Bergson’s “Laughter.” Compared with Moliere’s - Tartuffe.

Bergson’s “Laughter.” Compared with Moliere’s - Tartuffe.

Theories of Comedy and Tragedy 05-464-01

After reading Moliere’s Tartuffe and Bergson’s “Laughter” (a general approach to the criticism of comedy), I believe that the general observations of the nature of comedy in “Laughter” apply to Tartuffe. Bergson’s ideas realize to a certain extent why laughter is illuminated from a comedy. These ideas are attached to many of the techniques used in Moliere’s Tartuffe.

The real name of Moliere was Jean Baptiste Poquelin. Poqulin got involved with an acting troupe called Illustre Theatre which he owned as a collaboration with the Bejart family. The ownship of the theatre house influenced the creation of his pen name “Moliere” which stands for “undying glory”. Moliere wrote about thirty-two plays and held other positions like actor, stage director and a dramatic theoretician. In 1658 his acting troupe became the official provider of entertainment for Louis XIV (Moore 15).

The strongest influence on Moliere’s theater came from the Italian Commedia Dell�

Another scene that may be looked at as serious, occurs when Orgon tells Mariane, his daughter, that she has to marry Tartuffe, instead of the one she loves, Valere. Mariane loathes Tartuffe, and this shows extreme tyranny on Orgon’s part. Again the characters should be played out as being ridiculous in order to look at Mariane’s fate with indifference. Mariane keeps saying that she will kill herself, which makes her character appear prepostorous. Later in the play Tartuffe is sentenced by the king into the dungeon, where one is usually tortured to death. If this scene is played seriously, people may have pity for Tartuffe, which will ruin the comic effect. Once again it is up to the director to make the character appear ridiculous in order for the audience to be indifferent to Tartuffe’s fate. For example, if Tartuffe cried for his life in an exagerated manner the scene would have more of a comic effect. Moliere didn’t write any direction of what Tartuffe should do, so the scene is left to the director’s interpretation.

The third observation that Bergson noted from “Laughter” was that the comic should appeal to one’s intellect while connecting with other people’s intellects. Comedy is only felt amidst the company of others in a closed circle. The humor would not be felt if you were isolated from others. Our laughter is always the laughter of a group that can relate to the material. One common example are plays that have been translated to another language. They are different versions of the play because some of the comic effects in one language may not work in another language. With each language there is a whole new set of different customs and ideas that are only specific to that language. And even with that group there are subgroups of different social statuses and backgrounds that relate to different things. “Laughter must answer to certain requirements of life in common” (Bergson 330).

Moliere’s Tartuffe, is the story of a specific social group, an upper middle class family. Already the boundaries are set for an upper middle class audience that can relate to the husband losing his ground and becoming the tyrant of the family. The audiences are the product of Moliere’s culture and his time, and when comedic experiences are observed in the theatre a unique response of laughter is displayed (Moore 18). The repetition of the playwright’s words, performance after performance may not have that same impact of laughter over time because of the world’s changing social status, cultures and ideas. The very fact that I’m reading an English version of Tartuffe instead of the original French version shows that I’m not receiving the full original comic effect. I’m in a different group that relates to modern times within an English language and American culture. In order for someone like me to find the play funny the original words from the French version would have to change in order to still be funny in the English language and American culture and the comedy would have to match the modern wit of today.

In “Laughter” Bergson seized upon three observations that are the reasons why people laugh at a comedy. The first observation is that the comic makes sure that any of his or her content relates to humanity in order for it to be funny. A tree, for example, does not bring upon laughter because of its lack of human significance. It does not resemble a human nor is created by a human. An animal can resemble a human, which will make it funny, for example, a monkey sucking on a baby’s bottle. Other things that are funny and have human significance are inanimate objects created by humans, for example, a pencil that has pictures of cartoon figures on it.

I found that, since Moliere’s major influence was the Italian Commedia Dell’Arte troupes, that he used stock characters with specific names, that were common in Commedia style, where each character resemble

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