LINEAR EXPLANATION

Introduction:

- Contextualization: Molière: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. Theater man: director, playwright, actor... The greatest comic playwright of Classicism. Famous plays: The Imaginary Invalid, Tartuffe...

 The Misanthrope : a five-act comedy in verse. Protagonist: Alceste, the misanthrope, who hates humanity for its stupidity and vanity. Plot: his love for Célimène, a young coquette, his exact opposite.

- Presentation of the passage: Expository scene: Act I, Scene 1. A dispute: Alceste addresses his friend Philinte and reproaches him for his politeness, which he considers to be hypocrisy. Verse monologue that introduces Alceste and criticizes the falseness of social relations.

- Reading project: A monologue that satirizes hypocritical social relations.

- Text outline:

I. Lines 1 to 8. Condemnation of social relations.

II. Lines 9 to 18. Justification of this condemnation.

III. Lines 19 to end. Break with Philinte and affirmation of Alceste's misanthropy.

Development:

I. Lines 1 to 8. Condemnation of social relations.

• Scene begins with "No," a sign of disagreement. The expository scene introduces Alceste and emphasizes the categorical and closed aspect of his reasoning.
• "this cowardly method" (l. 1): periphrase that designates courtly politeness at the time. Demeaning adjective that announces the blame he is about to express.
• (l. 2): "most of your fashionable people": refers to courtiers at Versailles. Alceste satirizes the manners at Louis XIV's court.
• Lexical field of frivolity: "contortions" (l. 3), "frivolous" (l. 5), "useless" (l. 6). These adjectives show the lack of value, the negligible importance of polite gestures. Alceste criticizes courtly politeness.
• Designation of polite people using antiphrasis: "these affable givers" (l. 5) and "these obliging speakers" (l. 6). False praise: Alceste criticizes using irony.
• Antithesis: "and treat the honest man and the fool the same way" (l. 8). Alceste puts himself forward by referring to himself as an "honest man" (valorizing) and denigrates others as "the fool" (demeaning).

II. Lines 9 to 18. Justification of this condemnation.

• "What advantage is there... to do the same" (l. 9 to 12): rhetorical question that emphasizes the criticism.
• Enumeration (l. 10): "you swear friendship, faith, zeal, esteem, tenderness". Emphasis on the hypocrisy of excessively polite people, to mock them.
• Use of many words related to "esteem": "esteem" (l. 14), "an esteem" (l. 17), "not to esteem" (l. 18), "to esteem" (l. 18). Alceste repeats words related to "esteem" to show that it is absent. Alceste thus satirizes using irony.
• Hyperbole (l. 16). "as soon as it is seen that we mingle with the whole universe": Alceste intentionally exaggerates the number of people to whom courtiers show their polite friendliness. Alceste satirizes them.
• L.18 "And esteeming everyone is to esteem nothing": present tense of general truth and antithesis. Concludes and summarizes Alceste's argument against false politeness.

III. Lines 19 to end. Break with Philinte and affirmation of Alceste's misanthropy.

• Exclamation: "Goodness" (l. 20) shows his annoyance.
• "You are not meant to be one of my men" (l. 20): periphrase. Alceste clearly indicates to Philinte that he rejects his friendship.
• "I refuse" (l. 21) / "I want" (l. 23): antithesis. These verbs allow us to better understand Alceste's character. He does not tolerate opposition and asserts his categorical will. Character comedy and even satire as an excessive character, opposed to the ideal of moderation in Classicism.
• Metaphor "and to cut it short" (l. 23): indicates that Alceste wants to express his opinion clearly and definitively.
• (l. 24): "The friend of humankind is not at all my kind". Alexandrine verse that clearly paints the picture of Alceste: the misanthrope, who does not appreciate humans and openly expresses it.