The Miser Themes

It's no shocker that the number one theme in a play called The Miser is greed. Nearly everything that comes out of the character Harpagon's mouth in this play seems to warn us against the dangers o...

Many plays from the 17th and 18th centuries just love manipulation. Plays from this era thrive on situations where half of the characters are in the dark and half are privy to important information...

Here’s a recipe for a play that stays popular for centuries: Take two siblings who both want to marry the people they love. Add a d-bag of a father. Mix in the father's plot to have his daughter...

Since they are both financially dependent on Harpagon, both Cléante and Élise basically have no freedom. If Harpagon were willing to spare them only a slight portion of his wealth, they'd have so...

Harpagon doesn't just love money. He's obsessed with it. You might even say that he's coo-coo for money the way that Sonny is coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs. He's so obsessed with his money, in fact, that...

Harpagon makes it clear early in The Miser that, for him, money always comes before family. His children want more money to live on, but he won't give it. His children also want to marry the people...

In The Miser it's no secret to the people of Paris that Harpagon is an old miser who is always looking for a way to save a little bit of money, no matter how ridiculous he may seem. When a loyal s...

Harpagon isn't exactly what you'd call a people person. In fact, he's probably the most unpleasant human being that anyone in The Miser has ever met. And as you can imagine, this tends to isolate H...