The Story Archive

The Affected Ladies

Molière · 1659 CE · Play · French · Enlightenment

Two provincial girls newly in Paris reject plain suitors as insufficiently refined, so the rejected men dress their valets as a marquis and a viscount and send them to be adored. The joke is entirely in the language: the girls cannot hear the difference between wit and its imitation. The one-act farce made Molière's reputation in Paris and set his pattern of aiming a comedy at a real social fashion by name.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
ComedySatire
Theme
Appearance vs RealityVanity & BeautyClass & InequalityIndividual vs Society
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
TricksterShapeshifter
Plot structure
Mistaken IdentityComic Resolution
Symbol / motif
The MaskThe Garment
Conflict
vs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
ComicSatirical
Culture / tradition
French

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