Note the division of the scenes. It was a tradition in the French neoclassical theater for a scene to end when a new character appeared on stage or when a character left the stage. Sometimes when the entrance or exit occurs within the length of a few short exchanges of dialogue, this practice seems highly artificial; however, in the actual production of the play, none of these scene divisions interfered with the continuity of the action, because the curtain was never lowered except at the end of an act. Some modem editions do not adhere to these divisions, but the reader can use this explanation to determine the scene divisions.
In the early history of the theater and well past Molière's time, the audience was not the attentive and polite audience that we expect in today's theater. Instead, it was often an unruly group; many of the public came to the theater to be seen rather than to see a play. In addition, prostitutes and vendors were often moving among the audience. The author, therefore, had to find some dramatic way of capturing his audience's attention. In Shakespeare's Hamlet or Macbeth, for example, remember that the play opens with the appearance of a ghost in one case and with witches in the other. These were dramatic ways of immediately catching the attention of the audience. Thus, Molière must also create a dramatic and theatrical way of opening his play. He does this by having Madame Pernelle ready to leave as the curtain opens, and constantly throughout the scene, she is on the point of leaving, but then feels the necessity of coming back to admonish or criticize one more person.
Consequently, the play opens with several people (seven) on the stage amid a flurry of activity. The comedy of this first scene is based partly upon the physical activity on the stage. One must visualize the flustery and overbearing woman dominating all conversation and forcing her own egotistical opinions upon the others. Intellectually, the comedy is based upon the anticipation of seeing this woman proven wrong — an expectation which will not be satisfied until the third act. By this, we mean that part of Molière's comic technique is to set up a character or characters who are deviations from the norm of behavior and gradually reveal the absurdity of these characters.
