Renowned to the Parisian theatergoers and the members of Louis XIV's court for his farces and comedies, as a writer, director and actor, Moliere surpassed all his contemporaries in the mid-seventeenth century (Mander 16). His popularity can be attributed to his ability to entertain them in all aspects. Facing a diverse audience of the city's upper and upper middle-classes, the aristocrats, court officials and the royal family, Moliere's works present a cast of characters which mirrors his audience (Mander 18). Furthermore, he tapped into the spirit of his age by capturing realistically the lives of his audience and incorporating it into his art.
In addition to entertaining his audience with the realistic portrayal of Parisian life, Moliere also sought to illuminate the inherent hollowness of the existing conventions of high society. In Le Misanthrope, he unveiled the masks of the players in high society who engaged in the game of flattery, only to backstab others when they are absent. Even though he would incur the wrath of the religious and secular establishments, Moliere did not refrain from his powerful portrayal of the evils of false piety in Le Tartuffe. Amidst the song and dance of Le Bourgeois Gentleman, Moliere exposed the follies of an affluent bourgeois tradesman who would trade the stability of his life for that of an impoverished aristocrat.
Moliere's greatest strength as a playwright lies in his realistic portrayal of Parisian life. Through his keen observation of the environment around him, he infused life into traditional stereotypical figures of popular and local comedy and transformed them into contemporaries (Mander 28). His audience could identify with the dynamics in relationships between the bourgeoisie and the aristocrats, husbands and wives, parents and children. His plays presented the same issues that concerned them (Mander 28).
The interaction between the classes of the rigid social hierarchy pre...