Extract
[...] In fact, it provides the public with an education in generosity and disinterest. Marivaux's comedy allows for personal awareness, leading to an internal change in oneself. Finally, this theatrical piece awakens in us a kind of reflective process inviting us to understand the possible moral implications that follow. For Voltaire's work, Nanine or the man without prejudice, it is a 'moving comedy' that encourages the public to tenderness. In fact, the story questions the behavior and feelings that the Count experiences towards Nanine. The relationship between the two characters is disproportionate. [...]
[...] Then, by reading the tragic works of the Enlightenment, a reader would share the idea of the Enlightenment that one must strive to stop the irrational, the darkness, and the superstitious beliefs of ancient times. For this, one must not allow devotion and religious intolerance to control politics and justice and oppose the anarchy of absolute monarchy. In addition, the Enlightenment also aims to share a complete and indispensable education for everyone. The works of Beaumarchais, among others The Marriage of Figaro, illustrate the aspirations of the Enlightenment to oppose social injustice by denouncing the privileges of the aristocratic class. [...]
[...] In reality, like tearful comedy, bourgeois drama also sets as objectives the creation of emotion in spectators and the satisfaction of moral requirements. Bourgeois drama values empathy to arouse education through emotion. It also gives value to pathos and exaggeration as well as to pantomime. The latter favors actions more than words spoken by actors. Then, we can also mention pastoral comedy, ballet comedy and commedia dell'arte. The latter has greatly influenced the conception of the comic and theatrical genre of the century through the change of scenery. It highlights theatrical improvisation from a scenario. [...]
[...] 'The comic is still troubling them, they would like to purify, humanize, and moralize it.' Here, the comic genre has not yet finished shaking up the Enlightenment philosophers so much that they aspire to its clarification, humanization, and moralization. What justifies the idea we mentioned above, that of giving a new orientation to comedy, is the use of the moralizing tone through the theater. Thus, the underside of social institutions, the hidden face of royal authority, the despotism of the latter, as well as the religious and Louis XIV obscurantism will be revealed to the public to the benefit of scientific knowledge. [...]
[...] The religion exercises a dominant influence on the political decisions of the monarchy. We can conclude following our analysis that in the 18th century, the conception of the comic genre or comedy is based on a desire to free oneself from the classical considerations of the previous century while retaining certain tones of comedy, such as character comedy, gesture comedy, situation comedy, and language comedy. Another tone is added to this, the satirical and moralizing tone, as well as a way of raising awareness of the individual to the revolution. [...]
