Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme

M. Jourdain’s sensible wife was, like her husband, born to a middle-class tradesman. She represents La Signora in commedia: a strong, opinionated woman who is the wife of Pantalone. She tries to save her husband from his own folly and her daughter from her husband’s ill-conceived ideas. Mme. Jourdain is unimpressed with the ostentatious nobility, unlike her husband, who is completely swept away by noblesse. She sees through Count Doranté, as well as the “experts” her husband hires. Count Doranté tries to win her over by inviting her to see the entertainments at court, but Mme. Jourdain scoffs at him, rather than allowing herself to become enamored with the idea of being elite. She also expresses in a passionate monologue that she prefers her daughter to marry someone who is not of nobility, because she knows that if she marries above her station, she will end up just like her father. She stands up for herself when she catches her husband wooing the marchioness, and has no qualms about confronting him. Mme. Jourdain is quick-witted and catches on right away when Cléonte and Covielle scheme to trick her husband, immediately offering her assistance to the ruse. At the end of the play, M. Jourdain makes it clear once more that he does not appreciate his intelligent wife by offering her up to any man who will have her.

In commedia, the desperate upper-class lovers are called the Innamorati. Lucile, the Innamorata, and her fiancé, Cléonte, are comically ridiculous in their overly-saccharine affections toward one another as they squabble over silly perceived slights. But in a way, Lucile’s character is the crux of what is at stake in this play. Of all her father’s erroneous behaviors, the largest is his refusal to allow Lucile to marry Cléonte. Not only does his decision try to deny her the man she loves, it sets Lucile on a path toward her father’s brand of foolishness. As Mme. Jourdain knows, Lucile might marry an upper-class man and even, as her father dreams, become a marchioness, but she would never be fully accepted: the rest of the nobility would look for the slightest flaws as an excuse to laugh at her. Like her mother, she stands strong, refusing to marry anyone but Cléonte (or Cléonte in disguise). When she agrees to marry the so-called “son of the Grand Turk,” her father praises her for her obedience. Lucile recognizes how ridiculous her father looks in his various outfits, and is not socially ambitious.

The crafty maid, or the Colombina in commedia, is romantically involved with the clever servant character (Arlecchino), who in this play is Covielle, Cléonte’s valet. Nicole works for the Jourdain family, and sees M. Jourdain for his silliness. The role of the cunning servants is to thwart an idiotic master and arrange fate on behalf of a deserving one. In this case, Nicole works specifically on behalf of Mme. Jourdain to expose M. Jourdain’s attempted infidelity. Nicole is spirited and feisty, taking the risk to listen in on M. Jourdain’s conversation to discover his plan to send Mme. Jourdain away for the evening to entertain a woman. She also brashly laughs at M. Jourdain’s ridiculous appearance even though he commands her to stop. Her recognition of M. Jourdain’s foolishness demonstrates that his ignorance about fashion and the ways of nobility are a result of his own ego and lack of awareness, rather than his upbringing outside of the lower class.

Lucile’s paramour and the Innamorato, Cléonte is both comically foolish in love and a noble, principled young man. His first appearance onstage, in which he and his valet, Covielle, are in a huff over the incident in which Lucile and Nicole ignored them, makes him seem silly and overly emotional. When Lucile easily manipulates him into listening to her explanation, she shows herself, like most of the women in commedia couples, to be the clever half of the pairing. However, Cléonte may be foolish in love, but he also demonstrates gallantry and decency. When M. Jourdain asks if he is a gentleman, he responds by explaining why he is worthy, but that he is not a man with social ambition. His parents had status, he is well-regarded, and he served in the military, but Cléonte asserts that the title of “gentleman” is a false title that men adopt to puff themselves up. His earnestness does not make him clever; it would have been simpler, as Covielle points out, to indulge M. Jourdain’s delusions, but he opts for honesty and integrity, even though M. Jourdain responds by declining Cléonte’s request to marry Lucile. Cléonte does, however, show that he is daring and adaptable by participating in Covielle’s ruse. He may not be cunning enough to come up with such a plan, but he is wise enough to trust in Covielle’s wiliness.

Covielle is Cléonte’s valet and the Arlecchino character, who is the trickster servant. Arlecchino is resourceful and spry, as evidenced by Covielle’s creative and convincing portrayal of a Turkish servant. He is much more astute than his master, as evidenced when Nicole and Lucile charm them into forgiving them and Cléonte responds by noting, “how easily one allows himself to be persuaded by the people he loves!” and Covielle exclaims, “How easily we are manipulated by these blasted minxes!” (78).Covielle takes great risk to scheme and plot on behalf of his master. He takes the leading role in the performance for M. Jourdain, not only as the servant who orchestrates everything, but as the translator for Cléonte, who only speaks in faux Turkish. As the translator, Covielle is responsible not only for his own dialogue, but for his master’s. At the end of the play, Covielle is rewarded when M. Jourdain, almost as an afterthought, decides to marry Nicole to the son of the Grand Turk’s servant.

Count Doranté is the member of the nobility who M. Jourdain latches onto, desperate to see him as a friend because the count represents everything that M. Jourdain believes he wants to be. However, the count is clearly taking advantage

of M. Jourdain. While M. Jourdain has money but no title, Doranté has a title but seems to have no financial resources. He easily tricks M. Jourdain into “lending” him money that he never repays. Although Mme. Jourdain sees Doranté as a manipulative parasite, M. Jourdain prefers to believe that the count’s noble title makes him above reproach. Doranté uses M. Jourdain’s resources to court Dorimène by lying and pretending that Dorimène is actually interested in M. Jourdain. Of course, M. Jourdain’s pompousness and superficiality makes the trick seem justifiable. Doranté is shrewd in his duplicity, managing to keep M. Jourdain from discovering that Dorimène is not there to see him and to keep Dorimène from realizing that M. Jourdain believes that she is. He serves as a commentary on the noble class, showing that despite M. Jourdain’s mistaken impressions, a title does not equal worthiness. In the end, however, he demonstrates that he places his loyalty in those who deserve it, rather than those who pay for it by watching Covielle’s ruse and assisting Cléonte in fooling M. Jourdain.

Throughout the play, Dorimène remains unaware of the trickery that Doranté has employed in order to court her. She is a widow, which grants her a measure of independence that is not afforded an unmarried girl in her father’s house or a married woman with a living husband. At first she is not interested in marriage at all, which is a prudent choice for a woman in her position. Dorimène has the rank of marchioness, which is the title of a wife or widow of a marquis. She also presumably has control over her own finances, and is no longer burdened with the social expectation of virginity. Once married, she will be again under the control of a husband. She only agrees to go to the Jourdain’s home after much wheedling from Doranté. Although Doranté uses her in his scheme to maintain his lucrative friendship with M. Jourdain, Dorimène is innocent in the plot. When an angry, jealous Mme. Jourdain catches her at dinner with M. Jourdain and Doranté, Dorimène makes it clear that she has not even considered allowing M. Jourdain to pursue her romantically and has no interest in a married man. In the end, she agrees to marry Doranté, although she is clearly unaware that he has been spending M. Jourdain’s money, and not his own.