he Misanthrope, being an older comedy, is harder to read and
comprehend than most of today’s works. One of the many reasons for this
is the archaic style of the plot. Many details are often lost on
students who are then left looking to Sparknotes for answers.
Additionally, the choice of outdated language obscures some of the humour
of the plot, causing confusion in the readers, rendering the
text a boring or even frustrating read. One can
wonder which girl Alceste really likes, but which will he want
to settle for in the end? Many want him to pick Célimène, but
keeping track of all these people can be difficult and most portrayals and
descriptions of these characters are long and tedious, and the word choice will
lull any eager student into a nauseated slumber.
How could this story be more easily remembered and
understood? By using Facebook and other social media! Most students and
other people struggling to understand or find interest in the
text are readily familiar with many of these social
networking sites, so the setting will not only be clear to people,
but it will also draw in their attention. When the language is updated to a
more modern dialect and the dialogue in the play is translated to the
formats found in these websites, the Misanthrope can be rewritten
into a drama that will be more attractive to younger people.
What we hope to do is recreate all of the action of the
Misanthrope while enhancing the experience by using social media. Since
the action in The Misanthrope is all dialogue, this should be relatively
simple. Each of the characters in the Misanthrope will have their
own Facebook page with which they will be interacting with
each other. Conversations that once took place in person as the book described
it will now take place using status updates in a language
that is more readily understood by the students of today. Wall posts,
direct messages, and phone texts will also be used as tools of
communication between characters. Specifically, we will recreate the second
scene of act one, where Alceste and Orionte get in an argument about poetry,
using these methods. Also, each character's personality will be explored using
the informational page in these Facebook profiles which
includes favorite music, movies, books, and sports teams. For
example, analyzing Alceste's character in the original
play implies that if Alceste were a person in today's
society he would like obscure music, would not be into sports, and
read lots of books and informational internet sites detailing great
thinkers’ ideas and philosophies. Célimène's page would have
many posts from friends on her wall, and her likes would include many of the
popular artists and books. Her communications to her suitors would
likely be done through text messages or other discrete forms of communication.
In addition to recreating the dialogue in the play to social
media, we will also be creating a social network visualization in order to help
explain each characters’ relationship with the other characters. This
visualization will be done while still keeping the updated theme i.e. using the
slang and manner of speech used today. The network visualization will help to
illustrate and clarify the relationships, feelings, and motivations for each
character.
We believe that creating these social media resources will
lead us to create a retelling of the story that will be entertaining
and more compatible from a language perspective to a newer generation
that may not otherwise appreciate this gripping comedy. The
humor will be clearer, the characters better fleshed out,
and the implications of certain actions easier to grasp, not because
it was more explicitly explained, but simply because it was translated into the
language of the electronic age.
Sources:
Moliére. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe. Trans.
Richard Wilbur. Harcourt Brace and Company, 1965. Print.
Erin Ekart
Christian Grondin
