Moliere's Timeless Challenge
... also pokes fun at the ladies of his day who read “Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus” and “Clelie,” two “long and immensely popular novels” comparable to the soap operas of modern times (Frame 20). Cathos and Magdelon reference characters from these books in almost any situation. For example, when her father asks her why she didn’t want to marry the suitors who visited her, she replies sarcastically, “’A fine thing it would be if Cyrus married Mandane at the start, and if Aronce were wedded to Clelie without any difficulty!” (Moliere 24). Cathos defends her, claiming that those suitors had probably never even heard of “the map of Tenderland…Sweet-Notes, Small-Attentions, Gallant-Notes, and Pretty-Verses,” all components of these books (25). Also, when the girls meet a handsome new suitor, Magdelon comments, “’I see, he’s a regular Amilcar!’” a character in “Clelie” (31). Suggesting a lack of a sense of reality, Moliere implies that women who read these “source books for preciosity” do not live in the real world, but try to imitate lives of the soap opera characters in their books (Frame 20). Congruent with perhaps one of the most dominant stereotypes of women today, Cathos and Magdelon are quite concerned with looks and fashion. When they hear that a man has come to see them, Magdelon’s first response is, “’Let’s… arrange our hair a bit and live up to our reputation” (Moliere 28). It doesn’t bother her in the least to keep a guest waiting while she primps in front of the mirror. The two are appalled that men would come into their presence “with unadorned leg, a hat disarmed of feathers, an uncurled head of hair, and a coat that suffers from an indigence if ribbons…neckcloths not of the right make, and breeches a good half a foot short of being wide enough” (26). Their nearly unattainable dress code for their suitors demonstrates how carried away people in Moliere’s day had become with fashion. One can barely keep track of all the style stipulations the girls place on potential suitors! Another of Magdelon and Cathos’ obsessions is to climb the social ladder of popularity. As mentioned before, they assume that they have a “reputation” to live up to regarding their hair, and the main reason that they are glad when a suitor visits them is that “one must be acquainted with all those gentlemen if one wants to belong to elegant society” (32). Not unlike many jr. high and high school girls of today, the motive behind almost everything that Magdelon and Cathos do is to become more acceptable in the eyes of high society. Moliere condemns this futile attempt by making characters with this ambition the joke of his play. While Magdelon and Cathos are consumed with keeping up appearances, they are still not satisfied with themselves. In addition to their constant attempts to improve their looks and status, they even want to improve the sound of their names! They enlighten Gorgibus that no one “in the grand style” would ever “speak of Cathos and Magdelon,” so they wish to be addressed as “Aminte” and “Polyxene” (26). They literally want to change who they are by changing their names. This displays their endless pursuit of trying to become people that they are not. To the reader, this is obviously ridiculous, and one would join Moliere in scoffing at their extremity. However, this was a “normal practice” for the “precieuses” of Moliere’s day, and this is a blatant stab at their preposterousness (Frame 26). One of Magdelon’s most tragic idiosyncrasies is that she does not realize her own intelligence, and instead, admires Mascarille’s (a suitor) mind. Magdelon, though frivolous, vain, and sometimes just plain rude, has an amazingly extensive vocabulary. Instead of simply asking for another chair fo...