Célimène does see the contradiction in his character in that he speaks one way and acts another. Her view of Alceste attests to her understanding of his nature: He can never agree with other people's opinions. He must always maintain the contrary view. "He would think he was cutting a very ordinary figure if he were found to agree with anyone else." It is true throughout the play that he proves himself wrong. In this very scene he tells the group that "the proof of a true love is to be unsparing in criticism." But although he is the only person who does not find true love, yet he dwells on criticism. Likewise, in the preceding speech, he had not criticized Célimène, but shifted the fault to the flatterers.
Célimène's response is closer to a norm. However noble Alceste might sound when he advocates that one must be unsparing in criticism for whomever one loves, in society one cannot function in these terms. Célimène then takes Alceste's argument to his own extreme, and says that to prove her love she would have to be constantly criticizing him.
In this scene, Eliante and to a lesser degree, Philinte, stand as reasonable voices. Philinte tries to point out to Alceste that he is being unreasonable for criticizing Célimène for her verbal portraits because the people that Célimène is castigating are the same people whom Alceste also castigates; so it is not logical for Alceste to raise such strong objections. Likewise, at the end of the act, Alceste maintains that he will not "budge an inch," and Philinte tries to make him "be reasonable." Similar to Philinte, Eliante realizes that Alceste's criticism of flattery is justified, but she also realizes that human nature is imperfect and that lovers will always be flatterers.
The closing scene of the act — Alceste summoned to court — aptly illustrates the trouble his honesty can get him into. Richelieu and Louis XIV had taken stern measures to suppress the deadly prevalence of dueling among the nobility. To this end, a special court, the tribunal de marechaux, had been established to arbitrate quarrels that might otherwise terminate in bloodshed.
