays fast and loose, whereas Oronte thinks that Pourceaugnac is a fortune hunter who wants to use her dowry to pay off his creditors. Believing that it is Dorante who has given her a diamond and banquet with music, Dorimène finds M. Jourdain uncivil when he belittles them (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, IV, 1). Zerbinette, not knowing who Géronte is, describes to him at great length how he has been duped by Scapin (Les Fourberies de Scapin, III, 3). Early in Les Femmes Savantes Clitandre comes to ask Bélise's help in his attempt to marry Henriette. The lady is convinced that all men are in love with her; she takes his request as a concealed proposal and refuses to be convinced of the contrary (I, 4); in the following act she continues in the same vein when her brothers also come to enlist her aid (II, 3). In the same play Vadius, asked by Trissotin what he thinks of a new sonnet that is going the rounds of polite society, replies that it is bad; he has not realized, contrary to the audience, that Trissotin is its author (III, 3).

Four of Molière's plays utilize the device of the prolonged misunderstanding for their fundamental structure. The plot of Le Dépit amoureux requires that characters be kept in varying degrees of ignorance all the way to the outcome; the trouble is that the audience, prepared for ironic comedy, is at times also kept in the dark and given romantic comedy instead. Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire is constructed entirely on a series of ironic misunderstandings: Sganarelle thinks that his wife is Lélie's mistress, and his wife, that he is Célie's lover; Célie thinks the same as Sganarelle, and Lélie, that Célie has married Sganarelle. To cap the resultant series of misunderstandings Molière places the two characters who think the same in a situation where they talk at cross-purposes: Célie, misled by Sganarelle, heaps coals of wrath on Lélie's absent head; Sganarelle, not realizing that he has before him a woman spurned, coyly misinterprets her words as an expression of solicitude for his own affliction (sc. 16). Unaware of Arnolphe's odd preference for the name of M. de la Souche, or 'blockhead' (Arnolphe being cuckolds' patron saint), Horace, from one end to the other of L'Ecole des Femmes, takes Arnolphe for his confidant and keeps him apprised of the progress of his love affair with Agnès. Amphitryon contains the most inextricable series of misunderstandings of any of the plays, with Alcmène taking Jupiter for Amphitryon, Cléanthis taking Mercure for Sosie, Amphitryon taking Mercure for Sosie, and Sosie in an ironic variant taking Mercure as his alter ego.

Critics have long recognized the presence in Molière's theater of delightful scenes embodying a lovers' quarrel, or dépit amoureux. Based on a misunderstanding and consisting of a tempest in a teapot, the situation is rich in ironic possibilities. It has been traced back as far as Horace's ode, Donec gratus eram (III, 9), and was used in Italian and French comedy before Molière. Molière himself has stressed its importance as an ironic theme in his theater with a chorus of Les Amants Magnifiques: "Amants, que vos querelles / Sont aimables et belles! / Qu'on y voit succéder / De plaisirs, de tendresse! / Querellez-vous sans cesse / Pour vous raccommoder. / Amants, que vos querelles / Sont aimables et belles." (third inter-mezzo, sc. 5).

Critics have however done Molière a disservice in limiting dépit amoureux to the play of that name, Le Tartuffe, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and viewing its presence in the two latter plays as padding utilized to fill out acts in which plot material was deficient. Such an argument cannot hold water when applied, for example, to Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, where Act III would be unusually long even without the three scenes devoted to the theme. On the contrary, dépit amoureux is a structural element in a round dozen of Molière's plays and constitutes a fundamental theme on which he rings all the changes. Instead of being a stock situation thrown into a play to round out the action, it is usually so carefully woven in that it is preceded by ironic buildup and sometimes given an ironic aftermath.

In order to appreciate the full sweep of dépit amoureux and its many variants our point of departure should be the famous third and fourth scenes of Act IV in the play that gives the situation its name and general pattern. Those scenes are prepared from the beginning. In I, 1 Eraste admits that he is of jealous temperament and finds his rival Valère too sure of his place in Lucile's affections; Gros-René on the other hand is content to leave matters be and even close his eyes to certain of Marinette's actions as long as she tells him that she loves him. In I, 2 Marinette reassures Eraste and brings him a note from Lucile authorizing him to ask her father for her hand; Marinette approves of Gros-René's easygoing attitude and warns Eraste that lack of trust could advance a rival's cause and bring Lucile to rescind the note. Despite the warning Eraste is in high spirits as Valère approaches and Gros-René remarks: "Je plains le pauvre hère, / Sachant ce qui se passe" (193-194). But to Eraste's astonishment Valère remains confident even when shown the note (I, 3). In order to ascertain the truth Eraste pretends to Valère's valet Mascarille that he has withdrawn his suit; Mascarille then lets the cat out of the bag: Lucile and Valère are secretly married and meet every night (I, 4).When Marinette comes back quite unsuspecting to tell Eraste that Lucile will see him that evening in the garden, he turns on her in a rage and sends back Lucile's note with a message that all is over between them; the invective that Gros-René flings at Marinette is a parody of his master's towering passion and a foretaste of the approaching showdown (I, 5). Before it, however, the audience is let in on the secret while the actors are still kept in the dark: Lucile's sister Ascagne, whom everybody believes to be a boy, has tricked Valère into marrying her under the impression that she is Lucile (II, 1). In II, 4 Lucile and Marinette express their indignation over their lovers' conduct and work themselves into the proper mood for a first-rate quarrel. Lucile declares that nothing can make her forgive Eraste and forbids Marinette ever to intercede for him, declaring her 'firmness' of intention in such a way as to impress on the audience the ambivalence of her sentiments: "Et même si mon cœur était pour lui tenté / De descendre jamais à quelque lâcheté, / Que ton affection me soit alors sévère / Et tienne comme il faut la main à ma colère" (641-644). In a burlesque of her mistress's language and sentiments Marinette tells her not to worry, since she is just as angry with Gros-René and would rather be an old maid than marry him.

Owing to a complicated plot, the counterpart of this scene between the girls in which the two men prepare for combat does not take place until IV, 2 immediately before the quarrel, which it ushers in. Eraste has several times sent Gros-René to beg in vain for an appointment with Lucile. Eraste is furious: her rejection of his offer to beg her pardon, to believe in her when appearances are against her, and her refusing to make allowances for his justifiable suspicions have convinced him that she cannot be worthy of so great a love as his; he would do well to look elsewhere. Gros-René goes him one better by swearing off women altogether. Then the moment of battle is upon them; as the girls approach, Gros-René cautions Eraste not to weaken and Eraste reassures him, a warning that is echoed on the other side of the stage by Marinette to Lucile just before the struggle is joined.

Eraste starts out by disabusing Lucile of thinking that he wishes to discuss his love for her, since on the contrary he wishes to get over it and realizes by her anger over so trifling a matter that he never has had much hold over her affections; besides, he owes it to himself to react to her scorn. Of course, he must admit that he can never hope to find so great a love again and that his heart will take a long time to mend; there is no question of his ever loving another woman. But all that, he continues, obviously does not matter to her, and this is the last time that he will annoy her by placing his love at her feet. Lucile curtly replies that that will suit her perfectly. Stung to retort, Eraste answers that he will carry out her wishes to the letter and swears on his life that he never will speak to her again.

Lucile: Fine, that's just what I have requested.

Eraste, perhaps insisting too much, repeats that he will not break his word; even if he should be so weak as to fail to erase her from his heart, she need not think that he would give her an undue advantage by coming back to her.

Lucile: There would be no point in doing so.

Eraste would rather die a thousand deaths after the vile way she has treated him.

Lucile: All right. Let's drop the subject.

Agreed, replies Eraste. And in order to prove how irrevocable his decision is he returns her portrait. Not to be outdone, she returns a diamond that he has given her. Other gifts follow, then letters which with bitter comments they tear up before each other's eyes.

Gros-René to Eraste: Keep up the good work.

Marinette to Lucile: Hold firm.

Then both call on Heaven to strike them down if they fail to keep their word.

All that is left is to say goodby; yet in spite of their servants' exhortations they are strangely reluctant to withdraw. Eraste points out that she will never find another love like his, and Lucile finally gets to the cause of the quarrel, his lack of trust. The quarrel flares up again; but Lucile goes so far in defending her point of view as to admit in an unguarded moment that she is angry because she still loves him, then tries to cover up her slip by remarking, what can that matter if they are breaking up?

Eraste: Are we breaking up?

Lucile: Of course; isn't it over and done with?

Eraste: And you are satisfied with such an arrangement?

Lucile: Oh, I feel as you do about it.

Eraste: As I do?

Lucile: Of course. It's a sign of weakness for a girl to let a man see that she is affected by losing him.

Eraste: How cruel you are! You are the one who insisted on breaking up.

Lucile: I? Of course not; it was you.

Eraste: I? But I thought that that was what you wanted.

Lucile: Not at all. You were interested only in doing as you pleased.

Eraste: However that may be, suppose, just suppose that my heart longed to be forgiven …

Lucile can hold out no longer and confessing to her weakness, she allows him to see her home (IV, 3). How deliberately pointless these quarrels are is borne out by the fact that Lucile and Eraste have made up without settling their difference over Lucile's rumored marriage to Valère.

The two servants remain alone on the stage, thoroughly disgusted by their master's and mistress's lack of firmness. They then go through the quarrel's motions themselves, returning presents and making a series of coarse remarks that are a parody of their betters' highflown language. At the climax of their quarrel they are standing back to back in the middle of the stage; suddenly peering around, they get the giggles and make up without ceremony (IV, 4).

Between Le Dépit amoureux and Tartuffe lie five plays in which the theme is either touched upon or fully exploited. In Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire it is as carefully woven into the structure as in the previous play and is given a new dimension by being placed in counterpoint to two scenes of quarrels between an older married couple whose ardor has long since cooled, but who are fiercely jealous all the same. Inextricably linked, the lovers' quarrel and the married couple's quarrel build up together.

Célie's tyrannical father has broken her engagement to Lélie, who is absent on a journey. While showing his portrait to her maid, Célie is overcome with emotion. Sganarelle happens along and supports her while the maid goes for help; his wife sees him from their house and is immediately convinced that he is deceiving her (sc. 2-5). Sganarelle comes back after carrying Célie home and finds his wife sniffing Lélie's perfumed portrait, which Célie has let drop; each accuses the other in a scene whose language comes from farce (sc. 6) and which anticipates by ironic contrast the young lovers' approaching quarrel.

Lélie comes rushing back from his journey, alarmed by a rumor that Célie's father has forced her into another marriage; he thinks the worst when Sganarelle designates the portrait, declaring that he has received it from his wife (sc. 7-10). Left alone, Lélie nearly faints with grief and Sganarelle's wife offers him shelter in her house; Sganarelle sees him coming back out and he thinks the worst when Lélie, believing him to be Célie's husband, says to him bitterly: "Oh! trop heureux d'avoir une si belle femme" (sc. 11-15). Célie then comes up to Sganarelle who, pointing to Lélie in the distance, tells her that there goes his wife's lover; she departs swearing vengeance (sc. 16).

In scene 20 the two lovers finally meet and upbraid each other; Lélie sarcastically wishes Célie happiness with her new husband (meaning Sganarelle) and she replies that she intends to be very happy with him (meaning the man whom her father has chosen for her). Lélie asks her what right she has to be angry with him, whereupon she accus es him of being a hypocrite. The quarrel continues in the next scene, but now against the background of Sganarelle who, in a variant of the braggart soldier motif, arrives armed to the teeth and seeking a terrible vengeance on Lélie who has broken up his home and robbed him of his honor. While the lovers pursue their quarrel, he tries to steel himself to attack; but each time that Lélie looks his way he collapses in conformity with the literary type:

Célie points to Sganarelle as proof of Lélie's crime towards her (that is, Lélie as Sganarelle's wife's lover), Lélie points to Sganarelle as proof of Célie's crime towards him (that is, Sganarelle as Célie's new husband), and Sganarelle finally screws up his courage to accuse him of stealing his wife; thereupon Lélie defends himself and Célie taxes him once again with hypocrisy. The madness reaches a climax in the third and final scene devoted to the lovers' quarrel when the fourth partner, Sganarelle's wife, arrives and accuses Célie of robbing her of her husband; Célie rejects the accusation as a feint of the wife's to conceal her guilty affair with Lélie. Confusion reaches such a pitch that the maid, in a role anticipating Dorine's in Le Tartuffe, steps in and forces each of the four contestants to explain himself clearly. The lovers are finally reconciled and the married couple mollified, if not reconciled (sc. 22).