The Bourgeois Gentleman (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, also translated as The Middle-Class Aristocrat or The Would-Be Noblenote ) is a 1670 comedy play by Molière.
Monsieur Jourdain is a bourgeois, but he admires the aristocrats and he tries to behave like them to be accepted in their social circle. So he takes various courses: dance, music, fencing, and philosophy. He also sees Dorante, a count who often borrows large sums of money from him.
The Bourgeois Gentleman provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Some characters have real-life names, like Monsieur and Madame Jourdain, Lucile, and Nicole. Others have fictional names created by Molière, like Cléonte, Dorante and Dorimène. Covielle is also a fictional name coming from Commedia dell'Arte.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign:
- The Turkish language that Cléonte speaks is gibberish. Justified because he only pretends to speak Turkish, and Monsieur Jourdain is too stupid to tell the difference.
- Monsieur Jourdain is shortly made to undergo a ceremony under the pretext of ennobling him Turkish-style. The Mufti and his assistants perform most of the ceremony, not in actual Turkish, but in "Sabir" or "Lingua Franca", a largely romance pidgin that was once used to facilitate communication in the Mediterranean Basin. Justified again, as the ceremony is a sham meant to trick Monsieur Jourdain and may have involved locals speaking the foreign language they knew rather than actual Turks.
- Berserk Button: All of the masters get furious when their art and profession are insulted, leading to a furious argument opposing the fencing master to the dance and music masters after he dissed their arts, and to a brawl after the master of philosophy gets involved.
- Beta Couple: Covielle (Cléonte's servant) and Nicole (Lucile's servant), to Cléonte and Lucile. The two couples are in love; both men are angry at the women at first, because Nicole and Lucile ignored Covielle and Cléonte when they met by chance on the street. Covielle and Nicole encounter less problems than Lucile and Cléonte, but in the end they all get married with their respective lover.
- Child Marriage Veto: When Lucile learns that her father refuses to give consent to her marrying Cléonte, she gets upset and insists that she will marry no other. She remains steadfast when Monsieur Jourdain informs her that he will be giving her to the son of the Great Turk and loudly protests. However, on realizing that it is actually her boyfriend disguised as a Turkish prince, she does an about-face and consents on the pretext of submitting to her father.
- Con Man: Dorante manages to squeeze large sums of money out of Monsieur Jourdain, something Madame Jourdain and Nicole frequently point out and mock Monsieur Jourdain for, with Monsieur Jourdain evidently refusing to listen. He even makes him pay the ring he gives to his lover, Dorimène.
- Everyone Has Standards: Dorante bleeds Monsieur Jourdain of his money, and mocks him to his back while polishing him to his face; but he seems to genuinely like and respect Cléonte, and helps his little scheme.
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Monsieur Jourdain buys a ring with a large diamond for Dorimène. He puts Dorante in charge of giving it to Dorimène. Dorante gives it to her, but pretends that he bought it himself.
- Food Porn: In Act IV, Dorante describes to Dorimène the foodstuffs Monsieur Jourdain has to offer. It takes up a whole paragraph and the descriptions are, quite frankly, mouth-watering!
- Happily Ever After: Exaggerated. In the end, Lucile gets married with Cléonte, Nicole with Covielle, and Dorimène with Dorante.
- Hypocritical Humor: The Master of Philosophy tries to bring peace between the dance and music masters, and the fencing master after the latter insulted the former two's arts and professions, claiming that it's vain to fight over such trivial matters and that moderation, patience and wisdom should be the answer to insults and disagreements. Then he gets triggered when the other masters defend their respective art, insults their profession as a result, gets angry when they insult him back and gets in a brawl with them.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: The new suit of Monsieur Jourdain is so ridiculous (the tailor insists that the flowers on the coat are upside-down because that's the latest style) that Nicole cannot stop laughing when she sees it.
- Impoverished Patrician: Dorante is a count, but his low income forces him to turn to his talent of Con Man to maintain his lifestyle.
- Insane Troll Logic: When Jourdain expresses doubts that he can afford to retain the music and dance masters' services while also paying for lessons in fencing and philosophy, the two performers insist that their arts are integral to a peaceful and functioning society, but their arguments are obviously absurd to everyone except Jourdain himself. According to the music master, wars are caused by disharmony, and a skilled musician knows how to resolve disharmony. And according to the dance master, so many grave situations are caused by missteps, and a skilled dancer is less likely to make missteps.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Covielle about Monsieur Jourdain:Covielle: What a dupe! If he had learned his role by heart, he could not have played it better.
- Lucile to her father:Lucile: What! Father, look at you! Are you playing in a comedy?
- Covielle about Monsieur Jourdain:
- Love Triangle: Dorante and Dorimène love each other, and Monsieur Jourdain falls for Dorimène.
- Money, Dear Boy: In-universe, in the first scene, Jourdain's music and dance masters note that while their employer is an idiot who understands nothing of their arts, he pays them well, and they can't live on audience applause alone. The dance master is a bit more frustrated by Jourdain's ignorance than the music master, but he's just as willing to take his money.
- Nouveau Riche: Monsieur Jourdain is very rich because his father made a fortune as a cloth dealer, but he lacks the culture and the style of the aristocrats, so he tries to learn it from various teachers.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Cléonte dresses up as a Turkish prince. Lampshaded by Covielle who tells Monsieur Jourdain that by chance the Turkish prince looks exactly like Cléonte.
- Parental Marriage Veto:
- Monsieur Jourdain does not want his daughter Lucile to marry Cléonte, because he is not an aristocrat. Circumventing that veto for the young lovers becomes the main plot of the rest of the play.
- When Madame Jourdain hears that her husband is marrying his daughter off to the son of the Great Turk, she is horrified and steadfastly refuses to give her consent. On being taken aside and having it clarified that said suitor is actually Cléonte, she changes her tune and plays along with the ruse.
- Protagonist Title: The title refers to Monsieur Jourdain, the protagonist.
- Rapid-Fire Interrupting: Monsieur Jourdain tries to give Nicole instructions to clean the house, but Nicole keeps on interrupting him with her bursts of laughter at his new Impossibly Tacky Clothes.
- Romancing the Widow: Dorante charms Dorimène, a widow.
- Servile Snarker: Both Covielle (Cléonte's servant) and Nicole (the Jourdains' maid) are insolent and snarky.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Lucile and Cléonte love each other, but Lucile's father, Monsieur Jourdain, does not want them to marry because Cléonte is not an aristocrat.
- Super Gullible: Monsieur Jourdain is so naive, foolish and vain that he believes everything that Dorante, his tailor and masters tell him, and utterly falls for Cléante and Covielle's Turkish prince scheme.
- Translation: "Yes": When Covielle translates to Monsieur Jourdain the speech of Cléonte disguised as a Turkish prince, Monsieur Jourdain is surprised to hear that a short sentence of Cléonte is translated in a long sentence.Cléonte: [disguised as a Turkish prince] Bel-men.
Covielle: He says that you should go with him quickly to prepare yourself for the ceremony; then you can see your daughter and conclude the marriage.
Monsieur Jourdain: So many things in two words?
Covielle: Yes; the Turkish language is like that, it says much in few words. - Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Monsieur Jourdain, the protagonist, is an ignorant nouveau riche. He is an unfaithful husband and he ignores the wishes of his daughter.
- Upper-Class Twit: Monsieur Jourdain is very rich and very stupid. His various teachers, his tailor and Dorante take advantage of him and squeeze large sums of money out of him.
- Zany Scheme: Cléonte dresses up as a Turkish prince to persuade Monsieur Jourdain to let him marry his daughter.
