Creativity and biography of Moliere

One of the most mysterious and eccentric personalities of the 17th century in France is Jean Baptiste Moliere. His biography consists of complex and at the same time majestic stages in career and creativity.

A family

Jean-Baptism was born in 1622 in an aristocratic family, which was the continuation of a very ancient bourgeois kind of draperies. At the time, this kind of occupation was considered quite profitable and respected. The father of the future comedian was an honorary adviser to the king and the creator of a specialized school for court children, which Moliere later began to visit. In this school, Jean-Baptist studied Latin diligently, which helped him to easily understand and study all the works of famous Roman authors. It was Moliere who translated into his native French language the poem "On the Nature of Things" by the ancient Roman philosopher Lucretius. Unfortunately, the manuscript with the translation was not widespread, and soon it disappeared. Most likely, she was burned during a fire in the workshop of Moliere.

At the behest of his father, Jean-Baptiste received a prestigious academic degree of a law degree. Moliere's life was complex and intense.

early years

In his youth, Jean was an ardent admirer and representative of the then popular epicureanism (one of the philosophical movements). Thanks to this interest, he started a lot of useful acquaintances, because among the epicureans of that time there were sufficiently wealthy and influential people.

The career of a lawyer was not so important for Moliere, just as his father's trade. That is why the young man chose for himself the theatrical direction in the activity. Biography Moliere once again proves to us his desire for improvement and the desire to reach the world's heights in theatrical art.

It is worth noting that initially Moliere is a theatrical pseudonym, which Jean-Baptiste Poclin chose himself to give the full name of the sound of a son. But gradually this name began to be called not only in the framework of theatrical activities, but also in everyday life. Meeting with the very famous then the French comedians Bejar turned the life of Jean-Baptiste upside down, because later he began to lead the theater. At that time he was only 21 years old. The troupe consisted of 10 novice actors, and Moliere's task was to improve the theater's affairs and bring it to a more professional level. Unfortunately, other French theaters made up a great competition to Jean-Baptiste, so the institution was closed. After such a first life failure, Jean Baptiste with a traveling company began to travel around the provincial towns in the hope of gaining recognition at least there and earning money for further development and building his own building for performances.

Moliere spoke in the province for about 14 years (exact dates concerning this fact of his life, unfortunately, have not been preserved). By the way, at the same time in France there was a civil war, mass protests and confrontations of the people, so the endless relocations to the troupe were even more difficult, the official biography of Molière says that already at this period of his life he was seriously intending to start his own business.

In the province Jean-Baptiste composed a large number of his own plays and theatrical scenarios, because the repertoire of the troupe was rather boring and uninteresting. Few of the works of that period have survived. List of some plays:

1. "Jealousy of Barbulia." This play was very proud of Moliere himself. The works of the nomadic period received positive assessments of critics.

2. "Flying healer."

3. "Doctor-pedant."

4. "Three doctors."

5. "Pretended fool".

6. "Horgibus in a bag".

Personal life

In 1622, Moliere officially bound himself by marriage with his beloved Amanda Bejart. She was the sister of the same comedian Madlena, whom Jean-Baptiste met early in her career and, thanks to her husband, began to direct the theater of ten.

The difference in age between Jean-Baptiste and Amanda was exactly 20 years. At the time of the marriage, he was 40 years old, and she was 20. The wedding was not publicized, so only friends and relatives were invited to the celebration. By the way, the bride's parents were not happy with the choice of their daughter in every way tried to force her to terminate the engagement. However, she did not yield to the entreaties of her family, and soon after the wedding she stopped talking with her mother and father.

During the marriage, Amanda gave birth to three husbands, but we can say that the couple were not happy in their union. A huge difference in age and different interests made me aware of myself. Moliere's work during his marriage reflected mainly the stories, close to his own family situations.

Personal Characteristics

Jean-Baptiste can be described as a rather unordinary personality. He was completely devoted to his work, his whole life is an endless theater and performances. Unfortunately, most researchers of his biography still can not come to an unequivocal decision about his personal portrait, because there is no data, so, just as in the case of Shakespeare, they relied only on word-of-mouth stories and legends About this person and already on their basis they tried to determine his character with the help of psychological methods.

Also, studying a lot of works of Jean-Baptiste, you can draw some conclusions about his life as a whole. Moliere for some reason did everything to ensure that very little information about his personality remained. A lot of his work, he destroyed, so we have not reached more than 50 of his plays and data on productions. Characteristic of Moliere, based on the words of his contemporaries, suggests that he was an esteemed person in France, to whose opinion most court people and even several individuals from the royal family listened.

He was extremely freedom-loving, therefore he wrote many works about the individual, about how to rise above his consciousness and constantly rethink his values. It is worth noting that in none of the works about freedom is spoken in a direct context, because such a step could be regarded while calling for a riot and civil war, which was always continuing in medieval France.

Jean-Baptiste Molière. Biography and creativity

Like the work of all writers and playwrights, Moliere's path is divided into certain stages (he does not have a clear time frame, but they are different directions and reflect a kind of polarity reversal in the playwright's work).

During the Paris period, Jean-Baptiste enjoyed popularity with the king and the elite of the country, thanks to which he was recognized. After a long roaming through the country, the troupe returns to Paris and performs at the Louvre Theater with a new repertoire. Now professionalism is obvious: the time spent and the endless practice make themselves felt. At the play "The Enamored Doctor" was present the king himself, who at the end of the performance personally thanked the playwright. After this incident in the life of Jean Baptiste began a white band.

The next performance "Funny Motherworts" also achieved tremendous success among the public and received very good reviews from critics. Moliere's plays at that time were sold out.

The second stage in the work of Jean-Baptiste is represented by such works:

1. "Tartuffe". The plot line of the novel is aimed at ridiculing the clergy, which at that time enjoyed low popularity among the inhabitants of France due to constant extortion and complaints about the activities of certain high representatives of the church. The play was released in 1664 and was played on the stage of the theater for five years. The play had a sharp satirical to some extent comedic character.

2. "Don Juan". If in the previous play Jean-Baptiste negatively showed the theme of the church and ridiculed all its employees, in this work he satirically reflected the laws of people's lives, their behavior and moral standards, which, in the author's opinion, were very far from ideal and brought only negative to the world And debauchery. With this play, the theater traveled almost the whole of Europe. In some countries there was such a sold-out that the performance was played two or three times. Jean-Baptiste Molière made many useful acquaintances during this trip across Europe.

3. "Misanthrope". In this work, the author even more ridiculed the medieval foundations of life. This play is the most successful example of a high comedy of the XVII century. Because of the seriousness and complexity of the plot, the production was not perceived by people in the same way as the previous works of Jean Baptiste. This forced the author to rethink some aspects of his work and theatrical activity, so he decided to take a break in staging performances and writing scripts.

Moliere's Theater

Performances of the troupe of the author, in which he also felt, almost always caused a flurry of emotions in the audience. The glory of his productions spread throughout Europe. The theater was in demand far beyond France. Great admirers of Moliere were also the British connoisseurs of high theatrical art.

The theater of Moliere was distinguished by highly effective productions about contemporary human values. The play of actors always remained on top. By the way, Jean-Baptiste never missed his roles, he did not refuse to perform even when he was feeling ill and was ill. This indicates a person's great love for his work.

Characters of the author

Jean-Baptiste Moliere presented many interesting personalities in his works. Consider the most popular and eccentric:

1. Sganarelle - this character was mentioned in a number of works and plays by the author. In the play "Flying Doctor" he - the main character, was a servant Valera. Thanks to the success of the production and the work as a whole, Moliere decided to use this character in other of his works (for example, Sganarelle can be seen in "The Imaginary Cuckold", "Don Juan", "Lekara involuntarily", "School of Husbands") and other works of the early Period of creativity of Jean Baptiste.

2. Geront is a hero who can be found in Moliere's comedies of the era of classicism. In plays, it is a symbol of insanity and dementia of some types of people.

3. Garpagon is an old man who is distinguished by such qualities as deceit and a passion for enrichment.

Comedy ballets

Biography Moliere indicates that this type of works refers to the mature stage of creativity. Thanks to strengthened ties with the court, Jean-Baptiste creates a new genre that is called upon to represent new pieces in the form of ballet. By the way, this innovation was a real success among the audience.

The first comedy-ballet was called "The Unbearable" and was written and presented to the general public in 1661.

Interesting legends about the person

There is an unconfirmed legend that Moliere's wife was in fact his native daughter, born out of communication with Madeleine Bejart. The whole story that Madeleine and Amanda were sisters was considered a lie by some people. However, this information is not confirmed and is only one of the legends.

Another story says that in fact Moliere was not the author of his work. He allegedly acted on behalf of Pierre Corneille. This story has become widespread. However, scientists argue that Moliere's biography does not contain such a fact.

The Late Stage of Creativity

A few years after the failure of "Misanthrope", the author decides to return to work and adds to the play the story "The doctor is involuntary".

Biography of Jean Moliere says that during this period he ridiculed the bourgeoisie and a rich class. Also in the plays raised the problem of marriage, concluded not by mutual consent.

Interesting facts about the activities of Moliere

1. Jean-Baptiste was coined a new genre of comedy-ballet.

2. He was one of the most controversial personalities of France of that period.

3. Moliere practically did not communicate with his family, preferring to travel the world with concerts without their accompaniment.

The death and memorial monuments of Jean-Baptiste

Before the fourth performance of the play "The Imaginary Sick" (1673) Moliere was ill, but it was early to decide to go on stage. He played a brilliant role, but a few hours after the performance, his condition worsened, and he suddenly died.

In honor of the author, a street in Paris was named and many memorial monuments were built all over Europe.