The Middle-Class Gentleman

Monsieur Jourdain has money, influence, and a mansion in Paris. What he lacks is the one thing he wants more than anything else: to be a gentleman. His solution is characteristically absurd, he hires a fencing master, a dance instructor, a music teacher, and a philosopher, desperately trying to purchase the refinements that will finally earn him entry into the aristocracy. The comedy unfolds as he stumbles through lessons in taste, logic, and poise while his long-suffering wife watches with withering contempt and his servants exchange knowing glances. Molière's satire cuts deep because it exposes the desperate performance at the heart of social climbing, the comedy of someone trying to buy what cannot be bought. Written in 1670 and commissioned by Louis XIV after a diplomatic incident with the Ottoman Empire, the play has lost none of its teeth. Jourdain's particular madness has simply changed costume: we now call it 'networking' or 'self-improvement' or 'aspirational lifestyle.' The play endures because it tells the truth we still don't want to hear about the gap between who we are and who we want to be.