The School of Women (Molière)
| Data | |
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| Title: | The women's school |
| Original title: | L'École des femmes |
| Genus: | comedy |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Molière |
| Publishing year: | 1663 |
| Premiere: | December 26, 1662 |
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The School of Women (original title: L'école des femmes ) is a five-act comedy in verse by the French poet Molière . The first performance took place on December 26, 1662 in Paris .
The School of Women is considered to be the first masterpiece of Molière and of French high comedy at all. In terms of content, it ties in with the topic of the "upbringing" of women, which was dealt with a year earlier in the men's school . Specifically, it shows how a man's attempt to win over a girl, brought up just for him like a retort, fails. The fact that Molière gave his protagonist not only ridiculous but also serious traits, and the unconventional way in which he undermined the rules of the dramatic genre, sparked a heated public debate. Taking up their arguments, Molière himself took a position on this with his one-act play The Critique of the School of Women .
action
The 42-year-old bachelor Arnolphe has decided to get married. What kept him from doing so so far was the fear of sharing the fate of the men "horned" by female infidelity, whose simplicity he publicly makes fun of. In order not to fall into this marriage trap himself, he has long since developed his own strategy. He adopted a 4-year-old farmer's child, let her grow up in monastic seclusion for 13 years and has now quartered the girl, raised to be innocent, ignorant and submissive, in one of his houses - isolated from the outside world and guarded by limited servants - around her, Agnès to make his wife.
The danger that Arnolphe, as a well-known mocker, could become a mockery himself hangs over him from the start - his friend Chrysalde warns him - and quickly becomes acute when the young Horace appears. He is the son of another friend who lives in the country: Oronte. Horace informs Arnolphe that he is coming soon and confides in him that he has fallen in love with Agnès, who is being held captive by a wealthy eccentric, Mr de la Souche. Arnolphe has recently acquired this title of nobility, something Horace knows nothing about. In the following, Arnolphe tries to keep Horace in his ignorance and confidence, in order to be informed about everything that has happened and planned and to take countermeasures on his part. It works. What he fails to do is to prevent the two from getting closer together and to convince Agnès, who is in love for the first time and ready to be married, that it is not Horace but he who deserves to be her husband.
Ultimately, however, everything seems to be turning out for the better for Arnolphe when Horace asks him to dissuade his father Oronte, who has now arrived, from marrying him off to the daughter of a certain Enrique. Assured of victory and unscrupulous, Arnolphe breaks his promise, but has to learn that the one Oronte has chosen is none other than Agnès. Her parents - Enrique and Chrysaldes's sister - had given the child to a farmer in an emergency and emigrated to America, from where Enrique has now returned alone. So the father's plans and the children's wishes happily coincide; For Arnolphe, in the end all that remains is consolation from his friend Chrysalde: “Instead of grieving, be pleased! / Fate is kind to you: / If you are so afraid of wearing a horn / Then there is only one piece of advice: stay single! "
Classification in Molière's life and work
Unlike his compatriots and contemporaries Corneille and Racine , whose tragedies were played in front of an educated Parisian audience, Molière trained himself by meeting the common people; unlike his fellow poets, he was also an actor on stage. For 13 years he was traveling with a traveling group in central and southern France before he returned to his birthplace Paris in 1658 - with them and as their leader. Favored by the social upheaval around 1660 and personally encouraged by the young, enjoyable King Louis XIV , Molière managed relatively quickly to assert himself and to establish himself - even against enemies whom he had already made himself through with his first great success The ridiculous precious (1659 ) made. Until the school of Men (1661), he remained primarily by the Italian dell'arte Commedia influenced type Comedy committed; The school of women marks the turning point for character comedy .
In February of the same year, 1662, the now 40-year-old Molière married. His wife, Armande Béjart , who is around 20 years younger than him , was one of the actresses in his troupe from childhood. Their origin, which has never been unequivocally clarified, gave rise to rumors and slander. Officially, she was considered the sister of Madeleine Béjart , Molière's longtime stage partner and companion, possibly also lover; however, it was generally assumed that she was Madeleine's illegitimate daughter. A pamphlet even claimed that Molière was Armande's father and accused him of incest . To counter this, Louis XIV was the godfather of the couple's first child. That didn't change the fact that Molière's marriage was anything but happy; Armande is said to have cheated on him the first night after the wedding.
The parallels to the initial constellation in the women's school are obvious. Added to this is the psychological factor: Molière was only too familiar with the state of mind of someone who was “horned” against his will, and all the more closely because he played the protagonist himself again - as was the case in the two immediately preceding plays, in which he addressed the subject of the school of Women approached. In Dom Garcie de Navarre there is a man to the excessive jealousy, and in the school of men to marry her two brothers, with varying success to the favor of their ward advertise; the one who fails is the curmudgeon nerd Sganarelle, unwilling to conform, who holds what he desires like a slave and who betrays him with a younger man.
analysis
main characters
With the School of Women , Molière took the step from the type comedy to the character comedy , and with the character of Arnolphe his “first lifelike and differentiated character”. The title of the comedy was based on the men's school that had been created a year earlier ; unlike some of the following great works by Molière ( Tartuffe or The Deceiver , The Misanthrope , The Miser , The Conceited Sick ), it reveals nothing about any trait of the protagonist, not even who it is. But both are clear from the start.
Arnolphe is obsessed. He is driven by his fear that marriage might make him equal to those he despises and mocks: the "horned" husbands who, in his opinion, do not want to see or see them being brought up by their wives and their lovers tolerate. That would be unbearable for him. The prudent Chrysalde reminds him that he is neglecting other, more highly valued virtues and that his whole morality is based only on this one. He advises him to be moderate, but that fails because of Amolphes hot temper. He is caught up in his passions and his obsession. What he had in mind was nothing less than the "domestication of eroticism". His “ macho - incestuous dream”, which for many years promised him the illusion that he could dispose of his ward at will, turns into a nightmare for him within a few days. What he absolutely wanted to avoid, he experiences and suffers before marriage. It is partly the jealousy kindled in him that drives him mad, partly the impotence in relation to what is happening and even more in relation to what he hears from Agnès. Her arguments used to justify what she has got against him and for Horace are of disarming simplicity and truth. She says that her marriage to him, Arnolphe, appears to her "gray on gray", whereas that to Horace "appears to be a pleasure"; Horace was "probably more skillful" to ignite their feelings, and "did not need so many words"; the "debt of thanks" that Arnolphe demands from her is less than he suspects, because the encounter with Horace made her aware that she was deliberately kept stupid: "I know from him what I lack in knowledge."
Arnolphe cannot do anything about that. He has to experience how she independently takes a foothold in a field that he wanted to withhold from her and beats him there with his own weapons, those of the mind. So he takes refuge in acts of desperation: First he longs to "beat her up", then he kneels down to beg for her love, and finally he wants to send her back to the monastery (which is only prevented by the Deus-ex-machina -like solution). The “school” that Arnolphe intended for his future wife thus fails, as he himself has to admit, at the first endurance test before the “school” that nature set in motion with the awakening of Agnès' love, “that both is an awakening of sensuality as well as spiritual independence ”. "Your natural reason triumphs over the unreasonable act of dressage."
genre
Corneille and Racine stand for tragedy in French classical music, Molière for comedy . This does not mean that Molière avoided tragedy, neither as a writer, nor as a director and actor; however, those he wrote himself are considered "unsuccessful," and those he performed were generally less successful than comedies, as was the case with his first and groundbreaking appearance before Louis XIV .
That Molière thought comedy could be made easier can not be inferred from his criticism of the women's school (with which he theoretically justified the women's school afterwards). On the contrary. This is illustrated by the comparison of tragedy and comedy which he put in the mouth of nobleman Dorante. In his opinion, the tragedy poet can "neglect the truth in favor of the wonderful" and only need "let the imagination run free" in order to "foster great feelings" and create "heroes". The comedy writer, on the other hand, not only has the by no means easy task of "making decent people laugh"; what he has to show is the “human being” drawn “according to nature” and afflicted with the errors “which we all call our own”; In addition, he is committed to the present, because if you do not recognize “contemporaries in the comic characters”, then he “tried in vain”.
It is obvious that Dorante's comparison is not congruent in all points with generally applicable definitions (then and now). It is equally evident that Molière was formulating his own program here as a mature comedy poet. It took him around four years to get there since his return to the French metropolis. What he brought with him from his 13 years of wandering was the ability "how to win over every audience"; What he immediately had at his disposal in Paris was a feeling for how to hit the nerve of his contemporaries ( Die ridiculous Preziöse ); what remained to be done was to arrange his comedies in such a way that there was enough space to show the characters as “people” - at least the main character.
This is done on the one hand through expansion (from one to five act), but on the other hand also through reduction and focus: In contrast to the men's school, for example, Molière does without a contrasting parallel plot in the women's school . In addition, there is a shift in perspective in favor of the protagonist, because the viewer never sees or experiences the encounters between the young lovers directly; he only ever learns of them through mediation and at the same time as Arnolphe. This trick increases the tension and prevents a privilege often granted to the comedy audience: superiority through knowledge advantage. But it also has an influence on how people feel. The identification with the lovers is diminished, and that with the protagonist increased - or at least partially made possible. This is because it is easy to become the emotional accomplice of Arnolphes' hopes and disappointments. But there are also rational reasons to show him respect, starting with the fact that he is able to show respect for Agnès' awakening. Not only they, he also develops in the course of the piece. Even the attitude to rule that breaks through in him with the decision to send her back to the monastery can be found forgivable, as the last refuge of a desperately lover and rejected. Only the unscrupulousness with which he makes a promise to Horace, who is seeking help and which he knows he will break, degrades him permanently and reduces his morality to the “reflex” typical of Molière's characters: egoism.
At the same time, this is the point from which the usual rules of comedy are fully set in motion. The audience gives its undivided sympathy to those who “should” find themselves happy, and they rise again above the “villain” whose intrigues, by whatever chance, turn against him and allow him to receive the “well-deserved reward”. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that Molière drew the protagonist of his first character comedy in such a way that the viewer certainly has reason to take him seriously, despite all the comedy and ridiculousness.
reception
The women's school had immediate and sustained success. At the same time, it triggered a heated public discussion, in which Molière also intervened. It concerned artistic aspects as well as the subject matter dealt with in the play. - Molière's novel comedy broke with certain conventions that had been expected from this genre, but also from his own plays, until then. It was criticized by authors such as Thomas Corneille and Donneau de Visé that the character portrayal had priority over the intrigue, that the characters lacked coherence and that tragedy and farce elements were mixed up. - Molière was attacked in terms of content for criticizing the “traditional view of conjugal love as a duty and enforced loyalty”. In addition to his literary competitors, this point called above all the church on the scene, whereas the king was one of the author's supporters.
Molière felt challenged to take a public position herself and responded with the play The Critique of the School of Women . The one-act prose comedy, premiered almost six months after the women's schooling , allows supporters and opponents - three women and three men who gradually arrive in a salon - to have their say. In addition to fundamental artistic questions relating to theater, the conversation also deals, for example, with the apparently much-discussed passage of text in which Agnès tortured Arnolphe, and with him the audience, in a particularly naive and innocent way, between jealous fear and curiosity with her answer to his question about what Horace “took” from her - a scene that caused offense and is explicitly described as “obscene” by one character, Molière also took up a word that was fashionable at the time. The accusation that too much is told and too little is done in his comedy he has a proponent defend with a taste and factual judgment, which at the same time bundles the special dramaturgy of the play in one sentence: “I like that a very clever man of a very naive girl he wants to marry and a youngster who is his rival who is always told everything down to the last detail and yet cannot prevent what should be. "To the level-headed and educated Dorante, who Molière put on as his mouthpiece, but did not play himself, it is ultimately reserved to counter the list of further "rule violations" both in detail and in principle. He is convinced that the approval of the audience takes precedence over formal compliance with the rules: "If the pieces that conform to the rules fail and the successful pieces don't adhere to the rules, then the rules are certainly not in order."
swell
Reference texts for Molière's school of women include the novella La précaution inutile by Paul Scarron , Thomas Corneille's comedy Le galant doublé and the short story collection Le piacevoli notti by Giovanni Straparola .
Adaptation
The opera buffa of the same name , with music by Rolf Liebermann and the libretto by Heinrich Strobel , premiered in 1955 in Louisville , Kentucky . Her plot essentially follows the literary model - with the difference that she introduces Molière as an additional stage character and lets appear in several roles, playing and commenting.
The opera was commissioned for the Salzburg Festival in 1957, but almost got canceled. The reason was that the New York performance following the premiere was panned by a critic from the Herald Tribune . Liebermann and Strobel then expanded their opera from one to three acts and translated it from English into German. In this version it came on stage in Salzburg, was adopted by numerous radio stations, was very well received by audiences and critics and became one of the most frequently performed musical comedies of the time.
expenditure
- L'école des femmes . Paris 1663.
- L'école des femmes . In: œuvres, editors Vivot and La Grange, 8 volumes. Paris 1682, volume 2.
- L'école des femmes . In: Œuvres complètes, editors E. Despois and P. Mesnard, 13 volumes. Paris 1876, volume 3.
- L'école des femmes . In: Œuvres complètes, edited by R. Jouanny, 2 volumes. Classique Garn, Paris 1961, volume 1.
- L'école des femmes . In: Œuvres complètes, editor G. Couton, 2 volumes. Pléiade, Paris 1971, volume 1.
- L'école des femmes . In: Œuvres complètes, editor G. Mogrédien, 4 volumes. Garnier-Flammarion, Paris 1975, volume 2.
- L'école des femmes . Folio, Paris 1985.
- L'école des femmes . Poche, Paris 1986.
Translations
- The school of the woman . Anonymous. Berlin 1752.
- The women's school . Translator: Wolf Graf Baudissin. In: Lustspiele, Volume 1. Leipzig 1865. Again in: Complete Works, Volume 1. Hamburg 1948.
- School of women . Translator: Ludwig Fulda. In: Meisterwerke, Volume 1. Stuttgart / Berlin 1905. Again in: Meisterwerke, Volume 1. Stuttgart 1929.
- The women's school . Translator: Rudolf Alexander Schröder. In: Works. Wiesbaden 1954. Again in: Works. Reclams Universal Library, Stuttgart 1962.
- The women's school . Translator: Hans Weigel. Zurich 1964. Again in: Komödien, Volume 2. detebe, Zurich 1975.
- The women's school . Translator: G. Fabricius and W. Widmer. In: Comedies. Munich 1970.
Web links
- The School for Wives at Project Gutenberg-DE
- Rainer Kohlmayer: The women's school . Discussion on the website of the VDB (Association of German Stage and Media Publishers).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f major works of French literature. Individual presentations and interpretations. Kindler Verlag, Munich, 1996. Volume 1, pp. 239/240.
- ^ A b Molière: The school of women. German translation by Ludwig Fulda. Quote from Project Gutenberg
- ^ Georg Hensel: Schedule. The actor guide from ancient times to the present. Econ & List Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1999. Volume 1, pp. 252/253.
- ^ A b c Rainer Kohlmayer: The school of women . On: Website of the VDB (Association of German Stage and Media Publishers). (accessed on May 21, 2014)
- ^ Georg Hensel: Schedule. The actor guide from ancient times to the present. Econ & List Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1999. Volume 1, p. 257.
- ^ Georg Hensel: Schedule. The actor guide from ancient times to the present. Econ & List Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1999. Volume 1, p. 251.
- ^ Molière: The Critique of the School of Women. German translation by Hans Weigel. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich, 2003. Quoted from: Program booklet The School of Women. Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, 2014, p. 35.
- ^ Georg Hensel: Schedule. The actor guide from ancient times to the present. Econ & List Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1999. Volume 1, p. 253.
- ^ Jean Anouilh : Speech in the Comédie Française , January 15, 1959. Quoted from: Georg Hensel: Schedule. The actor guide from ancient times to the present. Econ & List Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1999. Volume 1, p. 256.
- ^ Molière: The Critique of the School of Women. German translation by Hans Weigel. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich, 2003. Quoted from: Program booklet The School of Women. Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, 2014, p. 45.
- ^ Molière: The Critique of the School of Women. German translation by Hans Weigel. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich, 2003. Quoted from: Program booklet The School of Women. Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, 2014, p. 37.
- ↑ Renate Hellwig-Unruh: The opera is alive. Deutschlandradio Kultur, December 3, 2005 (accessed May 21, 2014)
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The flying doctor (1645) The jealousy of the smeared (1650) The careless or the inopportune time (1655) The annoyance of love (1656) The doctor in love (1658) The ridiculous precious (1659) Sganarell or the supposed cuckold ( 1660) · Don Garcia de Navarra or The Jealous Prince (1661) · The Husbands School (1661) · The Troublemakers (1661) · The Women’s School (1662) · The Jealousy of Gros-René (1663) · The Impromptu of Versailles (1663) · The criticism of the “School of Women” (1663) · The forced marriage (1664) · The Princess of Elis (1664) · Love as a doctor (1665) · Don Juan or The Stone Guest (1665) · The doctor in spite of himself (1666) · The Misanthrope (1666) · Melicerte (1666) · The comic pastoral poem (1667) · The Sicilian or love as a painter (1667) · George Dandin (1668) · Amphitryon (1668) · The miser ( 1668) · Tartuffe (1669) · Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (1669) · The great lovers (1670) · The citizen as nobleman (1670) · Psy ché (1671) The Countess of Escarbagnas (1671) Scapin's pranks (1671) The learned women (1672) The conceited sick person (1673)