The Misanthrope [8] - Helen

From The Big Book of Molière Monologues by actor/author Timothy Mooney. A collection of over 160 of Molière's funniest monologues in new rhymed iambic pentameter versions. The Misanthrope stands as Molière’s most complex psychological study. We cannot help but love and respect the hero (or anti-hero), Alceste, even as we see him engaging in self-destructive behavior. As the title suggests, Alceste hates mankind, and yet that hatred is likely borne out of mankind’s failure to give him the respect and honor he is due as this society’s most intelligent character. Although fellow characters universally acknowledge Alceste’s intelligence and wit, Alceste’s flaw lies in his insistence on turning that wit against his fellow man, in demonstration of superiority. Even worse, Alceste has fallen helplessly in love with Celimene, society’s biggest coquette. As much as he needs to feel special and important, Alceste has chosen the one woman who will continually undermine his self-esteem with outside affairs. The Misanthrope is virtually plotless. And the contemporary reader may well miss its most crucial complications, as major components of the plot are steeped in in arcane French legal practice. (It was customary in court cases of those days, for the petitioner to visit with the judge outside of the legal setting to persuade him of the legal merits of the case. This created a situation rife with corruption.) Also, Alceste’s psychological torment is simply much more fun to follow.see less