The Misanthrope's Mean

The Misanthrope’s Mean

There are many questions that plague the human mind as one attempts to go about one’s day. These can range anywhere from the meaning and origin of life itself to questions of destiny and the future to inquiries of what method of cooking toast is most effective. However, one question that I often find plaguing my own consciousness is the question of how best to live. How is a human supposed to conduct themselves in relation to other humans when they are trying to live morally? What type of attitude should be adopted when interacting with others? The immediate answer that springs to my mind is an attitude of understanding and charity with others, and this answer seems to suffice in most situations when life is clean and easy. But what about when life is messy? What about when, despite your attempts to live a good life and share it with others, they make choices that your spirit chafes against? How is one to react in situations such as these when others live immorally and you are forced to be in their company? Moliere’s The Misanthrope presents three different examples of attitudes in answer to this question—one of total realness leading to gruff disgust with humanity, one that embraces falsehood in order to please everyone, and one that accepts a mean between the two extremes—and, in the end, the apparent best choice of the three options is the attitude that embraces the mean of the two extremes as it results in a better lifestyle than what is brought on by the other two options.

The first attitude is demonstrated in the character of Alceste, the main character. The first time we are introduced to Alceste in the beginning of the story, he is berating his friend Philinte and accusing him of being fake. In their first exchange, he exclaims that he saw Philinte “almost hug a man to death” and offer all sorts of “loving demonstrations”, but when he asked Philinte who the man was, Philinte could “barely bring his name to mind (Moliere 16). Alceste interprets this behavior as “falsify[ing] the heart’s affections” (Moliere 16) and proclaims that he would hang himself if he caught himself behaving in such a way (Moliere 17). As we read further, we discover that Alceste is completely opposed to any form of interaction that does not come straight from people’s “inmost hearts” and he wishes that all people would display their true sentiments in “everything they say” (Moliere 19). He is severely disappointed in the state of mankind that he notes around him and disgusted by the evils he observes. This mindset arguably has some nobility and merit to it, but Alceste carries it to an extreme by focusing only on “the scene of human folly” (Moliere 20), and as a result of this, he becomes bitter towards mankind as a whole and decides to “hate the whole degraded lot” (Moliere 21). This attitude leads to a dismal outlook on the world and causes others to think of him as “comical” (Moliere 20), “ridiculous,” and a “crank” (Moliere 21). Because of this, he has very few friends, is thought to be very contrary (Moliere 66), and is incapable of getting along with others. He even states at one point that he sometimes strongly desires to flee to a desert land and live in self-imposed exile away from all foul human society (Moliere 22). All of these negative consequences show that Alceste’s mindset, though noble in its hatred of falsehood and iniquity, when carried to the extreme to which he carries it, is an unfit manner for one to live in because it closes off the possibility of coexisting with others at all.

The second mindset to examine is personified in the character of Celimene, Alceste’s love interest. Her disposition is a polar opposite to Alceste’s in that while he refuses to withhold even a portion of his full opinion in order to spare one’s feelings, Celimene is so obsessed with getting the attention and approval of as many people as she can that she will say and do almost whatever it takes in order to keep her ensemble of suitors. She constantly gossips about and slanders people behind their backs while embracing them to their faces, and her behavior is actually described as typifying the very traits that Alceste abhors (Moliere 27). She is always willing to welcome many men into her home, and her constant entertainment of these various suitors is a source of great distress to Alceste (Moliere 49). As the story progresses, the reader continues to see that she is equally fake with everyone she interacts with, and at the end of the story, it is discovered that she has written love letters to every single one of her suitors, in each one professing her love for the recipient and denouncing her acquaintance with all the others. Whereas Alceste possesses some honorable traits in his hatred of evil, Celimene possesses no such traits and, once her true colors are known, she is left by all the people whose attention she so desperately craved. In the end, the results of her attitude were found to be similar to Alceste’s: they both resulted in the loss of companionship and both are seen to be unfit modes of living for anyone desiring productive relations with others.

The final attitude to examine is embodied in Philinte. This attitude lands somewhere in between the two extremes of Alceste and Celimene, it acknowledges evil in the world and seeks good, but it doesn’t do so in a manner that completely shuts others down. In the first conversation we examined between Alceste and Philinte, despite all of Alceste’s rantings and accusations, Philinte continues to bear with him in patience and attempts to offer advice to help Alceste with his problems (Moliere 24). In response to Alceste’s total deploration of mankind, Philinte acknowledges the wrongs that exist, but then suggests that the world “requires a pliant rectitude” (Moliere 23). He claims they should “show some leniency towards human failings” (Moliere 23) and later explains that the wrongs that occur are the very things that provide the opportunity for philosophy and virtue (Moliere 132). He provides an excellent summation of his views in their first conversation when he says, “Good sense views all extremes with detestation, and bids us to be noble in moderation” (Moliere 23). This statement perfectly describes the balance between the two extremes he is trying to achieve, and this balance yields better results than either of the other two views. Philinte seeks virtue and is sincere when he needs to be, as when he gives Alceste his opinion of Alceste’s unhealthy love for Celimene (Moliere 27-29), but he does so in a gracious way which results in better communication and a greater understanding between both parties involved. Philinte appears to be one of the happier characters throughout the entire book as a result of his outlook, and at the end of the story, he ends up together with the virtuous woman he loves, Eliante (Moliere 152). Philinte remains a faithful friend to Alceste despite all of his unendearing behavior, and because of his well-balanced worldview, he remains able to interact with others while still maintaining his pursuit of virtue.

The question of how best to live with others is a difficult question to answer, but the three diverse attitudes discussed in this book provide an interesting and thought-provoking response to this question. Alceste embodies an attitude of total disgust with humanity which is shown to be ultimately unfulfilling. Celimene embodies an attitude of embracing the treacherous manner of life that can be observed in the world, and this worldview too is shown to leave its subscribers empty and alone. The most effective attitude presented is embodied by Philinte, and this mindset is most effective because it attempts to be a mean between the two extreme attitudes discussed previously, and because it is an attitude motivated by a love for virtue and a genuine care for humanity. Thus the misanthrope’s mean is found to be an answer to one of the many questions that plagues the common man’s mind. As for the other questions that deal with matters of philosophy and toast, those will have to be dealt with at other times.