The Miser Analysis

The script to The Miser never actually describes the setting of this play. All it tells us is that it is set in the city of Paris. And judging by the play's action, everything happens in the house...

Since this is a play without a narrator, we the audience take on the role of the third-person observer. We're also omniscient observers because we get to hear what characters are thinking when they...

By definition, a traditional comedy doesn't have to be super silly. But this comedy definitely is.The Miser has one of the most traditional markers of comedy: a happy ending. The evil villain is ov...

As the word hyperbolic suggests, this play is filled with a ton of hyperbole, most of it used by the character Harpagon. When he finds out his precious money-box is missing at the end of Act 4, for...

For something that's over 300 years old, The Miser is written in a very readable, easy-to-understand way. The play contains none of the dense poetic speeches you'll find in Shakespeare, but instead...

At its core, this play is about the sin of being a selfish miser. Hence the title, The Miser. This English title is translated from Molière's French title for the play, L'avare. But the words tran...

Anselme: Seigneur Harpagon, you must forgive him for lying.Harpagon: Will you pay the Officer then?Anselme: So be it. But now let us go and share our joy with your mother.Harpagon: And I'll go and...

As far as 17th-century literature is concerned, this is about as accessible as it gets. Sure, some of the expressions are dated and there are a lot of exclamations that start with 'Ah!' But people...

Marriage PlotsAs the play opens, we learn that the siblings Élise and Cléante both want to marry people they love. Not a situation that's hard to sympathize with, right? The only thing standing i...

Many classic comedies begin by showing us a "villain" character: the jerko who creates a lot of unhappiness for the other characters, and especially for the hero. Harpagon is our Villain-with-a-cap...

Siblings Cléante and Élise have a problem. Their father is a stingy old miser who keeps them trapped under his thumb by giving them only a very little money to live on. On top of that, both Cléa...

Molière liked to cast himself in his own plays. In The Miser, for example, he was the original guy that played Harpagon. (Source.) While acting in one of his own plays, Molière was seized by a ha...

This play is not steamy: steamless, no steamo. The closest it ever comes to suggesting something sexual is when Harpagon asks Valère if he is "intimately" aware with his casket of money, and Valè...