The Miser

Cleante is Harpagon’s son and Elise’s brother. When he finds himself in love with Marianne, he is moved to stand up to his father for the first time. Cleante is flighty and often talks over those around him. He is more concerned about his appearances than his sister, and wants to live life to the fullest in the moment, as opposed to saving for a rainy day like his father. When Harpagon asks Cleante where he got the money for new clothes, Cleante responds, “I gamble, I win, I buy clothes. Someone has to keep up appearances” (15). In a way, he shares his father’s love of material things and the status of being wealthy. This all changes when he meets Marianne and is willing to marry her even though she is poor.

Out of all of the lovers, Cleante is the one who clashes the most with Harpagon. They are similarly stubborn, and this creates many of the comedic effects throughout the play. He is a physical character, as these arguments often end in some sort of chase scene. Cleante is more scheming than the other lovers, and he tries to win money for his marriage to Marianne in different ways. He first tries to take out a loan from Master Simon’s client. When the client turns out to be his father, he resorts to another method of obtaining funds: stealing the strongbox with La Fleche. At the play’s end, his offer to exchange the strongbox for marriage with Marianne solidifies the contrast between father and son: While Cleante ultimately chooses love over money, Harpagon will always choose money over love.

Elise is Harpagon’s daughter and the sister of Cleante. She is in love with Valere, who rescued her from the sea. When she first appears, she is deeply troubled by her newfound love. She worries about her father’s approval, which she knows she will not receive due to Valere’s apparent poverty, and she also faces “the disapproval of others” (8) in society that might ruin her reputation. Like Cleante, she cares about appearances, but more from a position of status and respect as opposed to Cleante’s need for fine clothing. Ultimately, her love for Valere is enough to make her not worry about what others think anymore as she, like her brother, chooses to value love more than money.

Elise is often seen as the innocent and naïve sibling. Cleante chides her, saying, “Ignorant sweetheart, divine innocent, what could you possibly know about the fiery steel of passion, the honeyed milk of intimacy?” (10). Elise is annoyed at this, as she is deeply in love with Valere. Elise is often told what to do, not asked what she would like to do, which reflects both the gender and familial dynamics common during the era The Miser was written. Molière does, however, depict Elise as someone who fights to maintain her own agency in the scene where she and Harpagon confront one another over the arranged marriage, trying to politely bend the other to their own will. She proves herself to be ready to fight in a match of wits and is much more strong-headed than others anticipate. Finally, she proves to be a loyal and loving friend to Marianne, who understands that they are in the same situation and appreciates her comfort.

Valere is the charming young man who wins the heart of Elise. He was separated from his family at sea when he was only seven years old. He was rescued by a captain who raised him as his own. He knows little about his original family, only that he is originally from Naples. He uses lovely and passionate words to woo Elise, telling her his “love is deeper than the ocean, wider than the sea, longer than life, larger than all Paris” (8). This same flattery is used on her father, but for an entirely different purpose, and not in sincerity. He is not proud of the fact that he continually lies to Harpagon, but feels that it is his only way to eventually win his approval, and thus Elise’s hand in marriage. His resorting to flattery, however, tends to only create more problems, throwing up further obstacles to his love match throughout the play.

Valere quickly finds a rival in Master Jacques, Harpagon’s servant. Their personalities clash in a comical fashion, as Master Jacques, who prefers to tell the truth, frequently loses out to the flattering Valere. Meanwhile, Harpagon grows to love and trust Valere, depending on him to give him the most extravagant lifestyle for the least amount of money. Valere’s words get him in a great deal of trouble, as he is so quick to agree with Harpagon that he accidentally approves of Elise’s marriage to Seigneur Anselme. This initiates one of the major problems the lovers must race to fix, and demonstrates the consequences of flattery.

At the play’s end, Valere confesses, showing just how loyal and loving he is. It is revealed at the end of the play that Marianne is his long-lost sister, and Seigneur Anselme his long-lost father. He gives up his flattering ways once he has his own family’s approval and the security of money that comes along with it, winning his marriage and a happy ending for himself and Elise.

Marianne is the beloved of Cleante, but has been promised to Harpagon. She is described by Cleante as “a triumph of nature, the consummation of God’s handiwork, the brightest star of the firmament” (10). She is another adult child torn between love and duty to family, as it is her mother’s dying wish that she marry an older and wealthy man. She is disgusted by Harpagon at first sight, and does little to hide her attraction to Cleante.

Out of the four lovers, Marianne has probably the least amount of stage time. However, she is crucial to the plot, as she is at the center of battle between Harpagon and Cleante. When she does appear, she, like Elise, does not hide her feelings. She skirts around social graces to flirt with Cleante, and bonds with Elise over their forbidden loves. At the end of the play, she is freed from her mother’s wishes to marry rich. Her mother changes her mind and permits Marianne to marry whomever she chooses. She is also revealed to be the long-lost sister of Valere, and the long-lost daughter of Seigneur Anselme, who also approves of her marriage.

Frosine is the matchmaker who set up Marianne and Harpagon from the start. She has a gift for flattery and scamming people out of money, but she meets her match with Harpagon. She brags to La Fleche that she will get a nice reward from Harpagon, saying “Why, I know all I need to know about men: where to stroke them, how to arouse them, where their soft spots lie” (25). La Fleche warns her that she is wrong, telling her that he is too stingy to be conned out of any money.

Frosine is as good at flattery as she says she is, but Harpagon refuses to open his wallet to her. He thanks her for her help without any sort of repayment, even when Frosine gets on her knees and begs him for some money. When he leaves, she drops the façade of flattery and curses him.

Her relationship with Marianne changes throughout the play. At first, she is so desperate to make a successful match that she does her best to convince Marianne the marriage to Harpagon is the best choice for her. She tells her that she will end up rich in a matter of months when Harpagon, inevitably, dies. However, once she sees how lovesick Marianne is over Cleante, she feels guilty. She asks Marianne, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this earlier? Had I known, I wouldn’t have pushed things so far with Mister Personality” (43). She agrees to help the lovers trick the miser into dumping Marianne by coming up with a richer baroness that he will want to marry instead. At the end of the play, Frosine uses her masterful conning skills to help the lovers, but she still remains hopeful and expectant of payment.

Master Jacques is Harpagon’s servant, and one of the more honest characters in the play—at least initially. He is the only character who shows any sense of loyalty or sympathy for Harpagon, telling his master that he cannot bear to hear the terrible names people call him in the streets. He despises flattery, especially from people like Valere, who quickly becomes the favorite of Harpagon. Valere pretends he can make an extravagant meal with no money, which Harpagon prefers to Master Jacques’s costly affair. Likewise, when he refuses to bring out the horses for fear of their being worked to death, Valere steps in to offer his neighbor’s horse and carriage. Master Jacques is left wondering why the proper way of running a household has been ousted by the penny-pinching and flattering ways suggested by Valere.

When Master Jacques is replaced by Valere and then subsequently chased and beaten by him (at Harpagon’s command), the rivalry is cemented. Master Jacques vows revenge on Valere, and to swear off his honest ways. When he is on stage alone, he says, “So much for honesty. Never again. From now on, I just lie, that’s all there is to it” (36). From that point on, he has his eyes set on revenge against Valere, and is no longer loyal to his master. He tricks Harpagon and Cleante into thinking they are both right, which causes the largest fight between them in the show, and he tries to lie to frame Valere as the thief. Ultimately, his revenge is pointless, as the lovers (including Valere) all end up with a happy ending while he himself narrowly escaped being hanged for his dishonesty.

La Fleche is Cleante’s servant and, eventually, his partner in crime. He helps Cleante arrange a loan through Master Simon, not realizing that Master Simon’s client is actually Harpagon. La Fleche is not intimidated by Harpagon’s meanness towards him, though it does annoy him. Even though he is a servant, La Fleche does not refrain from letting everyone know what he thinks of Harpagon, and even talks back to him. He confides in Cleante, “[I]t’d be a delight to drop the loop over this man’s neck and snap it like a chicken bone. Or, if I can’t do that, I’d like to rob him of every cent he’s got” (23). He eventually does just that, when he appears in a suit of armor and steals the strongbox from the garden.

La Fleche is similar to Frosine in that he gets pulled into the lover’s scheme, and helps them outsmart the miser. Unlike the characters who flatter the miser, he sees that tactic will get him nowhere, and refuses to do it. Additionally, he differs from Master Jacques in that he tells the truth not out of a place of loyalty to Harpagon, but out of a place of disdain. He does not care what Harpagon says, as Cleante is his master, not him. By remaining focused, honest, and cunning, Le Fleche’s schemes to steal the strongbox and help his master are successful in the end.