The French novelist and dramatist Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763) created a complex and eminently personal style, indicating the gradual transition in France from 17th-century neocl...
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In the excerpt below, Haac discusses Marivaux's techniques of characterization, contending that the figures in his plays are "not generalized or abstract symbols" but "high...
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In the following excerpt, Green declares The Game of Love and Chance "a masterpiece of comedy" and attempts to identify the sources of its "enduring appeal. "
The first ...
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In the essay below, Carr argues that in The Game of Love and Chance, love and reason are not irreconcilably opposed; rather, the apparent opposition is transcended in the play's resolution.
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In the following essay, Caplan contends that the value of love in The Game of Love and Chance mirrors a growing belief that money has no intrinsic value but is a "pure convention, grounded in n...
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In the essay below, McKee summarizes the innovations Marivaux introduced into French theater and surveys his influence on subsequent dramatists.
Marivaux … was the most original French drama...
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In the following essay, Haac explores Marivaux's use of paradox in his plays to convey the complexity of human psychology and emotion.
In his earliest works Marivaux developed a technique of...
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In the excerpt below, Rogers argues that Marivaux uses images of mirrors and masks to "probe the reality that lies behind appearances. "
In the first number of Le Spectateur franç...
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In the essay below, Gossman delineates the relations of Marivaux's plays to the social and philosophical views of his day.
In the last few years there has been a revival of interest in Mariv...
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In the essay below, which was first published in 1968, Mandel presents a general survey of Marivaux's career, touching on such aspects of his comedies as characterization, situation and plot, m...
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In the following excerpts, Cismaru evaluates Marivaux's debt to Molière, and concludes that "Marivaux went beyond moliéresque limits, and broadened the playwright's scop...
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In the excerpt below, Mason investigates the depiction of women in Marivaux's plays. The critic concludes that "Marivaux can scarcely be termed a leading feminist of his day. He is alive...
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In the follwing essay, Connon explores differing uses of the devices of role reversal and disguise in L'Ile des esclaves, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, and L'Epreuve. The critic...
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Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux
Critical Essay by Oscar A. Haac
