| Abstract: | he Marriage of Figaro was played for the first time in 1784, 5 years before the French Revolution. Beaumarchais was not a revolutionary, but because of its insolence and its incisive criticism of the Old Regime, this comedy has been considered as dreadful by Louis XVI. However, the play had a huge success. Beaumarchais loved women and The Marriage of Figaro is certainely a 'feminine' play. Four women are portrayed: the na□ve Fanchette, the ardently feminist character of Marceline, Susanna, Figaro's fianc□e, and the Countess. The feminist diatribe delivered by Marceline should disabuse many of the notions that women's rights are a product of the nineteenth or even twentieth century. What is particularly progressive about Beaumarchais' assessment of the status of women is his understanding of the economic basis for their oppression. The anachronistic "droit du seigneur" (a lord can deflower any bride from his estate on her wedding night) contributes to the play's anti-establishment agenda. The story reflects an aversion to sexual harassment. The main target of Beaumarchais' attack is the aristocratic system, which accords privilege on the basis of birth. But more than a battle between master and servant, the play is a battle between men and women. Susanna and the Countess are resolved to confound the unfaithful husband. Beaumarchais exposed the tool's game that the gallantry of men reserves for women: "Even in the highest ranks, women obtain from you merely a derisory consideration: deluded by the appearance of respect, in real servitude, treated as minors for our assets, punished as majors for our faults!" (III, 16). For it is true that women, namely the Countess and Suzanne, but not the commoners against the nobility, are the ones who come out victorious from the play. And the Count has to beg their pardon. |
