A Summary Of The Doctor In Spite Of Himself

Grady Eichman

Theatre History 1

Heather Tinker

7/16/23

The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Le Médecin malgré lui) The Doctor in Spite of Himself is a show written by Molière, that was first presented in 1666. The manuscript of the show was not published until 1667. Molière wrote multiple plays about a character named Sganarelle, which he played himself, and this show is no different. This show was a comedic satire of the medicine of the times in 17th century France. A brief summary of the show: Martine, the wife of Sganarelle, is looking for revenge as he abused her in a previous fight, when she meets Lucas and Valère who are looking for a doctor for their master Gèronte. Martine realizes this aims a perfect opportunity so she tells Lucas and

Such as deception and trickery, power and authority, gender roles and marriage, and education and knowledge. When talking about deception and trickery, the whole plot of the show starts with Martine deceiving Valére and Lucas, and then throughout the show Sganarelle is trying to trick everyone into believing he is a doctor, and even Lucinde deceives people by acting mute. The use of power and authority, we see Martine abuses the power that she has about knowing that Sganarelle will admit to anything after being beaten, and that he will not try to deny it afterward, and Gèronte abuses his power by attempting to marry off his daughter to someone she does not love. Molière talks about gender roles and marriage, and he shows a bad marriage, overall Molière challenges the gender roles of the time by showing Martine actually having power of Sganarelle, and Lucinde has the power to make decisions on her marriage. In this show, Molière also talks about education and knowledge as Sganarelle has no education on being a doctor, yet he still convinces everyone around him that he is a doctor using his own wit, Molière is suggesting that maybe intelligence and common sense are better than education. Molière is a hugely influential playwright and he has far reaching impacts in the world of theatre. One of the shows he wrote, The Doctor in Spite of Himself, is just one example of shows in which he is trying to point out things that are wrong with the current world that he is living in. Overall, without Molière theatre would be quite different from what it is