Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der Geizige
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love sharp comedy about money and family, students meeting French theatre for the first time, and anyone who enjoys exploring a plot before seeing the play staged.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Miser is a comedy in five acts by Molière, the French playwright, first staged in Paris in 1668. It was written for the theatre company he led, and he played the title role himself. The play borrows its main idea from a Roman comedy by Plautus about a man who guards a pot of gold. Molière moves that idea into a Paris household and fills it with a family at war.
The miser is Harpagon, a rich widower who loves his money more than his children, his servants or his own comfort. His son and daughter both want to marry for love, and he wants to marry them off cheaply, or for profit. Along the way you meet a scheming matchmaker, a sharp-tongued valet, a cook who is also the coachman, and a buried box of gold. You get a fast, funny story about greed, suspicion and the price of love. Let us begin with the house of Harpagon, where nothing is ever wasted.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1Harpagon counts every coinFree
- 2Two children with secret loves
- 3The father's plans crush the children's
- 4A loan from the wrong lender
- 5The cashbox vanishes and chaos begins
- 6Greed, family and how Molière tells it
Punkt 1 von 6
Harpagon counts every coin
The play opens in the Paris house of Harpagon, a man who has money and cannot enjoy it. He lends at high interest, he locks up his oats, and he suspects everyone of stealing. His servants dress badly and eat little, and he treats a dinner party as a loss to be limited.
His chief fear is thieves. He has buried a cashbox in the garden, with ten thousand gold coins inside, and he checks on it as other men check on a sick child. When he meets La Flèche, his son's valet, he orders him to show his hands, then the insides of his pockets, then more again. La Flèche answers him with open scorn, and it is the first sign that nobody in this house respects the master.
Molière makes the miser comic by making him exact. Harpagon does not simply hoard. He calculates, he haggles with his own household, and he sees every guest as an expense. The audience laughs, but it also sees how lonely such a life is, because a man who fears everyone has no friends.
The house is run on his fear, and the young people in it cannot breathe. That is what sets the story in motion. Behind the locked doors, his children are making plans of their own.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Who’s who
- Harpagon
- A wealthy, suspicious widower, he puts money before his children and hopes to marry Marianne himself.
- Cléante
- Harpagon's son loves Marianne and needs money that his father refuses to provide.
- Élise
- Harpagon's daughter loves Valère but fears the marriage her father plans for her.
- Valère
- Harpagon's steward loves Élise and flatters her father to remain near her.
- Marianne
- A poor young woman caring for her sick mother, she is loved by Cléante and courted by Harpagon.
- Frosine
- A resourceful matchmaker, she encourages Harpagon's marriage hopes while seeking payment for her services.
- Maître Jacques
- Harpagon's cook and coachman struggles with his master's stinginess and speaks his mind.
- La Flèche
- Cléante's outspoken valet helps his young master and openly mocks Harpagon's suspicious behavior.
- Anselme
- A wealthy older man, he is Harpagon's chosen husband for the unwilling Élise.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 23,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 30 min
- Listening time2 h 30 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 10 other languages
Questions about Der Geizige
What is The Miser about?
It is a comedy about Harpagon, a rich man who loves money more than his family. His greed blocks his children's marriages and leads him into a bitter fight with his son, and finally into a frantic hunt for his lost gold.
Who wrote The Miser and when?
Molière wrote it, and it was first staged in Paris in 1668. It is a five-act comedy in prose, and Molière himself played Harpagon in the first productions.
What does the French title L'Avare mean?
L'Avare is the French word for a miser, a person who hoards money and spends as little as possible. The name Harpagon comes from a Latin word meaning a grappling hook, which suits a man who grabs everything.
Is The Miser based on a true story?
No, it is fiction. Molière drew his main idea from a Roman comedy by Plautus about a man who guards a pot of gold, and he added elements from other comic traditions and his own observation of Paris life.
Is The Miser hard to read?
No. It is a short play with plain, lively speech, quick scenes and clear jokes. The plot is easy to follow and works well when read aloud.