Molière’s "The Affected Ladies": on the typology of female characters
The article is dealing with the analysis of women’s characters in Molière’s comedy «The Affected Ladies» and with the search for their typological sources in Western European literature. Molière’s play is featuring two young ladies, Cathos and Magdelon, called «the affected ladies»; their direct prototypes were Catherine de Rambouillet and Madeleine de Scudéry - the hostesses of two high society salons in Paris. However, the underlying sources of salon woman’s character type remount to an important cultural heritage of late Italian Renaissance - Baldassare Castiglione’s treaty «The Book of the Courtier», dealing with aristocratic behaviour rules. The ideal of «court lady» was personified by Baldassare Castiglione in the characters of Elisabetta Gonzaga (the spouse of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino) and of her friend Emilia Pia. Both of them preached the ideals of agreeable pastime, high society courtesy and gallant manners, that became the foundation of «gentleman» honour code. The women caricatured in Molière’s comedy have played a leading part in the development of new aristocracy type, and French high society salon, prefigured in Urbino court society as described by Baldassare Castiglione, has become a source for various scientific and secular organisations, including the French Academy, that has been granted official status afterwards.