Study sheet: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme

📋 Course Outline

1. Work Presentation
2. Characters and Social Roles
3. Acts I and II: Exploitation
4. Act III: Ambition and Deception
5. Act IV: The Turkish Ceremony
6. Act V: Comic Resolution

📖 1. Work Presentation

📝 Essential Points

• Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is a comedy-ballet by Molière, also known as Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, published in 1670 during the seventeenth century. — Molière (ou Jean-Baptiste Poquelin)

📖 2. Characters and Social Roles

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Mr Jourdain : a bourgeois who wishes to become a gentleman

★ Must-know

• Lucile is the daughter of the Jourdains, Cléonte loves her, and Covielle is Cléonte’s valet.

Further detail

• Mme Jourdain is Mr Jourdain’s wife, and she considers her husband’s behavior ridiculous.

• Dorante is a count and Dorimène’s lover, while Nicole is the Jourdains’ servant.

• The music, dance, arms, philosophy, and tailoring masters teach Mr Jourdain how to become a supposedly proper gentleman, assisted respectively by a student or a boy where the source specifies it.

💡 Memory Hook

M. Jourdain seeks nobility, while his household sees the absurdity of that ambition.

📖 3. Acts I and II: Exploitation

★ Must-know

• In Act I, the music and dance masters flatter Mr Jourdain in public for generous payments while mocking his artistic ignorance in private.

• In Act I, Mr Jourdain shows the teachers his ridiculous new clothes and discusses his lessons because he wants to rise in high society.

• In Act II, the music, dance, and arms masters quarrel violently over which discipline is the noblest while Mr Jourdain watches in confusion.

• During the philosophy lesson, Mr Jourdain asks for help writing a love letter to a great lady, producing comic exchanges about spelling and vowels.

Further detail

• Mr Jourdain brings in the philosophy master to restore peace, but the lesson quickly becomes another settling of accounts among the teachers.

💡 Memory Hook

Jourdain’s ambition → flattery, exploitation, and quarrels among the teachers.

📖 4. Act III: Ambition and Deception

★ Must-know

• In Act III, the tailor delivers an extravagant and ridiculous outfit that costs Mr Jourdain a great deal of money, while the valets hypocritically praise it to obtain more money.

• Mr Jourdain announces to Nicole and Mme Jourdain that he loves the marquise Dorimène and wants to ennoble her.

• Dorante repeatedly borrows money from Mr Jourdain, claims to court Dorimène for him, and actually uses Jourdain’s money to court her himself and pay his own debts.

Further detail

• Nicole and Mme Jourdain try to bring Mr Jourdain back to reason by mocking his obsession with nobility and his extravagant spending.

💡 Memory Hook

Jourdain’s social and romantic ambition → extravagant spending and Dorante’s manipulation.

📖 5. Act IV: The Turkish Ceremony

★ Must-know

• In Act IV, Mr Jourdain pays for a sumptuous meal for Dorimène and Dorante, while Mme Jourdain watches angrily and music and dance interludes accompany the feast.

• During the Turkish ceremony, Covielle disguises himself as the son of the Grand Turk and arrives with a retinue to ennoble Mr Jourdain.

• Completely deceived, Mr Jourdain accepts the ridiculous title of Mamamouchi and participates in an absurd and burlesque ritual.

Further detail

• The Turkish disguise allows Cléonte to ask for Lucile’s hand while appearing under the new identity connected to the ceremony.

💡 Memory Hook

Feast → disguise → Mamamouchi ceremony → Cléonte’s marriage plan.

📖 6. Act V: Comic Resolution

★ Must-know

• The planned marriages are arranged, especially the marriage of Lucile and Cléonte, who remains disguised as the son of the Grand Turk.

• The comedy ends with everyone celebrating the great deception through joy and music while Mr Jourdain remains convinced that he has achieved a false social ascent.

Further detail

• In Act V, Mme Jourdain first rejects the Turkish masquerade, then gives way when everyone plays along with the appearances.

💡 Memory Hook

The others understand the deception, whereas M. Jourdain remains convinced of his elevation.