home \ writings \ art \ quotes \ links \ pictures \ InfoCity



Neoclassicism, Tartuffe, and Deus Ex Machina: Why Classical Drama Should Have Died With the Greeks

by Susie

If you were ever forced to read Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, or Sophocles during your stint in some English class, you may be able to sympathize with me. Although ancient Greek drama represents a major artistic accomplishment for that era, reading these works in a modern context provides about as much aesthetic satisfaction as an Adam Sandler movie--the antics are vaguely amusing, the plotline is utterly predictable, and the dialogue leaves much to be desired. In addition, many ancient Greek playwrights wrote static, flat, single-faceted stock characters. While we can all agree that Greek drama provided an important stepping stone for modern literature and drama, we can also agree that Greek dramatic styles went out with the toga.

That having been said, I must ask two questions:

Why in God's name did the neoclassicists bring this particular style back?

Why do literature professors still have us read classical drama repeatedly as though it were relevant? (And, even more inaccurately, interesting?)

Tartuffe by Moliere provides an excellent example of how worthless neoclassical texts are to modern society as far as aesthetics, quality, and message. This comedy, which I was subjected to in a class while studying the Enlightenment, did absolutely nothing to clarify or enhance my understanding of that particular era. Moliere manhandled the themes like a virgin on prom night, groping clumsily without subtlety or finesse. The characters retained that predictable, static quality of Greek dramas, with Orgon as the hoodwinked father (read: King), Elmire as the sensible wife (read: Queen), and so forth. Cleante was thinly disguised as the chorus. While the themes must have been ground-breaking ideas at the time, in modern society they give one a "Duh... and?" feeling when reading. One should be reasonable, temperate? You don't say? Moliere didn't help matters much by sketching the loose plot of Tartuffe so that the themes were literally on the surface, so obscenely obvious that the audience had nothing to think about. Perhaps the persons in the audience were so dense that he needed to slap them directly with the main points, but the book reads rather like a book for a child, and I weaned myself off of Little Golden Books years ago.

The only redeeming quality of this play is the humor. Some of the couplets, particularly the more non-conventional ones, made me chuckle, although the rhyme scheme annoyed me after awhile. Still, Moliere got in some pretty good zingers; perhaps he is Mark Twain in a former life. Toward the end of the story, I lulled myself into thinking that, perhaps, this play was not a bad little read after all--amusing and short, if not the deepest flower in the pot. Then, Moliere disappointed me by using the most absurd dramatic device ever invented: namely, deus ex machina, or perhaps more appropriately, rex ex machina; or maybe even deus ex rege. Pardon my French, Moliere, but what kind of lame, cop-out bullshit is this? I can understand copying the style of the Greeks for the purposes of the Neoclassical movement, of writing a satire, of making a statement about aesthetics (or the lack thereof) and reason, blah blah blah--but surely you could have done better than having the King come out of nowhere and fix everything. I could have forgiven the lack of characterization, the boring, underdeveloped plot, the rhyme scheme, and the "duh" quality, but employing deus ex machina in the 17th century is too much. Again, Moliere has prom night virgin syndrome; he finishes too abruptly and leaves the reader unsatisfied.

I'm not saying that the Neoclassical era of literature was not important, interesting, and relevant in its time. Obviously, much as ancient Greek drama, the Enlightenment is an important phase in literary history. I do not, however, see any point in dwelling on the subject of Tartuffe when the ideas from this play could easily be summed up in a ten minute lecture and just as easily understood. It's like making an elaborate diagram for a simple subject-verb-object sentence, like beating the clichéd dead horse until it resembles ground beef. I am paying to get an education, and I expect my classes to hold up their end of the bargain. Tartuffe did nothing to enhance my understanding of Neoclassicism, so let's bury it with the Greeks and move on.