SOURCE: “The Actor and the Statue: Space, Time, and Court Performance in Molière's Dom Juan,” in Comparative Drama, Vol. 25, No. 4, Winter, 1991-92, pp. 351-68.

In the following essay, Spingler concentrates on the scenic structure of Molière's Dom Juan and how the space itself questions the codes that govern court society.

In Dom Juan, Molière inscribes the organized world of seventeenth-century French court life within a dramatic space which reflects the relationship between theatrical and social performance. In what follows, I will focus on how Molière's handling of the play's scenic structure questions the codes which govern life at court. Considered from the point of view of the actor's location and movement on stage, Dom Juan is an interrogation of the court's attempt to adjust the perception of time and space to its own needs, in particular the need to transform history into a repeatable...