Finally, Alceste admits for the first time that he is trying to break his infatuation with Célimène. Since Alceste's final actions in the play will be his break with Célimène, we should be aware that Molière has begun to prepare us for this idea.
In Scene 3, Molière ironically undercuts Alceste's sense of exaggerated integrity. For a man who stands for complete honesty and who has just been arguing the value of always being completely frank, suddenly to have him ask Célimène to lie is a clever undercutting of his character. He asks "Can you never bring yourself to say you are not at home for one single moment." This rings false from a champion of truth and integrity, and is therefore comic.
