Character Analysis
Frosine is the real wild card in this play. For the most part, she's totally self-interested and she has a lot of confidence in her ability to manipulate people into doing what she wants. When she tells La Flèche about her plan to finagle some money out of Harpagon by playing matchmaker, La Flèche bets her she'll never get a cent out of the old man. Frosine is more than up to the challenge, exclaiming, "Good Lord! As if I don't know how to twist men around my little finger!" (2.4.10). Little does she know that Harpagon isn't your average dude.
Harpagon might enjoy a compliment just as much as anyone else, but that doesn't mean he's going to open his wallet because someone tells him that he's pretty. Frosine throws everything she's got at the old man, mixing compliments with promises of love from Mariane, then peppering in little sob stories about her own life and asking for Harpagon's help with some legal fees: "To be honest sir, this lawsuit is a very serious matter for me […] If I lose I'm ruined" (2.5.60). For the record, we don't know if this lawsuit is real or a fabrication, because Frosine is a master manipulator and you can never take what she says as truth.
When Harpagon resists all of her entreaties, Frosine can only curse, "Devil take the skinflint! He withstood all my best efforts" (2.5.70). It looks like La Flèche was right. Frosine might be the best in the business when it comes to flattery and scamming money, but she meets her match in Harpagon.
Hmm. Maybe in The Miser: The Sequel, Frosine and Harpagon will end up together?
Frosine's Timeline