The purpose of this research is to examine The Miser by Moliere. The plan of the research will be to set forth a short outline of the story, and to discuss the principal critical ideas that have arisen around the play.
The action of The Miser is built around the central character (comic hero), Harpagon, who has been consumed by his avarice, and whose enactment of that avarice on all the other characters in the play provides its central tension. Harpagon opposes the marital intentions of his son Cleante toward Mariane because he wants to marry her himself; and of his daughter Elise toward Valere because he wants to marry her off to his rich elderly friend Anselm. The greed of Harpagon, who indulges himself in jewelry and finery but denies ordinary comforts to his children and servants, has driven his children to deceit and his servants to scheming around his wishes. With the servant La Fleche's help, Cleante obtains Harpagon's money box, which Cleante is able to use as leverage to persuade Harpagon to give up designs on Mariane and permit Elise's marriage to Valere. Harpagon's emotional distress is mitigated by two facts: (a) Mariane and Valere turn out to be Anselm's long lost children, and (b) his darling money box is returned to him.
Virtually all critical treatments of The Miser focus on the extraordinary character of Harpagon, from which all the action of the play proceeds. As Guicharnaud comments, "the miserly and love smitten old man pushes the unreal logic of his nature to the extreme; where he is the ideal obstacle to 'honest' loves; where an order is established by the poet despite insoluble or unpleasant realities, leading to a poetic finale which is not a concession to convention but an affirmation" (Guicharnaud 11). Similarly, Dullin, establishing the play as one written in the outrageous farcical tone of Plautus, says that "Harpagon stands out as black against a luminous background of youth and freshne...