George Dandin, ou Le mari confondu

He married above his station and now he cannot prove he's been wronged. George Dandin is rich, respectable, and completely, catastrophically cuckolded. His wife Angélique carries on with the handsome Clitandre while her parents refuse to believe their precious daughter could do anything so base. Every time Dandin schemes to catch the lovers in flagrante, they slip away and leave him looking like a fool. His father-in-law actually berates him for slandering such an upstanding girl. Molière turns domestic despair into surgical comedy. The farce is relentless, but beneath the pratfalls lies something sharper: a wealthy peasant who thought money could buy him nobility learns that true aristocrats will always protect their own, even at the expense of truth. It's vicious, it's funny, and it remains one of Molière's most pointed barbs at the hypocrisy of class and reputation. Molière himself performed the role of the cuckolded husband in the original production, which tells you something about the play's personal edge.