Who is Molire?
Molire He is known as an actor and a playwright. His real name is Jean Baptiste Poquelin and he was born in 1622 in Paris. He is also considered as one of the masters of comedy in Western literature. Molire came from a wealthy family, he also went to a prestigious school called "Clermont College" and spent thirteen years traveling as an actor. This experience helped him develop his comedic talent and start writing his own plays.Â
Some of Molire's famous works are Le Misanthrope, (The Misanthrope), L'Ecole des femmes (The School for Wives), Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), L'Avare ou l'cole du mensonge (The Miser), Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman).
Molire criticized power struggles and male-female relationships with humor. Some of his plays caused a scandal, such as "Tartuffe", which denounced the lies of certain religious figures and "Le Misanthrope", when Molire ridicules rich people and their affected manners.Â
Tartuffe is one of "French" neoclassical play, and it's unlike anything most theatergoers today have seen or imagined. This drama is more like a satire on religious hypocrisy, overall "Tartuffe" is about a man who worms his way into a family's affections by claiming to be religious.
During his youth Jean Baptiste was interested in theater. He founded his own company, L'Illustre Thtre, where he used the pseudonym "Molire". Unfortunately, he went bankrupt, his company was in debt and Molire even spent several hours in prison. Molire got tuberculosis while he was in prison because of his debts. One of the most famous stories about him is that he didn't die on stage while performing his play "Le Malade Imaginaire"(The Hypochondriac). Instead, he collapsed on stage, coughing and bleeding. He died in 17 February 1673 Paris, France.
