Alceste In Jean-Baptiste Moliere's The Misanthrope

The Misanthrope is a seventeenth century comedy of manners written by Jean-Baptiste Moliere. This play ridicules and criticizes the French aristocratic rule while revealing the foibles of man. His primary intention is not to tell his audience what is right but to teach the society a definite lesson. The Misanthropist remains relevant through the years because every generation since 1666 has managed to find something that reminds them of their own society.

The writer uses the protagonist, Alceste, to represent his ideal. Alceste is a social misfit because he cannot fit into the ways of his society. He cannot abide by the social manners and norms of any kind in his society. From his perspective society is too corrupted to be followed and his ideas and ideals are too rigid and impractical for society. He is too honest and rude for the polished society to accept him and the rest of the people are too false for him to conform to. Alceste cannot resist criticizing everyone who he thinks belongs to the common type of men in the World. He is too headstrong and too bitter in his hatred for the society. He cannot follow any of the etiquette and polite manners of the upper-class society in which he lives. He hates not only a few people who may be really corrupted but the

Alceste is the cause of being a social misfit; the society has always been like that and it is not likely to change for one man, Alceste did not even try to actively do anything to try and change people’s beliefs, he continuously judged and looked down on them thus society making it impossible for him to apply his odd ideas and ideals. He is mismatched to the society not only because he is the society in which he lives is bad but also because he turned out to be a ridiculous opportunist, an absurdly jealous idealist, an impractical hypocrite and a