The Would-Be Gentleman by Molière

First produced:Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, 1670; first published, 1671 (English translation, 1675)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Comedy of manners

Time of plot: Seventeenth century

Locale: Paris

Principal characters

• Monsieur Jourdain, a tradesman
• Madame Jourdain, his wife
• Lucile, their daughter
• Nicole, a servant
• Cléonte, in love with Lucile
• Covielle, his valet
• Dorante, a count
• Dorimène, a marchioness

The Story:

Monsieur Jourdain is a tradesman who aspires to be a gentleman. Thinking, like many of his kind, that superficial manners, accomplishments, and speech are the marks of a gentleman, he engages a dancing master, a music master, a fencing master, a philosophy teacher, and other assorted tutors who are as vain and ignorant as he. They constantly quarrel among themselves as to which art is the most important, and each tries to persuade Jourdain to favor him above the others.

From the dancing master he learns to approach a lady: to bow, to step backward, and to walk toward her bowing three times and ending at her knees. From the philosopher he learns that all speech is either poetry or prose. Jourdain is delighted to learn that he was speaking prose all his life. He also learns that he speaks with vowels and consonants. He believes that this knowledge sets him apart from ordinary citizens and makes him a gentleman.

The primary reason for his great desire to be a gentleman is his regard for Dorimène, a marchioness. He has himself fitted out in costumes so ridiculous that they appear to be masquerades, six tailors being required to dress him in his fantastic costumes. Monsieur Jourdain’s wife retains her common sense in spite of her husband’s wealth, and she constantly chides him about his foolishness. He considers her a bumpkin, however, and reviles her for her ignorance.

In addition to criticizing his dress and speech, his wife rebukes him for being taken in by Count Dorante, a nobleman who flatters Jourdain’s affected gentlemanly customs and at the same time borrows large sums of money from him. Jourdain begs Dorante to accept the money because he thinks it the mark of a gentleman to lend money to a nobleman. Jourdain, engaging Dorante to plead his case with Dorimène, provides money for serenades and ballets and a large diamond ring. Dorante promises to bring Dorimène to Jourdain’s house for dinner one evening when Jourdain makes arrangements to send his wife and his daughter away. Madame Jourdain, who suspects that her husband is up to some knavery, sends the maid, Nicole, to listen to the conversation between the two men. Nicole cannot hear all of it before being discovered by Jourdain, but she hears enough to convince Madame Jourdain that her husband needs watching.

Jourdain’s daughter Lucile loves and is loved by Cléonte, and the Jourdain servant, Nicole, loves Cléonte’s servant, Covielle. When Lucile and Nicole pass the two men on the street without nodding, the men swear to forget the faithless ladies and turn to new conquests. After learning, however, that Lucile’s aunt is the cause of their coldness—the old lady thinking it unseemly to speak to men—the four lovers are reconciled. Lucile and Cléonte need only Jourdain’s permission to marry, for Madame Jourdain approves of Cléonte and promises to intercede with her husband. Jourdain refuses to accept Cléonte as a son-in-law, however, because the young man is not a gentleman. Cléonte is honorable, and he possesses both wealth and a noble career, but he shuns hypocrisy and false living, conduct he considers unbecoming a gentleman. The lovers plead in vain. At last, Covielle suggests a deception to play on the foolish old man, and Cléonte agrees to the plan.

Dorante, meanwhile, uses Jourdain’s money in his own suit for Dorimène’s favors. Even the diamond ring is presented as a gift from himself. Dorante secretly thinks Jourdain a fool and enjoys making him a real one.

At the dinner in Jourdain’s home, Dorimène is somewhat confused by Jourdain’s ardent speeches to her, for she thinks it known that she is Dorante’s mistress. She is even more disturbed when Madame Jourdain bursts in and accuses her husband of infidelity. Convinced that she is being insulted by a madwoman, Dorimène leaves in tears.

Covielle, disguised, calls on Jourdain and informs him that he was a friend of Jourdain’s father, who was indeed a gentleman. He was not a tradesman but had merely bought fabrics and then gave them to his friends for money. Jourdain, delighted with the news, feels justified in his belief that he is a gentleman. Then Covielle tells Jourdain that the son of the Grand Turk desires to marry Lucile. Jourdain is flattered and promises to give the girl to the Grand Turk’s son, even though she vows she will marry no one but Cléonte. Jourdain, duped into accepting initiation into the Grand Turk’s religion, a ceremony performed with much silly gibberish, believes he is being honored above all men.

When Cléonte appears, disguised as the son of the Grand Turk, Lucile recognizes him and agrees to be his wife. Madame Jourdain chides her for infidelity to Cléonte until Covielle whispers to her that the Grand Turk’s son and Cléonte are one and the same; then she, too, gives her consent to the marriage. Jourdain sends for a notary. After convincing Jourdain that their plan is only in jest, Dorante and Dorimène say that they will be married at the same time. In great joy at his exalted position Jourdain blesses them all and in addition gives Nicole to Covielle, whom he thinks to be the interpreter of the Grand Turk’s son’s. Thinking that Dorimène loves him, Jourdain offers his wife to whoever wants her. She, knowing the whole plot, thanks him and proclaims him the greatest fool of all.

Bibliography

Abraham, Claude. On the Structure of Molière’s Comédies-Ballets. Paris: Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 1984. An original study, which explores the relationship between Molière’s text and the music composed by the court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully for the intermezzos in The Would-Be Gentleman. Argues persuasively that Lully’s music forms an integral part of this ballet comedy.

Howarth, W. D. Molière: A Playwright and His Audience. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Examines Molière’s creative use of theatrical conventions both in his spoken comedies and in his ballet comedies. Provides an excellent description of the comic richness of Monsieur Jourdain, a role first played by Molière himself.

Hubert, Judd D. Molière and the Comedy of Intellect. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962. Examines social satire, comic uses of language, and the importance of the intermezzos in The Would-Be Gentleman. Stresses the importance of theatricality in Molière’s plays.

Koppisch, Michael S. Rivalry and the Disruption of Order in Molière’s Theater. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004. Argues that the characters in Molière’s plays desperately want something they cannot have, such as Monsieur Jourdain’s desire to be a gentleman.

McCarthy, Gerry. The Theatres of Molière. New York: Routledge, 2002. Places Molière’s life and work within the context of the French theater of his time. Discusses the productions of some of his plays, including their actors, scenes, and costumes.

Polsky, Zachary. The Comic Machine, the Narrative Machine, and the Political Machine in the Works of Molière. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2003. Examines the nature of seventeenth century French comedy by analyzing the works of Molière. Discusses the moralism and the political context of Molière’s plays and describes the use of speech, voice, and body in their performance. Includes a detailed analysis of The Would-Be Gentleman.

Scott, Virginia. Molière: A Theatrical Life. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Chronicles Molière’s life and provides an overview of his plays, placing them within the context of seventeenth century French theater.

Walker, Hallam. Molière. 1971. Rev. ed. Boston: Twayne, 1990. An excellent general introduction to Molière’s plays including an annotated bibliography of important critical studies on Molière. Describes the connection between artificiality and self-deception in The Would-Be Gentleman.