ECOLE DES FEMMES -L' -N.E. [Mass Market Paperback]

 

 

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"L' 'cole des femmes" is a very well-known comedy written by Moli're (1622-1673) in 1662. At first sight, it appears to be the epitome of the classical comedy of mistakes. Despite that, this short play also deals with a topic that was highly controversial during Moli're's life, women's education. The author of this book seamlessly incorporates that theme into the plot, making the reader reflect on it even without realizing he is doing that.

To start with, I would like to outline the plot of "L' 'cole des femmes". It is simple, but shows that a play doesn't need to be too complicated in order to entertain. The main character is Arnolphe, an old man who having had lots of affairs with married women, distrust women in general. The strange thing is that in spite of that Arnolphe still wants to get married, provided (of course) that he can find a woman he can trust with his honour. After much pondering, he finds a seemingly perfect solution for his problem: to marry a woman without too much education, so she won't know how to deceive him ("'pouser une sotte est pour n'etre point sot"). According to Arnolphe, a dumb woman is a honest woman.

Having arrived to that conclusion, he decides to take a young orphan, Agn's, under his wing. Arnolphe educates Agn's according to his ideas: not too much studying, a lot of sewing and praying. The years go by, and Agn's grows into a beautiful but profoundly ignorant young woman. Arnolphe is ready to marry her, but something unexpected happens: a new character appears. That character is Horace, a young and handsome man who falls madly in love with Agn's and begins to court her, to Arnolphe's desperation and Agn's' happiness.

What will happen?. Well, you need to read "L' 'cole des femmes" in order to know that. What I can tell you, though, is that I really enjoyed reading this play, notwithstanding the fact that there were some words that are no longer used in modern French. That made reading this play a little bit more difficult, although there was an abundance of footpages that explain the meaning of those words perfectly well, something that clarified my doubts. What is more, this edition includes a chronology of Moli're's life, and several interesting studies regarding this play, something that helps to reader to understand "L' 'cole des femmes", and the context in which it was written.

On the whole, I think that "L' 'cole des femmes" is worth the time and effort of reading it. Moli're wrote a perfectly good comedy, but he also took a stand regarding what kind of education should be given to women. He did that throughout the story, and also in a phrase said by one of the secondary characters, who says that "Une femme d'esprit peut trahir son devoir; mais il faut, pour le moins, qu'elle ose le vouloir; et la stupide au sien peut manquer d`ordinaire sans en avoir l`envie, et sans penser le faire". I completely agree with that, and I recommend this book as a play to enjoy, but also as a message to ponder...

Belen Alcat

I'm sorry to say that this Moliere play was dissapointing. Not only was it plain boring, yet it was very predictable. Moliere's sense of humor in this book let me down compared to other books such as L'AVARE and LES PRECIEUSES RIDICULES, which I highly recommend to read.

I read this play for a French Lit. class and enjoyed Moliere's sense of humor. I laughed out loud as I watched everyone's plans go horribly awry. A great classic social commentary. It centers around one man's obsessive fear of cuckoldry (when a man's wife cheats on him), and the extremes to which he goes to avoid this. He practically emprisons a girl/young woman so that she can be raised properly and will make a faithful and obedient wife when she finally matures. The only problem for me was that it has a lot of references and vocabulary which are out of date and hard for a non-(native)French speaker to understand.

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