Pedant, prelate, or pillar of society: The role of the physician as reflected in Moliere's medical satire

After discussing works on medicine in France in the Seventeenth Century and on particular medical themes in the comedies of Moliere, there is a comprehensive study of the physician's role as depicted in the comedies of Moliere. The goal of this dissertation is to bring together and analyze information on the physician in Moliere in light of seventeenth-century French society. As background, the Western literary tradition concerning the physician is reviewed. There is a consideration of the physician's relation to the pedant in the commedia dell'arte. Then the physician in French literary tradition from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century is studied. Some of the social realities of seventeenth-century medicine are summarized. References to the physician in other seventeenth-century French texts are considered. The chief physician is the role in the plays of Moliere. The most important texts are Le Medecin volant, L'Amour medecin, Dom Juan, Le Medecin malgre lui, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, and Le Malade imaginaire. An attempt is made to classify aspects of the physician in Moliere under the following headings: The Physician as a Pedant, The Physician as a Priestly Figure, The Physician as a Pillar of Society. The consideration of the Pedant deals with the farcical aspects of the role. The consideration of the physician as a priestly figure deals with the magical associations of the profession and with the possibility that Moliere's satire of the physician is really directed against the clergy. The consideration of the physician's social position examines his class standing and the possibility that he becomes a representative of the French socio-political establishment. Finally, there is an effort to draw together these diverse elements and to consider the general implications of the physician's role in Moliere's comedies. The conclusion examines ways in which Moliere's depiction of the physician is unique to this particular time in French society and ways in which it reflects general tendencies in Western literature and thought.