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45 pages 1 hour read

Moliere

The Imaginary Invalid

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1673

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Important Quotes

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“Some dummies believe all your rot, they’re born every minute. But the dimmest, the worst of the lot is on stage now. It’s our play, and he’s in it.”


(Alternative Prologue, Page 6)

In the play’s Alternate Prologue, described in the text as the “shepherdess’s lament” (6), the poetic structure of her song is undermined by her ridiculing words. The audience isn’t asked to view Argan impartially and decide if he’s right. Rather, the shepherdess states up front that he is the biggest “fool” of all the “fools.”

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“These two…medicos, Florid and Purgeon, are having a high old time with you. They’re making mincemeat out of you. I’d like to know exactly what sort of illness it is that needs so many medications.”


(Act I, Page 11)

Toinette doesn’t have any more deference or respect for Argan than the shepherdess, and when she shows it, she is pretending. But Toinette voices early in the play the question that Argan avoids answering because he has no answer. The doctors inundate him with invasive and even harmful treatments, but they cannot name his ailment. This is both because Argan has no ailment and because a diagnosis would require treating for a cure. A cure would mean ending their stream of easy income.

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“Ah, yes, well, these things aren’t always what they seem. With some people, real love and make-believe look the same. I’ve certainly seen some dab-hands in my time.”


(Act I, Page 14)

Angélique has made the mistake of asking Toinette whether she thinks Cléante truly loves her, and Toinette gives her a realistic answer instead of indulging her romantic fantasies. This scene subverts the common trope in romantic plotlines in which the young ingénue confides in her maid that she has fallen in love with a man her parents won’t allow her to marry. Toinette’s warnings aren’t about her father’s wrath or destroying her family; rather, she cautions that men are often liars. She undermines the romantic ideal.

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“Reasons? You know how I’m suffering. Every illness in the book. I need a doctor for a son-in-law. Even better if he’s from a medical family. That way I can have a team of specialists permanently on call. I’ll have a whole dispensary available day and night as well…absolutely essential if I’m to turn the corner.”


(Act I, Page 18)

Argan still avoids the question as to what specific ailment afflicts him, even though a diagnosis ought to reasonably precede the treatment. He doesn’t dream of a team of specialists to finally find the right treatment to cure him. He dreams of many doctors who will give him many treatments without draining his bank account. Since this arrangement doesn’t seem financially beneficial to the doctors who sponge off him, the proposal of the arranged marriage suggests that Angélique is a commodity with at least equal value to a lifetime supply of medical treatment. This implies that her fiancé-to-be is insufferable and unmarriageable, which turns out to be the case.

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“He must have polished off a lot of patients to make that kind of money.”


(Act I, Page 19)

When Argan brags to Toinette about Dr. Purgeon’s wealth, which would eventually be inherited by Angélique and Thomas’s children, Toinette points out the unpleasant truth that Dr. Purgeon earns his money on the same nickel-and-dime treatments and enemas that he siphons money from Argan to finance. Since doctors aren’t typically rich, he’s probably extracting a plethora of fees from a lot of patients. The phrase “polished off” could mean that they died, or perhaps it refers to the polishing of their colons through excessive enemas.

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“But, poppet, the servant without some sort of shortcoming hasn’t been invented. Some are bad, and others are not so bad, and you have to put up with it.”


(Act I, Page 24)

Béline’s defense of Toinette is humorous, because the smart and impudent servant is a common character trope in comedy, and it seems unrealistic that wealthy estate owners with staffs of servants would continue to employ someone who makes them frustrated and angry all the time. Béline secretly wants Toinette around because she pretends to be her ally, but her comment addresses all-too-crafty servants by asserting that there is simply no other kind.

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“Tears aren’t necessary, we haven’t reached that stage yet.”


(Act I, Page 28)

Mr. Goodfellow—the translator’s interpretation of Bonnefoi—is the notary Béline keeps on hand for the moment when she successfully manipulates Argan into believing that giving Béline control of his fortune is his own idea. Despite his warm and friendly name, Mr. Goodfellow is humorless and unemotional. His response to Béline’s tears at the mention of Argan’s eventual death betrays the likelihood that Béline planned every stage of her plot, down to the right gestures and shows of emotion. Mr. Goodfellow doesn’t understand her improvised tears and reminds her that it isn’t time to cry yet.

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“He can do what he likes with his money, I really don’t care. Just so long as he doesn’t tell me who to marry…But that’s exactly what he is doing, Toinette. It’s dreadful.”


(Act I, Page 30)

The irony of Béline’s adversarial relationship with Angélique, which fuels Argan’s desire to send her to a convent and then marry her off instead, is that Angélique doesn’t care about her father’s money. As a naive young girl who is in love for the first time, Angélique would willingly give up any claim to her father’s money in exchange for permission to marry this man she met only once. This shows the absurdity of the way romantic love is portrayed in plays and poetry.

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“Ah! You young men, you’re all the same. Faithful for just one day!”


(First Interlude, Page 32)

An old woman interrupts Punchinello’s love serenade, which is presumably targeted at a younger and more impressionable woman. She expresses her disdain for the type of whirlwind romance that Angélique seeks with Cléante, casting the pall of mundane reality over the romanticizing of love.

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“He may eat, drink, walk and sleep like anyone else. But don’t be fooled, he’s ill.”


(Act II, Page 40)

Toinette is sardonically reproaching Cléante for making the mistake of saying that Argan looks well. Although Argan doesn’t catch her sarcasm, she is pointing out that his supposed illness doesn’t manifest in any symptoms or affect his life or abilities in any way. The only signs of his illness are the treatments he receives.

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“Sir, I must swallow my words and go back on what I was saying yesterday. I’m now entirely on your side. Messrs. Lillicrap father and son have just arrived. You won’t be so much losing a daughter as gaining a…You’re about to see before you the most gorgeous, the wittiest young man you’ve ever clapped eyes on. He only had to speak half a sentence and I was mesmerized! What a specimen! I almost fainted. Your daughter won’t know what hit her.”


(Act II, Page 42)

Toinette’s dry sense of humor often flies over the heads of the other characters, who take themselves much more seriously. Although Toinette does seem to have affection for the family, and particularly for Angélique, she gleefully anticipates the chaotic and uncomfortable scene that is about to occur. Thomas has none of the qualities Toinette describes. Despite her enjoyment, Toinette will still use all her resources to keep Angélique from being forced to marry the dull, pompous young man who is about to enter the room.

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DR. LILLICRAP: What’s so irritating about upper-class patients is that whenever they fall ill, they insist that their doctors get them well again.

TOINETTE: That really takes the biscuit! Who do they think they are, demanding that you actually cure them? No, your job is to write prescriptions and collect your fees; theirs is to get better if they can. That’s the proper division of labor.”


(Act II, Pages 48-49)

Without irony, Dr. Lillicrap articulates exactly why his practice of medicine is a scam, and he doesn’t detect the irony in Toinette’s response when she agrees with him. His aristocratic patients demand to be cured because they see a doctor as an employee who is paid to provide a service. A bourgeois patient like Argan looks up to his doctor as a superior. Therefore, his doctors can get away with stringing him along with an endless stream of worthless and expensive cures.

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“ARGAN: Yes, quite, we heard you the first time. This little play sets a very bad example. The shepherd Tircis is impertinent, and that Phyllis lacks heart, she shows none of the normal care and consideration due to a father. Show me that bit of paper. Aha, now where exactly do I find the words you were singing? All I can see here are musical notes.

CLÉANTE: But surely you know, sir, that new system of writing words into the music has just been invented.”


(Act II, Page 53)

Argan once again demonstrates his almost fatal gullibility. He is able to recognize that the song presents circumstances that are similar to their own, but he doesn’t question whether this newly appeared music teacher who admits that he does not sing well might be more than a music teacher. He also accepts the ridiculous lie that lyrics can be transcribed as musical notes. Argan is so certain that his understanding of his daughter’s duty to him is correct that he accepts at face value that she will follow it.

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“It may have been easy for you, sir, but, well, your own merits don’t quite, well, leap out and hit one in the face, at least not mine.”


(Act II, Page 55)

Throughout the play, Angélique has been attempting to assert her own agency and protect her own ability to give or deny consent. Her father believes that she has a duty to marry the one he chooses for her, archaically viewing his daughter as property. Thomas, who is of the younger generation like Angélique, supports his father’s archaic views because they benefit him. Angélique later describes her hatred for Thomas, but she is trying to relay her distaste delicately. She is in a precarious situation because he just matter-of-factly declared that his desire for her is all that is needed for the wedding to proceed.

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“THOMAS: If you read classical literature, you’ll find that the custom was to take intended brides away from their fathers’ houses by force, so as to give the impression that they weren’t falling into some man’s arms by choice.

ANGÉLIQUE: Ancient writers are ancient. We belong to our own times. Now. We don’t need to play these silly games. When marriage is an attractive prospect, we know perfectly well how to say yes. Why put pressure on us? There’s no need. Be patient for a while. If you love me, you should want what I want.”


(Act II, Page 55)

Thomas’s understanding of love is that when he wants something, he takes it. The taking of brides he references wasn’t a clever way for women to uphold the coy illusion of reluctance. It was kidnap and rape. Angélique is trying to persuade him that love means seeing her as a person who can make her own choices, but he is willing to entertain that definition only if her choices align with his wishes.

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“A daughter’s duty goes only so far, madame. There are some demands which can simply not be met.”


(Act II, Page 56)

Béline claims that when she was young, obeying her father wasn’t optional, but Béline’s only real concern is whether Argan’s daughters will be around to stop her from taking his fortune. She is seeking agency for herself as well, and her disdain for Argan suggests that she may have been like Angélique once and been coerced into a marriage. Angélique is unwilling to extend the notion of duty to marrying a man she hates.

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“Everyone has their individual reasons for marrying. For me, I want to marry a man I can love truly and properly for the rest of my life. Yes, I confess, I want to choose him myself, with great care. Other women may look to marriage as an escape from their parents. All they want is freedom to do exactly as they please. There are some women, madame, who consider marriage solely in terms of financial gain. They marry one old wreck after another just to gather in their inheritances. As matter-of-fact as that. No irrelevances like feelings. Money, just money makes their world go around.”


(Act II, Page 57)

Angélique demonstrates that she is not as naive as she seems. She has fallen in love quickly and romanticized the idea of marrying Cléante, but she very much understands the politics of marriage. She is fully aware of Béline’s intentions to take her father’s fortune, and she hints that Béline’s marriage to Argan is only one in a series of marriages to rich old men. Angélique already expressed that she doesn’t care about her father’s money, but she subtly critiques Béline to make her back down about Angélique’s choice to marry.

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“Is this how you obey and respect your father?”


(Act II, Page 61)

Argan repeatedly uses the notions of obedience and respect to coerce his daughters into feeling obligated to act against their own will. Angélique has matured enough to recognize that obedience and respect to her father’s wishes must have a limit. As she grows into her own person, she isn’t willing to sacrifice her entire life for the sake of obedience. Louison, however, is still a child, and she is, therefore, much easier to manipulate. Although her first obligation ought to be to her sister, to whom she swore secrecy, her father taught her that she must always tell him everything.

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“Ah, children aren’t children any more. What a business! I haven’t been able to concentrate on my illness in all this. I’m drained.”


(Act II, Page 64)

Although Louison swears that she is telling Argan the entire truth, he is convinced that she is still hiding something about what she saw between her sister and Cléante. He attempts to leave her with a guilty conscience and equates the obedience he demands from both of his daughters with being a loyal child. His “illness” seems to disappear while he is too preoccupied to focus on it.

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“In my family, I’ll only tolerate people I need.”


(Act III, Page 71)

Earlier in the play, Béline asserts that Argan will never send his daughters to a convent because, underneath his insistence on their obedience, he is soft-hearted where they are concerned. His words, however, reveal that he sees family as utilitarian and contradict earlier references to his love for them. He sees Angélique’s resistance as a personal insult and a sign of her indifference toward his medical well-being. When he realizes later that Angélique truly loves him, his perspective changes.

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“Between you, me and the bedpost, I’d say that medicine is one of the daftest bits of nonsense ever dreamt up by humankind. Scientific facts? Mumbo-jumbo! It’s ridiculous to think one person can cure another. […] Human beings are too complex and enigmatic. We may want to delude ourselves, but we understand precious little. Nature didn’t intend us to.”


(Act III, Page 72)

Béralde’s assertions sound absurd from a 21st-century perspective, but medicine in the 17th century was so unrefined that for one person to claim the ability to cure another was seen as arrogant. In a contemporary production, this statement would frame Béralde as the “fool”; in context, he is the voice of reason.

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“What they’re expert at is frightening us. Latin and Greek words as long as a waiting-list. Always promises, never results.”


(Act III, Page 73)

Béralde describes the way doctors convinced Argan that he is sick for their own personal gain. With the state of medicine in the 17th century, doctors know very little about the workings of internal organs. They don’t touch bodies or administer treatments. Those tasks are relegated to those of lower rank. Doctors like Purgeon and Lillicrap use the Latin and Greek terms in their medical training to confound patients like Argan. Out of fear, he pays for and endures treatment after treatment. He is never healed because he wasn’t sick in the first place.

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“Most people die of cures, not illnesses.”


(Act III, Page 74)

Whether this claim by Béralde is literally true or not, the relentless ministration of worthless and primitive cures like bloodletting or excessive enemas in the 17th century was far more dangerous than curative. Ultimately, these doctors are not equipped to cure, and most patients are better off resting and hoping for the body to heal itself.

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“Medicine’s not the right subject for a night out at the theatre.”


(Act III, Page 75)

Argan is appalled that Molière had the audacity to write a play that calls doctors and medicine into question. This conversation is full of irony since Argan’s existence is within the world of such a play, and the original Argan was played by Molière himself. Beyond the inside joke and self-deprecating humor, Molière addresses the inherent question of whether he is qualified to address the field of medicine. Although Molière was not a doctor, he was certainly a patient. His disappointment in doctors and their inability to help him emerges as a theme in multiple plays but especially in this one—the play he performed while dying.

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“Sometimes I don’t have the faintest idea how you see the world. Are you wearing the right glasses?”


(Act III, Page 81)

Béralde spends the majority of the third act trying to convince his brother that he isn’t sick and that the doctors are scamming him for money. When Béralde convinces Argan to refuse an enema treatment, Dr. Purgeon’s malicious response to having his authority questioned is an angry tantrum that ends in his cursing Argan with the hope that he will wither and die within a week. Béralde sees this outburst as proof for skeptics, but Argan is terrified. Béralde can’t wrap his mind around the unquestioning deference to doctors that shapes them into gods.

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