game of love and chance, (French Edition) (Kindle Edition) newly tagged "theater"

It is often argued that parts of Figaro by Beaumarchais are an important step in the French drama, subversive works this hierarchical aristocratic power issue, while celebrating the resourcefulness of the servants. But Beaumarchais did not come from nowhere, and many of its themes have been already developed half a century earlier in the comic drama of Marivaux.

In "The game of love and Chance", for example, the heroine of Silvia, is offered a marriage arranged by her father, Orgon. It strikes a compromise: it suggests with her maid Lisette switching roles, so that it can obsreve the true character of his destiny. Unfortunately for her, it has the same idea.

'Game' is ultimately a conservative game - the social hierarchy is restored; a girl obeys wishes of his father, his 'playwright' claims, create and control his own destiny, undermined by his own ultimate paternity.

On the way to this restoration, however, extraordinary things happen. Aristocrats must act as servants and are humiliated, mocked and parodied by their inferiors. This leads to crises of identity in the main characters of a world where identity is synonymous with social position. The rigidity of parental Decree (and, by extension, the social order), is replaced by a 'game', where love is tested, rather than a given social. Language is displayed does not to be 'natural', but both a weopon used to negotiate the company and the bulwark behind which the real feelings can hide.

Marivaux was called to the root of the comedy - its characters are placed in an artificial environment where the problems are internal and not caused outside. Emphasis, therefore, is on dialogue: elaborate speeches, artificial, which was called "simpered" and dismissed as "precious".

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