45 pages • 1 hour read
MoliereThe Imaginary Invalid
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1673A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act II and Second InterludeAct Summaries & Analyses
Act II Summary
Cléante arrives hoping to see Angélique but meets Toinette, who warns him that he needs to be crafty if he wants to get in the house. Angélique is watched closely, and her attendance at the theater where she met Cléante was an anomaly. Cléante reassures her that his friend, Angélique’s music teacher, is allowing him to substitute for her lessons so he can get close to her. Toinette brings him in, and Cléante introduces himself as the substitute music teacher. He attempts to compliment Argan and say that he looks healthier, but Argan disagrees, insulted. Argan insists that he will stay and listen to Angélique’s lesson, sending Toinette to find out if Béline is dressed. Angélique enters, surprised to see Cléante, but she plays along, exclaiming that she had a dream the night before about a man who looked exactly like Cléante. Toinette reenters and states sarcastically that she changed her mind about the Lillicraps, singing the praises of Angélique’s intended husband. Argan asks Cléante to stay and witness the moment when Angélique meets her fiancé for the first time, also inviting him to the wedding in four days. Thomas and Dr. Lillicrap enter, and Argan receives them with awkward formality. At Dr. Lillicrap’s urging, Thomas steps forward to make a speech. He is “a gawky oaf straight out of school; gauche and clumsy” (44).
Thomas expresses gratitude to Argan for becoming his second father, stating that he is even more grateful to Argan than to his own father because Argan chose him as a son. The two fathers orchestrate the encounter, and Argan pushes Angélique to curtsy. Throughout, Toinette interjects facetious praise and agreement. Thomas asks whether he should kiss her. He addresses Angélique as his new mother-in-law, and Argan corrects him that Angélique is his daughter. After a moment of indecision as to whether they ought to wait for Béline, Thomas gives a poetic speech praising Angélique. Dr. Lillicrap explains that Thomas was always a slow learner, but “late flowering trees bring forth the best fruit” (46). Thomas struggled in medical school, but he finished by persevering. Now, he is staunch in his beliefs, refusing to waver. Thomas “has an absolute and blind faith in the old school of medicine. He won’t have any truck with those so-called new discoveries, all that rubbish about blood circulating” (47). Thomas offers Angélique a paper he wrote that challenges the “charlatans of the circulation school” (47). Angélique demurs, explaining that she won’t understand it. He promises to take her to the hospital to watch him dissect a female cadaver. Dr. Lillicrap explains that they choose to serve the general public, rather than trying to become doctors to the rich and famous at court. He complains that wealthy patients expect doctors to cure them.
Argan asks Cléante to have Angélique sing for everyone, and he is already prepared with a duet that he plans to sing with her. He calls it “an improvised operetta […]. The kind of spontaneous language you’d expect of two people who have to use every subterfuge to get across how they feel about each other” (49). Cléante explains that the operetta is about a young shepherd, Tircis, who went to the theater, where he saw a young woman, Phyllis, being insulted by a man. The shepherd defended her and fell in love, but he wasn’t allowed to see her. As he was planning a marriage proposal, he learned that the woman’s father arranged a marriage. The shepherd schemed his way into her home and met her intended, “a preposterous young man who owes his good luck entirely to the capriciousness of her father” (51). Cléante sings as Tircis, improvising the lyrics and asking Angélique, who plays Phyllis, what she is feeling. They profess their love to each other, and Angélique sings that she despises the man her father chose for her and would rather die than marry him. Argan interjects and calls the operetta impertinent, as Phyllis should give her father the respect he deserves. He looks at the music, perplexed that there are no lyrics written. Quickly, Cléante claims that there is a new method of integrating lyrics into the notes, and Argan accepts the explanation. However, he doesn’t want to hear any more of the impertinent cantata.
Béline enters; after the introductions, Thomas attempts to offer his poetic prepared speech for her but can’t remember the words. Argan pushes Angélique and Thomas to “join hands and make a promise” (54), but Angélique pleads for time to get to know each other first so she can develop “the right feelings” (54). Thomas and Angélique argue about whether Thomas is truly a gentleman if he marries her against her will. Béline suggests that perhaps Angélique has another suitor in mind. Angélique doesn’t admit that she loves Cléante, but she asserts that she wants to choose her own husband or not marry at all. She argues that she wants to marry for love and that women marry for all kinds of reasons. Some marry just for money, a point that Béline takes as a personal accusation. They argue. Finally, Argan insists that Angélique will either marry Thomas or be sent to a convent. She has four days to choose her fate. Béline exits to attend to “urgent business in town” (58), and Argan reminds her to stop and see the notary. Dr. Lillicrap and Thomas begin to leave, but Argan pleads with them to give him a “teeny weeny examination” (58) before they go. They do, declaring Argan sick and giving nonsensical advice about eating roast beef and counting the grains of salt on his eggs. After the Lillicraps exit, Béline returns to inform Argan that she saw a man with Angélique and her younger sister, Louison. Incensed, Argan calls for Louison to come and give more information.
Argan reminds Louison that he directed her to report to him on everything she sees. Louison innocently claims that she didn’t see anything. Angrily, Argan exclaims that Louison didn’t tell him about seeing a man in Angélique’s room, and Louison insists that Angélique swore her to secrecy. In retaliation, Argan hits her with his cane. Dramatically, she cries that Argan killed her and feigns death. Argan cries out in remorse, begging her to wake up. Louison admits, “I’m not a hundred percent dead” (62). Argan demands that Louison tell him everything in exchange for leniency for herself. Begging Argan not to tell Angélique that she told, Louison explains that the music teacher came to Angélique’s room. Angélique begged him to leave, but he professed his love and kissed her hands. Then, he left when Béline came to the door. Argan is skeptical, accusing Louison of leaving something out, but Louison swears that she’s telling the entire truth. Argan sends her off, exclaiming, “Ah, children aren’t children any more. What a business! I haven’t been able to concentrate on my illness in all this. I’m drained” (64). Argan’s brother, Béralde, enters, announcing that he has “a solution to this Angélique business” (65). Argan replies that he doesn’t want to hear it; his daughter will be going to a nunnery. Béralde insists that Argan should listen to the performers he brought, which will be much better for him than any medicines the doctors offer.
Second Interlude Summary
Béralde’s actors are a troupe of Egyptians dressed as “Moors,” an outdated term that originally described people originating from North Africa as well as Muslims and people from the former Islamic states in Spain and Portugal. The women sing, lamenting that youth fades, and they must seize love while they’re young. But men, they sing, “steal inside our clothes, and then steal out again” (67). Even worse, sometimes they steal their hearts. When they marry, their husbands make them “mothers, cleaners, scrubbers, cooks” (68). Instead of tending to men, who are “overgrown children” (68), they want to sow their own wild oats while they’re still young. There is “dance, accompanied by performing monkeys” (68).
Act II and Second Interlude Analysis
The second act is about disguising and masking. The presentation of Dr. Lillicrap and his son, Thomas, to the family emphasizes Molière’s mockery of doctors. It suggests that their education—which was very theoretically based at the time—only inflates their egos and makes them useless as physicians. Dr. Lillicrap twists his son’s shortcomings to make them seem like successes in an effort to present his son as competent, boasting that Thomas was always a slow learner. Thomas bumbles through prewritten speeches—the lines written to go with this image—often looking to his father for prompting. Thomas proudly lacks the imagination and flexibility to consider that the field of medicine ought to grow and change with new discoveries. His staunch disdain for those who assert that blood circulates demonstrates how archaic he is as a practitioner. A new doctor ought to have studied the latest research, but Thomas finds it not only unnecessary but also offensive enough to direct his thesis toward refuting this information. Thomas is dull, but Cléante is clever and passionate. Cléante finds a way to disguise himself and get into the house to see Angélique. Then, he improvises an operetta with her so they can converse about their love. For all Argan’s deference to doctors and their intelligence, Cléante proves to be smarter, quicker, and more resourceful than the doctors in the room.
Marriage and the rights of women to have autonomy emerge in the second act as a significant issue and illustrate the theme of Marriage for Love and Gain. There is tension in the play between marriage arrangements as business decisions and marriages for the sake of love. Argan decides to give his daughter to Thomas for his own benefit, although Toinette’s arguments with him suggest that Angélique can say no. But Argan also has the right to send both of his daughters to a convent. Thomas shows a similarly archaic attitude toward marriage, which echoes his anti-progress understanding of medicine. Thomas sees marriage as a one-sided transaction: He decides that he loves Angélique, but he doesn’t comprehend her need to make sure she loves him, too. On the other hand, Cléante contrives a complex scheme to get into the house and express his love so he can find out if Angélique reciprocates his feelings. Her consent is important to Cléante. Ironically, although Argan has no qualms about marrying off his daughters for his own gain, he is in a marriage that he believes is based on love. However, his wife fawns over him only because she is after his money.
Béralde, Argan’s brother, enters as a voice of reason amid the madness. He brings a troupe of performers with him to make Argan feel better. The way the characters present the interludes and musical dances within the realm of the world of the play is one way the play upholds verisimilitude, or the tenet of neoclassicism that dictates that the events in the play should seem to be real or possible. The characters don’t break from reality to provide singing and dancing; instead, Molière integrates it into the action. They aren’t out-of-place dancers who interject and remind audiences that they’re watching a play. They are a troupe of performers whom Béralde knows and brought to perform for Argan. The women who perform the interlude sing about letting themselves love while they’re still young, but men take advantage of them and leave them or force them into domestic labor. Their song proclaims that they want to make their own choices, implying that Angélique should be allowed to choose for herself and even make mistakes. Béralde presents the troupe as a warm-up, promising, “We’ll speak about serious things in a moment” (65). This shows that he has an important objective but is trying to put Argan in the right mood before broaching it.
