Money and Metafiction in William Wycherley's "The Plain Dealer" and Moliere's "Le Misanthrope"

Book excerpt: Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: A, Northern Arizona University, course: English Restoration Literature, language: English, abstract: That William Wycherley’s 1676 play The Plain Dealer is based upon his French contemporary Moliere’s Le Misanthrope from a decade earlier is a commonly accepted tenet among critics: Both Alceste in Le Misanthrope and Manly in The Plain Dealer display misanthropic tendencies. Both insist, however, that their misanthropy is not directed at all people, just those who dissemble and flatter in a hypocritical way. Both are initially in love with women who possess acid tongues in private, yet are guilty of exactly the same public flattery the men despise. Yet The Plain Dealer greatly exceeded its source material in popularity, at least during its initial stage run, and there is very little critical consideration as to why Wycherley’s play, which is generally considered the coarser of the two, outperformed its better. The relative success of Wycherley’s play can likely be attributed to the business concerns faced by Moliere that Wycherley was exempt from, the unvarnished, vulgar satire of The Plain Dealer that was informed by previous crowd-pleasing English plays, and The Plain Dealer’s much larger dollop of misogyny