At the end of the last scene, Alceste had announced that he was going to leave because he could not tolerate the presence of the dandies who were about to arrive. However, at the beginning of Scene 5, he changes his mind, partly to spite Célimène. His decision to stay perhaps smacks a bit of pettiness — he seems to stamp his foot and refuse to leave simply because Célimène told him to leave.
Among the "social types" being criticized in this scene Célimène should be a major culprit, as she gossips at length about her acquaintances. However, she is such a fascinating coquette, who amuses us with her wit and her verbal portraits, that we can hardly bring ourselves to condemn her. When she is fed a line of gossip by one of the fops, she transforms it into an extended stinging portrait of the hapless object. Her performance delights all of the fops while it disgusts Alceste. What Célimène is doing is playing the game of society; she is practically the epitome of this type of society.
Throughout these verbal characterizations, part of the reason we do not condemn Célimène as much as Alceste does is the fact that she is not being intentionally malicious; instead, she is merely functioning in the role that society has created for this type of person. Furthermore, there is an irony in each of her characterizations because she is guilty of every fault that she criticizes in other people. For example, she charges one of the people with being too conceited for words. Yet her very performance demonstrates that she is also conceited, and earlier she had told Alceste that she is so beautiful that men are helplessly drawn to her. She also talks of people being obsessed with rank and position, yet she cultivates a number of friends simply because these people can help her attain a higher rank and position.
