SOURCE: “Fears into Laughs,” in One Act Comedies of Moliere, second edition, translated by Albert Bermel, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1975, pp. 1-10.

In the following essay, Bermel discusses the balance between comedy and tragedy in Molière's theater.

Molière's longer plays have often unsettled critics who like to keep their genres clean and uncomplicated. The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, The School for Wives, George Dandin, Don Juan, The Miser, and The Learned Ladies are richly comic yet they contain scenes that are disturbing, if not distressing, to sit through, and they end by stirring up in us a discord of emotions. The genre merchants will not be defeated, though. They have found an answer, a general repository for Molière's drama, the tragicomedy. If redefining the plays in this way helps to keep alive the human quality of Molière's characters, and to kill off the stilted, grimacing, artificial...