What is an analysis of The Would-Be Gentleman?

In The Would-Be Gentleman, a play which Moliere wrote very quickly, he combined his talent for humorously exaggerating a single weakness in a character with a contemporary fascination for the Orient. In 1669, shortly before the play was written, the Turkish ambassador Suleiman Aga had caused a stir when he arrived at Louis XIV's court in Versailles wearing only a plain wool coat and refusing to bow to the king. After an outraged Louis...

In The Would-Be Gentleman, a play which Moliere wrote very quickly, he combined his talent for humorously exaggerating a single weakness in a character with a contemporary fascination for the Orient. In 1669, shortly before the play was written, the Turkish ambassador Suleiman Aga had caused a stir when he arrived at Louis XIV's court in Versailles wearing only a plain wool coat and refusing to bow to the king. After an outraged Louis banished him from Versailles, Suleiman Aga established himself in a grand home in nearby Paris. There, he embraced all the exoticism of his "Oriental" homeland, presenting Turkish customs to the aristocratic women he invited to visit. He served coffee, at the time a novelty in France, and dressed his servants in Ottoman clothing. Some credit him as starting a vogue for all things Oriental in Paris, including the wearing of turbans and the popularity of home furnishings such as carpets and pillows.

Audiences, especially with Louis XIV's encounter with the Turkish ambassador freshly in mind, would have delighted at seeing Cléonte in the final act dressed in full Oriental regalia pretending to be the sultan of Turkey. Jourdain's foolishness would likewise be throughly highlighted by his inability to see through the pretensions of the would-be Turk. His eagerness for his daughter's marriage to someone alluding the nationality of an ambassador who had just grossly insulted the king would show Jourdain's unfitness to be a gentleman.

Edward Said's Orientalism would later condemn this kind of othering of the "Oriental," which depicted Asian nationalities as "exotic" but at the same time as suspect and inferior. In Moliere's day, (and sometimes in our own) the Orient, however, provided fodder for comic stage spectacle. Despite being quickly written, the play became an instant success and a long-lasting theater classic.