Word: argan
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NEAR THE END of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, Beralde turns to the hypochondriac, Argan, and suggests that he "go see some of Moliere's plays" on the subject of medicine. To do so, Beralde explains, would be a good lesson for Argan and might persuade him of the absurdity of his belief in the power and good will of doctors, for they are all quacks--their pills, injections, and enemas only impede the proper working of the body...
Pointing out this absurdity is the central goal of The Imaginary Invalid, Argan, the comic hero, insists throughout that he is an invalid and that only his doctors are protecting him from death. He views them as gods, trusts them, believes in them, devotes himself to their well-being...
...course, Argan is in perfectly good health, his hypochondria being simply the most obvious out-growth of his tyrannical self-assertion over the members of his household. His tyranny becomes critical when, early in the play, it brings him into opposition with his daughter's plans to marry. The daughter, Angelique, wants to marry Cleante, but Argan, without consulting her, arranges for her marriage to Thomas Diafoirus, the son of one of his doctors. Needless to say, Cleante is a young Achilles, and Thomas Diafoirus a big booby. Throughout the first three quarters of the play, Argan perseveres...
Under the direction of Robert Edgar, Dunster House has put together an old production of The Imaginary Invalid. For one thing, several of the actors--especially Roy Goldfinger as Argan--play their roles in an effeminate way. Moliere's Argan, bluntly put, is a madman. When asked why he persists in standing in the way of his daughter's love, he replies, "Because I'm king of my own castle and I do what I think fit." On stage his source of strength should be this single-minded devotion to his role as the father of the family...
...EUROPE OF THE CAPITALS 1600-1700 by Giulio Carlo Argan. 222 pages. Skira. $20. THE INVENTION OF LIBERTY 1700-1789 by Jean Starobinski. 222 pages. Skira. $20. The publisher's commendable ambition is to explore and explain Western civilization through its architecture and its art. These are volumes one and two in a series, simultaneously published in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, that will ultimately number 14. The Europe of the Capitals, with text by a professor of art history at the University of Rome, traces the decline of feudal nobility in Europe and the emergence...