A Study of Moliere’s The Miser within the Apparatus of Northrop Frye’s Theory of Modes

Abstract

Abstract

The prolific playwrights whose names are associated with comedy are Aristophanes, Johnson, Menander, Moliere etc. These are the men of innovative ideas who contributed a lot in the treasure of English literature. Comedy actually flourished at Athens by Aristophanes whois also considered as the ?Father? of comedy. His comedies areknown to the world as the Old Comedy. After its declination when the social order moved towards a new phase, the New Comedy came into existence. The name associated with the New Comedy was Menander. In the comedies of Menander, the element of fantastic lyric was vanished and extravagant characters like the birds, the frogs which were popular at the time of Aristophanes were abandoned and also imaginary characters were lost its importance. Instead of this the use of realistic plots came into existence. ?Menander’s play- world points forward towards more than one kind of later comic endeavour; it may be associated with the comedy of social manners which flourished in the seventeenth century, and it may also be seen to have connexions with the Elizabethan comedy of romance.? (1668: 16)